How to apply task in maximizing meaningful interaction in a foreign language classroom

In the past decades，based on the guideline of college entrance examination，the English language teaching has been focusing on the language forms instead of the meaning and communication.However，language is used for communication rather than examination and meaningful interaction has been increasingly emphasized.Children are born into a social world，and learning occurs through interaction with other people.During the interaction there involves mental act such as input stage，elaboration stage and output stage.So the belief of learning a language through using the language to interact meaningfully with others is worth trying out in foreign language classroom.

In 1988，Stephen Krashen published theory of meaningful interaction.Language acquisition happens more naturally if learners have the opportunity to practice the target language naturally instead of with focus on grammar or sentence patterns.That is to say，meaningful interaction is the communication in which the information gains the full focus .Activities focusing on meaningful interaction can develop learners communicative competence，so the more opportunities we give language learners to practice the target language in natural ways，the more their communicative skills develop.We call those activities tasks.

Different people have different opinions on the definition of “task”.According to Long （1985：89） ，“a task is a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others，freely or for some reward.Thus ，examples of tasks including painting a fence，dressing a child，filling out a form and so on”.This definition is so vague that we do not have a clear cognition of “task”，but we can know that task has relationship with real world and task type is more than one such as decision-making task，problem solving task and information-gap task which includes one-way information gap and two-way information gap.More information of “task” is provided by Breen （1987：23），he holds that task consists of a particular objective，appropriate content，a specified working procedure，and a range of outcomes for those who undertake the task.As for the more specific objective of “task”，Willis holds that the communication among the members of groups is the purpose of “task”.During the task，Numan （1989：8） thinks that learners are required to focus on the meaning of language and to comprehend，manipulate，produce or interact in the target language.From Willis and Numan “task” is carried out in groups and full of information exchange during the process.Besides，Prabhu （1987） believes that learners need to think and analyze the information they get in order to obtain a outcome.That is to say，thinking ability is needed to fulfill a task.From the above definitions of “task”，we can conclude that a task must have a purpose，a process and a product.And in 1994，the context of “task” was put forward by Clark，Scarino and Brownell，in which language learners need to cooperate and negotiate to finish the task.Based on these previous definitions，there is my understanding of “task”.A task should involves four factors ： a purpose，a context，a process，and a product.So a task is a goal-oriented meaningful activity existing information gap set by teachers，which requires students participation and negotiation to get target information or solve target problems through target language.During the process of activity，participants focus on communication and meaning instead of language forms，at the end of the activity participants are able to improve their language competence either visibly or invisibly.For example，drawing a picture which one participant holds a picture and describes the content of picture to his partner in target language，and his partner draw the picture as clear as possible is a task，because there is an information gap between two participants，they need to think about how to express themselves clearly and focus on the meaning and communication.When their conversation can not go on further，they need to negotiate together.There are different types of negotiation and meaning negotiation will be applied to distinguish the type of negotiation used by participants.Besides，distinguishing task from exercise is also important to teachers.A task is more communication-oriented，while a exercise is more language-oriented.So when a task is proceeding participants language accuracy and fluency need observing.

According to above discussion，its easy to conclude that the task is able to help the meaningful interaction in the classroom.A case study will be carried out to explore how students negotiation through a task maximizes meaningful interaction.Besides we will explore what type of task can maximize meaningful interaction and how participants keep balance between language fluency and accuracy during a task.

References

[1]Doughty，C & Pica，T.“Information gap”tasks：do they facilitate second language acquisition？Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Language ，Inc.（TESOL），1986：305-325.

[2]Carcia Mago，M.P.& Ibarrda，A.L.Do children negotiate for meaning in task-based interaction？Evidence from CLIL and EFL settings.System，2015：40-54.

作者簡介

柯宇婷（1994—），女，四川宜賓人，研究生在讀，單位：四川師范大學外國語學院；研究方向：英語學科教學。