From the Editors/Un mot des editrices

Abstract

The paper reports on an exploratory study of the acquisition of specific content vocabulary, discourse connectives and grammatical knowledge over time by instructed adult L2 learners. A major objective of the study was the development of an appropriate methodology and instruments for classroom research on these questions. The study followed 37 intermediate level ESL students through one semester, including one class in a theme based program centered on comprehension activities, and a comparison class in a four-skill program. Findings are reported and discussed in terms of the methodology and instruments developed and adapted for the study, and of learning outcomes for the two groups. The instruments proved to be largely appropriate for our purposes. The findings indicate that gains on grammatical knowledge measures were somewhat greater for the four-skill class, while the comprehension-based demonstrated greater gains in vocabulary knowledge (both discourse connectives and content words).