This section and the activities within are based on three presentations I have given: Samples (2022a), Samples (2022b), and Samples (2023). They are also outlined in my dissertation, Samples (in prep.). Please see the reference list below for the complete citations.

What is Task-Based Learning and Teaching (TBLT)?

Rod Ellis (2003) defines TBLT as "[t]eaching that is based entirely on tasks [and that] makes use of a procedural syllabus," which "consist[s] of a graded set of tasks to be performed by learners" (348, 351). Tasks possess several characteristics (9-10):

• Consist of a flexible "work plan." The work carried out may deviate from the intended plan. 

• Emphasize meaning via the exchange of information among learners.

• Mirror "real-world" communication. 

• Can incorporate listening, reading, writing, and/or speaking. 

• "[E]mploy cognitive processes such as selecting, classifying, ordering, reasoning, and evaluating information..."

• Require learners to execute "a clearly defined [non-linguistic] communicative outcome." 

Advantages of TBLT

Which structures are we looking at?

What must learners acquire?

L1 Spanish-L2 English and L1 English-L2 Spanish learners have three tasks when acquiring possessive structures (Samples 2022b, 2023).

1. They must learn to form possessive structures in the target language (Pérez-Leroux, et al. 2002).

2. They must learn when to use these structures (Solano-Escobar 2021).

3. They must learn to interpret the structures correctly (Montrul & Ionin 2012).

Click on the links below for examples of task-based language activities on English and Spanish possessive structures. 

References

• Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 

• Henshaw, F. G., & Hawkins, M. D. (2022). Common Ground: Second Language Acquisition Theory Goes to the Classroom. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 

• Montrul, S., & Ionin, T. (2012). Dominant language transfer in Spanish heritage speakers and second language learners in the interpretation of definite articles. The Modern Language Journal 96(1). 70-94. 

• Pérez-Leroux, A. T., O’Rourke, E., Lord, G., & Centero-Cortes, B. (2002). Inalienable possession in L2 Spanish. In Pérez-Leroux, A. T., & Muñoz Liceras, J. (eds.), The Acquisition of Spanish Morphosyntax, 179-208.

• Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and Methods of Language Teaching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

• Samples, C. E. (2022a, July 9-12). Possessive Determiner Phrases in Spanish: The Intersection of Number and Meaning [Conference presentation]. American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese 2022, San Juan, PR, United States.

• Samples, C. E. (2022b, October 13-15). Syntax meets semantics: Determiner choice in possessive sentences and its implications in L2 Spanish [Conference presentation]. South Central Modern Language Association 2022, New Orleans, LA, United States.

• Samples, C. E. (2023, May 11-13). Task-Based Activities for the Teaching of Possessive Structures to L1 Spanish-L2 English Learners [Virtual workshop]. II Congreso Internacional Virtual de Investigación en Enseñanza - Aprendizaje de Lenguas y Cultura 2023, Santiago de Querétaro, Qro., Mexico.

• Samples, C. E. (in prep.). Collective, Distributive, and Referential Interpretations of Possessive Structures: L1 and L2 Perspectives. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Georgia.

• Solano-Escobar, L. (2021). The Interpretation and Production of Inalienable Possession in L2 and Heritage Spanish. [Unpublished MA thesis]. Purdue University.