TASK-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING: INVESTIGATING THE DYNAMICS OF LEARNERS’ ORAL INTERACTION

Hazleena Baharun; Harison Mohd Sidek; Mohd Muzhafar Mohd Idrus; Noor Saazai Mat Saad

doi:10.18769/ijasos.03906

EN

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING: INVESTIGATING THE DYNAMICS OF LEARNERS’ ORAL INTERACTION

Abstract

For learning to occur, interaction among learners is vital. Interaction is crucial as a channel for exchanging knowledge that would promote both development and learning. In second language learning, interaction has always been regarded as important in the language classroom as it is believed that language is best learned and taught through interaction. Interaction is important due to its contribution to gains in second language (L2) acquisition. One possibility of providing interaction opportunities to learners is through the use of tasks. The aim of this study was to investigate how learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) interacted during task completion. The investigation focused on the dynamics of learner interaction and the kind of oral interactions generated by the participants. Two different communication task types were used in this study i.e. jigsaw and decision-making. The data for the study comprised transcribed recordings of learner interaction working on both given task types. They were analyzed focusing on the social processing. Findings revealed that the participants attempted task completion collaboratively for both task types. The collaborative interaction was characterized by argumentative episodes. However, close examination showed that the participants engaged in more intensive argumentative negotiations which were highly collaborative during decision-making task completion than during task completion of the jigsaw task type. The results suggest that communication task types can be used to elicit collaborative interaction episodes with argumentative negotiations and these kinds of interactions are believed to be important particularly for learners at the tertiary level. The findings are discussed in relation to their pedagogical implications in the EFL classrooms.

Keywords: oral interaction, collaborative interaction, argumentative episodes, communication tasks

Keywords

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Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

-

Journal Section

-

Authors

Hazleena Baharun

Harison Mohd Sidek

Mohd Muzhafar Mohd Idrus

Noor Saazai Mat Saad

Publication Date

August 26, 2016

Submission Date

August 24, 2016

Acceptance Date

-

Published in Issue

Year 1970 Volume: 2 Number: 5

DOI

https://doi.org/10.18769/ijasos.03906

IZ

https://izlik.org/JA49UF72BG

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RIS / Bibtex

EndNote

Baharun H, Mohd Sidek H, Mohd Idrus MM, Mat Saad NS (August 1, 2016) TASK-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING: INVESTIGATING THE DYNAMICS OF LEARNERS’ ORAL INTERACTION. IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences 2 5 570–580.

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING: INVESTIGATING THE DYNAMICS OF LEARNERS’ ORAL INTERACTION

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