Engaging L2 Learners in Information-gap Tasks: How Task Type and Topic Familiarity Affect Learner Engagement

RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822110616
Author(s):  
Jian Xu ◽  
Xuyan Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Learner Engagement ◽  
Topic Familiarity ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Information Gap ◽  
Mixed Feelings ◽  
Task Types

This study examines four learner engagement dimensions (behavioural, cognitive, emotional and social) in pedagogical task performance and provides insights into the effects of two task types (information-seeking and direction-giving) and topic familiarity on learner engagement in a semester-long English course. A total of 28 foreign language learners engaged in eight interactive tasks, and all played the roles of both information-receiver and information-provider alternately under familiar and unfamiliar conditions. Seven measures of engagement and an open-ended questionnaire were employed to understand the learners’ engagement in the tasks and their emotional responses to them. The results revealed that the information-providers produced more words and also spent more time on information-seeking tasks wherein they would exchange information than on direction-giving ones that required them to ask for and provide instructions or directions. This was the case for topics they were unfamiliar with; however, when they were faced with familiar topics, they produced significantly more words, spent more time, and spoke more elaboratively in direction-giving tasks. The information-seeking tasks elicited positive emotions, but the direction-giving tasks yielded mixed feelings, attaching positive emotions to familiar tasks but negative ones to unfamiliar tasks. The pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.

The effects of task types on L2 oral production and learner engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuyan Qiu ◽  
Hong Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Learner Engagement ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
L2 Speaking ◽  
Different Types ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Task Types

Abstract In task-based language teaching, various types of tasks are developed from different scenarios in daily communication. Different kinds of tasks encourage oral production of different generic features and can impose different degrees of information-processing pressure on second language (L2) learners. Therefore, the functions and nature of task types are worth considering when designing tasks. Although the effects of task types on L2 oral output have been explored in the current literature, L2 learners’ engagement in different types of tasks is relatively under-explored. Since engaging L2 learners in task performance can facilitate L2 learning, it is important for us to attend to learner engagement in task-based research. This study investigated the effects of two types of tasks, opinion-exchange tasks and storytelling tasks, on the oral performance of 20 English as a foreign language learners in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency and their engagement in L2 use. They performed two opinion-exchange tasks and two storytelling tasks. The analysis of their oral discourse revealed that the learners spent longer time, had more turn-taking, and more frequently negotiated language-related issues when co-constructing stories than in opinion-exchange tasks. The results reinforce the importance of considering task types in teaching L2 speaking.

Impact of Task Types on Collaborative Information Seeking Behavior

Libri ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-245
Author(s):  
Dan Wu ◽  
Shaobo Liang ◽  
Jing Dong ◽  
Jin Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Information Search ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Information Seeking Behavior ◽  
Team Approach ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Collaborative Information Seeking ◽  
Navigational System ◽  
Task Types

Abstract This study examined the task type as an important factor in collaborative information seeking activities, devoting special attention to its impacts on collaborative information seeking behavior, awareness and sentiment. Collaborative information search experiments were conducted on a collaborative search system—Coagmento—for three different types of task (informational, transactional and navigational). System log, surveys and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, with quantitative and qualitative analyses carried out on the data which related to 12 participants in four groups. Quantitative analysis employed SPSS 20, while qualitative analysis was carried out using ATLAS.ti. Through our research, we found that the task types have impact on users’ collaborative information seeking behavior in terms of web page browsing, search and image using, as well as interact with task awareness. A collaborative team approach is more suitable for completing the informational task than transactional and navigational tasks, while the task type also influences the sentiment. Concretely speaking, the transactional task causes more negative emotions.

Effect of modality and task type on interlanguage variation

ReCALL ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hye Yeong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Task Type ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Oral Interaction ◽  
Task Types ◽  
And Task

AbstractAn essential component for assessing the accuracy and fluency of language learners is understanding how mode of communication and task type affect performance in second-language (L2) acquisition. This study investigates how text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and face-to-face (F2F) oral interaction can influence the performance of language learners in producing grammatical forms accurately when learners of English as a second language complete different tasks in their L2. Findings show a systematic variability in learner interlanguage that depends on mode of communication and task type. L2 learners used articles more correctly and produced advanced-stage questions more frequently in text-based SCMC than in F2F. These findings suggest that task types and the mode of communication in which a task is completed need careful selection based on pedagogical purposes in order to maximize L2 learning and better evaluate L2 performance.

Functions of oral monologic tasks: Effects of topic familiarity on L2 speaking performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 745-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuyan Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Task Repetition ◽  
Topic Familiarity ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Stimulated Recall ◽  
Content Familiarity ◽  
Speaking Performance ◽  
Task Types ◽  
And Task

Tasks with different design factors may dissimilarly affect oral production, and thus can be adopted for different pedagogical purposes. However, the functions of task types are not fully explored. To address this gap, this study investigates the influence of content familiarity and task repetition on sixty English as a foreign language learners’ speaking performance, in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Participants twice performed four monologic tasks, and received stimulated recall interviews. The findings indicate that participants produced structurally more complex speech under familiar conditions, and increased their CAF in task repetition. Furthermore, content familiarity and task repetition may facilitate conceptualization. Task repetition may also direct participants’ attention towards lexical choices and grammatical encoding. Moreover, repeating unfamiliar topics effectively increased CAF. The findings suggest content familiarity and task repetition are two dimensions of topic familiarity, and that teachers might consider implementing task repetition when presenting unfamiliar topics to learners.

scholarly journals Rapid Changes in Foreign Language Learning Anxiety Caused by a Multiplicity of Topics: An Idiodynamic Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-102
Author(s):  
Khatereh Saghafi ◽  
Majid Elahi Shirvan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Topic Familiarity ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
English As Foreign Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Major Factors

Considering the dynamicnature of foreign language anxiety (FLA), we applied an idiodynamic method to explore topic-based variations of FLA. Before the study was conducted, a class of 20 female intermediate English as foreign language learners were assessed using the foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS). Two low-anxiety learners and two high-anxiety learners were selected to participate in this study. The idiodynamic method involved videotaping the participants’ responses to four topic-based questions, their self-ratings of fluctuations in FLA while answering the questions, and drawing attributions for topic-based changes in FLA. The results demonstrated both within-individual and between-individual stability and variation in FLA. Linguistic block, topic familiarity, topic interest, and topic-related emotional loading were revealed as the major factors affecting the dynamics of FLA. The pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed.

scholarly journals A Review of Foreign Language Learners’ Emotions

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiangfu Yu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Influencing Factors ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
The Relationship

In the past half century, the research on emotions of foreign language learners (FLL) has shifted the focus from an exclusive analysis of negative emotions to a more holistic study of both negative emotions and positive emotions, and currently to mediators of multiple emotions. Of the FLL’s negative emotions, foreign language anxiety (FLA) attracts the most attention. Researchers have widely discussed the relationship between FLA and foreign language achievement, the influencing factors of FLA, the dynamicity of FLA as well as regulation and intervention strategies of FLA. Foreign language enjoyment (FLE) is the most heavily studied research subject on FLL’s positive emotions. Researchers generally focus on the influencing factors of FLE, the dynamicity of FLE and the relationship between FLE and FLA. With the implementation of holistic education, emotional intelligence (EI), a mediator of multiple emotions of FLL, has been becoming a newly hot topic in the field of FLL’s emotions. By reviewing the previous studies, this paper proposes that the future research on FLL emotion needs to expand the research perspectives, enrich the research topics, and innovate the research methods.

Syntax Rules and (Un)Grammaticality

2019 ◽  
pp. 103-126
Author(s):  
Christian Waldmann ◽  
Kirk P. H. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Learner Engagement ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
Linguistically Diverse Learners

This chapter deals with syntax rules and grammaticality judgments in the teaching and learning of English as a second and foreign language for linguistically diverse learners. Grammaticality judgment tasks are used in linguistic research to probe speakers' implicit knowledge about the syntactic rules of language. This chapter discusses grammaticality judgment tasks in educational contexts and proposes a method for teaching syntactic rules of English based on the grammaticality judgments of second and foreign language learners of English. The chapter also attempts to raise grammatical consciousness for teaching of English as a second or foreign language as well as illustrating how various media can be used to design and present grammaticality judgment tasks to support language learning and learner engagement, participation, and motivation.

Picture or non-picture? The influence of narrative task types on lower- and higher-proficiency EFL learners’ oral production

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuyan Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Task Types

Abstract Picture-based storytelling tasks, i. e. telling a story relying on some pictures, and short speech tasks, i. e. producing a speech with a given topic without pictures, are two types of oral narrative tasks widely adopted in previous studies. However, few have discussed what effects these two types of tasks may exert on second language learners’ speaking performance. In this study, sixty English as a foreign language learners, divided into lower- and higher-proficiency groups, performed a picture-based storytelling task and a short speech task. Stimulated recalls were collected from seventeen participants. Their oral discourses were analysed in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Stimulated recalls were analysed based on Levelt’s speaking model. The short speech tasks raised participants’ accuracy and lexical complexity and were more effective for higher-proficient learners regarding structural complexity. The findings yield suggestions for designing oral narrative tasks for EFL learners with different L2 proficiency levels.

scholarly journals The Impact of Information Gap Activities on Young EFL Learners’ Oral Fluency

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramón Antonio Ortiz-Neira
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Eighth Graders ◽  
Public High School ◽  
Oral Fluency ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Information Gap ◽  
Post Test ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Impact

This study adopted a mixed method approach with an action research design. The aim was to determine the impact of information gap activities on young English as a foreign language learners’ oral fluency. Information gap activities were based on the communicative approach as well as on task-based learning. Twenty-three eighth graders participated in this action research. The students were immersed in a multicultural and at-risk context in a public high school in southern Chile. Their English-speaking level fluctuated between A1 and A2. The technique was applied over the course of a semester (ten weeks). Data were collected by applying a pre-test, post-test, and focus group questionnaire. Results suggest an improvement in oral fluency and a positive perception of the technique used during the intervention.

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