This chapter will discuss research into the effects of task characteristics and task conditions on second language performance. It explores a range of task characteristics, such as information structure and familiarity, as well as the operations upon such information. It will also consider the… read more
This chapter has two broad aims: to relate aptitude tests and recent aptitude research, including that reported in this volume, to proposed second language acquisition stages; and to relate aptitude testing to the contrasts between domain-generality and domain-specificity, on the one hand, and… read more
The chapter is part of a Point-Counterpoint (with Robinson, this volume), exploring the Limited Attention Capacity (LAC) and Cognition Hypotheses (CH) as alternative accounts of second language task performance. It starts by presenting five principles which underlie the LAC, covering memory and… read more
The second language planning literature has been mainly quantitative in nature, with very few qualitative investigations of planning (but see Ortega 2005). This chapter tries to redress that imbalance and reports on a study of what second language learners say they do when they plan. Participants… read more
This chapter reports on a study of video-based narrative retellings, in which the major variables are degree of structure and the nature of the processing conditions under which the retellings were done. The two variables were manipulated in a 4 × 4 design. Four Mr. Bean video clips were used, with… read more
The Cognition and Tradeoff Hypotheses account for task performance in different ways. The former sees task complexity as the driver for higher accuracy and structural complexity whereas the latter, within the constraints of limited attentional capacities, sees performance as being accounted for… read more
This chapter will present a research synthesis of a series of studies, termed here the Ealing research. The studies use the same general framework to conceptualise tasks and task performance, enabling easier comparability. The different studies, although each is self-contained, build into a wider… read more
This study focuses on the impact of different variables on the nature of language performance in the context of task-based instruction. Characteristics of tasks are discussed, and then a framework is offered that can organize the nature of task-based instruction and relevant research. The framework… read more
This paper examines recent proposals for task-based approaches to instruction. It reviews relevant research, before going on to examine a number of potential problems with task-based teaching, such as a potential focus away from form and towards lexis. It reviews recent developments in cognitive… read more