Dr Fan Jinghua, Chow Fong Yee 

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Abstract

The paper proposes that the form-focused approach to composition instruction should go beyond the distinction between focus on form and focus on formS (as M. Long has suggested) by investing more content to form in L2 teaching. For the convenience of discussion, this paper groups the elements concerning L2 composition into thematic, generic, linguistic aspects, while cautioning that L2 composition is not literary creative writing. Thematic aspect may consist of content, language use (words, sentences, and paragraphs) and structuring of meaning units (thought), while generic aspect may consist of stylistic features (narrative, descriptive, argumentative, expository, etc.), language use, and structuring of meaning units (thought). In practice, a certain matching between themes and genres is usually assumed by both the language learners and teachers (examiners). The form involved in composition covers two main areas in language instruction: infra-sentential level and supra-sentential level. Formulaic language, regardless of varied definitions, can be found in both infra- and supra- sentential levels. On the infra-sentential level, formulaic language may include such verbal expressions that are relatively fixed in form and stabilized in function as idioms, proverbs, established collocation etc, which could usually used as "prefabricated" blocks without the necessity of literal explanation. These expressions have thematic content in themselves, albeit non-literal, and can be termed as formulaic language. On the supra-sentential level, formulaic language shows as the explicit linguistic forms to structure and cohere the meaning units from sentences to paragraph to a full-length composition, which could usually be used to elicit and organize the thought and content. These expressions usually have obvious meaningand established function, and they may be termed asstructural formulaiclanguage. Both content and structuralformulaic language can be described to language learners to enhance their composition performance in terms of language use, thematic reach and compositional organization, and the paper will demonstrate the approach with examples from a research project done on Singaporean secondary school students and the resulting teaching toolkit. Both the project and the teaching toolkit have satisfactory results.

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Keyword(s) : L2 composition;formulaic language;form-focused approach;supra-sentential level;infra-sentential level