Books
This book (to appear in 2024 by Cambridge University Press) will provide a guide to theoretically... more This book (to appear in 2024 by Cambridge University Press) will provide a guide to theoretically and empirical sound practices in designing, implementing and assessing tasks, together with a bank of task materials exemplifying these principles that will guide teachers in experimenting with the use of tasks in ways suited to their own teaching contexts. Combining the author’s knowledge of task-based language teaching research with over 20 years of experience in using tasks in foreign language teaching, materials writing, program coordination and teacher training, the book provides a range of theoretically and empirically sound options for planning lessons and courses. The book will be tailored to the needs of pre-service and in-service teachers, particularly those in contexts where opportunities for learners to use the target language are rare outside of those provided in the classroom community. In addition, case studies by experienced teachers who have successfully used tasks in foreign language teaching contexts will be included.
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This edited book in the Routledge Second Language Acquisition Research Series (Series Editors: Su... more This edited book in the Routledge Second Language Acquisition Research Series (Series Editors: Susan M. Gass, Alison Mackey, Kimberly L. Geeslin) will bring together theory and research on the role that fluctuations in language learners’ affective responses to tasks play in their performance and learning through tasks and how these responses might be accurately measured. The book provides theoretical rationales and empirical tools for researching this critical and emerging dimension of task-based language teaching. The book will be essential for students and researchers who are interested in the role that learners’ affective responses to tasks play in promoting interest and effort in task-based language teaching.
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https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-3089-6, 2019
This research monograph addresses an important gap in the literature on task design and second la... more This research monograph addresses an important gap in the literature on task design and second language use. Building on insights from over 50 years of research on the relationship between task demands and language use, the book examines how referent similarity relates to developmentally-related variation in the use of nominal structures, comparative structures and abstract lexis by second language speakers at the intermediate and advanced levels. In addition to providing an empirical basis for future research on tasks, information on task design of both a theoretical and practical nature is provided that curriculum and material developers will certainly find beneficial.
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This special issue of Language Teaching Research addresses the gap in
the task-based language tea... more This special issue of Language Teaching Research addresses the gap in
the task-based language teaching literature on the role of affect in task design and performance. It addresses the role of affect in task performance by focusing on how factors in the design and implementation of L2 tasks relate to the ways in which learners engage in meaning-focused L2 use during their performance. The six articles in the issue are derived from two conference colloquia. The first took place at the biannual Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) conference in Leuven, Belgium in September 2015, and the second took place a year later at the annual Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) conference at Columbia University Teacher’s College in New York City in September 2016. The theme of both of these colloquia was how independent factors in the design and implementation of tasks might be related to learners’ engagement in L2 use while performing them. In other words, both colloquia posited classroom motivation as a variable state which fluctuated in response to concrete factors in the design and implementation of tasks, on the one hand, and which had observable effects on objective measures of L2 use, on the other. Most of the studies in this special issue operationalize their measures of engagement based on Philp and Duchesne’s (2016) multi-faceted model of L2 learner engagement (for details, see Lambert, Philp & Nakamura, 2017).
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This PhD dissertation investigates the relationship between the need for increased precision and ... more This PhD dissertation investigates the relationship between the need for increased precision and explicitness that referent similarity places on English speakers at different levels of proficiency and their use of developmentally more advanced English nominal constructions. The versions of the task used in the study were formatted to generate relatively extended discourse over which learners had freedom to select from the full range of their own linguistic resources in response to the respective task demands. The study then isolated the effects of three factors on this discourse: (1) referent similarity, (2) the referent being described, and (3) proficiency level.
The results show that increased referent similarity was related to all facets of noun phrase complexity, the use of explicit comparative structures, and the use of developmentally more advanced relative clauses. In addition, the specific referent being described was related to lexical selection, and there was a significant interaction between this factor and the similarity factor. Finally, there was a negative relationship between speakers’ proficiency level and measures of syntactic complexity. In other words, higher proficiency speakers were able to complete the task set as a whole with more parsimonious use of nominal syntax than lower proficiency speakers.
The study provides empirical support for the use of graded tasks in promoting more advanced language use in implicit approaches to instructed SLA. However, it also shows that while general factors in task design are likely to be powerful tools in instructional planning, such factors may not be completely independent from the effects of specific task exemplars on relevant aspects of L2 variation. Finally, the study also provides insight into the relationship between language proficiency and general measures of syntactic complexity that might inform future research on pedagogic task performance and L2 development.
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Journal Articles/Book Chapters
The study investigated the impact of a goal-tracking system on learners’ engagement when using TB... more The study investigated the impact of a goal-tracking system on learners’ engagement when using TBLT in online spaces. A fully-online TBLT program was administered across the 2021 first-year English for International Communication (EIC) majors at a university in Thailand. The self-evaluation form was developed from the criteria of success in performing the English language task, namely - ‘giving local directions over the telephone’, which was identified based on a task-based needs analysis as being a critical task type for the learners . The study employed a 2x2 research design with group (goal tracking; non-goal tracking) as a between-subjects variable and test (pre-/post) as a within-subjects variable. The goal-tracking (G) group comprised 40 students, and the non-goal-tracking (NG) group, included 38 students. Initial comparability of the groups on the pre-test was established, and the engagement of the two groups was compared. Results revealed that the GT resulted in significantly higher task engagement than the NGT group (p = .009). In addition, almost all the groups’ engagement in language use (ELU) increased. The GT group improved more, in terms of engagement, on three measures of ELU, namely, the number of words (W), turns (T), and negotiations of meaning (NM). It is concluded that if learners are made aware of the criteria for successful performance and track their progress on these criteria, their engagement in tasks in online TBLT can be improved. In addition, the findings shed light on how goal tracking connects to L2 learning in general and how to promote learners’ engagement in online TBLT in particular.
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Task design factors that can be used to control the linguistic processing demands of tasks are cr... more Task design factors that can be used to control the linguistic processing demands of tasks are critical for incidental approaches to language teaching. Equally important is the consistency with which these factors impact L2 production across pedagogic tasks of the same type. This article reports two studies which investigated the impact of one task design factor - the distinctiveness of the elements that must be identified in completing tasks - on developmentally-based measures of syntax and lexis across multiple exemplars of one task type. The first study of L1 users of English revealed that the need to identify abstract as opposed to concrete features of referents had significant effects on syntactic complexity, diversity and lexical abstractness. Furthermore, the impact on general measures of syntactic complexity and diversity was independent of specific tasks, whereas the impact on lexical selection and specific syntactic structures was partially dependent on the pedagogic task being completed. The second study of L2 users of English revealed similar effects on the complexity, diversity and abstractness of language used, but it also revealed specific ways in which L2 proficiency moderated task effects on language use. Results are discussed in terms of L2 task design and implementation.
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To appear in Ahamadian, M. & Long, M. (eds). The Cambridge Handbook of Task-Based Language Teaching.
This case study describes the planning, implementation and evaluation of a two-year TBLT strand w... more This case study describes the planning, implementation and evaluation of a two-year TBLT strand within an English major curriculum at a Japanese university. The project took place over a five-year period between 2001 and 2006 in a relatively challenging context for TBLT. The prevailing opinion was that learners did not have specific needs for English, necessitating general language instruction. With the purpose of providing more focused, goal-oriented instruction, the project incorporated a task-based needs analysis (Long, 2005) that triangulated information from employment records, interviews and a sequence of surveys to build a consensus on the critical L2 tasks faced by graduates (Lambert, 2010). This information fed into the design, implementation and evaluation a two-year TBLT program. The case study describes the project as input for TBLT projects in similar contexts.
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The Role of the Learner in Task-Based Language Teaching: Theory and Research
This chapter considers possibilities for employing psychophysiological technology and research me... more This chapter considers possibilities for employing psychophysiological technology and research methods in studying the role of affect in language performance and acquisition on pedagogic tasks. The chapter focuses primarily on the affordances of electroencephalography (EEG) and ways in which EEG data can be triangulated with eye tracking (ET), electrodermal activity (EDA) and automated facial expression analysis (FEA) using commercial software and sensors. This data can also be triangulated with the discourse analytic, non-verbal and self-report measures currently used in research on the role of affect in additional language acquisition. It is argued that a combination of psychophysiological and established measures can provide more objective insight into the role of affect in the initial stages of information processing and learning than has hitherto been possible. The chapter closes by providing some initial directions for research into this critical and emerging area of task-based language teaching (TBLT).
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The Role of the Learner in Task-Based Language Teaching
This chapter introduces personal investment as a theoretical foundation to motivate research into... more This chapter introduces personal investment as a theoretical foundation to motivate research into the affective and conative dimensions of task-based language teaching (TBLT). Personal investment is defined as the meaningfulness that task content and outcomes have for learners in terms of their previous experiences and their physical, social or emotional needs in communicating. Following a discussion of personal investment theory in education and selfreference effects in cognitive psychology, personal investment is disambiguated from related constructs that have been discussed in the TBLT and SLA literature, and ways of operationalizing personal investment in that have been proposed in the literature are discussion. Following this, recent empirical research on personal investment in second language (L2) task design and performance is summarized, focusing on research on the impact of learner-generated as opposed to teacher-generated content. The chapter then points out directions for future research and closes with questions for ongoing discussion as well as suggestions for further reading.
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The Role of the Learner in Task-Based Language Teaching: Theory and Research
This chapter provides an overview of measures of second language (L2) production that have been u... more This chapter provides an overview of measures of second language (L2) production that have been used to index learners' engagement in pedagogic task performance in task-based language teaching (TBLT) research. The chapter provides a basis for using discourse analytic methods in research on the role of the learner in L2 task performance. The advantages and limitation of discourse analytic methods are discussed, and it is suggested that these methods are most informative when complemented with additional measures, including the emerging methods discussed in subsequent chapters. The chapter closes with suggestions for the use of discourse analytic measures within a broader research agenda on the conative and affective dimensions of TBLT research.
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The role of the learner in TBLT: Theory and Research
This chapter addresses some key terms and distinctions that are essential background to chapters ... more This chapter addresses some key terms and distinctions that are essential background to chapters that follow. The term task is defined in the context of task-based language teaching (TBLT), and the role of the learner within this paradigm is problematized. Following this, a distinction is made between affective and conative variables, and these variables positioned within the larger discourse of individual differences research in TBLT. Finally, a distinction is made between two complementary approaches to research (nomothetic & idiographic) as a basis for integrating the different perspectives, claims and suggestions for ongoing work discussed in the different chapters. Following this essential background, the respective parts of the books are introduced and a preview of the chapters contained in each is provided.
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The Role of the Learner in Task-Based Language Teaching
In this concluding chapter, we draw on salient themes in the book to propose new directions for f... more In this concluding chapter, we draw on salient themes in the book to propose new directions for future TBLT research. First, the authors encourage investigations into the dynamic nature of affect, which is an emerging area in learner psychology but an under-researched one in TBLT. We argue that this area is necessary if researchers are to understand how the role of the learner in task-based learning evolves over time. Second, we recommend future researchers triangulate objectives measures (discourse, non-verbal behavior, psychophysiological) and subjective measures of affect (self-report data) to understand the affective dimension of TBLT more comprehensively. The use of multiple measurement methods is needed as each provides complementary information on the learner experience. Finally, the authors underscore the need for future TBLT research to remain grounded in providing practical, evidence-based advice for designing and implementing tasks in the language classroom to facilitate positive learner experiences.
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Fluency on L2 speaking tasks requires the ability to parallel process speech (conceptualize, enco... more Fluency on L2 speaking tasks requires the ability to parallel process speech (conceptualize, encode, articulate and monitor messages simultaneously), and this requires access to language to be sufficiently automatized (Levelt, 1989). While this is typically not a problem for proficient speakers when completing new tasks, L2 learners must often serial process their speech (conceptualize and then encode messages) (Kormos, 2006). A key issue in task-based language teaching (TBLT) is how to support learners in moving from serial to parallel processing of the language that they bring to bear on new speaking tasks while still pushing more sophisticated content and language (Skehan, 2009). In this article, the authors provide a pedagogic framework to help teachers provide balanced planning and rehearsal opportunities to facilitate parallel processing as well as ongoing L2 development. We first present a theoretical model of L2 speech production and summarize recent research on the role of planning and rehearsal in supporting the stages of this model. We then outline a pedagogical framework for how pre-task preparation can be sequenced to support learners’ developing capacities to complete new and challenging speaking tasks and provide a walkthrough of a task-based instructional module to illustrate the framework.
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Contents
Section 1. Introduction
1. The pedagogic background to TBLT
Section 2. Theoretical perspectives
2. Cognitive- interactionist perspectives
3. Psycholinguistic perspectives
4. Sociocultural perspectives
5. Psychological perspectives
6. Educational perspectives
Section 3. Pedagogical perspectives
7. The task-based syllabus
8. The methodology of task-based teaching
9. Task-based assessment
Section 4: Investigating TBLT programmes
10. Comparative method studies
11. Evaluating TBLT programmes
Section 5. Moving Forward
12. Responding to the critics of TBLT
13. Moving forward
the task-based language teaching literature on the role of affect in task design and performance. It addresses the role of affect in task performance by focusing on how factors in the design and implementation of L2 tasks relate to the ways in which learners engage in meaning-focused L2 use during their performance. The six articles in the issue are derived from two conference colloquia. The first took place at the biannual Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) conference in Leuven, Belgium in September 2015, and the second took place a year later at the annual Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) conference at Columbia University Teacher’s College in New York City in September 2016. The theme of both of these colloquia was how independent factors in the design and implementation of tasks might be related to learners’ engagement in L2 use while performing them. In other words, both colloquia posited classroom motivation as a variable state which fluctuated in response to concrete factors in the design and implementation of tasks, on the one hand, and which had observable effects on objective measures of L2 use, on the other. Most of the studies in this special issue operationalize their measures of engagement based on Philp and Duchesne’s (2016) multi-faceted model of L2 learner engagement (for details, see Lambert, Philp & Nakamura, 2017).
The results show that increased referent similarity was related to all facets of noun phrase complexity, the use of explicit comparative structures, and the use of developmentally more advanced relative clauses. In addition, the specific referent being described was related to lexical selection, and there was a significant interaction between this factor and the similarity factor. Finally, there was a negative relationship between speakers’ proficiency level and measures of syntactic complexity. In other words, higher proficiency speakers were able to complete the task set as a whole with more parsimonious use of nominal syntax than lower proficiency speakers.
The study provides empirical support for the use of graded tasks in promoting more advanced language use in implicit approaches to instructed SLA. However, it also shows that while general factors in task design are likely to be powerful tools in instructional planning, such factors may not be completely independent from the effects of specific task exemplars on relevant aspects of L2 variation. Finally, the study also provides insight into the relationship between language proficiency and general measures of syntactic complexity that might inform future research on pedagogic task performance and L2 development.
Contents
Section 1. Introduction
1. The pedagogic background to TBLT
Section 2. Theoretical perspectives
2. Cognitive- interactionist perspectives
3. Psycholinguistic perspectives
4. Sociocultural perspectives
5. Psychological perspectives
6. Educational perspectives
Section 3. Pedagogical perspectives
7. The task-based syllabus
8. The methodology of task-based teaching
9. Task-based assessment
Section 4: Investigating TBLT programmes
10. Comparative method studies
11. Evaluating TBLT programmes
Section 5. Moving Forward
12. Responding to the critics of TBLT
13. Moving forward
the task-based language teaching literature on the role of affect in task design and performance. It addresses the role of affect in task performance by focusing on how factors in the design and implementation of L2 tasks relate to the ways in which learners engage in meaning-focused L2 use during their performance. The six articles in the issue are derived from two conference colloquia. The first took place at the biannual Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) conference in Leuven, Belgium in September 2015, and the second took place a year later at the annual Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) conference at Columbia University Teacher’s College in New York City in September 2016. The theme of both of these colloquia was how independent factors in the design and implementation of tasks might be related to learners’ engagement in L2 use while performing them. In other words, both colloquia posited classroom motivation as a variable state which fluctuated in response to concrete factors in the design and implementation of tasks, on the one hand, and which had observable effects on objective measures of L2 use, on the other. Most of the studies in this special issue operationalize their measures of engagement based on Philp and Duchesne’s (2016) multi-faceted model of L2 learner engagement (for details, see Lambert, Philp & Nakamura, 2017).
The results show that increased referent similarity was related to all facets of noun phrase complexity, the use of explicit comparative structures, and the use of developmentally more advanced relative clauses. In addition, the specific referent being described was related to lexical selection, and there was a significant interaction between this factor and the similarity factor. Finally, there was a negative relationship between speakers’ proficiency level and measures of syntactic complexity. In other words, higher proficiency speakers were able to complete the task set as a whole with more parsimonious use of nominal syntax than lower proficiency speakers.
The study provides empirical support for the use of graded tasks in promoting more advanced language use in implicit approaches to instructed SLA. However, it also shows that while general factors in task design are likely to be powerful tools in instructional planning, such factors may not be completely independent from the effects of specific task exemplars on relevant aspects of L2 variation. Finally, the study also provides insight into the relationship between language proficiency and general measures of syntactic complexity that might inform future research on pedagogic task performance and L2 development.
implicit language knowledge. This event will include international
guest speakers from Japan and New Zealand as well as Academic staff and PhD students working on this topic from Curtin University. This is the first in a biannual series of colloquia that will organised to investigate current topics in Applied Linguistics. For information on upcoming events and calls for papers please contact Craig Lambert <craig.lambert@curtin.edu.au> to be added to our mailing list.
This colloquium begins to address this gap in the task-based research literature by considering how specific factors in the design of L2 tasks can be hypothesized to relate to the way learners respond to task-based instruction and engage in L2 speech during task performance. The colloquium will begin with a brief introduction to provide a theoretical framework for conceptualizing the relationship between task design and learners’ willingness to become engaged in tasks and to maintain that engagement and to introduce a construct of engagement specific to L2 learners. The first presentation by Craig Lambert and Jenefer Philp then reports on an empirical study of the effects two factors in the design of L2 task sequences (leaner-generated content and post-task goal-tracking) on multiple triangulated measures of the behavioral, cognitive, social and linguistic engagement of 32 Japanese learners of English at the intermediate and advanced proficiency levels in a Japanese university. The second study then provides an interesting perspective on how such ideas can be implemented in the classroom and the effects that they have on in situ task engagement. In a semester-long classroom-based study of four intact groups of beginning-level Japanese university learners, Robert Stroud investigates the effect of an innovative goal-tracking system which combines pre-task and post-task self-assessments with the use of point cards exchanged between students during task performance to provide immediate online feedback and reinforce both the essential and the elaborative contributions that they make while participating. In the third study, Yuko Butler then looks more closely at the essential question, long overlooked in the TBLT literature, of what makes some tasks inherently more motivating for learners than others. Butler worked with 82 elementary school children in Japan to identify and select elements and structures of video learning games that, from children’s points of view, were both attractive and effective for L2 learning. Finally, in the last study, Yvonne Préfontaine and Judit Kormos consider the broader picture of how affective variables such as interest, task-related anxiety, motivation and perceived success in task completion - all potentially related to the treatments discussed in the previous papers - relate to improved L2 speech performance. Their study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate the relationship between the oral fluency of forty adult learners of French at different levels of L2 proficiency on narrative tasks of differing conceptual demands and these learners’ responses to a questionnaire on their affective disposition toward the tasks. In incorporating tasks of different conceptual demands, the final study draws attention to the important moderating effects that affective variables are likely to have on variables used in the grading and sequencing of tasks in L2 instruction. The colloquium will close with a discussion by Professor Rod Ellis on the implications of the studies for the field of SLA and directions for future research on the role of affective factors in L2 task performance.
Schedule
1. Introduction: Affective Factors in Second Language Task Design and Performance
Craig Lambert (Curtin University) and Jenefer Philp (Lancaster University)
5 minutes
2. Learner-Generated Content, Goal-Tracking, and Learner Engagement in L2 Task Performance
Craig Lambert (Curtin University) and Jenefer Philp (Lancaster University)
25 minutes
3. Goal-setting and engagement: a study of lower-level Japanese learners of English
Robert Stroud (Kwansei Gakuin University)
25 minutes
4. The Attractiveness and Effectiveness of Computer-Based Instructional Games for Young L2 Learners
Yuko Butler (University of Pennsylvania)
25 minutes
5. Affective Factors and L2 Speech Performance: A Study of Adult Learners of French at Different Levels of Proficiency
Yvonne Préfontaine (Lancaster University) and Judit Kormos (Lancaster University)
25 minutes
6. Discussion
Rod Ellis (University of Auckland)
15 minutes
Total Time: 120 Minutes
Schedule of Events
10:30-12:00: Rod Ellis, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Using Tasks in Task-Based and Task-Supported Language Teaching
12:10-13:00: Craig Lambert, University of Kitakyushu, Japan
Using Task-Based Teaching to Advance Language Use
13:00-14:00: Reception (Lunch Break)
14:00-14:50: Colin Thompson, University of Central Lancashire, UK
Using Task-Supported Teaching to Improve Grammar Instruction
15:00-16:30: Natsuko Shintani, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Using Tasks with Beginning Level Japanese Learners
16:30-17:00: Panel Discussion
Participants will have a chance to raise questions and concerns about using tasks in Japanese schools generally, as well as in situations that they face in their own schools and their own classes.
https://www.iris-database.org/iris/app/home/index.
I will soon be uploaded all of the tasks and materials that I have used in my own research onto the site. If you decide to use any of the materials on the site in a replication study, you might also consider applying for the replication award:
https://www.iris-database.org/iris/app/home/replication_award
Although each four-page unit was designed for one 90-minute session, in contexts where classes meet for 60 minutes, it may be possible to complete each unit in two class sessions. The first two pages of the unit (Steps 1-3) might be completed in the first class session, and the final two-pages (Steps 4 and 5) might be completed in the second class session.
The text might also be used to provide an oral English supplement to programs based on more traditional syllabuses. In such cases, it is recommended that the teacher implement these materials independently and allow learners to draw on their own linguistic and non-linguistic resources in completing the tasks rather than trying to use the tasks to practice the language content being taught in other class sessions.
Audio files for listening activities available on request.
The content is very well suited to learners at the false-beginner and intermediate levels. It assumes that learners have a basic knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary in line with the structural syllabus of the national curriculum established by the Japanese Board of Education, but lack experience using this language for communication. The course is specifically designed to help such learners activate the English that they have learned in secondary school for oral communication as well as further develop it in line with the demands of tasks which are representative of the communicative demands that they will face in their future lives and careers in Japan. Furthermore, as the tasks were developed in Japan, they are particularly compatible with the background knowledge and learning styles of university-level Japanese learners.
Audio files available on request.
Although each four-page unit was designed for one 90-minute session, in contexts where classes meet for 60 minutes, it may be possible to complete each unit in two class sessions. The first two pages of the unit (Steps 1-3) might be completed in the first class session, and the final two-pages (Steps 4 and 5) might be completed in the second class session.
The text might also be used to provide an oral English supplement to programs based on more traditional syllabuses. In such cases, it is recommended that the teacher implement these materials independently and allow learners to draw on their own linguistic and non-linguistic resources in completing the tasks rather than trying to use the tasks to practice the language content being taught in other class sessions.
Learners spend the majority of each class session completing a balance of input-based and output-based communication tasks in pairs and small groups. The tasks were chosen based on their relevance to the communicative needs of Japanese university learners. They were then tailored to the classroom based on the background and learning styles of these learners. Whether learners will work in business, education, the travel industry, or use English recreationally in Japan or while traveling abroad, the ability to complete certain basic communication tasks in English is essential. The course aims to develop language in line with the demands of communication. The tasks sequences generally move from the simple to the complex, the essential to the incidental, the familiar to the unfamiliar. Throughout the course, the learning occurs through communication rather than in preparation for it.
The input-based versions of each task consist of proficient speakers completing the task(s) that learners are working on in each unit. These are provided on the accompanying Audio CD for use in the classroom and are transcribed as an appendix for learners. Meaning and form-focused listening activities provide comprehensible task-based input and direct attention to key aspects of language form. Importantly, these samples aim to provide learners with exposure to a variety of ways in which each task might be completed. Learners are left to choose language for doing the task that is in line with their own personalities and levels of development. Finally, an attempt has been made to provide learners with opportunities to work on tasks that operate on learner-generated content as well as those that operate on provided content. Learners thus move from the known to the new, incorporating new language and ideas into their current knowledge.
Although each four-page unit was designed for one 90-minute session, in contexts where classes meet for 60 minutes, it may be possible to complete each unit in two class sessions. The first two pages of the unit (Steps 1-3) might be completed in the first class session, and the final two-pages (Steps 4 and 5) might be completed in the second class session.
The text might also be used to provide an oral English supplement to programs based on more traditional syllabuses. In such cases, it is recommended that the teacher implement these materials independently and allow learners to draw on their own linguistic and non-linguistic resources in completing the tasks rather than trying to use the tasks to practice the language content being taught in other class sessions.