Using Tasks in Second Language Teaching

Practice in Diverse Contexts

Edited by Craig Lambert, Dr. Rhonda Oliver

Publication date:

15 July 2020

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781788929448

This book examines the use of tasks in second language instruction in a variety of international contexts, and addresses the need for a better understanding of how tasks are used in teaching and program-level decision-making. The chapters consider the key issues, examples, benefits and challenges that teachers, program designers and researchers face in using tasks in a diverse range of contexts around the world, and aim to understand practitioners’ concerns with the relationship between tasks and performance. They provide examples of how tasks are used with learners of different ages and different proficiency levels, in both face-to-face and online contexts. In documenting these uses of tasks, the authors of the various chapters illuminate cultural, educational and institutional factors that can make the effective use of tasks more or less difficult in their particular context.

Contributors

Chapter 1. Craig Lambert & Rhonda Oliver: Introduction: Tasks in Context

Section 1: Issues in Using Tasks

Chapter 2. Craig Lambert: Instructional Frameworks for Using Tasks in Second Language Instruction

Chapter 3. Jonathan Newton and Trang Le Diem Bui: Low-Proficiency Learners and Task-Based Language Teaching

Chapter 4. Curtis Kelly: Some Principles for Interactive Task Design: Observations from an EFL Materials Writer

Chapter 5. Marta Gonzalez-Lloret: Using Technology-Mediated Tasks in Second Language Instruction to Connect Speakers Internationally

Chapter 6. Lindy Norris: Using Tasks within Neo-liberal Educational Environments

Chapter 7. Rod Ellis: Teacher-Preparation for Task-based Language Teaching

Section 2: Approaches to Using Tasks

Chapter 8. Kyoko Hillman & Mike Long: A Task-based Needs Analysis for U.S. Foreign Service Officers: The Challenge of the Japanese Celebration Speech

Chapter 9. Rhonda Oliver: Developing Authentic Tasks for the Workplace using Needs Analysis: A Case Study of Australian Aboriginal Vocational Students

Chapter 10. Tatiana Bogachenko & Rhonda Oliver: The Potential use of TBLT in Post-Soviet Society: Case Studies from Ukraine

Chapter 11. Priscila Fabiane Farias & Raquel Carolina Souza Ferraz D`Ely: Task Design and Implementation for Beginning-Level Elementary School Learners in South-Brazil: Challenges and Possibilities

Chapter 12. Maria Elena Solares Altamirano: Teachers’ Responses to an Online Course on Task-Based Language Teaching in Mexico

Section 3: Research on Using Tasks

Chapter 13. Masatoshi Sato: Metacognitive instruction for Collaborative Interaction: The Process and Product of Self-regulated Learning in the Chilean EFL Context

Chapter 14. Mohammad Ahmadian & Abbas Mansouri: Collaborative L1 Planning and L2 Written Task Performance in an Iranian EFL Context

Chapter 15. YouJin Kim, Hyejin Cho & Haoshan Ren: Collaborative Writing Tasks in an L3 Classroom: Translanguaging, the Quality of Task Outcomes and learners’ Perceptions

Chapter 16. Scott Aubrey: The Role of Task-Based Interaction in Perceived Language Learning in a Japanese EFL Classroom

Chapter 17. Ainara Imaz Agirre & María del Pilar García Mayo: The Impact of Agency in Pair Formation on the Degree of Participation in Young Learners’ Collaborative Dialogue

Chapter 18. Justin Harris & Paul Leeming: The Accuracy of Teacher Predictions of Student Language Use in Tasks in a Japanese University

Chapter 19. Rhonda Oliver & Craig Lambert: Future Directions for Research on Tasks in Second Language Instruction

Index

Task-based instruction features the integration of theory, research, and practice. However, what is missing in the literature is 'practice', that is, how to effectively implement task-based instruction by taking into account various factors at the macro and micro level. Lambert and Oliver fill a significant gap through this timely initiative.