Application of Interactional Tasks in Foreign Language Pedagogy

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Application of Interactional Tasks in Foreign
Language Pedagogy

• Junko Hondo
• j.hondo_at_lancaster.ac.uk
• Paper Presentation at the International
  Conference on Task Based Language Teaching
  September, 2005 Katholieke Universiteit
  Leuven 

• Mitoko Yamabe
• mitoko_at_cat.zero.ad.jp
• Tsuda College
• Junichi Saito
• junta_at_tkk.att.ne.jp
• Kanagawa University

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Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT)

• The primary features of tasks
• an activity or work
• that encompasses a specific goal or purpose
• that facilitates language learning
• via language use
• focusing on meaning
• form is best learnt when the learners
• attention is on meaning (Prabhu
• quoted by Brumfit, 1984), Focus on
• Form (Johnson, 1983, Widdowson, 1978
• Long, 1991, Doughty Williams, 1998)
• Tasks provide a vehicle for the
• presentation of appropriate target
• language samples to learners (Long
• and Crookes, 1992. p. 43 )

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) i.e. the
language should be presented in such ways as to
reveal its character as communication (Allen and
Widdowson, 1979, Johnson and Morrow, 1981 among
others) Advanced concerns regarding the product
of CLT as fluent but inaccurate language
use ? Partial response Development of TBLT
1970 current
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Interaction Hypothesis Socio-Cultural
Perspectives

• negotiation of meaning, and especially
• negotiation work that triggers interactional
• adjustment facilitates acquisition (Long,
• 1996, pp. 451-2) - Line of feedback studies
• Re introduction of ZPD (Vygotsky,193?)
• Peer learning has the potential of learners to
• share their strength with one another,
• together producing performance that is of a
• higher level than individual learning (Ohta,
• 2001, pp. 74).
• Socio-cultural oriented claims also found in
• Donato, 1988, Lantolf, 1990 among others.

Having these additional theoretical supports for
TBLT - How applicable is TBLT in FL
settings?
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Research Questions

• Does peer interaction provide scaffolding for
  language learning in FLA classes?
• What type of feedback in L2 takes place during
  peer interactions? eg Clarification requests,
  Confirmation checks, Comprehension checks,
  Recasts, Overt error correction?
• Are there any indications of interactional
  adjustments facilitating acquisition?
• Is form attainment possible during a task?
• If item IV above is shown to be true, does form
  focused intervention play a role in the rate of
  attainment?

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Experimental Design

• EFL University Students in Japan, 4 classes,
  Total of 92 Ss
• Closed, structure based interactional task Spot
  the Difference
• Unit type dyads
• Focused form tense aspect was selected in
  consideration of learnability and its
  universally problematic character
• Pre task activity Familiarize Ss with the task
  activity

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L1 or Target Language?

• L1 was the primary language for communication
• No peer assistance, provision of scaffolding
  observed (Actual communication which is
  correct dont know etc.)
• In Target Language (TL),
• Clarification request? None
• Confirmation check? None
• Comprehension check?None
• Recast? None
• Error correction? None
• Interaction None

• Mutual intelligibility might be
• relinquished prior to the
• onset of conversation in TL/L2
• Learners who share the same L1,
• TL/L2 use in task is not
• guaranteed
• Between NNS/NNS, individual
• participants might not own a
• strong belief system or hold a solid
• opinion of their own L2 use even
• to initiate an inquiry
• Voices from the everyday
• practitioner in the actual
• Classroom -

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L1? L2?

• In all of our studies, L1 was used for the medium
  of the communication during the task
• FL environmental issues
• Incentives for English learning
• Cultural matters
• ..

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Form Attainment during a Task
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Results

• Does peer interaction provide scaffolding in FLA
  classes? - Not observed
• What type of feedback in L2 takes place during
  the interaction? - NONE
• III. Is there any indication of interactional
  adjustment facilitating acquisition?
• Not necessarily acquisition but initial
  attainment of form is indicated by the
• the positive delta.
• IV. Is form attainment possible during a
  task? - YES
• V. If the above is proven, does the form
  focused - YES intervention play a role in
  attainment rate?
• form focused intervention 14-18
• - form focused intervention 4
• form focus intervention group a higher
  attainment rate compared to the form focus
  intervention.
• Initial stage for attainment Cognitive
  operational stage at which information is being
  encoded in the sensory
• system (in a bottom-up operation) or at which the
  executive control initiates the expression of
  attention (in a top

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Discussion

• What actually took place during the task?
• Noticing of form 100 of differing forms were
  marked and notes made
• The conveyance of information occurred in
  semantically contingent sequences (Pica, 2002)
• Conveyance of information and communication
  are similar, though not identical (Johnson,
  1979, p. 200).
• Contemplation of focused form occurred with
  repetition
• Noticing form ? Conveying information ? Noticing
  the gap between what they
• already know about the particular form and what
  they do not know?
• Orienting/integrating knowledge within a
  contextualized situation ?
• Operating reflected focused form on-line with
  repetition
• conscious content can evoke selective
  attention(attention) resembling a bright spot on
  the stage of immediate memory, directed there by
  a spotlight of attentionthe sovereign remedy for
  learning (Baars, 2002)
• noticing is the necessary condition for
  converting input to intake (Schmidt, 1990)
• contingency learning tuned with frequency (N.
  Ellis, 2004)

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Summary

• Among the learners who share the same L1,
  interaction in TL/L2 is not necessarily
  guaranteed.
• However, the specific type of task could promote
  the conveyance of information in contingent
  sequences leading to securing the attentional
  orientation on the essential forms, and repeated
  reflections on target forms.
• Without the usage of TL/L2, the results still
  indicated the attainment of form during a task
  completion.
• Explicit information in the form focused
  intervention produced a higher attainment of
  forms.

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Thank youj.hondo_at_lancaster.ac.uk ?
mitoko_at_cat.zero.ad.jpjunta_at_tkk.att.ne.jp