Description
Book SynopsisThe last decade has seen a growing body of research investigating various aspects of L2 learners’ performance of tasks. This book focuses on one task implementation variable: planning. It considers theories of how opportunities to plan a task affect performance and tests claims derived from these theories in a series of empirical studies. The book examines different types of planning (i.e. task rehearsal, pre-task planning and within-task planning), addressing both what learners do when they plan and the effects of the different types of planning on L2 production. The choice of planning as the variable for investigation in this book is motivated both by its importance for current theorizing about L2 acquisition (in particular with regard to cognitive theories that view acquisition in terms of information processing) and its utility to language teachers and language testers, for unlike many other constructs in SLA ‘planning’ lends itself to external manipulation. The study of planning, then, provides a suitable forum for demonstrating the interconnectedness of theory, research and pedagogy in SLA.
Trade ReviewOverall, this book provides a useful snapshot of current thinking about planning and task performance in L2 instruction and learning. -- Mathias Schulze, University of Waterloo, in Canadian Modern Language Review Vol. 62:2, 2006
Table of Contents1. Preface; 2. Section 1. Introduction; 3. 1. Planning and task-based performance: Theory and research (by Ellis, Rod); 4. Section 2. Task rehearsal; 5. 2. Integrative planning through the use of task repetition (by Bygate, Martin); 6. Section 3. Strategic planning; 7. 3. What do learners plan?: Learner-driven attention to form during pre-task planning (by Ortega, Lourdes); 8. 4. The effects of focussing on meaning and form in strategic planning (by Sanguran, Jiraporn); 9. 5. The effects of strategic planning on the oral narratives of learners with low and high intermediate L2 proficiency (by Kawauchi, Chieko); 10. Section 4. Within-task planning; 11. 6. The effects of careful within-task planning on oral and written task performance (by Ellis, Rod); 12. 7. Strategic and on-line planning: The influence of surprise information and task time on second language performance (by Skehan, Peter); 13. Section 5. Planning in language testing; 14. 8. Planning for test performance: Does it make a difference? (by Elder, Catherine); 15. 9. Strategic planning, task structure and performance testing (by Tavakoli, Parvaneh); 16. Section 6. Conclusion; 17. 10. Planning as discourse activity: A sociocognitive view (by Batstone, Rob); 18. References; 19. Index
