Task engagement: a potential criterion for quality assessment of language learning tasks

Zohre Mohamadi

doi:10.1186/s40862-017-0025-z

Abstract

Maximizing learning opportunities has long been the focus of research in teaching English as a foreign language. Besides the degree to which learners are engaged with the linguistic aspects, investigating other potential of the tasks is of prime importance for maximizing learning opportunities. The present research investigates the potential of four different task types (translation, dictogloss, text reconstruction and jigsaw) performed by 80 Iranian English as foreign language (EFL) intermediate students in promoting learner engagement. Learner's movement from limited to elaborate behavioral, affective and cognitive engagement at verbal, paralinguistic and functional levels while performing the tasks was studied using conversation analysis techniques. The conversation and episodes were coded using a predetermined template of coding. The conversation and ANOVA (analysis of variance) results show that as mind goes through transformation, it is indicated in the transformation in dialogic discourse (speech). The results also indicated that although task engagement patterns were the same across all tasks, the tasks have different potential in promoting task engagement. The results imply that besides other task characteristics including task utility, naturalness and essentiality which focus on linguistic aspects, task engagement is an equally important criterion for the quality assessment of the tasks and should be taken into account since it not only creates sustained attention on linguistic aspects but also mediates learning as it engages learners behaviorally, affectively and cognitively. The results also shed lights on the concept of interactional authenticity and how it can be operationalized in practice.

Highlights

From among many instructional approaches language teachers implement to maximize learning opportunities and language learners utilize, task-based instruction (TBI) is the most interactive, contextualized and authentic one (Lee, 2016)
Task offers learners plenty of opportunities to be engaged in negotiation of meaning and Mohamadi Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education (2017) 2:3 language production and at the same time focus on form in interactive sense rather than isolated linguistics resources (Ellis, 2003)
Participants Students To achieve the objectives of this study, 80 intermediate English as foreign language (EFL) learners were selected through interview assessment based on FSI (Foreign Service Institute) rating scale in a structured interview as they were rated by two raters and the participants randomly were assigned into four groups

Summary

Introduction

From among many instructional approaches language teachers implement to maximize learning opportunities and language learners utilize, task-based instruction (TBI) is the most interactive, contextualized and authentic one (Lee, 2016). Communicative tasks in TBI encourage learners to use their linguistic resources to share and convey their intended meaning and information. Task offers learners plenty of opportunities to be engaged in negotiation of meaning and Mohamadi Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education (2017) 2:3 language production and at the same time focus on form in interactive sense rather than isolated linguistics resources (Ellis, 2003). Effectiveness of the tasks can be examined by studying the extent to which they engage learners with the language (Ellis, 2003). Task-based literature is thrived with studies on how task design and implementation manipulate learners’ acquiring and learning language

Methods

Results

Conclusion