The goal of the project is to study the influence of teaching materials found in a compulsory school textbook on the learning of two grammatical phenomena. Following an analysis of the way in which these two phenomena are presented in the textbook, an improved variant will be constructed using criteria associated with input quality.
The influence of input on the development of foreign and second languages is affected by the language to which learners are exposed and the processes whereby attention is focused on its operation. We are hypothesising that the way in which language is presented to learners influences its learning, for example, in terms of the ability to make the connection between a particular form and its meaning in a given context.
This project will involve the analysis of an FFL textbook used in compulsory schools in German-speaking Switzerland in relation to the frequency and manner of presentation of two grammatical phenomena, the relative pronouns ‘qui’ and ‘que’ (‘who’ and ‘what’), and pronominal verbs (e.g. ‘se laver’, to ‘wash oneself’ in English). The textbook's input regarding the two phenomena will be improved using the input quality criteria found in the literature with the aim of facilitating attentional processes and learning. Lastly, we will conduct an experimental study involving forty compulsory school classes, enabling us to compare the effects of the two variants on the learning of the two grammatical phenomena.
In terms of input effects, we expect those classes working with the improved input to do better than the others. If this proves to be the case, the criteria table could serve as the basis for the creation of new teaching materials. The project could therefore contribute to the improvement of foreign language teaching in compulsory schools. If the hypothesis is not borne out, the project represents an opportunity to discuss the importance of input in the process of learning a foreign language.