The potential of supplementing a focused collaborative writing task with pre-task grammar instruction: The case of young learners

Abstract Form-focused instruction (FFI) through collaborative writing tasks has proved effective in drawing learners’ attention to language form, though not always to the intended feature. This study investigates whether adding pre-task grammar instruction (PTGI) enhances the impact of a collaborative dictogloss task on learners’ explicit knowledge of the English possessive determiners his/her . It also contributes to the interface between individual differences such as language-analytic ability (LAA) and FFI. Twenty-one EFL learners aged 10–11 were paired to complete two dictogloss tasks. Half received explicit grammar instruction beforehand (PTGI group), while the other half did not (task-only group). A grammaticality judgement task (GJT) administered before and after the intervention measured explicit knowledge gains, which were then correlated with LAA (measured by MLAT-ES). Results showed significant within-group improvement in both conditions, confirming the effectiveness of the focused tasks. However, no significant differences emerged between the groups, suggesting that PTGI did not enhance learning beyond the task itself. As regards LAA, a compensation pattern was attested.