Adapted focus on form vs. mixed focus on forms: effects on tense–aspect accuracy in Chinese learners’ Spanish writing

This study examines adapted Focus on Form (FonF) versus mixed Focus-on-Forms (FonFs) for teaching Spanish as a foreign language (ELE) to Chinese university students. The adapted FonF integrated guided inductive noticing (via minimal pairs), staggered rule introduction, and multimodal input, whereas the mixed FonFs condition combined explicit rule explanation and practice in a present-practice- produce sequence. Both approaches incorporated communicative activities. Using a quasi-experimental design, 62 intermediate learners received 15 hours of online instruction. Pre- and post-tests targeted tense–aspect (TA) as the primary domain, with nominal agreement (NA) and embedded clauses (EC) included as reference domains. Pre-test TA accuracy was controlled as a covariate in linear mixed-effects models. The adapted FonF group achieved significantly larger gains (23.6%) in TA accuracy in written production than the mixed FonFs group (7.9%). NA performance was comparable, and EC showed no improvement. The study extends FonF research on complex morphosyntax in the Chinese ELE context and offers pedagogical implications for classroom instruction.