1. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
Tasks and Technology in Language Learning: Elective Affinities and (Dis)encounters
Lourdes Ortega
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
3rd International Task-Based Language Teaching Conference. Lancaster, September 13-16, 2009

2. Thanks to the organizers:
Martin Bygate
Judit Kormos
Andrea Révész
Virginia Samuda

3. Powerpoint can be downloaded from my website.

4. I am not a techy…
more like a technophobe…

5. Temperance & empirical qualification needed…
In fact…
(Ortega, 1997, 2009; Ortega & Zyzik, 2008)
Euphoric discourse
Idyllic images
Temperance & empirical qualification needed…

6. But we do live in a digital society…

7. sites:
Facebook
Newsgroups
Wikis
-ing:
ing
Internet surfing
Web page viewing, maintaining, creating
Skyping
Chatting
Blogging
Instant messaging
Texting
Gaming
Gadgets, e.g., iphones:
with Internet, , MultimediaMessageService, ShortMessageService, recording, voice control, photo making, video making, and many applicationservers

8. “Coming of age with the Internet” McMillan & Morrison (2006)
I use it all the time, and I believe that my life would be very different without it. I would not be able to look up the things that I wanted to without calling to get a brochure, going to the library, or ordering a book or catalog. My phone bills would be extremely high, and I would not talk to my mom as much. I really do not see what people did before the internet was invented .

9. … Information & Communication Technologies have changed:
the nature of everyday communication
the educational contexts afforded to our students
opportunities for L2 learning

10. Tasks and Technology
Doughty & Long (2003)
Skehan (2003)

11. Technology and Tasks
Chapelle (2003)
Reinders & White (in press)

12. My interest and focus for today?

13. … affordances harnessed for L2 learners to support:
Language (Chapelle, 2003)
“Culture” (Belz & Thorne, 2006)
Digital literacies (Warschauer, 2006)
Identities (Lam, 2000)

14. The social and humanistic (but not technocratic) value of educational technologies
(Friesen & Feenberg, 2007)
The social, educational, and pragmatic (but not vulgar utilitarian) value of tasks in L2 learning
(Norris, 2009; Samuda & Bygate, 2008; Van den Branden, 2006)

15. Tasks and New Technologies “elective affinities”
present many (realized and potential)
“elective affinities”

16. Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809)
certain chemicals
attract each other and
bond into a novel
compound
~~ ~~ “human chemistry” ~~ ~~
Eduard & Charlotte
The Captain & Ottilie

17. Elective Affinities (1933)
René Magritte‘s
Elective Affinities (1933)
Paolo Taviani
(1996) Le affinità elettive
(Isabelle Huppert as Carlotta)

18. between tasks & technology
Affinities
between tasks & technology

19. Two affinities

20. Affinity 1: Affordances

21. … LLT and TBLT most unique affordances:
Motivation
Authenticity
Choice
Feedback
Community

22. Some examples

23. J. & K. Collentine (K. Collentine, 2009)

24. M. González-Lloret (2003, 2007) http://marta.lll.hawaii.edu/enbusca/

25. Tight theorization of these five affordances would benefit LLT and TBLT in the future
Motivation
Authenticity
Choice
Feedback
Community

26. Affinity 2: Theoretical base

27. … in order to learn an additional language
LLT
TBLT
designing environments…
… to do things with words supported by communication technologies…
… to do things with words…
… in order to learn an additional language

28. “doing things with words”
TBLT
LLT
“doing things with words”
Emphasis on DOING language…
Emphasis on learning BY DOING…

29. Emphasis on DOING language

30. Obvious theoretical links of TBLTwith use-oriented theories of SLA

31. TBLT-specific: Peter Skehan Peter Robinson
Processing Trade-off Hypothesis
Cognition Hypothesis

32. Language learned
Doing
Language used
Cognition

33. TBLT-complementary: Interaction in SLA
Pica Gass Mackey McDonough

34. Interactional Doing Language used
Language learned
Interactional
Doing
Attention
Language used

35. L2 learning LLT work at TBLT 2009: Interaction Task complexity Monday
Maria-Elena Solares-Altamirano
Yu-Chuan Joni Chao
Ann Keller-Lally
Shannon Sauro
Tuesday
Nik Aloesnita Nik Mohd Alwi & Rebecca Adams
Yuksei & Yu

36. Cross-fertilization in a certain direction
LLT
SLA
TBLT

37. But we also have TBLT–expanding theories, or broader use-oriented SLA theories…

38. Systemic-Functional Linguistic theory
Byrnes (2006)
Mohan (1986, 1992)

39. CA-for-SLA and other discourse-based theories of L2 learning
John Hellermann (2008)
Simona Pekarek-Doehler
(& Ziegler 2007)

40. Are they “incommensurable or complementary” …?
(Tuesday, 2:00pm)

41. Sociocultural theoretical influences on LLT are particularly rich

42. Open University group:
Robin Goodfellow, Marie-Nöelle Lamy, Regine Hampel

43. also in Europe:
Andreas Müller-Hartmann, James Simpson,
Gabriela Adela Gánem Gutiérrez

44. In the US:
Carla Meskill Mark Warschauer Steven Thorne

45. Reversed engineered influence?
TBLT
Sociocultural LLT
LLT
SCT
TBLT

46. Emphasis on learning by DOING

47. In TBLT, educational philosophies of experiential learning
Explicit acknowledgement: Norris (2009), Samuda & Bygate (2008), Van den Branden et al., 2009)
John Dewey
(1938) Experience and Education

48. Obvious and sustained theoretical links of LLTwith experiential learning theories from ICT and Ed Tech

49. Experiential Learning Theory
David & Alice Kolb’s
ELT
Experiential Learning Theory

50. experiential learning theories
Another reversed engineered influence?
experiential learning theories
ICT
TBLT
LLT
Ed Tech

51. Two Affinities
1: Affordances
2: Theoretical base

52. between tasks & technology
(Dis)Encounters
between tasks & technology

53. A happy encounter
An inexplicable disencounter
Tasks-in-Technology
Technology-in-Tasks

54. CMC & TB interaction research
A happy encounter:
CMC & TB interaction research

55. Negotiation for Meaning in TB LLT
Jill Pellettieri
(2000-CUP)
Bryan Smith
(2003-MLJ)
M. González-Lloret (2003)
Bob Blake
(2000-LL&T)

56. Negative impact on noticing? Positive impact on noticing?
(Ortega, 2009)
Negative impact on noticing?
Fundamental similarities NfM does happen in CMC as in F-t-F
Fundamental differences
disrupted turn adjacency  split negotiation routines (Smith, 2003), non-contingent recasts (Lai & Zhao, 2006), delayed uptake (Smith, 2005)
lean medium  more explicit marking of communicative trouble (Fernández-García & Martínez Arbelaiz, 2003)
Positive impact on noticing?

57. (Ortega, 2009)
How much NfM?
1 or 2 episodes % of all turns
per session/dyad
Task as a source of such huge variability?

58. Attention to form in TB LLT: Dyadic CMC
Bryan Smith
(2005-TQ)
Chun Lai
(Lai & Zhao, 2006; Lai et al., 2008)

59. Iwasaki & Oliver (2003)
Shannon Sauro (2009)

60. Attention to form in TB LLT: Teacher/tutor-mediated CMC
Shawn Loewen, Rosemary Erlam, et al.
(Loewen & Erlam, 2006; Loewen & Reissner, 2009)

61. Insufficient accumulated evidence, so many more questions than answers
(Ortega, 2009)
Fundamental similarities re. negative feedback
Recasts overwhelmingly preferred to more explicit corrections
Uptake results inconclusive
Some (tentative) differences 
Amounts of negative feedback are more often than not reported lower on CMC than F-t-F (although there is high variability across studies)
CMC factors may damp noticing: non-contingent, incorporated recasts (Lai et al., 2008)
Insufficient accumulated evidence, so many more questions than answers

62. Neglected role of tasks
Strangely, many pending questions may involve task explanations,
but no seeming effort at studying tasks per se

63. An inexplicable disencounter:
Where is CAF in TB CMC?

64. or TB cognitive frameworks
Research on “complexity/richness” of L2 practice in CMC (Ortega, 1997)
Educational benefits  CMC may be an equalizer of participation
SLA benefits  egalitarian participation may bring about higher productivity and more complex discourse
SLA fears  accuracy may suffer
But no precise application of either CAF research measures (Housen & Kuiken, 2009)
or TB cognitive frameworks
(Skehan vs. Robinson)
e.g., Zsuzsanna I. Abrams, Olaf Böhlke, David Coniam, Michael Fitze, Mark Freiermuth, Ann Keller-Lally, Lina Lee, Susana Sotillo, Rafael Salaberry, Ilona Vandergriff

65. Might task design matter after all?
However, a definite concern with accuracy & CMC for L2 learning
Might task design matter after all?

66. Enza Tudini, University of South Australia
(2003)
(2007)
n=9
2 semesters
49 sessions
3,687 turns
61 NfM (9%)
1.2 NfM/session
n=27
8 weeks
120 sessions
10,644 turns
232 NfM (10%)
1.9 NfM/session
Enza Tudini, University of South Australia

68. Task design...
Tudini (2003)
Tudini (2007)
“Students were simply asked to chat with NS with a view to evaluating the live chat as a possible teaching and learning tool” (p. 148).
required to submit their best 6 sessions for evaluation
assignment = 10% of course grade
encouraged explicitly to seek assistance from the L1 chatters
given a list of cross-cultural topics to use during the chat conversations

69. CMC task design does matter
Negotiate-over-lexis-first principle countered with post-task stakes?
(Skehan & Foster, 1997)

70. Just instructions may help “foreground a focus on language form”…
Paige Ware & Rob O’Dowd (2008)
asynchronous feedback on form LREs for “partnering” vs. “tutoring” e-conditions

71. Maybe things will begin to change?

72. Mohd Alwi & Rebecca Adams
Ann Keller-Lally
jig-saw vs. decision-making vs. opinion exchange
Shannon Sauro
Syntactic complexity
lexical richness
Nik Aloesnita Nik
Mohd Alwi & Rebecca Adams
CAF

73. Karina Collentine (2009, LL&T)
interrupted & uninterrupted reasoning & interaction cycles

74. Encounter or disencounter?
Tasks-in-technology

75. Tasks-in-technology, neglected dimension
“… the large majority of studies of CMC […] deal with task design only tangentially and teachers frequently transfer tasks used in face-to-face
settings to online environments without adapting them to the new setting”
(Regine Hampel, 2006, p. 106)

76. Bryan Smith Jig-saw task Decision-making task
Each student has 3 different pictures –
(a) Describe all 6 to sequence them into a “bus trip” story;
(b) End with discussion of public transportation in the US and your countries.
Jointly decide on 4 gifts for 4 members of home stay family in the US
(a) Each student has specific parameters and 4 gift suggestions, all of which must be negotiated into consensus;
(b) End with discussion of gift-giving customs in your countries

77. Smith (2003, 2005): Seeded target words

78. “jig-saw tasks”: info-gap with closed solution
Blake (2000):
Find an apartment in Madrid by sharing Web ads and personal preferences (see URL). Summarize the results using TEXTPAD.
Blake (2000)
Share the activities from two different personal calendars: Antonio Banderas and Madonna. Identify the events done in common by the two people. Then develop a story written in the past about those common activities.
“jig-saw
tasks”:
info-gap with
closed
solution
Smith (2003):
Each student has 3 different pictures Describe all 6 and sequence them into a “bus trip” story; discuss public transportation in the US and your countries.

79. “discussion tasks”: info-gap with open-ended
Freiermuth & Jarrell (2006):
Plan out three ways to spend a 500,000 yen gift certificate and decide which way is better and why.
Blake (2000):
Find an apartment in Madrid by sharing Web ads and personal preferences (see URL). Summarize the results using TEXTPAD.
Vandergriff (2006):
The moral dilemma of the Alligator River Story (used originally by Gee, 1989)
Sauro (2009):
Write each other on one of two themes (Swedish culture or global warming) and use bank of related words, including 10 abstract nouns
Freiermuth (2001)
Discuss which of 4 cities in the US would be ideal for opening a new business (with parameters)
“discussion
tasks”:
info-gap with
open-ended
Fitze (2006):
Discussion of essay topics prior to writing (e.g., professional sporting)
Dekhinet (2008):
Browse through a website with many links about
Scottish culture and discuss them with your chat pal.
Sachs & Suh (2007):
Read L1 story, retell in L2 with sequenced pictures & lexical help (to NS chat pal)

80. from tasks to projects…?

81. Task-based e-mail tandem exchange
Appel & Gilabert (2002)
Task-based tandem exchange
e.g, (4-week task):
A night out in Barcelona/Dublin
GOAL: route and budget for a night out on a trip to Barcelona or Dublin
Discussed places where young people go out in their own towns
ed tandem partners with options and description of their usual routine on a weekend night
Decided on what places they would like to go to on the hypothetical night out in Barcelona or Dublin, drew a budget for the night
scanned entrance tickets, leaflets, etc for the venues and shared them on webpage
OUTCOME: presentation of their final planned night out

82. Appel & Gilabert (2006)
Task-based exchanges probably afford more language productivity and affective engagement than conversational exchanges

83. Task-based email-mediated role-play
Leahy (2004)
Task-based -mediated role-play
BA European business students (L2 German), 3 to 4 weeks:
GOAL: develop a marketing strategy for how to introduce a product to a new market
5 f-t-f dyads communicating through
each dyad took on different roles in charge of different elements of the whole task/goal
Internet used as a source for task data
OUTCOME: presentation of results by dyads orally, per individual in written summary

84. Develop marketing strategy
Dyad 1:
UK company
“Christmas pudding”
Develop marketing strategy
Dyads 3, 4, 5:
Research assistants to
Dyads 1 & 2
3-Similar products on WWW
4-Market conditions
5-Cultural & economic problem shooting
Dyad 2:
German marketing company
Consultant to Dyad 1

85. new questions:
Pedagogy: What are the consequences of changing from tasks to projects?
Research: How do we investigate projects from TBLT perspectives?

86. Reinders & White (in press)
What’s needed to understand and inform the design of sociocollaborative tasks in multimodal environments?
Theoretical pluralism
Interactionist as well as sociocultural theories + ICT & CMC theories of medium

87. tasks-in-technology…
So, maybe
tasks-in-technology…
an improvised encounter thus far… but one with a future

88. An imminent encounter:
Technology-in-tasks

89. Cognitivist preference for control & structure, but…
less structured, more inquiry-based task space encourages learners to exercise agency and enact identities, to do learning from sociocultural and social semiotic perspectives that address the “whole” learner
(Marie-Nöelle Lamy, 2007)

90. Imagination Lamy & Goodfellow’s Simuligne project (group competition)
Imagine, design, and create a French city with the necessary attributes to host a residential course
Create self-character for the city and describe community role
Invent history and anthem of city
Visit all cities and vote to choose recipient of city award
Imagination

91. Task-based NetMeeting-mediated web creation project
Levy & Kennedy (2004)
Task-based NetMeeting-mediated web creation project

92. 4 Australian students (L2 Italian):
Levy & Kennedy (2004)
4 Australian students (L2 Italian):
GOAL (chosen by participants): produce web pages for the Italian Studies site of these students’ university
Useful to students (in Australia) visiting Bologna and Perugia for a certain period of time
With “live” material (audio & video) collected from informants in cities

93. conferencing software
e.g., NetMeeting, with text/audio chat, graphics, & desktop sharing
jointly browsing of the same on-screen material (e.g., websites) while talking
jointly creating documents & alternating the control of the application

94. Task-based mobile phone interactions
Kiernan & Aizawa (2004)
Task-based mobile phone interactions

95. Narrative & invitation tasks done via:
Kiernan & Aizawa (2004)
Narrative & invitation tasks done via:
F-t-f, (b) PC , (c) mobile phone
Less language produced via mobile phone (using thumb pad), but
Similar approach to task
And most motivating: Most students wanted to experience the mobile phone condition

96. Importance of social context for technologies
Only 4 of 54 Japanese college participants did not own a mobile phone with
Almost all 50 owners used mobile phone daily and primarily for texting and ing
Many Japanese college students know how to use the mobile thumb pad to text but not a PC keyboard
In Japan & Europe, speaking on mobile phones is expensive, texting is cheap (the opposite is true in the US)

97. Open social spaces, gaming, immersive environments
“Part of the difficulty in drawing conclusions within CMC research is that results are often based on tasks or laboratory experiments that do not easily generalize to the real world”
(Luppicini, 2007, p. 174)
Alternative, more “real-world”:
Open social spaces, gaming, immersive environments

98. Open social spaces, gaming, immersive environments
The look to the future:
Open social spaces, gaming, immersive environments

99. James Gee
Marc Prensky

100. Sage
Sage
Routledge

101. In LLT too D. Zheng (Zheng et al. 2009) NfM… Negotiation for Action
Douglas Coleman (2002)

102. from tasks to projects…
to virtual worlds…?

103. here-and-now vs. there-and-then
How tractable for existing TBLT frameworks?
here-and-now vs. there-and-then
time-less & space-less “Always On” (Baron, 2008)
“From Always-On to Always-There”
(de Lange, 2009)

104. Gaming, simulations, & other immersive new technologies
Motivation
Authenticity
Choice
Feedback
Community

105. Affinities (Dis)encounters
tasks & technology
Affinities
(Dis)encounters
What does the future hold?

106. Elective Affinities (1933)
René Magritte‘s
Elective Affinities (1933)
“unfulfilled potentials… trapped within superficial barriers” (blescarmona, 2009)

107. Will future research fulfill the potential between tasks and technology?
Will the TBLT and LLT research communities break away from superficial barriers?…

108. Thank You

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Photo credits:
Magritte’s photo from:
Goethe’s photo from:

114. Copyright © Lourdes Ortega, 2009
Please cite as:
Ortega, L. (2009). Tasks and Technology in Language Learning: Elective Affinities and (Dis)encounters. Plenary delivered at the 3rd International Task-Based Language Teaching Conference. Lancaster, September
Copyright © Lourdes Ortega, 2009