Investigating Tasks in Formal Language Learning

Published by Multilingual Matters 2006

Investigating Tasks in Formal Language Learning

Edited by: María del Pilar García Mayo

In the series Second Language Acquisition

https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853599286

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book brings together research that makes use of tasks to examine oral interaction, written production, vocabulary and reading, lexical innovation and pragmatics in different formal language learning contexts and in different languages (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish).

Author / Editor information

García Mayo María del Pilar :

María del Pilar García Mayo is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. She is the convener of the research group Language and Speech (http://www.laslab.org) and the academic director of the MA in Language Acquisition in Multilingual Settings. Her research interests include the second/third language acquisition of English morphosyntax, the study of conversational interaction and task-based language learning.

María del Pilar García Mayo received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Iowa (U.S.A). She is Full Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country (Spain). Her research interests are second language acquisition (in particular the acquisition of syntactic aspects of English as a second/foreign language from a generative perspective and input and interaction in formal language learning contexts) and second language research methodology. Her recent publications have focused on the acquisition of syntactic aspects of English as a third language and on issues related to interaction and focus on form in the foreign language classroom.

Reviews

Bo-Ram Suh Georgetown University:

Written for researchers, practitioners, and students of SLA and task-based language learning and teaching, this book provides a wide-ranging collection of research on second language (L2) tasks in formal language instruction, covering both cognitive and sociocultural perspectives, both oral and written modalities, various target languages and features, and learners of different first languages (L1s) and proficiency levels. Notable is the inclusive scope of areas dealt with in the book, including oral interaction, writing, reading comprehension, vocabulary development, learning strategies, pragmatics, and computer-mediated communication. This book provides an excellent up-to-date anthology of L2 task research. It makes successful contribution to the enhancement of our understanding of various aspects of task-based research and is certainly a welcome and important addition to the field.

Alison Mackey, Georgetown University:

Various aspects of tasks, task features, and task complexity are of key interest to today’s second language acquisition researchers, who seek to understand the intricacies of how task-based interaction plays a facilitative role in instructed language development, and how research on tasks can inform task-based syllabus design. This new edited collection provides a rich compendium of work on second language tasks that will be invaluable for researchers and students of task-based language learning alike. The book also provides research-based evidence for second language teachers and educators who want to learn about best practices in task-based formal language instruction. Taken as whole, the text provides a broad and balanced overview of the current state of the art in instructed task research, with an impressive range of chapters from leading researchers in the field. The book deals with an interesting variety of target and source languages, modes, contexts and settings, and a range of aspects of task features from multiple complementary perspectives. It makes an important and timely contribution to the field and will be read with interest and profit by any serious task scholar.

Mike Long, University of Maryland:

The book provides a much needed examination of options in classifying and sequencing language learning tasks. Framed by Robinson's insightful overview of competing theoretical claims in the area, eleven new data-based studies elucidate relationships between pedogic task types and accuracy, complexity and fluency in L2 speech and writing, and between task types and acquisition. Garcia-Mayo's book advances the international research agenda on task-based language teaching.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Foreword Alison Mackey Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Contributors Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction María Del Pilar García Mayo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. Criteria for Classifying and Sequencing Pedagogic Tasks Peter Robinson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Chapter 2. Information Distribution and Goal Orientation in Second Language Task Design Craig P. Lambert and Steve Engler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Chapter 3. The Simultaneous Manipulation of Task Complexity Along Planning Time and (+/- Here-and-Now): Effects on L2 Oral Production Roger Gilabert Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
Chapter 4. Tasks, Negotiation, and L2 Learning in a Foreign Language Context Marisol Fernández García Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
Chapter 5. Attention to Form Across Collaborative Tasks by Low-Proficiency Learners in an EFL Setting Ana Alegría De La Colina and María Del Pilar García Mayo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Chapter 6. Cognitive Task Complexity and Linguistic Performance in French L2 Writing Folkert Kuiken and Ineke Vedder Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Chapter 7. The Effect of Manipulating Task Complexity Along the (± Here-and-Now) Dimension on L2 Written Narrative Discourse Tomohito Ishikawa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
Chapter 8. Writing Tasks: The Effects of Collaboration Neomy Storch and Gillian Wigglesworth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Chapter 9. L2 Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension: The Influence of Task Complexity Elke Peters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
Chapter 10. Task-Effect on the Use of Lexical Innovation Strategies in Interlanguage Communication Elsa González Álvarez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Chapter 11. Fostering EFL Learners’Awareness of Requesting Through Explicit and Implicit Consciousness-Raising Tasks Eva Alcón Soler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Chapter 12. Interactive Task Design: Metachat and the Whole Learner Marie-Noëlle Lamy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265

Language: English
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Pages
- Main content: 280
Keywords: task-based language learning; task-based language teaching; Second Language Acquisition; SLA; language pedagogy; curriculum design; vocabulary; formal language learning contexts; classroom

eBook

Published: December 13, 2006
ISBN: 9781853599286