Sophia University Junior College Division Faculty Journal
第 43 号, 2022, 91-115

A Research Note on the Effect of Consciousnessraising and Practice Activities on Two Simple
Aspects
Omar Serwor Massoud
Abstract
This research investigates how a young Japanese professional improved herunderstanding of the simple present and simple future. This study applies four typesof treatments to address the subject’s weak points on simple aspects: consciousnessraising, meaningful practice, controlled and uncontrolled practice activities. Eachactivity was selected based on second language acquisition theories on implicit andexplicit instruction, skill acquisition, Socratic questioning, and real-world practice. The
results show that the learner made more progress in the controlled activity than theuncontrolled one. The main limitation to this study is that it is hard to generalize theresult.

Introduction
This paper looks at the effectiveness of a number of activities that address thelearner’s weak point with English grammar. The participant works for an international
company where speaking English is mandatory. The subject struggles with simple
aspects, particularly simple present and simple future. It should be noted that for thispaper, there will be no discussion concerning the simple past. Simple present conveys anaction such as ‘eat’ or ‘play’ (Celce-Murcia, Freeman, Frodesen, White, & Williams, 2016).
Simple future is an aspect about an action or event that refers to the future such as ‘will
eat’ or ‘will go’. There are four types of activities that are employed to treat and increase
the learner’s understanding: consciousness-raising, meaningful practice, controlled anduncontrolled practice.

1. Literature Review
There are a variety of techniques that can enhance a learner’s ability to learn andacquire a language. Each technique has both benefits and drawbacks. It is important torecognize that no single technique is enough on its own to improve the language learning
process. Therefore, it is necessary to use a variety of different techniques to maximize

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learning.
Explicit and implicit instruction both draw the learner’s attention to language
learning in different ways. Explicit instruction focuses on learning language by
analyzing and understanding it, using strategies and completing exercises to processaspects of language (Nation, 1990). On the other hand, implicit instruction involves alearner using language essentially for communicative purposes without explicitly paying
attention to language form (Schmitt, 1988). In implicit instruction a particular aspect oflanguage is acquired unconsciously through repeated exposure to the language throughcommunication and doing activities (Ellis 1994). Norris and Ortega (2000) found that
explicit instruction is more effective than implicit instruction. In explicit instruction,
they used grammar instruction, known as focus on form, which refers to focusing on aforms’ meaning in context and focus on forms, paying attention to the form’s meaning.
The researchers found both grammar instructions beneficial to the learner.
Consciousness-raising activities help draw a learner’s attention to grammar
explicitly (Ellis, 2006). Unlike explicit instruction, consciousness-raising activities
question the learner’s understanding of a particular form. In consciousness-raising
activity, a particular grammar point is isolated, then the rules of its use and functions
are taught. Ellis (2006) argues that consciousness-raising activities are an effective wayof learning grammar as it helps the learner become consciously aware of the forms anduse. In addition, explicit feedback by the instructor can also enhance the consciousnessraising of a form. Schmidt (1990) found explicit corrective feedback is more effective
than implicit feedback. Therefore, it is important for the instruction and feedback to be
direct and obvious to draw the learner’s attention to the specific learning.
In skill acquisition theory, explicit instruction helps develop a learner’s declarativeknowledge, which helps build automaticity of the forms (Dekeyser, 2007). According to
Dekeyser (2007), declarative knowledge, is knowledge one is aware of, such as certain
rules of grammar. Similarly, Anderson (1992) classifies knowledge into two categories:
declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Declarative knowledge refers to theknowledge about facts or information on language. Procedural knowledge is the applied
aspect of the knowledge in a task or an activity. The automaticity stage is where thelearner’s knowledge is easily accessible and requires little attention to both control
and retrieve the knowledge (Dekeyser, 2007). Skill acquisition theory is an approachto teaching based on cognitive psychology’s skill acquisition model. This model argues
that learning language is like developing a skill, such as playing baseball or riding abike (Anderson, 1992). A learner can master a specific skill through practice, which─ 92 ─

A Research Note on the Effect of Consciousness-raising and Practice Activities on Two Simple Aspects

makes it an essential part of learning or acquiring a skill. Therefore, it is important for
the learner to build their declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge so that it
becomes automatically accessible.
Meaningful practice increases a learner’s understanding of language. Meaningfulpractice helps the learner to understand the metalanguage or form, which allows thelearner to think about the target forms. Socratic questioning is a technique that helps
increase meaningful practice so that a learner can understand and think about themetalanguage in use (Koshi, 1996). This type of questioning helps a learner to think
deeply about a grammar form’s appropriate use case.
Controlled and uncontrolled practice offer different benefits to the learner. Long
(1998) suggests controlled practice is an essential aspect of helping a learner to learn andrecall the meta-language in use. Having said that, controlled practice limits the output
production by the nature of its design. It enables the learner to practice lots of forms but
restricts opportunities to free practice or uncontrolled practice. In uncontrolled practice,
the questions are open-ended which means the learner can answer freely without having
to respond with a pre-defined answer. Uncontrolled practice allows the learner to speak
naturally, which resembles real-world conversations people spontaneously do daily. It
is important for the learner to have the opportunity to practice many forms and become
comfortable with speaking spontaneously in the real-world.

2. Research Question
The research objective is to find out if three different activities based on SLA
research would improve the subject’s knowledge of simple aspects. The research question
this paper aims to explore is as follows:
1. Does the participant improve on the conversational and writing use of simple present
and simple future with treatments that include consciousness-raising, meaningfulpractice, and controlled and uncontrolled practice?

3. Methods
Participant
The participant’s name is Kaori (pseudonym). She is a 24-year-old Japanese womanthat works for an international pharmaceutical company where speaking English is
mandatory. The participant studied English from grade six of elementary school until
the first year of university. When she was in elementary school, she took the Eiken test,level 4, which she passed. In high school, she went to the United States, as part of a

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homestay trip for two weeks, where she communicated with her host family in English.
After university, she traveled around Europe, particularly Spain, Italy, and France,for vacation but did not communicate in English much. She later traveled to Singapore,
where she attempted to communicate in English but had difficulty making herself
understood. In one event of her trip, a cab driver told her not to come back to Singapore
until she could speak English. In 2016, she visited California for vacation for two weeks
to see her friend with whom she spent lots of time communicating in English. Kaori’s
motivation to improve her English stems from her desire to communicate well with her
friends and her customers and colleagues at work, despite the negative experiences she
encountered on her travels.
Kaori took a TOEIC exam while at her company where she got between 300 and
350 score, which categorizes her as a lower intermediate level student according tostandardized English test company. She claims that she understands English grammar
well but finds it challenging to use the appropriate simple aspects accurately when
speaking. She can speak modestly well with clarity but struggles with fluency.

Pedagogical Materials
Materials were developed in English based on the learner’s lower intermediatelevel of understanding of simple present and simple future. The pre-test is a set of fillin-the-blank questions that assess learners understanding of the aspects. The threetreatment activities are: consciousness-raising, meaningful practice, and controlled
and uncontrolled spontaneous speaking practice. The objective of the activities is tohelp learners practice the simple present and simple future. Finally, to determine theeffectiveness of the treatments, the post-test is made up of the same set of pre-test fill-inthe-blank questions.
Treatment one is a consciousness-raising activity based on the answers in
the pre-test. In this treatment, Socratic questioning is used to deepen the subjects
understanding of the aspects through dialogue. The subject is asked questions such as
Why did you choose this verb simple? and Why do you think this is right? The pre-test
questions were asked to see if the participant knew the answers or had guessed them.
For the questions the participant did not answer correctly, she was asked follow-up
questions to check her understanding, such as Why do you think this answer is wrong?
(see Appendix D).
Treatment two is a meaningful practice oral activity, in which the subject
formulates variation sentences for each pre-test answer based on the respective simple

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present and simple future. The participant’s variation sentence is under each pre-teststatement (see Appendix E). In this treatment the participant makes variation sentencesin relation to her personal context in order for them to more meaningful.
Treatment three material consist of two parts. The first part is a controlled practicewhich consists of a fill-in-the-blank activity, consisting of 15 questions, and uncontrolled
practice dialogue practice that includes two open questions (see Appendix F). The fillin-the-blank activity is a similar format to the pre-test questions. The goal of each
uncontrolled practice question is to allow the subject to talk about her routines andplans in one minute.

Assessment Materials
The instrument of assessment used for the study was based on the number ofcorrect answers on the given worksheet (see Appendices). The pre-test and post-testscores were counted by the number of correct and incorrect responses from each session’s
worksheets. The data collected was later entered into a spreadsheet. The scores foreach test were then compared to see whether there was a change in the participant’s
performance throughout the study.
The assessment had two parts: the first part was a fill-in-the-blank exercise where
the participant had to complete 15 statements by using the appropriate correct simple
present. The second part involved an uncontrolled practice spontaneous exercise where
the participant answered two questions and spoke freely on the matter. A smartphonerecorder application was used to record the dialogue, which was later transcribed by
the author. The participant was given a score based on the correct usage of the simple
aspect per sentence using the transcript from the recording. If the learner could express
an idea in each sentence using the correct simple aspect, then it was considered asuccess in her ability to express herself. On the other hand, if the learner could not dothat, then it showed she did not successfully express herself.

ProcedureThis section includes a brief description of each session with the subject, which
includes the exercises practiced and the purpose of each.
Session 1, October 16, 2018: Initial meeting. The first contact with the participant
was a diagnostic phase. Initially, the author diagnosed the participant’s English
proficiency level using a set of open-ended questions. This involved asking some generalquestions to identify the areas that the participant found difficult. Four questions were─ 95 ─

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asked to see the participant’s general speaking ability. From the transcript, it became
apparent through responses to the open-ended question that the learner had difficultyusing present simple correctly, such as “I am working global company” instead of saying
I work at a global company, and future simple such as “First, I talk about my best
memory” instead of saying First I will talk about my best memory (see Appendix A).
The responses to questions helped determine that the learner was not using the simple
present and simple future appropriately.
Session 2, October 31, 2018: Administer a pre-test. During the pre-test, theparticipant was given 16 fill-in-the-blank exercises. These questions were designed tosee how well the participant was able to identify and distinguish between two selected
simple aspects. The pre-test consisted of two components; the first set of questions
distinguished between present and future simple. The participant was instructed
to answer the list of questions on the worksheet. She initially read through a set ofquestions (see Appendix B). Then the participant completed the exercise within ten
minutes. Then the participant answered two sets of questions that looked at her
procedural knowledge. The participant answered each of the two questions in under
one minute. The pre-test interview showed the participant had some difficulties withsimple present and simple future. This was evident particularly in the uncontrolled
practice of spontaneous speaking exercise. On the pre-test interview, the participant
demonstrated that she understood how to respond when talking about routines, but she
was somewhat unfamiliar with general statements or facts such as Water freezes at 0
degrees centigrade.
Session 3, November 7, 2018: Treatment one. The participant reviews the pretest and goes through her answers. Afterward, the author goes through each answer andasks the subject why gave the responses she did. This Socratic questioning was used tohelp her deepen her understanding of the two aspects. The participant also explained
why she found it difficult to answer the incorrect questions. In addition, the author
explained to the subject why her answers were incorrect and provided her with a correct
one with explanation. For example, the answer for question three was incorrect: Water
freeze at 0 degrees centigrade. In this instance, the participant was informed that freeze
was not the correct answer. The correct answer was freezes. The reason this was theright answer is because it is referring to a general statement about the nature of water.
The subject also added that she recognized the difference between freezing and froze.
Session 4, November 14, 2018: Treatment two. Meaningful practice activity:
the participant formed a variation statement for each answer from the pre-test. For

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example, in question two, Joel will take the bar exam next month. For this statement,
I asked the participant to make a sentence about something she will do in the future.
Initially, she said “I drive to my work every day”. I explained that though this is correct
as a sentence, this is a reference to the present, not to a future event. She modified thesentence to I will take the test at my company one week later. She recognized that thesimple tense she was using was in relation to the future and not the present. However,the participant found it more difficult to formulate a variation statement for theincorrect answers. The participant followed this pattern of exercise one by one throughall the pre-test questions. This participant’s responses were recorded and transcribed (seeAppendix E).
Session 5, November 28, 2018: Treatment three. There were two parts to thistreatment: controlled practice and uncontrolled practice. In the controlled practice theparticipant answered sixteen questions. Some questions had multiple blanks to fill in.
The author explained the reason why she was doing controlled practice. The controlled
practice gave the participant more opportunity to practice simple present and simple
future. In the uncontrolled practice spontaneous speaking exercise, the subject answered
two open ended questions. The participant’s answers were recorded onto a smartphonerecorder and later transcribed (see Appendix F).
Session 6, December 5, 2018: Administer a post-test. In the post-test the author
explained to the subject that she had to answer 16 pre-test questions. The participant
pointed out that these questions were similar to the pre-test. The author explained
to the participant that although it looked similar, attempt them again. The post-test
questions were the same as the pre-test, but they were mixed up. The post-test consistedof two parts, the controlled and uncontrolled exercises. For the uncontrolled exercise, theauthor recorded her answers on the smartphone recorder and later transcribed them.
The author then checked the number of answers the subject answered correctly (seeAppendix H).

4. Analyses
Data was collected through a pre-test and post-test and audio recordings ofuncontrolled practice spontaneous speaking interviews. The pre-test and the posttest included 16 questions from the controlled exercises related to the simple present
aspect or simple future aspect taught in the teaching sessions. Also, the participant’s
uncontrolled practice spontaneous speaking exercise was compared based on the numberof correct simple aspect sentences produced. The answers the participant gave for both─ 97 ─

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controlled and uncontrolled practice spontaneous in the pre-test were compared withthose given in the post-test to see how much the participant had improved based on her
ability to correctly identify and use each of the simple aspects taught in the sessions.
The data was analyzed by comparing the participant’s performance on the pre-test andpost-test. This looked at the participant’s overall score for each test based on how manyquestion the subject was able to answer correctly.

5. Results
In the controlled test, the subject answered 73.3% of the questions correctly relative
to simple present (Table 1). The pre-test shows that the participant had more problems
using simple future correctly than the simple present, see the Table 1.
Test type Total simple present items Total simple future items Overall total score(the number of correct (the number of correct (% correct items)
items/ out of the total)
items/ out of the total)
Pre-test

81.8% (9/11)

73.3% (11/15)

76.9% (20/26)

Post-test

90.1% (10/11)

80% (12/15)

88.6% (22/26)

Table 1. Controlled Test Fill-in-the-blank
In the uncontrolled test, the subject only answered 44.4% of the questions correctly
relative to the simple future (Table 2). The pre-test shows that the participant had
problems using simple present correctly more than the simple future.
Test type T o t a l s i m p l e p r e s e n t Total simple future simple Overall total score
simple items
items(% correct items)(the number of correct (the number of correct
items/ out of the total)
items/ out of the total)
Pre-test

44.4% (4/9)

66.7% (6/9)

55.6% (10/18)

Post-test

100% (6/6)

66.7% (6/9)

80% (12/15)

Table 2. Uncontrolled Test Uncontrolled Practice Spontaneous Speaking Exercise

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Figure 1. Overall score for the pre-test and post-test
The post-test shows the participant’s improvement on the two simple aspects overthe course of the study (Figure 1). The overall score increased from 67.9% to 84.6% on
the post-test compared to the pre-test. The result shows the participant improved her
ability to correctly use both two simple aspects under controlled and uncontrolled tests(Table 1 and Table 2). This was especially effective for the simple present tense, where
the participant improved from 44% to 100% (Table 2).

6.Discussion
This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the participants
progress on simple present over simple future throughout a six-week period. In addition,
it attempted to determine whether the participant could acquire a better understandingof the two simple aspects and use them correctly by the end of the study. The intention
was to develop the participant’s knowledge of simple aspects through activities andexplanations so that the participant could use them correctly in real time. The flowof the session with author and subject followed a similar approach, where explicit
instruction was given, and target grammatical structures were practiced throughcontrolled and uncontrolled materials. The participant’s understanding of the simple
aspects was initially confusing. By the end of the study, the participant showed somesigns of improvement and understanding of the simple aspects in a variety of usage

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situations.
The research question for this study was: Does the participant improve on
simple present and simple future with treatments that include consciousness-raising,meaningful practice, and controlled and uncontrolled practice? The short answer isthe participant was able to improve her ability to use the two simple aspects. The
participant’s overall scores improved from 67.9% to 84.6% from the pre-test to the posttest (Figure 1).
In session 3, when the participant did the consciousness-raising activity and
Socratic questioning, the participant reported that she felt very tired after the session.
The duration of the session was over 40 minutes. In hindsight, it is clear that thesessions should have been shorter. The consciousness-raising and Socratic questioning
deepen the participant’s understanding by asking questions that provoked her to think
deeply about her understanding of the simple aspects.
Similarly, in session four, the meaningful practice, the participant found it difficult
to formulate some variation sentences as it took longer for some statements over others.
There were some questions the participant felt reluctant to answer or did not comeup with meaningful sentences. One potential reason for the reluctance may have been
because the participant was overwhelmed with the activity itself. In session five, theparticipant had no problem answering the controlled practice fill-in-the-blank exercises.
The participant got all the uncontrolled practice spontaneous questions correct.
On the pre-test interview, the participant demonstrated that she understood
simple aspects and how to respond when talking about routines. In the case of generalstatement or fact Water freeze at 0 degrees centigradet the third person singular, ismissing -s at the end of the verb. This is a result of the subject being unfamiliar withverb term freeze. Also, the routine statement Spaniards eats dinner late, in which thecorrect verb form is eat as it agrees with plural noun Spaniards referring to the native
people of Spain. The error in this instance was not due to her misunderstanding ofpresent simple but the participant confusing Spaniards for a proper noun referring to aname of person. Both examples demonstrate the subject had less difficulty with forming
simple present aspect but struggled with subject verb agreement and nouns.
Another problem the participant struggled with in this study is using the modal
will. For example, Nora is living in Caracas until she improves her Spanish should bechanged to Nora will live in in Caracas until she improves her Spanish. This sentence
was difficult for the participant to grasp, in part the nature of the question statement
was little unclear. Besides this point, the participant was able to use the modal will

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appropriately when referring to future events such Joel will take the bar exam next
month.
The participant’s second problem was in the context of simple present during theuncontrolled practice spontaneous speaking exercise. This was an issue during the pretest, where the participant was talking about her daily routine unclearly. One of thefactors that may have contributed to the lack of clarity was the participant is lack of
preparedness to answer this question.
In session six, the post-test was similar to session five in terms of the participant’slevel of confidence when tackling the exercises. The participant answered the first part of
the questions very quickly. For the uncontrolled practice spontaneous speaking exercise,the participant had detailed responses to the open-ended questions. The familiarity ofthe questions may have boosted her confidence. On the other hand, the questions she
answered correctly may be due to memorizing the answers, since pretest and posttest
questions were the same set of fill-in-the-blanks in different order.
The results of this study offer evidence that consciousness-raising and meaningfulpractice can help develop the understanding and use of simple present and simple
future. This can assist a learner to acquire knowledge that can be transferred toprocedural knowledge. There are some important pedagogical implications from theresults. The results suggest that teaching simple aspects through explicit instruction
can help make the metalanguage more salient because learners can see what they
are learning. For example, when a learner is made aware of the rules of a particular
grammar point explicitly, the participant may find it easier to grasp the usage. Also,
understanding the rules of usage enables the participant to make meaningful sentences.
This process also helps the participant develop declarative knowledge which can lead toautomaticity of the use of language.

Conclusion
The present study was able to offer some insight into how an L2 Japanese learner
was able to learn and use two simple aspects more effectively. It shows that withpractice activities learners can get more exposure to the metalanguage, which canenable acquisition of the L2 to take place. The three treatments helped increase theparticipant’s performance of the simple aspects to some extent. Further research should
investigate the degree of effectiveness of each of the activities. The activities such as
meaningful practice and consciousness-raising activity are effective, as supported in theliterature review. At the same time, the study shows that these activities can also be─ 101 ─

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overwhelming for the participant if done for a long duration of time or at an inconvenient
time.
There were some limitations to the study. The improvement between the pre-test
and the post-test may have been because the questions were the same, as the answers
were given during sessions three and four. In terms of generalizability, the data islimited because there was only one participant. In a further study, this research should
be conducted on a larger scale with more participants to validate the generalizability ofthe study. Also, the pre-test answers should not be revealed in the consciousness-raising
activity. This means the treatment activities particularly consciousness-raising activity,
should be used to teach and deepen a learner’s understanding of the grammar point in
the same way to learning simple present and simple future.

References
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DeKeyser, R. (2007). Skill acquisition theory. Theories in second language acquisition:
An introduction, 97113.
Ellis, R. (2006). Current issues in the teaching of grammar: An

SLA perspective.

TESOL Quarterly.40(1),83-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40264512
Ellis, R. (1998). Teaching and research: Options in grammar teaching. TESOL
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Koshi, A. K. (1996). Holistic grammar through Socratic questioning. Foreign Language
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Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis. New York: Longman
Larsen-Freeman, D., Celce-Murcia, M., Frodesen, J., White, B., & Williams, H. A. (2016).
The grammar book: Form, meaning, and use for English language teachers. Boston,
MA: National Geographic Learning, Heinle Cengage Learning.
Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. Margaret. (2013). How languages are learned. Fourth
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Long, M. H. (1998). Focus on form Theory, research, and practice. Michael H. Long Peter
Robinson. Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition, 15, 15-41.
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Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (2010). Approaches and methods in language teaching.

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Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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VanPatten, B. & Uludag, O. (2011). Transfer of training and processing instruction:
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https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2011.01133.x

Appendix A: First meeting and interview transcript
1. Why do you want to study English?
First I like English and I like to travel abroad, because I’d like to see beautiful view,eat ... some food, learn differences of thinking of Japan. To do so I have to speak English
with local people so I would like to study English.
Second reason I am working global company and my boss of manager is fromforeign country, so I would like to talk each other without interpretation. Because I wantto talk to my boss using my word that is why I would like to learn, I would like to study
English. That’s all. Thank you.

2. How long have been studying English?
I had studied English for about 7 years in school. From when I was junior highschool 1 st grade to university student 1st grade. And I studied English by myself
when I was elementary school ehh 6th grade because I took Eiken so I studied bymyself for about one one about year. And when I was university student first grade I
took...TOIEC... once. So I had studied English for 8 years altogether. That’s all.

3. Tell me about your experiences of learning?
Third question I will talk about my experience of learning. When I was junior school
student I mainly studied about writing and speaking. Writing is for example...I learned
grammar. Speaking is I talked I talked using new sentence and I made a story, and I

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talked each other. When I was high school student I mainly studied reading, and writing
and listening because of university entrance examination. Reading and listening is themost difficult to me. Reading is I read, a long story and I answer the question. Listening
was most difficult because I couldn’t understand. And when I was university student I
mainly studied speaking. The class. My teacher taught me English and communicationand how to communication. It was so fun! That’s all.

4. Have you ever been aboard? If so please tell me about your experience.
Fourth question I have ever been to abroad. First, I talk about my best memory.
When I was high school student I went to Chicago and I stayed home stay. And I could
make a lot of friend in Chicago. My English skill was not good. I could communicate with
my friends using body language. And Sometimes I used dictionary. And I had so nice...
I...And I spent sooo nice time. That is my best memory. And my worst memory is...when
I was university student I went to Singapore and... I and my friend took a taxi. And I
didn’t speak English to m-...the taxi driver. And I showed the travel magazine to taxi
driver. And just I pointed the magazine, travel magazine I want to go. So Taxi driver
asked us where are you from? We answered Japan. So the taxi driver said to us “If you...cannot speak English you don’t come to Singapore”. Maybe the Taxi driver thought, I
cannot understand he said. But I could understand. And I become sad. This is my worst
experience. This my worst experience abroad. That’s all.

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Appendix B: Pre-test fill-in-the-blank questions
Pre-test Questions Part A
Questionsbase form
verbs

1.

He ____________________ to school every day.

walk

2.

Joel ____________________ the bar exam next month.

take

3.

Water ____________________ at 0 degrees centigrade.

freeze4.

After October, Marlena ____________________ the 7:30 train to take
Chicago every day.

5.

There____________________ a large house on the corner.

is6.

I ____________________ Mr. Johnson.

know

7.

Erik ____________________ so funny. He ____________________ start, be,up, and before coming downstairs, he ____________________ ake,playing with his trains.

8.

I ____________________ a meeting next Wednesday at that time. have9.

Nora ____________________________ in Caracas until she____________________ her Spanish.

live, improve10.

Now I ____________________ adding three eggs to the mixture.

be

11.

So he ____________________ up in the boat and waves his arms standto catch our attention

12.

She ____________________ to the doctors once a month.

13.

If Cindy passes the bar exam, she____________________ able to bepractice law.

14.

If you are going you____________________ sorry.

be

15.

I ____________________ from the commission.

resign16.

Spaniards ____________________ dinner late.

eat

Activity 2. Uncontrolled practice spontaneous speaking exercise
1. Describe your daily routine? (2mins)
2. What will you do for your Christmas vacation? (2mins)

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Appendix C: Pre-test result
Part A: Pre-test Questions
Questionsbase form
verbs

1. O

He walks to school every day.

walk

2. O

Joel will take the bar exam next month.

take

3. X

Water freeze at 0 degrees centigrade.
Water freezes at 0 degrees centigrade.

freeze

4. X

After October, Marlena always takes the 7:30 train to Chicago takeevery day.
After October, Marlena will take the 7:30 train to Chicago
every day.

5. O

There is a large house on the corner.

is

6. O

I know Mr. Johnson.

know

7. O

Erik is so funny. He will wake up, and before coming start, be,downstairs, he will start playing with his trains.
wake,

8. O

I have a meeting next Wednesday at that time.

9. X

X- Nora is living in Caracas until she improves her Spanish. live, improve
O- Nora will live in Caracas until she improves her Spanish.

10. O Now I am adding three eggs to the mixture.

have

be

11. O So he stands up in the boat and waves his arms to catch our standattention
12. O She goes to the doctors once a month.

go

13. O If Cindy passes the bar exam, she will be able to practice law. be
14. O If you are going, you’ll be sorry.

be

15. O I resign from the commission.

resign16. X

eat

Spaniards eats dinner late.
Spaniards eat dinner late.

─ 106 ─A Research Note on the Effect of Consciousness-raising and Practice Activities on Two Simple Aspects

Part B: Activity 2. Uncontrolled practice spontaneous speaking exercise interview
transcript
1. Describe your daily routine?

My daily routine is to make relax time. I work long time every day. So,
I often I feel tired, so I try to make relax time. For example, I take a nap, or I
watch tv in my house, or I call, I go to my friends and enjoy talking and eat
delicious food and more. To make relax time is my daily routine.
*Because it’s something you usually do

2. What are you plans for Christmas vacation? (Attempt 1)
The plan of my Christmas holiday still has not decided still has notbeen decided. But I think I want to go to aboard. My Christmas holiday...myChristmas vacation is about two weeks. So I have enough time to go to abroad.
I like travel abroad. Because I want to ...see many beautiful views. And...And I
want to enjoy eating....I want to enjoy eating unique food country. And I wantto meet a lot of people from other country and experience to culture of many
countries. So I want to go to abroad. That is why I think I want to go abroadin Christmas vacation. In Christmas vacation.
*Attempt 1(She did not answer the question I told her although she did
not answer the question directly you evaded it. Vacation does not necessarilymean you must go somewhere special. It just means what will do for that
period of time you are off)

Attempt 2 (So asked her to do the question again)

I will stay nice hotel on the…my Christmas holiday. And I will eat some
Christmas dinner and I will enjoy. And after Christmas day I will go back…
Niigata. And I will stay my family in and my friend in Niigata until…until
New Year. And I have the plan I will trip to Kanazawa with my younger sister.
This is my first trip only with my younger sister. And I will come back to
Yokohama for my job. This is my winter holiday plan. That’s all
Because Christmas is in the future─ 107 ─

Omar Serwor Massoud

Appendix D: Treatment 1 consciousness-raising activity
Part A: Questions

base form
verbs

1)

He walks to school every day.
Because of the pronoun

walk

2)

Joel will take the bar exam next month.
It’s in the future because the reference to month

take

3)

freezeX -Water freeze at 0 degrees centigrade.
O-Water freezes at 0 degrees centigrade.
The participant is not countable we use ‘freeze’. She thought thiswas an issue of singular and plural form. She explained thatwater is not plural so you don’t use‘s’. I explained to her that
this was not necessarily an issue of plural form but the sentenceis general statement about water therefore we use freezes. I also
explained to her she was correct in terms using correct simple
form versus not using freezing or froze.

4)

X-After October, Marlena always takes the 7:30 train to take
Chicago every day.
O- After October, Marlena will take the 7:30 train to Chicago
every day.
I thought every day now but it’s in the future. She was confusedthat after October was now. She should thought everyday means
to include “always”.

5)

There is a large house on the corner.
It’s singularis6)

I know Mr. Johnson.
I is singular

know

7)

Erik is so funny. He will wake up, and before coming start, is, wake,
downstairs, he will start playing with his trains.
Is third person singular. Wake in the future with “s” it is notnecessary. “Coming” and “playing” was difficult but good
guess. The reason is because we usual -ing when taking doing
something. This example of gerunds. I will help with this later.

8)

I have a meeting next Wednesday at that time.
It’s a routine. It not about the future time.

have

9)

X- Nora is living in Caracas until she improves her Spanish.
O- Nora will live in Caracas until she improves her Spanish.
She said that “is living” until the event finishes.

live, improve10)

am, add
Now I am adding three eggs to the mixture.
“Add” she felt confused. She thought I am adding or I add.
I explained to her that routine. Present simple and present
continuous confusion. She asked why?

11)

So he stands up in the boat and waves his arms to catch our standattention
Third person singular12)

She goes to the doctors once a month.
Pronoun. It’s a routine.

─ 108 ─go

A Research Note on the Effect of Consciousness-raising and Practice Activities on Two Simple Aspects

13)

If Cindy passes the bar exam, she’ll be able to practice law.
Something she might be able to do in the future.

be

14)

If you are going you’ll be sorry.
Now doing and in the future you becoming. If you go.

be

15)

resignI resign from the commission.
I is singular but I explained that if you doing at the time of
speaking you use I.

16)

Spaniards eats dinner late.
Spaniards eat dinner late.
Name of a person

eatPart B: Activity 2. Uncontrolled practice spontaneous speaking exercise interview
transcript(*Based on this observation the participant was able to identify why they said what
they did.)
1. Describe your daily routine?

My daily routine is to make relax time. I work long time every day. So, I often
I feel tired, so I try to make relax time. For example, I take a nap, or I watch tv
in my house, or I call, I go to my friends and enjoy talking and eat delicious foodand more. To make relax time is my daily routine.
Because it’s something you usually do

2. What will do for your Christmas vacation? (Attempt 1)
I will stay nice hotel on the…my Christmas holiday. And I will eat some
Christmas dinner and I will enjoy. And after Christmas day I will go back…
Niigata. And I will stay my family in and my friend in Niigata until…until New
Year. And I have the plan I will trip to Kanazawa with my younger sister. This is
my first trip only with my younger sister. And will I come back to Yokohama formy job. This is my winter holiday plan. That’s all
Because Christmas is in the future─ 109 ─

Omar Serwor Massoud

Appendix E: Treatment 2 meaningful practice
Variation Statements (VS)base form
verbs

1) O

He walks to school every day.
I will drive to my work every day.
VS: I drive to my work every day.

walk

2) O

Joel will take the bar exam next month.
VS: I will take test in my company one week later.

take

3) X

Water freeze at 0 degrees centigrade.
VS: The leaves changes color in autumn.

freeze4) X

After October, Marlena always takes the 7:30 train to Chicago takeevery day.
VS: After June, he will not pay for his university.

5) O

There is a large house on the corner.
T VS: here is a seven eleven in front of the station.

is

6) O

I know Mr. Johnson.
VS: I know Nathan-san.

know

7) O

Erik is so funny. He will wake up, and before coming start, is, wake,
downstairs, he will start playing with his trains.
VS: I am lazy girl because I go to sleep before take a shower.

8) O

I have a meeting next Wednesday at that time.
VS: I have an appointment this weekday.

9) X

Nora is living in Caracas until she improves her Spanish.
live, improve
VS: I will stay in a nice hotel in Tokyo until Christmas finishes.

10) O Now I am adding three eggs to the mixture.
VS: Now I am talking to you.

have

be,

11) O So he stands up in the boat and waves his arms to catch our standattention.
VS: I lay on the sofa.
12) O She goes to the doctors once a month.
VS: I go to nail shop every month.

go13) O If Cindy passes the bar exam, she’ll be able to practice law.
VS: If I pass medical exam, I’ll not have to take it again.

be14) O If you are going, you’ll be sorry.
VS: If you are annoying, I’ll be annoying.

go, be15) O I resign from the commission.
VS: I resign.

resign16) X Spaniards eats dinner late.
VS: I eat dinner after 8 o clock.

eat─ 110 ─A Research Note on the Effect of Consciousness-raising and Practice Activities on Two Simple Aspects

Appendix F: Treatment 3 controlled and uncontrolled practicePart A: Questions

base form
verbs

1.

I ____________________ the school.
I quit the school.

quit

2.

Sam ____________________ the Sushi restaurant in two weeks.
Sam will go to the Sushi restaurant in two weeks.

go

3.

The French ____________________ wine with their dinner late.
The French drink wine dinner late.

drink

4.

Suzy ____________________ a really interesting person. She be, finish____________________ her homework, after exercising in thegym.
Suzy is a really interesting person. She’ll finish her homework,
after exercising in the gym.

5.

The cat ____________________ in the apple tree.
The cat is in the apple tree.

be6.

He ____________________ the colors in the rainbow.
He sees the colors in the rainbow.

see

7.

Earth ____________________ around the sun every 365 days.
Earth spins around the sun every 365 days.

spin

8.

We ____________________ a game next Friday at that time.
We have a game next Friday at that time.

have

9.

So he ____________________ up the ball and put it in his bag.
So he picks up the ball and put it in his bag.

pick

10.

Now I __________________________chopping the cucumber for be
the salad.
Now I am chopping the cucumber for the salad.

11.

Next month, the senior team ____________________ the New attend
York conference at 6pm.
Next month, the senior team will attend the New Yorkconference at 6pm.

12.

I ____________________ my parents once a year for Christmas.
I will visit my parents once a year for Christmas.

13.

If Charlie help his sister, he____________________ able to hang be
out with his friends.
If Charlie help his sister, he’ll be able to hang out with his
friends.

14.

If are not reading you ____________________ it.
If you are not reading, you’ll regret it.

15.

Ryan ___________________________ Chinese in Beijing until he become, be____________________ fluent.
Ryan is studying Chinese in Beijing until he will become
fluent.

16.

She ____________________ the piano every Tuesday evening.
She plays the piano every Tuesday evening.

─ 111 ─visit

regretplay

Omar Serwor Massoud

Part B: Activity 2. Uncontrolled practice spontaneous speaking exercise interview
transcript
1. Describe your work routine?

I go to my office in Minotomirai every morning at 9:00.And I leave my office ataround 12: 00. And I go to hospital. And I meet my doctor. And I talk to them.
And I go the hospital and I go to another hospital… one two three… around threehospital… around three hospital. And around 8 o’ clock I leave my hospital. And I
will be on my way home.

2. What are your plans for next week?
My friends in Niigata will come to my house when this weekend. And I will go to
Disneyland. And I will held a birthday party. And I will go to Chinatown. And I
will go to Tokyo. And…it’s my plan this weekend. That’s all. I will do my work inthis week…next work.

─ 112 ─A Research Note on the Effect of Consciousness-raising and Practice Activities on Two Simple Aspects

Appendix G: Post-test questions
Part A: Questions

base form
verbs

1.

Spaniards ____________________ dinner late.

eat

2.

If you ____________________, you’ll be sorry.

go

3.

Water ____________________ at 0 degrees centigrade.

freeze4.

After October, Marlena ____________________ the 7:30 train to take
Chicago every day.

5.

Now I ____________________ adding three eggs to the mixture.

be6.

I ____________________ Mr. Johnson

know

7.

He ____________________ to school every day.

walk

8.

I have a ____________________ next Wednesday at that time.

meet

9.

Nora
____________________ her Spanish.

10.

Joel ____________________ the bar exam next month.

11.

So he ____________________ up in the boat and waves his arms standto catch our attention

12.

She ____________________ to the doctors once a month.

13.

If Cindy passes the bar exam, she____________________ able to bepractice law.

14.

Erik ____________________ so funny. He ____________________ wake, be,up, and before coming downstairs, he ____________________ come,playing with his trains.

15.

There __________ a large house on the corner.

is

16.

I ____________________ from the commission.

resignin Caracas until she live, improve
take

go

Part B: Activity .2 Uncontrolled practice spontaneous Speaking exercise
1. What are your plans for your Christmas vacation?
2. Describe your daily routine?

─ 113 ─

Omar Serwor Massoud

Appendix H: Post-test result
Part A: Questions

base form
verbs

1. X

Spaniards eat dinner late

eat

2. O

If you are going, you’ll be sorry.

go, be3. O

Water freezes at 0 degrees centigrade.

freeze4. O

After October, Marlena will take the 7:30 train to Chicago takeevery day.

5. O

Now I am adding three eggs to the mixture.

be

6. O

I know Mr. Johnson.

know

7. O

He walks to school every day.

walk

8. O

I have a meeting next Wednesday at that time.

meet

9. X

Nora lives in Caracas until she will improve her Spanish.

live, improve

10. O Joel will take the bar exam next month.

take

11. O So he stands up in the boat and waves his arms to catch our standattention
12. O She goes to the doctors once a month.

go

13. O If Cindy passes the bar exam, she’ll be able to practice law.

be14. O Erik is so funny. He will wake up, and before coming start, wake,
downstairs, he will start playing with his trains.
be,15. O There is a large house on the corner.

be16. O I resign from the commission.

resign

─ 114 ─A Research Note on the Effect of Consciousness-raising and Practice Activities on Two Simple Aspects

Part B: Activity 2. Uncontrolled practice spontaneous speaking exercise interview
transcript
1. What are you plans for Christmas vacation?

I will go to Costco. And I will go shopping. And…I will held Christmas party in
my house with my five friends and I will enjoy. And another day I will go to nicehotel. And I will spend relax time. And I will go back my hometown, Niigata. I
will meet some Niigata friends. This is my Christmas holiday friend. That’s all.

2. Describe your daily routine?
My daily routine is I go to my work. I go to my office about 9:30. And I have lunch
about 2: 00 clock. I go hospital every day. And I go back home about 9:00. I go tosleep before midnight.

─ 115 ─