Andrea Révész

Task complexity, focus on form, and second language development.

Tasks have received increased attention in SLA research for the past decade, as has the role of focus on form. However, few empirical studies have investigated the relationship among tasks, focus-on-form techniques, and second language (L2) learning outcomes. To help address this gap, the present study examined how the task variable +/−contextual support combined with the focus-on-form technique known as recasting affects L2 morphosyntactic development. The participants were 90 adult learners of English as a foreign language, randomly assigned to one of fi ve groups: four comparison groups and a control group. The comparison groups differed as to (a) whether they received recasts while describing photos and (b) whether they could see the photos while describing them. The control group only participated in the testing sessions. A pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design was employed to detect any improvement in participants’ ability to use the linguistic target, which was the past progressive form. Results from multifaceted Rasch measurement yielded two main findings. First, learners who received recasts but did not view photos outperformed learners who received recasts while viewing photos. Second, the group that viewed photos but did not receive recasts achieved greater L2 gains than the group who neither viewed photos nor received recasts.

Text characteristics of task input and difficulty in second language listening comprehension

This study investigated the effects of a group of task factors on advanced English as a second language learners’ actual and perceived listening performance. We examined whether the speed, linguistic complexity, and explicitness of the listening text along with characteristics of the text necessary for task completion influenced comprehension. We also explored learners’ perceptions of what textual factors cause difficulty. The 68 participants performed 18 versions of a listening task, and each task was followed by a perception questionnaire. Nine additional students engaged in stimulated recall. The listening texts were analyzed in terms of a variety of measures, utilizing automatized analytical tools. We used Rasch and regression analyses to estimate task difficulty and its relationship to the text characteristics. Six measures emerged as significant predictors of task difficulty, including indicators of (a) lexical range, density, and diversity and (b) causal content. The stimulated recall comments were more reflective of these findings than the questionnaire responses.

Task Content Familiarity, Task Type and Efficacy of Recasts

The role of recasts has been the subject of an increasing number of second language acquisition (SLA) studies in recent years, as has been the role of tasks. Few studies, nevertheless, exist that investigate the interaction between the two. The present study makes a preliminary excursion into this unexplored domain by examining the impact of two task variables, task content familiarity and task type, on the efficacy of recasts. A total of 36 adult ESL learners participated in the study, and were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental groups: the Same Video group, the Different Video Group, the Same Notes group, or the Different Notes group. A pre-test/post-test/ delayed-post-test design was employed to detect any improvement in participants’ ability to use the past progressive form – the linguistic target. Results from analyses of variance show significant main effects for task content familiarity and task type.

MEASURING COGNITIVE TASK DEMANDS USING DUAL-TASK METHODOLOGY, SUBJECTIVE SELF-RATINGS, AND EXPERT JUDGMENTS: A Validation Study

This study explored the usefulness of dual-task methodology, self-ratings, and expert judgements in assessing task-generated cognitive demands as a way to provide validity evidence for manipulations of task complexity. The participants were 96 students and 61 ESL teachers. The students, 48 English native speakers and 48 ESL speakers, carried out simple and complex versions of three oral tasks – a picture narrative, a map task, and a decision-making task. Half of the students completed the tasks under a dual task condition. The remaining half performed the tasks under a single task condition without a secondary task. Participants in the single condition were asked to rate their perceived mental effort and task difficulty. The ESL teachers provided expert judgments of anticipated mental effort and task difficulty along with explanations for their ratings via an online questionnaire. As predicted, the more complex task versions were found and judged to pose greater cognitive effort on most measures.

Implicit and explicit knowledge of inflectional morphology

This study set out to test the degree to which second language inflectional morphology can be acquired as a result of incidental exposure and whether the resulting knowledge is implicit (unconscious) or explicit (conscious) in nature. Participants were exposed to an artificial language system based on Czech morphology under incidental learning conditions. In the testing phase, a grammaticality judgment test was utilized to assess learning. In addition, subjective measures of awareness and retrospective verbal reports were used to measure whether the acquired knowledge was conscious or not. The results of the experiment indicate that participants can rapidly develop knowledge of second language inflectional morphology under incidental learning conditions in the absence of verbalizable rule knowledge.

Task-induced Content-familiarity, Task-driven Attention to Form, and Learner Uptake of Recasts: A Preliminary Inquiry

Recent SLA research has found that recasts on morphosyntactic features are more effective in form-focused classrooms than in meaning-based classrooms. Based on this understanding, it is hypothesized that there is a positive correlation between the effectiveness of recasts on morphosyntactic features and the amount of attention learners pay to form. This paper reports on a preliminary study that tests this hypothesis through administering a sequence of communicative tasks, designed to promote different degrees of attention to form and meaning. The tasks differed as to (a) the extent of learners’ familiarity with task content and (b) the intrinsic capacity of the task to draw attention to form. The study observed both learners’ uptake and perception of recasts through the tasks. The data collected consisted of transcripts of the participants’ task-based interactions and stimulated recall sessions. The results show that both the amount of uptake after recasts and the accurate perception of recasts are positively correlated with the amount of attention learners devote to form during task-based interaction. The preliminary study, therefore, suggests that learners’ familiarity with task content along with the intrinsic capacity of a task to promote attention to form can increase the effectiveness of form-focused recasts.

Teachers’ Perspectives on Second Language Task Difficulty: Insights From Think-Alouds and Eye Tracking

ABSTRACT The majority of empirical studies that have so far investigated task features in order to inform task grading and sequencing decisions have been grounded in hypothesis-testing research. Few studies have attempted to adopt a bottom-up approach in order to explore what task factors might contribute to task difficulty. The aim of this study was to help fill this gap by eliciting teachers’ perspectives on sources of task difficulty. We asked 16 English as a second language (ESL) teachers to judge the linguistic ability required to carry out four pedagogic tasks and consider how they would manipulate the tasks to suit the abilities of learners at lower and higher proficiency. While contemplating the tasks, the teachers thought aloud, and we also tracked their eye movements. The majority of teachers’ think-aloud comments revealed that they were primarily concerned with linguistic factors when assessing task difficulty. Conceptual demands were most frequently proposed as a way to increase task difficulty, whereas both linguistic and conceptual factors were suggested by teachers when considering modifications to decrease task difficulty. The eye-movement data, overall, were aligned with the teachers’ think-aloud comments. These findings are discussed with respect to existing task taxonomies and future research directions.

English in Europe today. Sociocultural and educational perspectives

English in Europe today. Sociocultural and educational perspectives, edited by Annick De Houwer and Antje Wilton-Franklin, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 2011, ix + 167 pp., €85/US

Working Memory and the Observed Effectiveness of Recasts on Different L2 Outcome Measures

128 (hardback), ISBN...