Researching Pedagogic Tasks brings together a series of empirical studies into the use of pedagogical tasks for second language learning, with a view to better understanding the structure of tasks, their impact on students, and their use by teachers. The volume starts with an introduction to the background and key issues in the topic area and is then organised into three sections:
the first section focuses on the language and learning of students on tasks
the second on the use of tasks in the language classroom
the third on the use of tasks for language testing
Each section begins with a succinct section introduction, and the volume concludes with an afterword relating the theme of the volume to issues in curriculum development. The chapters include both experimental and qualitative approaches to the topic, some providing original accounts of specific studies, others offering overviews of linked series of studies.
1. IntroductionMartin Bygate, Peter Skehan and Merrill Swain PART 1: TASKS AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING2. Effects of task repetition on the structure and control of oral languageMartin Bygate 3. Non-reciprocal tasks, comprehension and second language acquisitionRod Ellis 4. Rules and routines: A consideration of their role in the task-based language production of native and non-native speakersPauline Foster PART 2: STUDIES OF TASKS IN LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS5. Focus on form through collaborative dialogue: Exploring task effectsMerrill Swain and Sharon Lapkin 6. Guiding relationships between form and meaning during task performance: The role of the teacherVirginia Samuda 7. 'A case of exercising': Effects of immediate task repetition on learners performanceTony Lynch and Joan Maclean PART 3: TASK-BASED APPROACHES TO TESTING8. Tasks and language performance assessmentPeter Skehan 9. Influences on performance in task-based oral assessmentsGillian Wigglesworth 10. Task-based assessments: Charactersitics and validity evidenceMicheline Chalhoub-Deville Afterword: Taking the Curriculum to TaskChristopher N. Candlin
