Effectiveness of explicit vs. implicit L2 instruction: A longitudinal classroom study on oral and written skills

Parlez-vous français? Or how the Dutch teenagers can really learn to speak and write in French. This research is about the effectiveness of a special method for French as a second language in high school. After years of frustration and compaints, many French teachers started implementing the AIM methodfrom Canada in the three first years of high school. With AIM, French is spoken close to 100% of the time by means of stories, plays, songs and gestures. But above all, AIM has a very clever way to teach French without grammar or word lists. Even more remarkable, the teacher speaks only French and makes everything clear with gestures! By placing so much attention on speaking skills students are motivated to use the language. And it works! This study has followed 229 students for three school year. Five different schools from different parts of the Netherlands have participated. The results of this study show that this method is more effective than the methods mostly used in the Netherlands. AIM provides better speaking and writing skills