THE VARIABLE EFFECTS OF SOME TASK-BASED LEARNING PROCEDURES ON L2 COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTIVENESS

This study attempted to evaluate the benefits of some task-based procedures used to develop L2 communicative effectiveness in spoken English among a group of advanced proficiency learners. Using three information transfer tasks and intervening discussion sessions, we attempted to investigate the actual communicative outcomes of interaction prompted by the tasks. When the intervening discussion focused on linguistic aspects of task performance, there was a tendency for speakers to adopt a noticeably more egocentric perspective in a subsequent communicative task. When referential aspects of the task were discussed, subsequent communicative performance was characterized by speakers taking their interlocutor's perspective much more into account. It is suggested that L2 communicative effectiveness in an information transfer task will be enhanced when the speaker is led to think primarily about the listener's needs rather than the form of the speaker's message.