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by Marta González-Lloret

Marta González-Lloret is an Associate Professor at the Spanish Division of the Department of Languages and Literatures of Europe and the Americas at the University of Hawai`i, Manoa. Her main areas of interest are the intersections of technology and TBLT and technology and L2 pragmatics; Conversation Analysis for L2 interaction; teacher training; and assessment.

In schools and colleges, in most of the western world today, many students have grown up surrounded by computers and laptops and by an array of increasingly sophisticated communication devices that support personal, portable, wirelessly networked communication. Many students now consider tablets, e-books, and smartphones essential to their daily existence. They are known as the Generation Z (iGeneration / Net Generation): They were born in the early 2000s or later and do not know anything other than life with the full extent of the Internet and the gadgets and technologies that support its use. The technologization of our societies and our children and youth has meant that teachers are keen on integrating digital technologies into their expertise (Nussbaum-Beach & Hall, 2012). Foreign language education is no exception to this trend (Grgurović, Chapelle, & Shelley, 2013; Sauro, 2011; Zhao, 2003). Language educators are increasingly interested in welcoming into their teaching current Web 2.0 technologies which include chats, blogs, wikis, synthetic immersive environments, virtual worlds, and gaming environments. Yet, no matter how exciting new technologies for language learning may seem, they can become nothing more than entertainment unless their design, use, and evaluation are guided by educational and language developmental rationales.

The approach to curriculum known as task-based language teaching (TBLT; see Norris, 2009; Samuda & Bygate, 2008; Van den Branden, 2006) seems ideal for informing and fully realizing the potential of technological innovations for language learning. Web 2.0 technologies create unprecedented environments in which students can engage in "doing things" through technology-mediated transformation and creation processes, rather than just reading about language and culture in textbooks or hearing about them from teachers. It is this potential of new technologies to engage students in active learning and holistic tasks that makes them excellent candidates for their integration in TBLT as a well-theorized approach to language education. However, according to González-Lloret and Ortega (2014) full effective integration of technology and TBLT requires three conditions:

(1) 'Tasks' need to be clearly defined to avoid a translation of exercises and activities into a computer platform. Tasks in the context of technology should primarily focus on meaning (rather than on grammatical forms), should be learner-centered, holistic and authentic (real world authentic), and should bring reflection to the learning process;

(2) There has to be an awareness of the implications that incorporating technology has on the construction of knowledge and learning. The mere incorporation of technology on a curriculum brings about a whole new set of real-world tasks which in and of themselves become target tasks and part of the curriculum;

(3) The relationships of technology and tasks to a full curriculum must be articulated clearly. Technology must become part of the full programmatic cycle that shapes a TBLT curriculum, from needs analysis all the way to explicit learning outcomes for assessment and evaluation.

Although the study of technology and TBLT is still in an infant stage, we are going to witness more and more research and pedagogical applications of technology and TBLT informing educators of best practices for the integration of both in their curriculums as interest for the convergence of these fields grows.

Cited references

González-Lloret, M. & Ortega, L. (2014). Towards Technology-Mediated TBLT: An introduction. In M. González-Lloret & L. Ortega (Eds.) Technology-mediated TBLT: Researching technology and tasks (Task based language teaching series). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Grgurović, M., Chapelle, C. A., & Shelley, M. C. (2013). A meta-analysis of effectiveness studies on computer technology-supported language learning. ReCALL, 25, 165-198.

Norris, J. M. (2009). Task-based teaching and testing. In M. H. Long & C. J. Doughty (Eds.), Handbook of language teaching (pp. 578-594). Malden, MA: Wiley/Blackwell.

Nussbaum-Beach, S., & Hall, L. R. (2012). The connected educator: Learning and leading in a digital age. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Samuda, V., & Bygate, M. (2008). Tasks in second language learning. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sauro, S. (2011). SCMC for SLA: A research synthesis. CALICO Journal, 28, 369-391.

Van den Branden, K. (Ed.). (2006). Task-based language education: from theory to practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Zhao, Y. (2003). Recent developments in technology and language learning: A literature review and meta-analysis. CALICO Journal, 21, 7–27.