Set up closed, goal-oriented tasks with a limited number of possible outcomes to encourage negotiation of meaning in CMC¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Following Pica, Kanagy and Falodun (1993), the chapter endorses Pellettieri's (2000) recommendation to "set up goal-oriented tasks with a limited number of possible outcomes to encourage negotiation of meaning". In the study this was implemented as problem-solving and decision-making collaborative tasks embedded in five subject-specific ESP scenarios, each producing a written language product. The study's own results support the recommendation: closed tasks generated 50% more negotiation routine phases than open tasks.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Tasks must be meaning-focused and collaborative, with a limited number of possible outcomes

Constraints¶

• The recommendation is grounded in task-type comparisons within this ESP setting with French Master's biology students; the authors caution that results should not be generalised to other settings without great caution

Target Learners¶

• non-native speaker university students of English for specific purposes

Target Learning Goals¶

• increasing negotiation of meaning and corrective feedback during task-based interaction

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Sarré, C. (2011). Computer-mediated negotiated interactions: how is meaning negotiated in discussion boards, text chat and videoconferencing? In S. Thouësny & L. Bradley (Eds.), Second language teaching and learning with technology: views of emergent researchers (pp. 189-210). Dublin: Research-publishing.net. https://dx.doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2011.9781908416001