About the Book
This volume extends the Task-Based Language Teaching: Issues, Research and Practice books series by deliberately exploring the potential of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in a range of EFL contexts. It is specifically devoted to providing empirical accounts about how TBLT practice is being developed and researched in diverse educational contexts, particularly where English is not the dominant language. By including contributions from settings as varied as Japan, China, Korea, Venezuela, Turkey, Spain, and France, this collection of 13 studies provides strong indications that the research and implementation of TBLT in EFL settings is both on the rise and interestingly diverse, not least because it must respond to the distinct contexts, constraints, and possibilities of foreign language learning. The book will be of interest to SLA researchers and students in applied linguistics and TESOL. It will also be of value to course designers and language teachers who come from a broad range of formal and informal educational settings encompassing a wide range of ages and types of language learners.
Table of Contents:
1. Preface, pxi-xiv; 2. Foreword (by Pica, Teresa), pxv-xx; 3. Chapter 1. Introduction: Broadening the perspective of task-based language teaching scholarship: The contribution of research in foreign language contexts (by Shehadeh, Ali), p1-20; 4. Section I. Variables affecting task-based language learning and performance; 5. Chapter 2. Effects of task complexity and pre-task planning on Japanese EFL learners' oral production (by Sasayama, Shoko), p23-42; 6. Chapter 3. Measuring task complexity: Does EFL proficiency matter? (by Malicka, Aleksandra), p43-66; 7. Chapter 4. Effects of strategic planning on the accuracy of oral and written tasks in the performance of Turkish EFL learners (by Genc, Zubeyde Sinem), p67-88; 8. Chapter 5. Effects of task instructions on text processing and learning in a Japanese EFL college nursing setting (by Horiba, Yukie), p89-108; 9. Chapter 6. Task structure and patterns of interaction: What can we learn from observing native speakers performing tasks? (by Hobbs, James), p109-134; 10. Section II. Implementation of task-based language teaching; 11. Chapter 7. Patterns of corrective feedback in a task-based adult EFL classroom setting in China (by Iwashita, Noriko), p137-162; 12. Chapter 8. Incidental learner-generated focus on form in a task-based EFL classroom (by Moore, Paul J.), p163-186; 13. Chapter 9. Qualitative differences in novice teachers' enactment of task-based language teaching in Hong Kong primary classrooms (by Chan, Sui Ping (Shirley)), p187-214; 14. Chapter 10. Implementing computer-assisted task-based language teaching in the Korean secondary EFL context (by Park, Moonyoung), p215-240; 15. Chapter 11. Task-based language teaching through film-oriented activities in a teacher education program in Venezuela (by Chacon, Carmen Teresa), p241-266; 16. Chapter 12. Task-based language teacher education in an undergraduate program in Japan (by Jackson, Daniel O.), p267-286; 17. Chapter 13. Incorporating a formative assessment cycle into task-based language teaching in a university setting in Japan (by Weaver, Christopher), p287-312; 18. Chapter 14. Language teachers' perceptions of a task-based learning programme in a French University (by McAllister, Julie), p313-342; 19. Epilogue. What is next for task-based language teaching?; 20. Chapter 15. TBLT in EFL settings: Looking back and moving forward (by Carless, David), p345-358; 21. About the contributors, p359-362; 22. Index, p363-364
Review :
Task-Based Language in Foreign Language Contexts successfully showcases the work of practitioners seeking to discover how to better implement TBLT in their classes. The book provides a wealth of helpful examples in the form of class materials and research inventories, all of which can be found in the appendices. This book would serve as a helpful resource for graduate students looking for examples of classroom research on TBLT. The questions and findings of the contributors will certainly stimulate lively debate as well as the desire for further investigation, especially among those committed to researching the efficacy of TBLT in second language classrooms around the world.
This new book is a real find. Everyone interested in task-based learning should give a read.
Exploring recent as well as new issues in TBLT research, this important book provides insights into task-based pedagogy, testing and teacher education across a wide range of foreign language classrooms and educational settings. The successes, challenges and perceptions of TBLT richly described in each of the Foreign Language contexts studied make this an invaluable contribution to current understanding of the ways in which task-based instruction can be implemented around the world [...]. Essential reading for language teaching professionals and instructed language acquisition researchers!
Overall, it is my belief that this volume addresses a significant gap in the literature on language education by bringing to the forefront the under-represented realities of the periphery of the English-speaking world. The dual focus of the book bridges the gap between research and practice, and the papers in the volume make a case for the feasibility of applying task-based pedagogy in a variety of settings. In doing so, the collection makes a valuable contribution to the on-going debate regarding the role of TBLT in English Language Teaching.
Swan (2005) claimed that task-based instruction was not suited to ‘acquisition-poor environments’ by which he meant foreign language contexts where there are limited opportunities for using the L2 outside the classroom. I have always argued that task-based instruction is, in fact, more relevant to such contexts in order to ensure that learners have opportunities to experience the L2 under real-operating conditions. Thus, I especially welcome this book which focuses on research that has investigated the design and implementation of tasks for foreign language learners.
This book demonstrates that TBLT research continues to expand and develop in new and important directions and provides original articles that make a significant contribution to TBLT Research. As such, this edited volume will be of interest to researchers as well as program directors and classroom educators looking to incorporate TBLT.
If the scholarly community needed yet more evidence for the continued vibrancy of the construct task, Task-based language teaching in foreign language contexts: Research and implementation, provides just that! As editors Ali Shehadeh and Christine Coombe have assembled a far-flung group of authors whose contributions make eminently clear that TBLT has much to gain by spreading its wings geographically around the globe into diverse foreign language, as compared to second language contexts. From exciting avenues for reconsidering pressing research foci and pertinent methodologies, to the often remarkable impact of particular educational policies, to the central role of teacher education in order to make TBLT pedagogies happen in the varied settings for FL teaching and learning, to reshaping assessment in an often-times assessment-driven environment, the volume offers its readers a most welcome encouragement to think globally while acting locally on behalf of their own foreign language learners.
