Eric:
Savignon is a name we should all read. I need to read more of her work. In episode 3, BVP cited her famous 1972 study in which the group that had communication for 1 hour per week (in addition to 4 hours of audiolingual method) was way better at communicative tasks and equal on a discrete grammar test. The other group did 5 hours per week of the audiolingual method. I can’t find online access to the original study, but Savignon summed it up here (1991):
“When test results were compared at the end of the 18-week, 5-hour-per-week program, learners who had practiced communication in lieu of laboratory pattern drills for one hour a week performed with no less accuracy on discrete-point tests of structure. On the other hand, their communicative competence as measured in terms of fluency, comprehensibility, effort, and amount of communication in a series of four unrehearsed communicative tasks significantly surpassed that of learners who had had no such practice. Learner reactions to the test formats lent further support to the view that even beginners respond well to activities that let them focus on meaning as opposed to formal features. (A related finding had to do with learner motivation. Motivation to learn French correlated, not with initial attitudes toward French speakers or the French language, but with success in the instructional program.”
She continues:
” . . . the replacement of language laboratory structure drills with meaning-focused self-expression was found to be a more effective way to develop communicative ability with no loss of morphosyntactic accuracy. And learner performance on tests of discrete morphosyntactic features was not a good predictor of their performance on a series of integrative communicative tasks. . . However, for the development of communicative ability, research findings overwhelmingly support the integration of form-focused exercises with meaning-focused experience. Grammar is important; and learners seem to focus best on grammar when it relates to their communicative needs and experiences.”