About Theories of Effective Tasks

As I mentioned in my power-point, according to Hampel (2006), there are two theories for effective tasks. One is the second language acquisition theory by Ellis and the features of effective tasks in this theory are as follows (Ellis, 2000, p.200):

• Two-way information gap
• Closed outcome
• Non-familiar task
• Human/ethical topic (vs. objective/spatial topic)
• Narrative discourse (vs. description/expository)
• Context-free
• Involving detailed information

The other theory is the sociocultural theory by Meskill and the features of effective tasks in this theory are as follows (Meskill, 1999, p.146):

• Provide ample opportunities for differing perspectives and opinions, for controversy, disagreement, resolution, and consensus building.
• Motivate active participation and interaction by having no one single answer or process to employ in accomplishing them.
• Offer some form problem-solving (something for which computers are particularly well suited).
• Designate roles for individual learners and teams to take on as they engage in these processes, helping situate learners within a community of participants.
• Include a motivated awareness of the forms and functions of language used.

I thought that the comparison of these theories and the features of actual observed classroom activities seemed to help with understanding the language teaching methodologies in Second Life. However, these are too complex, so I thought that I would like to adopt a similar approach to Shinagawa’s (2001), which exams the relationship between task types and the effects on language acquisition using following classification criterion of task types (Shinagawa, 2001, p.104):

1. Form of activities:
Production (participants produce new information based on given information)
or reception (participants receive given information and understand it)
2. Way of negotiation:
Two-way exchange or one-way exchange
3. Way of implication of information:
Sharing information or monopolizing information

However, it seems that tasks are hardly used in English language classes in Second Life. Therefore I would like to analyze them from only the theoretical aspect of methodologies.


References

Ellis, R. (2000). Task-based research and language pedagogy. Language Teaching Research, 4(3), 193-220.

Hampel, R. (2006). Rethinking task design for the digital age: A framework for
language teaching and learning in a synchronous online environment. ReCALL,
18(1), 105-121.

Meskill, C. (1999). Computers as tools for sociocollaborative language learning. In K. Cameron (Eds.), CALL: Media, design and applications (pp. 141-162). Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger.

Shinagawa, N. (2001). 日本語教育におけるゲームに対する教師の意識と使用実態. 日本語教育, 110, 101-109.