TBLT2009 Colloquium: Teachers’ uses of tasks in the classroom Convenor: Virginia Samuda, Lancaster University (virginia.samuda@btinternet.com) Tony Lynch, University of Edinburgh (A.J.Lynch@ed.ac.uk) Anthony Bruton, University of Seville (abruton@siff.us.es) Nick Andon, King’s College, London (nick.andon@kcl.ac.uk)

Order of events Virginia Samuda: Introduction Tony Lynch: Tasks, teachers and learner choice Anthony Bruton: Practitioner perspectives on the use of oral tasks in state secondary FL teaching Nick Andon: Exploring TBLT in ‘optimal’ conditions 3:30 – 4:00 Discussion

Introduction: Researching teachers’ uses of tasks in the classroom Exploring a pedagogical construct –task - from the perspectives of those who engage with it pedagogically How teachers understand tasks How teachers understand TBLT How teachers implement tasks How teachers implement TBLT …. in everyday pedagogy

Issues brought into focus from a pedagogical perspective… Research questions: grounded in issues of concern to practitioners Approaches to data capture: congruent with day to day pedagogy Framing of outcomes: accessible and transparent for those seeking to make use of them Directionality of research: pedagogy  research  pedagogy Development of pedagogically-grounded evidence bases: types of evidence relevant to pedagogical concerns; interfaces and synergies with SLA findings

Foci for empirical study.. Tasks as pedagogical spaces: within which learners and teachers can move about, and within which opportunities for multi-level language processing can be created in the context of accomplishing task goals (Samuda, 2007, Van den Branden, in press) Tasks as pedagogical tools: mediated by teachers in different ways for a range of pedagogical purposes within a sequence of instruction (Samuda & Bygate, 2008) Tasks as dynamic entities: subject to re-interpretation and re-shaping by those engaging with them through use (Berben, Van den Branden & Van Gorp, 2007; Samuda, 2007)

…reflected in this colloquium Working inside the pedagogical space of a task (Lynch) Practitioners’ perceptions of tasks as a pedagogical tool (Bruton) Teachers’ (re-) interpretations of TBLT and the tasks they work with (Andon)

Questions nominated for reflection and discussion at the end of the colloquium What do teachers need to know about TBLT (in either research or practice) in order to effectively make use of it? (Andon) How can we evaluate the effectiveness of different forms and timings of teacher feedback on task performance? (Lynch) Adopting TBLT initiatives in state secondary FL education: whose decision? whose choice? (Bruton) Should teachers be trained to work with tasks or should tasks be designed so as to work for teachers? (Van den Branden)

References Berben, M., Van den Branden, K. & Van Gorp, K. 2007.‘‘We’ll see what happens’: tasks on paper and tasks in a multilingual classroom’ in Van den Branden, K. & Verhelst, M (eds) Tasks in action: task-based language education from a classroom-based perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 32-67 Samuda, V. 2007. ‘Tasks, design and the architecture of pedagogical spaces’ Plenary, TBLT 2007, University of Hawai´i (www.hawaii.edu/tblt2007) Samuda, V. & Bygate, M. 2008 Tasks in second language learning. Basingstoke: Palgrave Van den Branden, K. (In press) ‘Mediating between predetermined order and chaos: the role of the teacher in task-based language education.’ International Journal of Applied Linguistics

To be continued….