Task-Based Language Teaching in Online Ab Initio Foreign Language Classrooms

Author(s): CHUN LAI, YONG ZHAO and JIAWEN WANG

Source: The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 95, Supplement 1: The Supplementary Issue:
Research in and Around the Language Classroom: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches
(2011), pp. 81-103
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers
Associations
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 Task-Based Language Teaching in
Online Ab Initio Foreign Language
Classrooms
CHUN LAI YONG ZHAO JIAWEN WANG
325 Hui Oi Chow Education 1 70 Reno Hall 207

Science Building 1215 University of Oregon University of Detroit Mercy

Faculty of Education Eugene , Oregon, 97403-1215 4001 W. McNichols Road

University of Hong Kong Email: [email protected] Detroit, MI 48221-3038

Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been attracting the attention of researchers for more
than 2 decades. Research on various aspects of TBLT has been accumulating, including the
evaluation studies on the implementation of TBLT in classrooms. The evaluation studies on
students' and teachers' reactions to TBLT in the online courses are starting to gain momentum,
and this study adds to this line of research by enhancing our understanding of the implemen-
tation of TBLT in an online ab initio course. This study investigated the implementation of
a TBLT syllabus in an ab initio online Chinese as foreign language course over a semester.
Surveys and interviews with the students and the instructors revealed that students reacted
positively to the online TBLT experience, and analyses of students' performance at the end of
the semester suggested that this pedagogy produced good learning outcomes. This study also
identified some challenges and advantages of the online context for TBLT.

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING (TBLT) tic challenge, with the overall aim of promoting
has been attracting the attention of researcherslanguage learning, through process or product
and language educators since Prabhu (1987) first or both" (p. 69). There has been a large volume
proposed and experimented with task-based ap-of research on the nature of different tasks and on
proaches in secondary school classrooms. Theways to sequence tasks (Bygate, Skehan & Swain,
essence of TBLT is that communicative tasks serve 2001; Robinson, 2005; Samuda, 2001; Skehan,
as the basic units of the curriculum and are the 2001; Willis & Willis, 2007). Research has also
sole elements in the pedagogical cycle in which been carried out to understand the cognitive pro-
primacy is given to meaning. TBLT presents cessinga involved in, and learners' perceptions of,
way to realize communicative language teach-task implementation (Ellis, 2005; Gulden, Julide,
ing at the syllabus design and methodology level & Yumru, 2007; Kumaravadivelu, 2007) . The rapid
(Littíewood, 2004; Nunan, 2004; Richards, 2005). accumulation of literature has greatly enhanced
Acknowledging the different approaches to task our understanding of pedagogical tasks and TBLT
definition, Samuda and Bygate (2008) define syllabus
a design.
pedagogical task as "a holistic activity which en-At the same time, researchers have stressed the
gages language use in order to achieve some need for TBLT to be road-tested (Klapper, 2003)
nonlinguistic outcomes while meeting a linguis- and are urging for more classroom-based TBLT
research in different social contexts and differ-
ent classroom settings to shed light on tasks in ac-
tion and the various issues surrounding the imple-
The Modern Language Journal, 95, Supplementary Issue,
mentation of TBLT in different contexts (Carless,
(2011)
DOI: 10.1 111/j. 1540-4781. 201 1.01271.x 2007; Ortega, 2007; Seedhouse, 1999; Van den
0026-7902/11/81-103 $1.50/0 Branden, 2006) . Although classroom implemen-
©2012 The Modern Language Journal tation of TBLT is gaining momentum and has

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82 The Modern Language Journal 95 ( 201 1 )

been conducted in quite a (2008)

variety
found thatof thesocial and of 10 read-
implementation
instructional contexts (Leaver
ing tasks& in Willis,
two preparatory2004; reading classes at a
Littlewood, 2007; Van den university
Branden, Van
in Turkey Gorp
resulted &
in learners develop-
Verhelst, 2006) , TBLT in the online
ing the skills of ab initio
learning on theirfor-
own and becom-
ing autonomous
eign language classroom context in the reading
is still rarely process. Leaver
trodden territory (Duran and 8c Kaplan
Ramaut, (2004) came
2006). to theUn-same conclusion
derstanding this particular wheninstructional
analyzing the TBLTcontextcourses at the Defense
is of great interest as more and
Language more
Institute andK-12 on-
the Foreign Service Insti-
tute in theare
line foreign language programs United States: They
being set found
up that TBLT
promoted for
to meet the increasing demands learning how to learn
foreign lan-and encouraged
guage learning in this sector. This
risk taking study
among intends
the students. They further ob-
served that
to fill the gap in the current TBLTthe TBLT courses had a lowerby
literature attri-

presenting a semester-long tion rate and higher performance

experimentation with scores than
TBLT in ab initio online Chinese as foreign
any ever achieved lan-
in their language programs. A
guage (CFL) classrooms, examining
quasi-experimentalstudents'
classroom studyandin Iran pro-
teachers' reactions to it and
videddiscussing
further evidence the issues
of the capacity of TBLT
involved in its implementation
to promote inpositive
this language
particular learning outcomes
context. (Rahimpour, 2008). This comparative study of
two groups of intermediate-level English as a for-
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
eign language (EFL) learners over one semester
found that the group that followed a TBLT syl-
TBLT in Classrooms labus demonstrated greater fluency and complex-
ity in their oral performance in story telling tasks
Over the past decade, TBLT has become the
than the group that followed a structural syllabus.
top-down curriculum mandate at national or re- However, in the meantime studies investigat-
gional level in quite a few places, such as Hong ing the implementation of TBLT by classroom
Kong, Malaysia, Mainland China, and Flandersteachers have raised a note of caution con-
in Belgium (Carless, 2008; Mustafa, 2008; Van cerning the classroom implementation of TBL
den Branden, 2006; Zhang, 2007). At the samein a few sociocultural contexts (Bruton, 2005;
time, however, scholars and researchers are chal-Burrows, 2008; Littlewood, 2007) . Burrows (200
lenging the applicability of TBLT in K-12 foreignpointed out that the sociocultural realities of th
language contexts (Bruton, 2005; Klapper, 2003)Japanese
. context and the passive learning style
Thus, how well TBLT works in various K-12 con- the Japanese students as well as their over-relian
texts, and what challenges practitioners might en-
on the teacher collectively weakened the imple
counter when implementing TBLT in their class- mentation of TBLT in this particular context
rooms have become pressing research issues. Carless (2002, 2003) found that teachers' teach
Studies exploring the potential of TBLT in var-
ing beliefs, the proficiency levels of the student
ious classrooms have presented positive studentand the sociocultural realities of Hong Kong pr
perceptions and learning outcomes. Ruso (2007) mary schools collectively contributed to teachers
conducted an action research study on the im- transforming TBLT into task-supported teaching
Similar factors were identified in the Korea and
plementation of TBLT in two first-year university-
level English classes at an Eastern Mediterranean
Malaysia contexts (Li, 1998; Mustafa, 2008).
University and reported positive perceptions andIn particular, the following classroom factors
increased participation from the students as well
have been identified to challenge classroom-
as enhanced rapport between the students and based TBLT in K-12 contexts: (a) crowded and
teachers. Lee (2005) experimented with TBLT cramped classrooms creating discipline issues -
in a vocational high school in Taiwan over oneeveryone in the class starting to talk at the same
semester and came to a similar conclusion of time inevitably brought "uncontrollable" and "un-
positive perceptions and enjoyment. Further, welcome"
she noises (Bruton, 2005; Carless, 2004,
found that TBLT improved students' self-esteem,
2007; Li, 1998), and mixed proficiencies in the
creativity, social skills, and personal relations.
classroom made quicker students bored with hav-
McDonough and Chaikitmongkol (2007) piloted ing nothing to do while slower students struggled
a TBLT course with learning strategy training to complete the tasks (Mustafa, 2008); (b) stu-
modules in a Thai University and found that theof different proficiency levels demonstrat-
dents
learners not only enjoyed the course, but alsoing
were
unbalanced involvement and contributions -
becoming more independent learners. Demir
students with higher language proficiency

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 Chun Lai , Yong Zhao , and Jiawen Wang 83

benefited more from doing tasks (Carless, 2002, discussion forums. For the sa
2003; Tseng, 2006) , whereas students with lower they added two whole-group
language proficiency and with shy personalities chronous TBLT tutorials in an
became frustrated at this "taxing" approach to ferencing system, and their res
learning (Burrows, 2008; Karavas-Doukas, 1995; based on these two 75-minute
Li, 1998); (c) in many cases, students avoiding the learners expressed overall
the use of the target language in fulfilling the the tasks, the tutors reported
communicative tasks (Carless, 2008; Littlewood, reluctant to speak and partici
2007); and (d) students suffering from anxiety and that in some cases the tasks suffered from
over the freedom they were given in the TBLT dwindling participation. To achieve better learn-
approach (Burrows, 2008; Lopes, 2004). Stu-ing outcomes, they suggested that tasks needed
dents perceived slow learning progress (Leaver & to be designed in such a fashion that they can
Kaplan, 2004; Lopes, 2004;) and held negative be finished in a single tutorial and require less
perception towards too little grammar (Lopes, preparation, and that more support in the learn-
2004; McDonough & Chaikitmongkol, 2008) . ing process needs to be given to weaker students.
The above classroom studies have revealed the Hampel (2006) reported another study on an
potential benefits of TBLT in classrooms and have intermediate-level online German course. In this

also shed light on the challenges language teach- course, in addition to engaging in self-study of the
ers might encounter when implementing TBLT in course materials and interacting with the instruc-
their face-to-face classrooms. Given the different tor and peers asynchronously, the students were
natures of face-to-face and online teaching, wouldgiven options to attend a series of voluntary task
the potential of TBLT hold true in the online tutorials throughout the semester. The tutors re-
teaching context, and what issues, similar or dif-ported the tasks to be quite successful, but they
ferent, would emerge when implementing TBLTalso observed fluctuating participation and reluc-
in this instructional context? tant participation on the part of weaker students.
Furthermore, they commented on the difficulty
TBLT in Online Classrooms of classroom management due to the lack of par-
alinguistic cues and the danger of tasks becoming
There has been a large volume of research on more tutor centered with small groups.
learner performance of communicative tasks inThe above two studies examined learners with
synchronous computer-mediated communication an intermediate level of language proficiency and
environments that attest to the interaction-relatedabove, which makes one wonder whether the same
benefits of performing tasks in a text-based on- paradigm could be used on beginner learners,
line chatting environment (see Ortega, 2009, for ab initio learners in particular. Although Duran
a detailed review). There have also been longi- and Ramaut (2006) and Rosell-Aguilar (2005) ex-
tudinal studies on TBLT as extracurricular activi- plored the issues related to the design of tasks for
ties or projects for learners of different ages, and online beginner learners, little data is available
these studies presented evidence that learners in- on the actual implementation of TBLT in such
corporated input from their interlocutors (Smith, classrooms.
2009) , and that such incorporation had a lasting This study intends to fill the gap in the current
impact on subsequent L2 use (Gonzalez-Lloret, literature by examining online ab initio learners'
2008) . Although these studies were conducted ei- reactions to TBLT and the issues that emerged
ther as lab sessions or extracurricular activities re-
from the implementation of TBLT in this instruc-
lated to face-to-face classrooms, the positive find- tional context.
ings did suggest the potential of implementing
TBLT in the online learning context. Researchers
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
have just started to investigate the implementa-
tion of TBLT in purely online courses, determin- This study examined the implementation of
ing students' reactions and unraveling how the TBLT in the context of online ab initio foreign
online context constrains or mediates its imple- language classrooms. Specifically, two questions
mentation (Hampel, 2006; Sole & Mardomingo, were addressed:
2004).
Hampel and Hauck (2004) reported an ex- 1. What are online ab initio learners' and
ploratory study in an advanced-level online teachers' reactions to TBLT?
German course. This course was run in an asyn- 2. What issues emerge from the implementa-
chronous fashion with self-study materials and tion of TBLT in an online ab initio context?

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 84 The Modern Language Journal 95 ( 201 1 )
CONTEXT OF THE STUDY list of potential timeslots for synchronous ses-
sions, and the teacher assigned them into small
Instructional Context
groups (3-5 members each) based on their se-
The current study was carried out in the on- lection. Once the student had been assigned to
a group, he or she was to stay with the team
line ab initio Chinese courses offered at a pub-
lic virtual high school in the United States. throughout the semester. The synchronous ses-
sions were conducted through a conferencing sys-
The online courses had both asynchronous
and synchronous components. The asynchronous tem, Adobe Connect. This conferencing system
allowed text- and audio-chat,1 and had a docu-
components included student self-study of the
ment sharing function that enabled the instruc-
e-textbook, additional online learning resources
tors and students to share documents and make
(such as Chinese podcasts, Chinese character
learning software, and online Chinese dictionary)
annotations on the documents on the go (see
and weekly language and culture assignments. Appendix A for a snapshot of the conferencing
system) .
There were also asynchronous means of com-
munication, such as discussion forums and mes- Prior to the study, the online ab initio Chi-
sage centers, which students could use to connect nese course had been running in this virtual high
with their classmates and their instructor. All the school for two years. The synchronous sessions
learning materials and asynchronous communi- were usually run in the fashion of didactic teach-
cation tools were hosted in the course manage- ing and structured practice of linguistic items via
ment system, Blackboard (see Appendix A for a the typical Initiation-Response-Evaluation (IRE)
snapshot of the course). The e-textbook used in classroom discourse pattern. In 2007, in the light
of the encouraging research evidence that TBLT
this course was Chengo Chinese (a sample unit:
http://www.elanguage.cn/episode02cut/), an in- brings about better learning outcomes in foreign
teractive courseware collaboratively developed by language classrooms than traditional approaches
the U.S. Department of Education and China (Lever & Kaplan, 2004; Rahimpour, 2008), the
Ministry of Education. This was the only online researchers introduced a TBLT syllabus to imple-
Chinese e-textbook for beginners available at the ment in this course during the synchronous ses-
time of the study. The e-textbook was organized sions. This TBLT syllabus was implemented in half
around the story of an American student's sum-
of the online ab initio Chinese classes, while the
mer camp experience in China and followed a se- other half of the ab initio classes followed the syl-
labus used in the past.
quence of model-practice-application-game for
each unit. The weekly language and culture as-
signments included one or two individual lan-
The Task Syllabus
guage assignments (e.g., recording oral responses
to complete a dialogue; writing a short essay to Since we did not have the capacity to design and
introduce their family) , discussions on given cul- develop a TBLT e-textbook, we kept Chengo Chi-
tural topics, and self-reflections on each week's
nese as the e-textbook for the course, but designed
learning progress and process. The instructor a TBLT syllabus to use during the synchronous
gave written feedback on students' language as- sessions. The tasks in the TBLT syllabus were con-
signments in the grade center and monitored structed to expand the topic of each unit in the
their cultural discussions. Students could leave
e-textbook. For example, the first unit of the e-
messages for each other and for their instructor in textbook was a conversation between a teacher
the message center and were encouraged to com- and her students on the first day of a class, in
ment on one another's postings in the discussion which they greeted each other and introduced
forums.
their names. Two tasks with associated pre- and
In addition to the learning and interaction post- activities were designed to expand it through
in the asynchronous course management system, engaging students in introducing academic infor-
the students were required to attend one 1-hour mation as well as previous educational experience
small group (3-5 students) synchronous session (see Appendix В for the task design and the align-
with their instructor each week. The purpose of ment of TBLT syllabus with the e-textbook). In
the synchronous sessions was to give the online this course, students were usually given two weeks
students a chance to "meet" with their instruc-
to finish one unit in the e-textbook. Thus, two
tor and classmates weekly for online instruction. TBLT sessions were designed to go with each unit,
At the beginning of the semester, students were and altogether, 12 1-hour TBLT sessions were de-
instructed to make a selection from the given signed and implemented.2

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 Chun Lai, Yong Zhao , and Jiawen Wang 85

The synchronous sessions followed

more foreign languagesabefore.
pre-task,
Exactly 88% of
the students(Ellis,
during-task and post-task cycle had never taken
2003;any kind of online
Willis,
courses, and 97% had never
1996). Following Willis's suggestion for taken an online for-
conduct-
ing TBLT for beginners, theeign language
cycle (FL) course.
adoptedStudents whoa missed
rel-
atively longer pre-task phase
more thanand
one thirda ofshorter task
the virtual meetings and
phase with the planning those
and whoreporting
had any prior exposurestages
to Chinese in
an instructional
omitted. Considering the fact that context
the were excluded. pop-
target
ulation comprised absolute The four instructors
beginners of who were teaching the
Chinese,
the pre-task phase focused TBLT on classes ranged fromprepa-
linguistic 22 to 25 years old.
ration and consisted of Three
an were female and
array ofone was male. Two of the
activities
suggested by Ellis (2003, instructors 2006) -had in some
previous cases
classroom foreign lan-
students were guided and guage teaching experience.
supported in perform- None of them had
ing a task similar to the taught one onlinethey classes
would before, per-
and none of them
form in the task phase (Prabhu, had experimented 1987);
with TBLT in before.
some Aware that
cases, they were provided with
working withanovice
model teachersof therisky and
was quite
task with meaning-oriented mightactivities
distort the way around it was ac-
the TBLT syllabus
(Ellis, 2006); in other cases, there were a se- tually implemented in the classroom, measures
ries of vocabulary-targeted activities that were de- were taken to minimize this potential threat: the
signed to prepare the learners to perform the teachers were given intensive workshops on TBLT
task (Willis, 1996). These pre-tasks were mainly before the start of the semester and weekly debrief
input-based tasks or activities aimed at familiar- sessions with the researchers to discuss the design
izing the students with the language needed for of the task cycle for the coming week and trou-
the main task. The task phase consisted of one bleshoot the problems they encountered during
or two output-based tasks that were designed to teaching.
engage learners in working together and using We initiated the TBLT syllabus during the syn-
resources available to achieve some sort of out- chronous sessions in the online ab initio Chinese
come. During this phase, the instructors eithercourse believing that it could help enhance stu-
dents' communicative abilities. To check whether
took a facilitative role or a participatory role
depending on the size of the group. The tasks this expectation held, we included the perfor-
mance data of the control group of students from
were sequenced in the light of Ellis's (2003) task
complexity grading criteria (e.g., from writtenthe
to other half of the ab initio Chinese course
oral, from few elements/relationships to many that did not implement the TBLT syllabus. This
elements/relationships, from dialogic to mono- control group consisted of 36 students of similar
profiles4 and the only difference between these
logic). As for the post-task phase,3 repeat perfor-
mance was usually designed to increase complex- two groups was the syllabus adopted during the
ity and fluency (Ellis, 2003) . synchronous sessions.
During the implementation, the instructors re-
viewed the tasks for the coming week together Data Collection

with the researchers and worked collaboratively

to modify the tasks, when needed, in ways that The study drew mainly on both learners' and
were more appropriate for their students (e.g., teachers' self-report data supplemented by learn-
changing the destination of an imaginary trip toers' performance data to shed light on students'
and teachers' reactions to TBLT as well as the
make sure that every student knew the place) .
issues that emerged from the implementation of
TBLT in this particular context. Six sources of data
METHOD
were analyzed and triangulated to answer the two
research questions.
Participants
Background Survey. At the beginning of the
Thirty eight students from the ab initio classes
semester, a student background survey was ad-
that adopted the TBLT syllabus during their syn- ministered to the students in all the online ab
chronous sessions volunteered to participate in
initio Chinese classes. This background survey col-
this study. The participants were all monolin- lected basic demographic information as well as
gual Anglo-American high school students. They
students' previous foreign language learning and
ranged from 13 to 18 years old (the average age online learning experience.
was 16). There were 18 males and 20 females.
76% of the students had prior foreign language Weekly Reflection Blog Entries . During the
learning experience, and 35% had studied two or semester, the students were required to write

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 86 The Modern Language Journal 95 ( 201 1 )

self-reflection blogs each tered,

week and toas part
preview of their
and comment on the tasks to
be used
weekly assignments to reflect onin their
the coming week. The TBLT
learning ex- teachers
were also
perience during the week. For interviewed
each at the endreflec-
week's of the semester
to obtain their
tion blog, they were encouraged to reflections
talk about on their overall
howTBLT
well they had done and whatteaching
they experience during the semester.
had learned, the
The majority
challenges they had encountered, the of the data described above came
strategies
from the students
they wanted to share with their and teachers inand
classmates, the TBLT
soclass-
on.
rooms. The only two sources where the students
in the control classrooms were included were the
Class Observations and Recorded Synchronous
background survey and students' performance in
Sessions. The researchers carried out weekly ob-
the oral task in the final exam. The control stu-
servations of one randomly selected session of
each TBLT teacher and took field notes. All the dents' oral performance was included because it
teachers in the online ab initio Chinese course enabled us to view the TBLT students' learning
outcomes in the light of the students who had
were asked to record their teaching sessions each
not experienced TBLT in their synchronous ses-
week using the recording function within the
sions. This comparative view helped us to evaluate
video conferencing system. The recording cap-
whether TBLT in the online ab initio FL class-
tured every movement on the screen as well as
all the aural and written interaction between the rooms had done a good job in enhancing stu-
dents' communicative capacity, the intention that
teacher and the students and among the stu-
drove the implementation of these pilot classes in
dents. Thus, the recording provided minute-by-
the first place. We did not collect other data from
minute replay of what was going on during the the control classrooms because the focus of this
synchronous sessions.
study was not to test the relative effectiveness of
Course Evaluation. The course evaluation con- these two teaching methods, but rather to evalu-
ate
sisted of three Likert scale questions (on a scale ofand inform the implementation of TBLT in
1 to 7) on their enjoyment of the course and per-an online ab initio FL instructional context.
ceived learning and four open-ended questions
eliciting the aspects of the synchronous sessionsData Analysis
that they liked and disliked, their perceptions of
the synchronous sessions, and their intentions The data for the study was largely qualitative
concerning whether or not they would continue in nature and consisted of students' weekly self-
to take the course in the coming semester.reflection
The blogs, students' course evaluation, re-
course evaluation items were posted as one of
searchers' classroom observation notes, the min-
their assignments for the last week of the semester
utes of the weekly debrief meetings with the
and the learners completed the course evaluation teachers, and the teachers' end-of-semester in-
in English. terview data. An inductive approach was adopted
to discover the issues that emerged from the en-
Recording of Students' Oral Production When
tire corpus. Ad hoc transcribing and analyses of
Performing a Descriptive Task during the Final
Exam. The final exam was done in a one-on-one the recorded synchronous sessions were also con-
ducted when they were called for to shed further
fashion, where each student was given an exam
light into the issues identified. The recordings of
slot, and he/she logged into the conferencing
system alone to meet with the instructor. A mono- students' performance in the oral descriptive task
were transcribed and coded on their fluency, com-
logic picture description task5 was used to elicit
plexity and accuracy. Statistical analysis was con-
students' oral performance, and the students were
ducted between the TBLT and control classes.
asked to describe the picture orally. The same
exam was given to the students in all the online ab To answer the research question concerning
students' and teachers' reactions to TBLT, qualita-
initio Chinese classes, and the performance of all
the students during the final exam was recorded tive analysis of students' and teachers' perceptions
and class performance throughout the semester
using the recording function in the conferencing
system. was conducted, supplemented with a quantitative
analysis of the fluency, complexity, and accuracy
Weekly Debrief and End-of Semester Interview With of students' oral performance in the descriptive
the Teachers. The TBLT teachers met with the re- task. Students' course evaluations and teachers'
searchers every week to talk about their general interviews served as the primary data to obtain a
feelings about the week's teaching and the chal- glimpse into their overall perceptions of the TBLT
lenges and/ or the problems they had encoun- experience. Students' weekly reflection entries

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 Chun Lai , Yong Zhao, and Jiawen Wang 87
throughout the semester were traced
5) the features of the for changes
technological platform were
crucialthe
in their perceptions of, or to the effects
lack of TBLT.
thereof, of
TBLT over time.

Students' learning outcomes were analyzed Overall

to Satisfaction with TBLT
shed light on the learning outcomes of the ex-
perience. The recordings of the oral descrip-
At the end of the semester, students rated their
tive task performance of students in both TBLT
enjoyment of the course positively (5.64 on a scale
classrooms and control classrooms were tran- of 7) and expressed satisfaction with the amount
of learning of the class (5.33 on a scale of 7).
scribed and double-checked by the researchers.
Then the transcribed oral data were coded on As much as 83% of the students retained their
interest in learning Chinese and expressed wish
three measures: fluency, accuracy, and complex-
to continue learning Chinese, either in the next
ity. Fluency was measured in terms of meaningful
words6/minute (Mochizuki & Ortega, 2008;semester
Yuan or in the near future when schedules
& Ellis, 2003). The transcripts were pruned by When checking student enrollment in the
allow.
deleting the instructor's prompts along with the
following semester, we found that 56% of the stu-
dents actually came back to the next level online
first language (LI) conversation with the instruc-
Chinese
tor, and thus the time was the total time length ofclass.
the pruned performance. Accuracy was measured Some students enjoyed the novelty of the TBLT
in terms of error-free clauses ("the percentage
learning
of experience: "I like the atmosphere of the
clauses that did not contain any error" [Yuan 8c
experience," and "I like the tasks a lot because it is
a little
Ellis, 2003, p. 13]). Syntactic complexity was mea- bit different from how I am used to learn-
sured by the mean length of T-units.7 T-testsing."
were Others liked its student-centered nature: "I
like the tasks in class because they are challeng-
conducted on the three measures of oral produc-
tion between students in the TBLT classrooms and
ing and allow us to mess up and learn from our
those in the control classrooms. mistakes, which is very helpful."
To answer the second research question con-The majority of the students expressed great
cerning the issues emerging from implementing satisfaction with the amount of learning they
TBLT in an online ab initio context, TBLT stu- achieved through the TBLT synchronous sessions:
dents' reflection blogs and the minutes of the "It's actually pretty impressive the amount of the
weekly debrief meetings with the instructors as language that we did learn and that I have picked
well as the end-of-semester interviews with the
up on;" "I have learned more from this one
semester than I think I have learned from all
teachers were analyzed to induce the general
my years of Spanish;" "This course as a whole
themes of the challenges that students and teach-
ers had encountered as well as the potential that was probably the best course I've taken and I've
the online context might have to facilitate TBLT. learned the most;" and "My views on the virtual
Students' and teachers' data were triangulated meetings were that they were fast paced but good.
with the researchers' observation notes to provide Intense, but you came out feeling like you learned
a more comprehensive picture. a lot." They also felt that they could apply what
they had learned in the TBLT classrooms to real-
life scenarios: "I felt like I learned things suffi-
RESULTS
ciently enough to be able to use it in the real
What Were Students ' and Teachers ' Reactions world." More importantly, students appreciated
to TBLT ? the fact that they were learning via doing and
speaking: "I like the fact that we get to practice
Both students' and teachers' overall percep- speaking and learn by speaking with others in the
tions of their TBLT experience and the students' class;" "I learned a lot of grammar and language
oral language performance at the end of fromthethe hands on speaking and learning;" and
semester suggested that the majority of the "Instu-
this class, I enjoyed all of the group activi-
dents and teachers in the online ab initio Chinese ties, that required everyone to work and converse
classes reacted positively to TBLT. Analysis of the together to complete the given assignment. Of
data revealed the following issues: 1) students and course, during the process, we would be learning
teachers expressed overall satisfaction with TBLT; and applying new diction and syntax."
2) TBLT brought about progressive changes in This perceived learning corresponded with
approaches to learning; 3) TBLT had differen- their oral performance in the final exam (see
tial effects on learners; 4) students lacked the ap- Appendix С for samples of their language pro-
propriate attitudes and strategies for TBLT; and duction). At the end of the semester (12 1-hour

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 88 The Modern Language Journal 95 ( 201 1 )
TABLE 1

Oral Language Production of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) Classrooms vs. Control Classrooms

Condition Mean SD T Sig. Cohen's D

Fluency TBLT 15.93 6.93 2.46 0.006* 0.70

Control 11.93 4.33
Syntactic Complexity TBLT 5.86 1.62 1.98 0.748 0.07
Control 5.76 1.11
Accuracy TBLT 0.41 0.33 2.09 0.67 0.09
Control 0.38 0.28

TBLT sessions in total), the students in the In week 9, the student expressed an explicit
TBLT classrooms produced an average of 15.93 request for grammar instruction when he realized
meaningful words per minute and 5.86 words perthat he had trouble constructing sentences: "I am
T-units, with 41% of the clauses they producednot having any trouble pronouncing words; how-
error-free. To make sense of these data, we ever, I'm not very good at constructing sentences.
compared their performance with the perfor- I'd like it if we got some specific information on
mance of students in the control classrooms. how to make sentences and the specifics of
We found that students in the TBLT classrooms sentence structure, i.e., some grammar.'
demonstrated significantly higher fluency In inweek 11, he started to demonstrate a shift in
language production than their counterparts in
his thinking, urging himself to take more respon-
the control classrooms8 (T = 2.46, p = 0.006*, d in actively figuring out the grammatical
sibility
= 0.70), as was found in other studies of TBLTrules through self-discovery:
(Liu, 2008; Rahimpour, 2008) , and there was no
This week I learned numbers and addition in Chi-
significant difference in the syntactic complexity
nese. I also learned how to describe someone in a
and accuracy of the language production between
picture to pick them out of a group. We also went
the two groups. Table 1
The data from interviews with the teachers re-
into more depth traveling and expenses. I can also
number things off like 5 computers (wu ge dian-
vealed that the teachers not only perceived TBLT nao) . I am having trouble with when to add and what
positively, but also believed that TBLT helped fos-
unit words like ge. I will try looking at more examples
ter good learning habits and autonomy amongand findings patterns to use the right unit word.
the students. One instructor commented:

His self-reflection entry in week 15 showed that

Once they become familiar with this teaching pat-
tern, they know that they need to pay attentionheto
had come to internalizing the concept of inde-
pendent learning: "This week, I added some new
the language input and try to pick out the language
words to my vocabulary such as squirrel and mush-
they don't know, but they need to know to complete
room. I also learned how to say something has a
the task. Then they have a desire for the new lan-
certain amount of something. Lastly, I learned
guage. They become active learners to explore lan-
guage meaning and forms. how to say there isn't something in a room.
I still have trouble deducing sentence structure,
Their observations about the TBLT's potential to
but I think I'm improving. Chinese is really cool."
foster autonomy was in line with Demir's (2008)
Encouraging as this potential was, such a pro-
study, which found that TBLT experience helped
gressive change of perceptions did not stand out
EFL learners become autonomous in the reading
as a general theme in students' self-reflection en-
process.
tries over time. It could be that some of them
went through similar changes, but just did not
Progressions of Perception make a note of it during their reflection blogs. It
could also be that TBLT had differentiated effects
The analysis of student's weekly self-reflectionon students, and could only induce such changes
blog entries across the 12 weeks revealed thatamong only a few students.
some students went through a shift in mindset. In
the following example, the student, as reflected in
Differential Effects of TBLT
his self-reflection entries over time, demonstrated
a shift from being totally reliant on the instruc- An in-depth look at TBLT students' perfor-
tor for explicit instructions, to taking more and mance in the final exam oral task revealed that
there was a great variation in their fluency in
more initiatives and responsibilities in learning on
his own: language production (see Figure 1).

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 Chun Lai , Yong Zhao , and Jiawen Wang 89

FIGURE 1
Variation in Students' Oral Performance

From the boxplots we can see that the students "Music, news, radio - expose yourself to for-
in the TBLT classes seemed to be more divergent eign culture . . . Furthermore, just seeking out lan-
in the fluency of oral production than the stu- guage mini-lessons online has worked for me
dents in the control classes. There were several too - that is how I taught myself various verb
extreme cases, even two outlier cases, in the TBLT tenses during my freshman year. I want to point,
group: Several demonstrated extremely high flu- though, that when trying to internalize vocab-
ency, while two demonstrated extremely low flu- ulary, write it down clearly and repeat it out
ency. In the field notes of classroom observations, loud for multiple days; it can be so easy to for-
the researchers also noted the increasing differ- get vocabulary if not careful!" In contrast, case
ence in students' performance when working to- 60 sounded less like an autonomous learner
gether on tasks. and did not seem to have a good grasp of the
To get a better idea of the differentiated im- learning strategies Case 56 was talking about.
pact that TBLT had on ab initio students, we Although he categorized himself as a success-
traced the self-reflection blogs of two extreme ful learner based on the fact that he had ob-
cases (case 56, who demonstrated extremely high tained A for three years, he acknowledged "but
fluency and case 60, who demonstrated extremely I am not particularly comfortable speaking it."
low fluency). Both case 56 and 60 were taught by When asked about successful learning strate-
the same teacher and had similar prior foreign gies, he simply jotted down "taking notes, learn-
language learning experience (Case 56 had stud- ing about the culture, and listening to people
ied French intensively and touched upon Spanish speak it."
and Hebrew; Case 60 had studied French for 3 This difference gave these two students quite
years) . Both categorized themselves as successful different learning experiences during the TBLT.
learners (Case 60: "I was fairly successful. I got an Case 56 demonstrated great initiative and useful
A all three years"), but one important difference strategies to help himself stay abreast of learn-
stood out in their background data - autonomous ing. In week 5, he commented: 'Yes, it is going
learning skills. Case 56 sounded like a very au- to take me a little while to retain the words by
tonomous learner: "Upon returning home af- heart, but I think I have the initiative to do so. I
ter the exchange program ended, I taught my- have fun searching for new words in the online
self the curriculum of French 3 and tried my dictionary and attempting to use them correctly
best to expand and enrich my vocabulary." When in sentences." In week 10, he encouraged himself
asked about the successful foreign language learn- to organize notes for learning: "I wish I had more
ing strategies he had used in the past, he listed time, because I would definitely arrange all of my

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 90 The Modern Language Journal 95 ( 201 1 )

notes in a more organized manner,

group work, andso I afraid
being can of retain
making mistakes;
some students
the vocabulary more efficiently. not actively
Perhaps engaging
I will do in guessing
and deducing
that!" In week 16, he summarized hisandlearning
"always wait(ing)
ex- teachers to
perience and once again highlighted a they
tell them everything successful
need to learn;" and stu-
strategy he used: dents expecting the instructor-led IRE type of talk
rather than they themselves playing the central
I think that I have a good grasp of the material thus
role: "I ask a question, they answer. I stop, they
far - but I could always improve with the vocabulary!
stop. Don't feel the students are independent.
I do have sheets with vocabulary terms and examples
Feel week
of sentence structures for each teachers of
are dominating
class, so thethat
flow," and "they
don'teverything
makes it a bit easier to review talk to each other that
if you leave
I'vethem doing
learned. the work." These comments showed that students

lacked some crucial strategies and attitudes with

respect to TBLT.
His reflection entries over time suggested an opti-
mistic person who continuously motivated himself Analysis of students' weekly reflections also re-
and took the initiative to search for learning vealed
re- similar phenomena. They expressed a pref-
sources and opportunities and made active useerence of for explicit instruction: "I don't like it
strategies to help himself learn. However, when when the instructor talks only in Chinese and
looking at case 60, we saw a different trajectory. you don't understand her and she won't trans-
In his week 6 reflection, he expressed excitement late it for you;" and "If I had absolute freedom
over the synchronous session, but sounded more in the virtual meeting, I would probably want to
spend
like a passive student: "It is cool, but kind of hard. I more time breaking down sentences and
feel more comfortable with the words now. When sentence structures." Some students lacked the
you are forced to say them, you kind of have to skills and attitudes needed for effective collabo-
learn them, but it was weird at first." By week 9, rative group interaction (Hampel, 2006; Hampel
& Hauck, 2004): "I think that, when we do the
he seemed to have lost ground a little bit: "I think
my pronunciation is okay, but the sentence struc- tasks, people are shy. So, when we are supposed to
tures confused me, especially when I couldn't find have a conversation, it isn't as talkative as it should
what the words meant." In the following weeks, he be. The only reason for this is that people don't
continued to complain about the difficulty of theknow each other and they aren't entirely confi-
vocabulary, but did not think of any particulardent in their answers. But once we get passed the
strategies to use: "I just need to keep studying." initial barrier, it is very fun;" and "I think that one
By week 14, he had started to question his learn- way for the meetings to improve would be if ev-
ing progress: "I don't know that I am completely eryone would participate and not be afraid to get
comfortable with communication though," and inan answer wrong." During the debrief sessions,
week 16 he admitted: "My biggest frustration was the teachers also lamented that on the occasions
just that I retained about ten percent of whatwhen I tasks were dominated by one or two indi-
should have."
viduals in the group: "there might be a leading
Thus, it seems that TBLT might have a Matthew student in the virtual classroom when doing task.
Effect on online ab initio learners. For those who The others may rely on that student."
had great initiative and knew how to motivate In addition to being hesitant about participat-
themselves and how to learn strategically to starting, students did not possess the necessary com-
with, TBLT seemed to give them opportunities to municative skills. During class observations, we
achieve much. However, those who did not have noted that for some information gap tasks, some
such resources at their disposal gradually lagged students simply chose to read out whatever infor-
behind and lost ground. mation they were given and failed to take the op-
portunity to engage in negotiated interaction.

Students Lack Appropriate Strategies and Skills

for TBLT Important Features of the Technological Platform
for TBLT
Analysis of the minutes of the weekly debrief
sessions with the teachers identified several oft- The conferencing system used for the syn-
cited problems that teachers encountered. These chronous sessions, Adobe Connect, had a whole
problems included students becoming easily frus-suite of annotation tools that enabled the teachers
trated over the extensive use of the target lan- to make annotations on the go. These tools turned
guage; students expecting the language needed out to be critical to TBLT in the online ab ini-
for the pedagogical tasks to be pre-taught; some tio context, as reflected in a student's comment:
students not being active participants during the "I really liked that there were learning tools such

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 Chun Lai, Yong Zhao , and Jiawen Wang 91

as the text boxes, pointers Challenges and free in TBLT Syllabus

hand Design and Task
pencil
to use to aid in lessons soCycle that we could
Implementation. We found thatfigure
balancing the
out what was being talkedrole of the textbook
about." Theand thehighlight-
TBLT syllabus was
ing tools provided visual cues a delicatefor
issue incomprehension
the online context. Long and
and the annotation tools assisted Crookes (1985) proposed that a TBLT syllabus
form-meaning
mapping: "Sometimes I was shouldnotstart with needs analysis.
able to under- In such a TBLT
stand what was being asked syllabus,
until the textbook
it was serves as
typed
all but one source
out
on the screen." for the TBLT syllabus. This is relatively easy to
realize in most face-to-face FL classrooms, where
The conferencing system also allowed the in-
structors to switch the students from the default at- the interaction in the classroom is the centerpiece
of student learning. However, when designing
tendee role to the presenter role so that they could
use the presentation tools, uploading pictures and the experimental TBLT syllabus, we realized that
PPTs and using the highlighting tools. This func- the e-textbook had to dictate the design of the
tion facilitated the learner-centered TBLT learn- TBLT syllabus since a large portion of the time our
ing experience: "I liked the virtual meetings, and students spent on this course was independent
how we could interact with them using pointers studying of the e-textbook.9 A great challenge in
and other tools. It made it easier to learn since aligning the TBLT syllabus with the e-textbook was
it wasn't just a lecture, but something we could helping students to see the connection between
be more a part of as students." This function the two. Although we tried to relate the tasks to
made it easy to incorporate student-generatedthe e-textbook, students might not have perceived
in-
structional materials, and, by enabling alternativethis connection: "Most of what we covered didn't
means of participation, enabled the instructors pertain to what we were learning in the online CD
to conduct emergent instruction that catered at the
totime."
not only the active students but also the relatively The low frequency and short duration of the
passive students. For instance, during an input- synchronous sessions in the online courses posed
based task, although students were encouraged challenges to the pre-during-post TBLT peda-
to ask for help whenever they encounteredgogical un- cycle. It was difficult to complete all the
known phrases while processing the language phases
to of the cycle in one session, and doing
achieve the goal, the instructor found that most so brought
of about complaints like the following:
the students did not want to speak up and initiate "what I did not like was that we tried to cover too

questions. She changed the strategy by givingmuch the for the allotted time frame." The instructors
students the presenter role and asking them felt
to really pushed to get everything done within
the 1-hour timeframe and noted that "some of
highlight the unknown phrases using the annota-
tion tools. As a result of this strategic move, allthe
theclasses seems [sic] to be in a rushing pace." As
a result, in several sessions the post-task phase of
students participated. This function also helped
the cycle was left untouched. However, we could
with learning: "being able to write/draw for some
of the activities helped with memorization." not space out the cycle across two synchronous
What were the issues that emerged from sessions
the either since the next time the students
implementation of TBLT? were to meet again was one week later, and the
Analyzing the qualitative data, we identifiedeffects
a of the TBLT cycle would thus be subject
series of issues related to the implementation to students'
of memory and perceived connection
TBLT in this online ab initio context. Some of between sessions (Hampel & Hauck, 2004) .
these issues were challenges, and others reflected
the potential the online context might have forChallenges in Implementing Collaborative Tasks.
facilitating TBLT for ab initio learners. We found the inflexibility of "classroom arrange-
ment" made it hard to promote positive group
dynamics. The spatial arrangement of the class-
Challenges in Implementing TBLT
room and the relative positioning of students and
between students and the instructor affects the
The challenges we identified in implementing
TBLT in the online ab initio course included the perceived power structure and is critical to over-
following: 1) the challenge in designing an online all group dynamics (Dörnyei & Malderez, 1997).
In a face-to-face classroom, this could be achieved
TBLT syllabus and implementing the task cycle; 2)
the challenge in carrying out collaborative tasks; through moving the chairs around or moving the
students around. However, in the virtual class-
3) the challenge posed by the Internet time lag;
and 4) the challenge in exclusive use of the target rooms, all the participants' names were listed
on the attendee list with the instructor marked
language.

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 92 The Modern Language Journal 95 ( 201 1 )

prominently at the top with lay a

of differently
the sound transmission:colored
"Because the Inter-
identity icon. This display of net has
thedelay, after I finished
meeting talking, 5 seconds
partici-
pants and the prominent position had already passed
of when
theitinstruc-
reached his side. In a
tor made it hard for the instructor to "fade out" as classroom, if he said nothing, I would know he's
he or she could relatively easily do during group thinking, but (in an online context) I don't know.
activities in a face-to-face classroom. You would feel the silence is awkward and unbear-

Another logistic issue was related to student able." The time wasted due to the lack of physical
grouping. Since the virtual sessions were con- cues and the delay of sound transmission made
ducted with small groups of 3-5 and studentsthe instructors concerned about the efficiency of
came to the virtual sessions at their scheduled virtual sessions, and they had to restrain them-
time, if one or two members did not show up,
selves constantly from the urge to jump in and
the planned collaborative work would have to be since "it's always much easier to tell the
instruct
changed into individual work or become difficultstudents how to say something by concluding with
to proceed (Hampel, 2006) . a formula or structure."

Other than these logistic issues, the biggest ob-

Challenges to Exclusive Use of Target Language.
stacle was the difficulty in building a harmonious
The instructors found it particularly hard to main-
relationship between the instructor and the stu-
tain extensive use of the target language in this
dents and fostering rapport among the students, instructional context. The instructors were under
which is much needed for active participation and
pressure to use as much target language as possi-
good group dynamics during task performance.
The instructors found that in the cases where the ble, but extensive use of the target language usu-
ally made the students feel frustrated and was not
synchronous sessions consisted of students from
conducive to building up rapport with the stu-
the same school, the task performances were usu-
dents: "Sometimes I get confused and zone out
ally much more lively and engaging, with students
when you speak in Chinese"; and "I don't like it
joking with each other and helping each other
when the instructors talk only in Chinese." The
along the way. Unfortunately, unlike in a face-
difficulty in providing visual cues in the online
to-face classroom teaching context, the majority
context to facilitate comprehension further exac-
of the synchronous sessions in the online learn-
erbated the problem of using the target language.
ing context consisted of students from different
At the same time the difficulty in building up rap-
geographic locations, and students had no prior
port in the online context also made it hard for
knowledge of each other to start with. The lack
students to be patient, cooperative and tolerate of
of physical contact and the limited interaction
ambiguity, which in turn discouraged the instruc-
among students made them virtually strangers to
each other even weeks into the class. As one stu- tors from using the target language as well.

dent pointed out, "The give and take between peo-

ple in the class is slightly awkward, but I think that
Potential Advantages of the Online Context
is an inherent flaw to an online class of strangers."
for TBLT
This constraint challenges the fostering of active
peer collaborative work in online TBLT. Despite all the challenges imposed on TBLT by
the online Ab Initio context, we found that this
Challenges Posed by the Delay of Sound Transmis-
learning context had some advantages that that
sion on the Internet. TBLT requires teachers to playfacilitated TBLT.
a facilitative role and to trust students to engage
in interaction while working on communicative Some Technological Features Facilitate Emergent
tasks. Thus, the teacher needs to be tolerant of Individualized Instruction. We found that the on-
silence and give students time to sort out things line context provided more convenient venues for
among themselves. However, the delay of sound student-centered teaching and emergent individ-
transmission on the Internet gave the teachers ualized instruction. As exemplified in a previous
a hard time in intervening at the right moment section, one instructor found that the strategic
(Hampel, 2006). Teachers tended to be less tol- use of the attendee's presentation privileges -
erant of silence because of the lack of physical while students were engaging with input-based
cues: "I asked a question, and they kept silent. I tasks, she granted the students presenter roles and
didn't know whether they couldn't comprehend asked them to highlight the points that they were
or were thinking of responses. I lost patience and struggling with - enabled her to tap into students'
went ahead giving the English alternatives." The learning processes and understand the problems
instructors were also bothered a lot by the de- the students were encountering at any moment.

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 Chun Lai, Yong Zhao, and Jiawen Wang 93
Depending on the nature of Students
the reported
problem, shehelped
that text-chatting ei-to
ther responded with a brief lowerexplanation
the cognitive load of thefor the
tasks (Ortega,
whole group or by means of a private
2009) and text mes-
facilitate both comprehension and pro-
sage to the individual. The other
duction teachers
(Ellis, 2003). tried
In the self-reflection blog,
this strategy in their classrooms and
one student noted: "thefound ithardest
aspect I had the to
be a very effective strategy. time
Thiswith emergent individ-
in class today was understanding what
ualized instruction may not wasbe
beingso easily
said orally. and effi-
I can understand the ques-
ciently realized in face-to-face classrooms,
tions when they are typed out, butwhere
when people
the solicitation of such moment-by-moment
answered or asked verbally, I can't learn-
quite follow
ing data often means chaos. them." The teachers also observed the same phe-
nomenon: "it's a good idea to ask them to work
Online Anonymity Facilitates Group Work. The
together by text chatting. They can communicate
anonymity of the online context was found to
better by texting in the online classroom." How-
facilitate the implementation of group work in
ever, at the same time, students who were slow
the TBLT classes. On the one hand, the natural
at typing found it annoying, as one student said,
information gap induced by the anonymity lent
"what I say is usually behind in the conversation
itself to the easy construction and implementa-
by the time I finish typing it."
tion of some information gap tasks. For example,
because the online students did not know one
another and could not see one another, an infor-
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
mation gap task was naturally created - students
described their own personal appearances and
In this study we found the online ab initio
the group members drew portraits of them basedChinese students and teachers reacted positivel
on the description - which would not be an infor-
to the TBLT syllabus that was tried out in thei
mation gap task at all in face-to-face classrooms.
classrooms, as reflected not just in their overa
On the other hand, the anonymity also helpedperception of the experience, but also in the stu
to stimulate greater student participation during
dents' end-of-semester oral production. Some stu
task performance. One student commenteddents on also demonstrated a change in mindset in
how the anonymity online helped reduce anxiety
their approach to learning over the semester. A
during oral production: the same time, we found that TBLT demonstrate
differentiated effects on the students, and the m
In any foreign language, there are always those dia-
jority of the students lacked the appropriate strat
logues you have to do with your partner in front of
gies and skills needed for effective TBLT. In addi
the class. Sure we do dialogues with each other taking
tion, the implementation of TBLT in the onlin
turns etc. but we don't have the pressure like we would
in a classroom with 30 other pairs of eyes staringab initio context encountered challenges in th
back
at you. construction of the TBLT syllabus and problem
in implementing the full task cycle. The imple
Such a "liberating" effect of anonymous online mentation of collaborative tasks also encountered

interaction has been widely reported in the in obstacles due to the inflexibility of the "virtual
the computer-mediated communication (CMC) classroom arrangement" of the particular confer-
literature (Beauvois & Eledge, 1996; Kitade, 2000; encing system and the difficulty in building rap-
Ortega, 2009). port among online students. The delay of sound
transmission and the deprivation of paralinguistic
Co- Availability of Text- and Audio- Chatting
aids in the online context also posed great diffi-
Mediates Learning. The conference system used
culties in various aspects of TBLT. At the same
in this study allowed both text chatting and au- time, however, the online context was also found
dio chatting. This feature made it easier for the
to have great potential for the implementation
instructors to address individual learning needs
of TBLT, such as facilitating emergent individual-
without breaking the flow of the communication,
ized instruction, lowering the cognitive load for
as in the example we illustrated previously. There
ab initio learners, and encouraging student par-
were also a lot of cases where students sent private
ticipation.
text chat messages to their teachers to elicit indi-
vidualized help when they did not want to bother
their group-mates and did not want to look fool- DISCUSSION
ish in front of their group-mates. It also provided
a more inviting venue for the "shy" students to This study revealed a series of issues eme
interact with their teacher and peer learners ing from implementing TBLT in online
(Kern, 1995). initio Chinese classrooms. Some issues identified

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 94 The Modern Language Journal 95 ( 201 1 )

were very much the same asclass

TBLT thosebroughtof them TBLT in
differentiated learning
face-to-face classrooms: (a)experiences. the need The seemingly contradictory find-
for strategy
training to familiarize students with
ings collectively thetowards
pointed philoso-the importance
phy and principles of TBLT and strategy
of learner to help students
training during TBLT: TBLT
develop the appropriate strategies and skills
needs learner strategy training tothat
enhance its ef-
facilitate TBLT (McDonough fect, &
and Chaikitmongkol,
at the same time TBLT may reinforce
2007) ; (b) the difficulty with the use
the effectiveness of the
of strategy tar-
training by fostering
get language (Carless, 2003; 2007);
autonomous learning(c)
amongthe po-
the learners.
tential of TBLT to change McDonough students' approaches
and Chaikitmongkol (2007) pro-
to learning and facilitating vided some great ideas on
autonomous teacher and learner
language
learning (Demir, 2008; Leaver strategy & Kaplan,
training. 2004); familiariz-
They recommended
and (d) the unbalanced involvement of, and ing learners with the philosophical, pedagogical,
contribution from, the students due to the lack as well as assessment principles of TBLT prior to
of appropriate attitudes and strategies for TBLTthe course. We would like to add that in the on-
(Carless, 2002, 2003; Tseng, 2006). Some other line context, an extra step needs to be added to
findings differ from the face-to-face TBLT class- this macro-level training: Helping students see the
room literature due to the particular nature of the connection between the TBLT syllabus and the
online context. For example, Ruso (2007) found e-textbook or tutorials and understand how to or-
that TBLT increased students' rapport whereas chestrate both for their online learning.
in this study, we found the lack of, and diffi- Furthermore, this study found that many stu-
culty in building up, rapport in the online con- dents lacked some basic strategies and skills that
text created a big obstacle to TBLT. Other find- are beneficial to TBLT, such as building rapport
ings in this study offer suggestions for face-to-face among each other and maintaining group dynam-
classroom TBLT. For example, the face-to-face ics. Thus, a successful training program should
classroom TBLT literature reports that "shy" stu-also include micro-level features whereby stu-
dents and students with low language proficiency dents are guided in developing specific metacog-
find TBLT a taxing and stressful learning context nitive strategies (e.g., what linguistic features to
(Burrows, 2008; Karavas-Doukas, 1995; Li, 1998). attend to during the text-based chatting) , cogni-
However, in this study, we found that the availabil- tive strategies (e.g., how to negotiate meaning and
ity of text-chatting in the online context helpedform in online chatting), social strategies (e.g.,
to mitigate stress and anxiety levels and lower thehow to build rapport with each other and main-
cognitive load of the tasks for these types of stu- tain group dynamics in the online context) , and
dents. Furthermore, the finding that the confer- affective strategies (e.g., how to keep themselves
encing system enabled teachers to tap into stu- motivated and actively engaged in the absence of
dents' moment-by-moment learning process andproximity with the instructor and peers) .
to engage in emergent individualized instruction In addition to training learners with relevant
suggests that current face-to-face TBLT might ben-strategies and skills, online FL teachers should
efit from capitalizing on this potential by blendingconstandy think about how to create online com-
some online components into current syllabuses, munities to foster rapport among students, and
such as incorporating some text-chat tasks. what sort of warm-up activities or chit-chats can be
Although this study was based on a particular included at the beginning of each synchronous
instructional design in a special conferencing sys- session to initiate students into active participa-
tem, and some of its findings may not be gener-tion and live interaction. It is equally crucial
alizable to other online FL teaching contexts, itto build up and foster connections among the
does provide some suggestions that could applystudents with collaborative assignments, such as
to all online ab initio FL classrooms. peer interviews or group projects, that "force" stu-
dents to interact more with each other10 and en-
LEARNER AND TEACHER STRATEGY hance students' understanding of one another.
TRAINING FOR ONLINE TBLT CLASSROOMS Online FL teachers should also familiarize them-
selves with the pedagogical affordances of vari-
In this study, we found an intricate relation-
ous features of the technological platform and or-
ship between TBLT and learning autonomy. On chestrate various technological means to support
the one hand, TBLT helped a few students TBLT. Moreover, online FL teachers should be
to become more independent in learning. On
aware of the potential effect of the delay of sound
the other hand, the varying degree of learning
transmission on their intolerance of silence, and
autonomy students demonstrated prior to the think of strategies to overcome this tendency and

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 Chun Lai, Yong Zhao, and Jiawen Wang 95

at the same time think of of the task to

ways page and
turnthe word gallery.
this These fea-
delay
into active learning moments tures were
forfound to facilitate
the TBLT in the online
students.
ab initio FL courses in this study. When selecting
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TASK CYCLE the technological platform for the online ab ini-
IN SYNCHRONOUS SESSIONS tio TBLT FL courses, teachers need to consider
carefully the technological features that provide
In this study we encountered a dilemma various levels of visual and cognitive scaffolding
in im-
plementing the full pre-during-post taskthat enable
cycle for emergent individualized instruction,
ab initio learners due to the limited duration and that encourage active involvement without height-
frequency of the synchronous sessions. One solu- ening anxiety levels, and that make the tasks fun
tion might be to arrange some, if not all, input- and appropriately challenging for their ab initio
learners.
based tasks for the pre-task phase as assignments
to be done independently or collaboratively prior
to the synchronous sessions and start with the syn-
CONCLUSION
chronous sessions with either an integrative pre-
task or a review task to lead into the during- and In this study we explored the implement
post-task phase of the cycle. We have implemented tion of TBLT for ab initio foreign langu
learners in an online context and found that
this change in our current online ab initio courses
and found this arrangement works very nicely in
it was well perceived among the students and
teachers and produced good learning outcome
addressing the issue. as well. At the same time, we encountered
a number of issues when conducting TBLT
ENHANCING THE COMPREHENSIBILITY OF in the online ab initio CFL classes. Some
THE TARGET LANGUAGE IN ONLINE AB issues, like the lack of appropriate learn
INITIO CLASSROOMS attitudes and strategies and the challeng
engaging students in active participation,
phenomena that have also been obser
Online ab initio FL classrooms are challenged
by the contradiction between the lack ofin paralin-
face-to-face TBLT classrooms (Carless,
2002; Littlewood, 2007; McDonough &
guistic cues in the audio-based online classrooms
and the massive visual scaffolds ab initio students Chaikitmongkol, 2007). Some issues, like
the use of the target language and the tension
need. To deal with this challenge, teachers need between teacher control and the need to fa-
to prepare abundant visual stimulus ahead of time cilitate student-centered learning, are similar
to facilitate the smooth flow of TBLT. Teachers
challenges to those that confront face-to-face
may prepare word galleries with rich visual infor-
TBLT classrooms, but are exacerbated by the
mation and make them available for students to lack of paralinguistic cues, the anonymity and
manipulate during tasks. Such measures offer the the enhanced ambiguity in the online context
(Rosell-Aguilar, 2005). Other issues, like the time
possibility of maximizing the use of the target lan-
guage without leading to incomprehension on the pressure in completing the pre-during-post
part of students. It is equally important to build TBLT
up cycle and the difficulty in building up
routines and use consistent language supported and fostering rapport with students and among
students, are quite unique to the online context
with pictorial cues when giving task instructions
(Hampel, 2006). Thus, when implementing
in order to promote greater understanding on TBLT online, we are faced with extra layers of
the students' side.
challenges and difficulty. To increase the chances
of success for TBLT in this particular instructional
SELECTION OF TECHNOLOGICAL context, it is important to make both students
PLATFORM FOR ONLINE AB INITIO and instructors aware of the challenges they
FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSES are facing. It is even more crucial to help them
realize the advantages of the online context that
The conferencing system we used for the they syn- can capitalize on, to help students develop
chronous sessions has a whole suite of functions the attitudes and learning strategies supportive of
TBLT, and to assist teachers to capitalize skillfully
that carry a variety of pedagogical potentials for on the affordances in the online context and to
TBLT. These features include text-chat with both
circumvent its constraints when implementing
public and private message functions, various an- tasks. Furthermore, we need to be flexible in
notation tools that allow drawing, highlighting adapting both task design and task implementa-
(among others), the function to turn students tion to the particular affordances and constraints
into presenters, and a multiple document shar- of the specific conferencing system or online
ing function that enables the concurrent display instructional environment we are using.

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 96 The Modern Language Journal 95 ( 201 1 )

other asynchronous components in th

NOTES
textbook, online learning materials), s
time spent each week on studying fo
checked.
xWe deliberately disabled the "video" function It turned out that students had similar time
in this
conferencing system to boost the sound quality investment
of the (around 5 hours each week) .
audio chatting due to the varying connection9Although
speeds it is possible to create custom-made inter-
among the students. active tutorials to serve the TBLT syllabus, most online
FL course
2 Al though there were 16 weeks for the online teachers do not have such capacity available.
in total, the TBLT sessions only covered 12 weeks. 10Although
The a variety of asynchronous interaction
first session was an orientation session and the second
means (such as various discussion forums, message cen-
session was a session on Chinese phonetic system. Thenter) were provided to the students, the students were
in the middle, there was a session given to individualfound not to make active voluntary use of them.
midterm exams, and the last session was used for the
final exam. Therefore, only 12 weeks could be used to
implement the TBLT syllabus.
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 Chun Lai , Yong Zhao, and Jiawen Wang 99

APPENDIX A

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 100 The Modern Language Journal 95 (201 1 )

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Chun Lai, Yong Zhao, and Jiawen Wang 101

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102 The Modern Language Journal 95 ( 201 1 )

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 Chun Lai, Yong Zhao, and Jiawen Wang 103
APPENDIX С

Samples of Students' Language Production during the Final Exam Oral Task
Excellent Performance Average Performance Poor Performance

» «sa
ok. Let's see. 3SW - Ж ~шщш¥?Ж¥±жтш
Ä1? Ф WífhF [this sentence is re-
• £адешвш*-Ф a ° ° ally unintelligible] 0 How about
m ° • j*±W#A » - т?&шп m ' ÍLfi, not really, I'm not good at
irAìf^ « пЙ...Й1!?ЖпЙ*Д ° & this part. ( (T: You did a good job.
-ta ° » Ш * -b . . . -b ^ Anything more?)) I'd better go
тт&жшт ° шшш home.
Èl Ê 1Й ° Shall I say something
» Фаммгящ^шя » -к more? ( (T. Anything you want) )
ЛЙ#ЛШЬап4пЙ ((Teacher шш *
remind: hei se de)) ° щ'КЯ^ж
Ц-feW ° $#...É№£a...% Я 0 ((T: ok, go ahead))
° ((T: Ш'ШШ ° Anything
more?)) iÜBÄÖfelft * Ůfíjk

English: There are computer English: ок. Let's see. English:

ThereHer room
is left desk?
and desk on the left of the room.
a desk, a chair. Right, Aboveright
the desk is
computer? Her
There is a computer on inside a picture. There aredesk middle
two chair [this sen-
lamps
the desk. There is a lamp to here. The left is desk. The chair tence is really unintelligible].
the left of the computer. There is blue. She wears black . . . she How about computer, not really,
is one bed in the right side wears black clothes. There are I'm not good at this part. ((T:
of the room. The bed is blue. seven . . . seven books. The wall You did a good job. Anything
There is a woman on the bed. here is white. Shall I say some- more?)) I'd better go home.
The woman is reading a book. thing more? ((T: anything you
want)). The right is bed. Bed is
There is a picture in the right
room on the wall. There is chair blue. On the desk is a computer.
in the middle room. The chair Here one is window ((T: ok, go
is blue. There are five books ahead) ) . The desk is brown. ( (T:
above the computer. ThereVery
is good. Anything more?))
a window in the middle room. The computer is white. The lamp
The woman's clothes is black is black.

((teacher gave the correct pro-

nunciation)). The lamp is also
black. I watch ... to the left of the
coffee ... to the left of the com-
puter . . . computer

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