Individual Differences and Task-Based Language Teaching
Individual Differences and Task-Based Language Teaching

Author: Shaofeng Li

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2024-06-06

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 9027246955

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This volume consists of a collection of empirical studies and research syntheses investigating the role of individual difference (ID) variables in task-based language teaching (TBLT)—a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the importance of the performance of meaning-oriented tasks in facilitating second language learning. TBLT is subject to learner-external as well as learner-internal factors, with the former referring to task- and context-related factors, and the latter to ID factors pertaining to learner traits, dispositions, or propensities. To date, the research has focused primarily on learner-external factors, and there has been insufficient and unsystematic research on individual difference factors. This volume brings centre stage this important but under-researched dimension by means of a comprehensive, in-depth examination of the role of key ID factors in TBLT. The volume integrates theory, research, and pedagogy by spelling out the mechanism through which IDs influence learning attainment, behaviours, and processes, examining evidence for theoretical claims, and discussing ways to apply research findings and cater to individual differences in the task-based classroom.

Individual Differences and Instructed Language Learning
Individual Differences and Instructed Language Learning

Author: Peter Robinson

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2002-09-27

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 9027297517

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Second language learners differ in how successfully they adapt to, and profit from, instruction. This book aims to show that adaptation to L2 instruction, and subsequent L2 learning, is a result of the interaction between learner characteristics and learning contexts. Describing and explaining these interactions is fundamentally important to theories of instructed SLA, and for effective L2 pedagogy. This collection is the first to explore this important issue in contemporary task-based, immersion, and communicative pedagogic settings. In the first section, leading experts in individual differences research describe recent advances in theories of intelligence, L2 aptitude, motivation, anxiety and emotion, and the relationship of native language abilities to L2 learning. In the second section, these theoretical insights are applied to empirical studies of individual differences-treatment interactions in classroom learning, experimental studies of the effects of focus on form and incidental learning, and studies of naturalistic versus instructed SLA.

Individual differences in early instructed language learning
Individual differences in early instructed language learning

Author: Raphael Berthele

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published:

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 3961103240

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Variability in predispositions for language learning has attracted scholarly curiosity for over 100 years. Despite major changes in theoretical explanations and foreign/second language teaching paradigms, some patterns of associations between predispositions and learning outcomes seem timelessly robust. This book discusses evidence from a research project investigating individual differences in a wide variety of domains, ranging from language aptitude over general cognitive abilities to motivational and other affective and social constructs. The focus lies on young learners aged 10 to 12, a less frequently investigated age in aptitude research. The data stem from two samples of multilingual learners in German-speaking Switzerland. The target languages are French and English. The chapters of the book offer two complementary perspectives on the topic: On the one hand, cross-sectional investigations of the underlying structure of these individual differences and their association with the target languages are discussed. Drawing on factor analytical and multivariable analyses, the different components are scrutinized with respect to their mutual dependence and their relative impact on target language skills. The analyses also take into account contextual factors such as the learners’ family background and differences across the two contexts investigated. On the other hand, the potential to predict learner’s skills in the target language over time based on the many different indicators is investigated using machine learning algorithms. The results provide new insights into the stability of the individual dispositions, on the impact of contextual variables, and on empirically robust dimensions within the array of variables tested.

Second Language Acquisition and Task-Based Language Teaching
Second Language Acquisition and Task-Based Language Teaching

Author: Mike Long

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-07-31

Total Pages: 513

ISBN-13: 1118882210

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This book offers an in-depth explanation of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) and the methods necessary to implement it in the language classroom successfully. Combines a survey of theory and research in instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) with insights from language teaching and the philosophy of education Details best practice for TBLT programs, including discussion of learner needs and means analysis; syllabus design; materials writing; choice of methodological principles and pedagogic procedures; criterion-referenced, task-based performance assessment; and program evaluation Written by an esteemed scholar of second language acquisition with over 30 years of research and classroom experience Considers diffusion of innovation in education and the potential impact of TBLT on foreign and second language learning

Investigating Individual Learner Differences in Second Language Learning
Investigating Individual Learner Differences in Second Language Learning

Author: Mirosław Pawlak

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-06-01

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 3030757269

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This edited book brings together ten empirical papers reporting original studies investigating different facets of individual variation second language learning and teaching. The individual difference factors covered include, among others, motivation, self, anxiety, emotions, willingness to communicate, beliefs, age, and language learning strategies. What is especially important, some of the contributions to the volume offer insights into intricate interplays of these factors while others attempt to relate them to learning specific target language subsystems or concrete instructional options. All the chapters also include tangible implications for language pedagogy. The book is of interest to both researchers examining the role of individual variation in second language learning and teaching, teacher trainers, graduate and doctoral students in foreign languages departments, as well as practitioners wishing to enhance the effectiveness of second language instruction in their classrooms.

Input-based Tasks in Foreign Language Instruction for Young Learners
Input-based Tasks in Foreign Language Instruction for Young Learners

Author: Natsuko Shintani

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2016-03-24

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 9027267308

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The book examines how task-based language teaching (TBLT) can be carried out with young beginner learners in a foreign language context. It addresses how TBLT can be introduced and implemented in a difficult instructional context where traditional teaching approaches are entrenched. The book reports a study that examined how TBLT can be made to work in such a context. The study compares the effectiveness of TBLT and the traditional “present-practice-produce” (PPP) approach for teaching English to young beginner learners in Japan. The TBLT researched in this study is unique as it employed input-based tasks rather than oral production tasks. The study shows that such tasks constitute an ideal means of inducting beginner learners into listening and processing English. It also shows that such tasks lead naturally to the learners trying to use the L2 in communication. It provides evidence to support the claim that TBLT promotes the kind of naturalistic interaction which is beneficial for the development of both interactional and linguistic competence. The book concludes with suggestions for how to implement TBLT in Japanese school contexts.

Task-based Language Learning and Teaching
Task-based Language Learning and Teaching

Author: Rod Ellis

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2003-04-03

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9780194421591

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This book explores the relationship between research, teaching, and tasks, and seeks to clarify the issues raised by recent work in this field. The book shows how research and task-based teaching can mutually inform each other and illuminate the areas of task-based course design, methodology, and assessment. The author brings an accessible style and broad scope to an area of contemporary importance to both SLA and language pedagogy.

Cross-theoretical Explorations of Interlocutors and their Individual Differences
Cross-theoretical Explorations of Interlocutors and their Individual Differences

Author: Laura Gurzynski-Weiss

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2020-01-21

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 902726161X

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This book examines the role of interlocutors and their individual differences (IDs) in second language (L2) development from four theoretical lenses: the cognitive-interactionist approach, sociocultural theory, the variationist approach, and complex dynamic systems theory. A theoretical overview to each approach is written by a preeminent scholar in the framework, and each overview is followed by an empirical study that demonstrates how interlocutor IDs can be fruitfully researched within that framework. To maximize readability and impact, the chapters follow common organizing questions, inviting the engagement of L2 researchers, students, and teachers alike.Collectively, the chapters in the current volume initiate a cohesive discussion of the theoretical roles of the interlocutor within these four popular approaches to SLA; illustrate how interlocutor IDs influence L2 opportunities and/or development; present innovative, original empirical research on interlocutors and their IDs within each approach; and provide theoretical, empirical, and methodological guidance for future research on interlocutors and their IDs. A powerful contribution of this volume, highlighted in the concluding chapter’s synthesis, is the common call across all four approaches for the irrefutable role and need for research on interlocutors and their IDs. The volume also demonstrates how, despite theoretical and methodological differences, the four approaches are advancing congruently toward a more robust understanding of the multifaceted and dynamic nature of all interlocutors and their IDs, and thus toward a more complete and accurate picture of their influence on L2 development.

Second Language Task Complexity
Second Language Task Complexity

Author: Peter Robinson

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 9027207194

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Understanding how task complexity affects second language learning, interaction and spoken and written performance is essential to informed decisions about task design and sequencing in TBLT programs. The chapters in this volume all examine evidence for claims of the Cognition Hypothesis that complex tasks should promote greater accuracy and complexity of speech and writing, as well as more interaction, and learning of information provided in the input to task performance, than simpler tasks. Implications are drawn concerning the basic pedagogic claim of the Cognition Hypothesis, that tasks should be sequenced for learners from simple to complex during syllabus design. Containing theoretical discussion of the Cognition Hypothesis, and cutting-edge empirical studies of the effects of task complexity on second language learning and performance, this book will be important reading for language teachers, graduate students and researchers in applied linguistics, second language acquisition, and cognitive and educational psychology.

Task-Based Language Teaching
Task-Based Language Teaching

Author: Rod Ellis

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 435

ISBN-13: 1108494080

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A comprehensive account of the research and practice of task-based language teaching.