TBLT and Less Commonly Taught Languages Curriculum Development

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TBLT and Less Commonly Taught Languages
Curriculum Development

• Facing challenges in FL programs
• phonological development
• automatic oral production of non salient forms
• Development of Curriculum Incorporating
• Web Based Oral Tasks
• Sponsored by
• The Ivy League Language Learning Teaching
  Consortium
• Junko Hondo
• University of Pennsylvania, US / Lancaster
  University, UK
• hondoj_at_sas.upenn.edu
• International Conference on Task-Based Language
  Teaching September, 2005 Katholieke
  Universiteit Leuven

• John MacDermott
• Director, Instructional Technology
• Junko Takada
• SLA Lexicology Specialist
• Project Research Assistant
• Albert Matthews
• Senior Support Specialist for
• Instructional Technology
• Edward Dixon
• Coordinator for Technology in
• Foreign Languages
• University of Pennsylvania, US

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Challenges in Less Commonly Taught Languages
Classroom
Promote oral production using non salient forms
outside of the classroom ? CALL? Empirical
studies Positive outcomes of CMC tasks (Kern,
1995, Kitabe, 2000, Salaberry,2000 among
others) Creation of web based oral / written
tasks incorporated within the existing curriculum
Task-based approach to syllabus
(Breen,1987, Skehan, 1996, White, 1988)

• Task-based Syllabus per se
• its representation of communicative competence
  as the undertaking and achievement of a range of
  tasks
• its direct reliance on the contributions of
  learners in terms of the mobilisation of the
  prior communicative competence which learners
  bring to any task
• its emphasis upon the learning process as
  appropriate content during language
  learning(White 1988102)

• Limited exposure to the target language outside
  of the classroom presents difficulties -
• phonological development
• Phonological adjustment is said to be difficult
  after the critical/sensitive period
• automatic oral production of non salient forms
• Non salient linguistic features for L2 learners
  are reported to be difficult to learn and are
  prone to fossilize universally
• Attempt at a solution? ?

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Task Type and Effects Theoretical Perspectives
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Tasks 4 themes

• Phonological development and self evaluation
  skills
• Transformation of the nature of the feedback
  implicitness ? explicitness
• Revealing the effect of synchronous and
  asynchronous communication
• Tracking the cognitive registration of form
  strong feasibility of longitudinal study

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Sample Self Evaluation

• sing-song-like
• dropped N sound
• flat intonations (NS evaluation is reverse)
• choppy between words (NS evaluation is reverse)
• O after N was difficult (glottal high back)
• alternated sounds Ka ? Ga
• (Pe ? Be, Za ? Jya were unmentioned)
• Decrease in number of mistakes from NS
  evaluations over 13 weeks (Chart)
• Double vowel has been manifested for all
  subjects no mistakes found 13 weeks later
• There was no improvement in pronouncing Japanese
  flap R regardless of L1 of the subjects
• Improvement was evident for both word final N
  and supra segmentation

SS Supra Segmental D. V Omission of second
vowel in double vowel F.N Omission of word
final N Flap R Japanese Flap R
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2. Feedback
Eg Subjects L1 English Length of Japanese
study Nine months at this stage Focused form
Particles wa, ga, ni

• Recast Implicit in nature
• Modified feedback with partial reformulation
  provided immediately following an erroneous
  utterance, with no adjustment in meaning
• High uptake from recast
• (Often in the classroom, recasts are overlooked
  by learners. The student reformations, or
  uptake, is sometimes reported as low as 18
  (Lyster and Ranta, 1997)
• With the constraint of perceptual modality, does
  it become Explicit?

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3. Synchronous vs Asynchronous

• Asynchronous Higher accuracy
  Comprehension
• Proficiency dependent?

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4. Tracking the Cognitive Registration of Form
Depending on the developmental stage, the
relationship between the written and oral
production changes eg Oral production Oba-a-sa
n to oji-i-san wa, hidari ni arimasu.
(Grandmother and grandfather are on the
left.) Written production Oba-san to Oji-san wa
hidari ni arimasu. (Aunt and uncle are on the
left.)
Subjects L1 Korean Length of Japanese study 3
months at this stage
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Cognitive Processes and Pedagogical Implications
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Feasibility of Longitudinal Studies Case of L1
German 10 monthsPhonetic manifestation of the
Yu replaced with Jya L1 German feature Ja
sound is pronounced Ya Periodic data correction
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Thank youhondoj_at_sas.upenn.edu
John MacDermott Director, Instructional
Technology Junko Takada SLA Lexicology
Specialist Project Research Assistant Albert
Matthews Senior Support Specialist
for Instructional Technology Edward
Dixon Coordinator for Technology in Foreign
Languages
Sponsored by Ivy League Language Learning
Teaching Consortium Grant