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Scholars advocate for more classroom attention to be paid to spoken grammar which deviates from commonly taught rules of writing. However, these recommendations have not considered potential barriers that learners may encounter when using spoken grammar with L1 speakers. We investigate one such challenge: the effect of learners’ accents and degree of accentedness on how their use of these forms is subjectively perceived by L1 speakers. Ten non-expert raters rated the grammatical acceptability of four frequent spoken grammar forms, read out by 15 speakers (10 L1 Tagalog, 5 L1 English) rated as having heavy, moderate, or no accents. A one-way ANOVA revealed a significant effect of accent on grammaticality scores. Post-hoc tests showed a strong correlation between accent and perceived grammaticality, with more accented speakers scoring significantly lower on grammaticality. The discussion considers implications for spoken grammar teaching, and future research on the relationship between accent and perceived grammaticality.

Form‐focused instruction (FFI) refers to any pedagogical practice aimed at drawing learners' attention to language form. The “form” may consist of phonological (sound), morphosyntactic (word form, word order), lexical, pragmatic, discourse, or orthographical aspects of language. The term owes its origin to a distinction between focus on forms , where a set of predetermined features (e.g., articles, verb tenses) is taught and practiced, and focus on form , where attention to language is integrated into primarily communicative activities. FFI was originally considered an equivalent of focus on form, but its definition has expanded to include planned focus on structures expected to pose challenges in communication. Much contemporary research on FFI focuses on how different aspects of FFI impact learning. These include comparisons between the benefits of focus on form versus focus on forms, and implicit versus explicit attention to language. Although there is more evidence in favor of explicit techniques, researchers have noted a need for more investigations of effective implicit instruction techniques, and of effective measures of implicit knowledge. Other issues motivating FFI research include whether it is more effective or necessary for certain forms than for others, its timing with respect to learners' developmental readiness, its use with younger learners, the impact of individual learner differences, and social and contextual factors that may influence teachers' and learners' perspectives on FFI.

Le degré d’implication personnelle et les réseaux sociaux de soutien semblent favoriser le développement sociolinguistique de la langue seconde. L’auteure étudie la relation entre ces deux idées et leur influence sur l’utilisation par les apprenants du français québécois de deux particularités informelles, soit la suppression du ne et le on de première personne, et de deux particularités géographiquement conditionnées, soit le doublement du sujet et les questions tu. En entrevue, 21 apprenants adultes ont été invités à explorer leurs expériences d’apprentissage de la langue et ont rempli un questionnaire sur l’inventaire des réseaux sociaux. L’analyse qualitative des entrevues révèle trois niveaux d’implication personnelle, différenciés par la motivation, les efforts pour amorcer l’interaction et les perceptions du français québécois. Ces paramètres ne sont qu’en partie reliés aux facteurs des réseaux sociaux. L’analyse linguistique quantitative indique que seul le doublement du sujet et la suppression du ne sont en corrélation avec ces prédicteurs. La nature de la particularité et la perception des normes linguistiques de la collectivité semblent également jouer un rôle dans ces constats. L’auteure traite des répercussions pédagogiques de ces conclusions et des pistes de recherche future sur le développement sociolinguistique.

We propose five research tasks targeting grammar teaching and learning, focusing on extending previous research and exploring under-studied features and contexts. The first two tasks outline replications and extensions of seminal studies on pedagogical grammar, Toth (2008) and Samuda (2001), designed to advance our understanding of the teacher role in providing rich practice opportunities. Another task examines how features of peer interaction during oral communication might encourage attention to grammar among young second language (L2) classroom learners in school-based foreign language programs, a common yet under-studied context. A fourth task investigates the unique properties of spoken grammar across languages and effective approaches for its teaching and learning, and the fifth explores the (re)design and use of corpus-based tools to enhance accessibility and learner autonomy in data-driven grammar learning. Each task is designed to be feasible across a variety of classroom contexts and target languages. We highlight concrete implications for language pedagogy and include suggestions for capturing both learning outcomes and participants’ perspectives on their learning and teaching, using a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. We end with some thoughts on repetitive practice for learning certain features of grammar, and recommendations for collaborative research that would encourage greater replication of future studies.