This chapter reports on research in a study abroad context at a UK university. It centres on the use of literature which has been dramatised on television (the popular TV series Sherlock) and how this can be harnessed to develop a greater awareness of typical features of spoken language – in this case the use of ellipsis. An experimental study was undertaken which compared the results of three groups: one receiving explicit instruction plus input enhancement (experimental group 1), one receiving explicit instruction only (experimental group 2) and a control group who received no instruction. Both treatment groups worked with three short extracts from Sherlock over three lessons and were given explicit instruction, comprehension tasks and exercises to raise awareness of several features of spoken language, including ellipsis, requesting and modality. The experimental groups received the same explicit teaching (here understood as the teacher making it clear to the students what the lesson focus was), but experimental group 1 also had their transcripts enhanced via textual enhancement to highlight the aforementioned features of spoken language. Results were measured using a comprehension test and a test which measured receptive knowledge of ellipsis in spoken language administered at a pre-, post- and delayed test stage, which was 3 weeks after the classes. In addition, six members of each experimental group took part in a focus group to discuss the extent to which participants found the classes helped to develop awareness of ellipsis and how useful and motivating they found the literature materials to be. Results show clear effects for instruction, with significant gains made over time on the receptive tests for experimental group 1 when compared to the control group. However, no significant difference between treatment types was shown in the post- and delayed tests. Focus groups indicated that participants found the dramatised literature materials to be motivating and useful, and they also reported some noticing of ellipsis in their contact with English outside class time.

This chapter advocates the use of contemporary literature to help second language (L2) learners to become more aware of how their target language is typically used in speech to achieve intended effect. The approach being proposed is a text-driven approach in which a written or spoken text is used initially to engage the learners affectively and cognitively and then as a source for discovery activities designed to help the learners to become aware of how a particular linguistic or discourse feature is being used to achieve intended effects. The emphasis is on spoken interaction, and the focused feature is investigated further in learner out-of-class activities. After describing, justifying and exemplifying the proposed approach, the chapter reports the results of a research project seeking to find out the responses of language teachers to the approach. Language teachers in a number of different countries were asked to rate the potential value and the contextual feasibility of such an approach by responding to units of materials driven by the approach. In the conclusion to the chapter, recommendations are made with regard to materials development, to teacher and learner adaptation of materials and to assessment of learner achievement.