Noticing in output production: Investigating the dictogloss task

This chapter aims to illustrate a lesson inspired by Izumi and Bigelow (2000)’s research paper, “Does Output Promote Noticing and Second Language Acquisition?”. The study presented in the paper investigates the noticing function of output. According to Swain (1985, 1995, 2000) output may lead learners a) to notice a form in the input which is different from their own interlanguage, b) to formulate, test, confirm, modify and reject hypotheses about the target language system, c) to deepen their awareness of forms and linguistic rules and understand the relationship between meaning, form and use in a context. The lesson plan inspired by Izumi and Bigelow’s study is aimed at highlighting the role played by output in triggering the students’ noticing during a dictogloss task, a collaborative output activity in which learners are asked to write a text in pairs or small groups based on an input text that has been read to them by the teacher (Gallego, 2014; Prince, 2013; Wajnryb, 1990). The lesson is addressed to EFL teachers working with EFL intermediate level students and unfolds in four main stages – preparation, dictation, reconstruction and analysis/error correction – which may include an extension with follow up activities. The lesson plan was implemented by an Italian EFL teacher with a group of upper secondary school students. Examples of students’ output during the stages of the dictogloss are provided to show how output may trigger the students’ noticing of gaps in their linguistic knowledge (Nava & Pedrazzini, 2018).