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.

2. They must learn to interpret the structures correctly.

3. They must learn when to use the structures.

Task 1: target formation of possessive structures (possessor movement from Spec, NP to Spec, DP).  

The below image, captured from Samples (2023) and referencing Pérez-Leroux, et al. (2002:189), shows the two possessive structure types under discussion. We refer to both as DPs (determiner phrases), which are phrases that contain a noun and its modifiers, such as articles, demonstratives, adjectives, etc. 

We see that the internal possessive DP is a phrase like su coche or su cara and their English equivalents his car and his face. The possessor, or owner, is su/his. The possessum, or owned object, is coche/car in the first example and cara/face in the second. Using linguistic sentence diagrams, we can show that the possessor (represented by D, or determiner) is structurally close to the possessum (represented by NP, or noun phrase). This structure type is allowed in both English and Spanish:

• his car √

• his face √

• su coche √

• su cara √

Task 2: target interpretations of possessive structures (interpretations of definite determiners).

The below image, captured from Samples (2022b) and containing illustrations and examples from Montrul & Ionin (2012:81), shows the relationship between the syntax and the semantics of possessive structures.

Task 3: target uses of possessive structures (native-like use of syntax).

I include the table below, which has been reproduced from Solano-Escobar (2021:27 [Table 1]), to show the main differences between Spanish and English possessive structures. 

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.