The Quantity and Quality of Language Practice in Typical Interactive Pair/Group Tasks

Collins, Laura; White, Joanna

doi:10.18806/tesl.v31i0.1186

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Second, tasks may not work in the way they were designed (but see Ellis 2017b). Collins & White (2014) analysed classroom interaction of Grade 6 ESL learners in Quebec and discovered that certain features (e.g. possessive determiners) were more difficult to elicit even when the task was designed to do so (e.g.…”

Section: Linguistic Targetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction and instructed second language acquisition

2018

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Interaction is an indispensable component in second language acquisition (SLA). This review surveys the instructed SLA research, both classroom and laboratory-based, that has been conducted primarily within the interactionist approach, beginning with the core constructs of interaction, namely input, negotiation for meaning, and output. The review continues with an overview of specific areas of interaction research. The first investigates interlocutor characteristics, including (a) first language (L1) status, (b) peer interaction, (c) participation structure, (d) second language (L2) proficiency, and (e) individual differences. The second topic is task characteristics, such as task conditions (e.g. information distribution, task goals), task complexity (i.e. simple or complex), and task participation structure (i.e. whole class, small groups or dyads). Next, the review considers various linguistic features that have been researched in relation to interaction and L2 learning. The review then continues with interactional contexts, focusing especially on research into computer-mediated interaction. The review ends with a consideration of methodological issues in interaction research, such as the merits of classroom and lab-based studies, and the various methods for measuring the noticing of linguistic forms during interaction. In sum, research has found interaction to be effective in promoting L2 development; however, there are numerous factors that impact its efficacy.

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Section: Linguistic Targetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction and instructed second language acquisition

2018

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“…This type of practice differs from pedagogical activities distributed over time that do not encourage students to engage in repeated, meaningful practice. Moreover, the target structure (relative clauses) has been found to pose processing difficulty for both comprehension and production for L2 learners in general (Izumi, 2003) and students can avoid using the structure (see Collins & White, 2014). In our study, students could use prepositional phrases (e.g., who's the advertiser for the slogan Just Do It?)…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…For example, Rossiter and colleagues' review of ESL textbook and teacher resources (Rossiter, Derwing, Manimtim, & Thomson, 2010) found that the most common fluency-building activities were free production activities, such as role plays and discussions. However, free production activities often fail to elicit grammatical structures that are difficult to acquire (Collins & White, 2014). In addition, they may not provide students with enough meaningful and repetitive practice so that they can develop the skill to retrieve linguistic forms with greater proceduralization or automaticity (DeKeyser, 2010;Gatbonton & Segalowitz, 2005;Rossiter et al, 2010;Sato & McDonough, in press).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting EFL students’ accuracy and fluency through interactive practice activities

McDonough¹,

Sato

2019

SSLLT

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This study examined the effectiveness of interactive activities at facilitating EFL students’ production of English relative clauses. Thirty-seven EFL learners in Chile carried out interactive activities designed to elicit relative clauses. Pre- and posttests were used to examine whether carrying out the activities facilitated the students’ production of relative clauses. All interactions were audio-recorded and the transcripts were analyzed to determine how accurately and fluently the students produced relative clauses before, during, and after the practice activities. Whereas accuracy was defined as errors involving relative clause formation, fluency was operationalized in terms of the number of pauses, false starts, and self-corrections that occurred within relative clauses. The results showed that the students produced significantly more accurate relative clauses on the posttest; however, their production of dysfluencies remained unchanged. Implications for the use of interactive activities are discussed.

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“…Interaction with the teacher in the target language is also beneficial to students’ actual linguistic development. There is evidence that whole‐class teacher‐led discourse can provide better exposure to and practice with some target features of the language than small group learner‐led discourse (Toth, ), and that in typical pair and small group interaction students do not always generate contexts that would allow them to stretch their interlanguage (Collins & White, ). Teachers’ contributions to students’ language learning is not confined to simply managing activities, however; they also can provide students with rich exposure to language forms when, in addition to setting up opportunities for language practice, they also participate in the activities with the students, for example, taking a turn to recount an anecdote, or talking about weekend experiences (Collins et al., , ).…”

Section: The Expanded Modern Foreign Language Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The rapid learning that results from intensive experiences at the beginner level is well documented (e.g., Collins & White, ) but there is some evidence that advanced learners may not benefit as much from such an experience (Serrano, ). There is also evidence that substantial amounts of classroom time focused on communicative interaction or content instruction may not provide rich enough input and output practice that would allow FL students to push their interlanguage to more advanced levels (Collins et al., ; Collins & White, ; Lightbown & Spada, ; Swain, ), including opportunities to reflect on nontarget use of language (Lyster, ). Thus the quality of the classroom time also matters.…”

Section: The Next Century: Foreign Language Classrooms and The Mljmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Foreign Language Classroom: Current Perspectives and Future Considerations

Collins

Muñoz

2016

The Modern Language Journal

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137

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The Modern Language Journal has long been an important venue for the publication of research and reflection on the teaching and learning of foreign languages (FL) in classroom contexts. In this article, we offer a perspective on the contemporary FL classroom, informed by a descriptive survey of all studies that took place in FL classes that were published in The Modern Language Journal (MLJ) between 2001 and 2014 inclusive (N = 97). This yielded a profile of FL classrooms in terms of geographical locations, languages being taught, the amount and distribution of instructional time, and the age and language backgrounds of the students. The findings revealed that FL environments benefiting from research investigations in the MLJ typically involve older learners in on‐site (rather than virtual) classes that afford limited exposure to the FL, which was typically English (in non‐English‐speaking countries) and French, German, or Spanish (in English‐speaking countries). We consider the implications of these findings for the study of FLs in the future and identify aspects of FL classrooms that merit greater research attention as the MLJ moves into its second century.

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The Quantity and Quality of Language Practice in Typical Interactive Pair/Group Tasks

Cited by 4 publications

References 47 publications

Interaction and instructed second language acquisition

Interaction and instructed second language acquisition

Promoting EFL students’ accuracy and fluency through interactive practice activities

The Foreign Language Classroom: Current Perspectives and Future Considerations

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