A Practical Guide to Integrating Technology into Task-Based Language Teaching

by Marta Gonzalez-Lloret

However exciting new technologies and educational tools may seem, they can become solely for entertainment unless their design, use, and evaluation are guided by principles of education and language development. Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) provides an excellent approach for teachers who want to realize the potential of technology to engage learners and improve language learning inside and outside the classroom.

This practical guide shows teachers how to successfully incorporate technology into TBLT in the classroom and to develop technology-mediated materials. Whether the goal is to conduct a needs analysis, to develop classroom or homework materials, or to implement a new approach of student assessment, A Practical Guide to Integrating Technology into Task-Based Language Teaching will be a welcome resource for language teachers at all levels.

Designed for use in the classroom as well as for independent study, the book includes reflective questions, activities, and further reading at the end of each chapter. Examples of units in Chinese, Spanish, ESL, and the hospitality industry are provided.

Georgetown Digital Shorts—longer than an article, shorter than a book—deliver timely works of peer-reviewed scholarship in a fast-paced, agile environment. They present new ideas and original texts that are easily and widely available to students, scholars, libraries, and general readers.

96 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 22, 2015

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent as an overview of task-based language teaching, and suggestions for how to integrate technology into the language learning curriculum. Note that all activities are still more or less in concert with a language teacher. I got some good tips out of this book.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book report: A Practical Guide to Integrating Technology into Task-Based Language Teaching by Marta Gonzalez-Lloret
I chose this book because the title called my attention since I’m an English second language learner. I learned English in Southwestern Community College; I completed the ESL program which was based on 4 classes: grammar, writing, listening and speaking, and reading. I never had to use technology with the exception in the reading class, where we had to read articles on personal screens that gave you the opportunity to manipulate the reading speed. After reading the article, a paper-pencil multiple choice assessment was given to check comprehension and, those tests measure the reading level. For my grammar and writing classes, I had to keep a notebook to do all of the exercises from the textbook and, for the listening and speaking class the teacher will divide the class in groups to practice making up sentences use in real life situations. I read the book to see how my experience about learning a new language would have been different after 30 years.

The author states that integrating technology innovation gives a unique learning potential by bringing ideas, contexts, and affordances to language not possible by any other medium. She mentioned that a full technology integration into the curriculum will provide opportunities for higher-order learning and increase learner’s interest in the second language culture. Virtual environments like Second Life and Active Worlds as well as simulations and online games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, and Everquest engage learners in productive and creative ways. In these virtual environments students are able to negotiate with avatars using the target language to practice real-life situations. With technology games students do things like talk to someone, read notes, and follow instructions using verbal or written communication. Students can also benefit from blogs, wikis, chats, and fan fiction sites to practice written communication by collaborating with others and interchanging ideas about any topic. The author gives a lot of information on how to create a successful task based language teaching to create and organize a rich curriculum integrating different technology tools. Chinese for All, STARTALK summer program, and Critica Poetica are some examples of technology-mediated of task-based language teaching.
The author stated that in order to assess the student it would be necessary to observe the learner in an authentic context using the foreign language; however, this is not possible in the majority of the cases the author explained. With some of the technology tools it would be more possible to simulate a situations where the learner would be able to have a conversation with other people through multimedia and virtual environments. For example, participation in an internet forum like Google groups, Yahoo Groups, or a Fandom site where they can demonstrate reading and writing competence. Teachers can also integrate audio and video like Skype and Google Hangouts to asses listening and speaking skills. There are some conferring applications like Adobe Connect, Elluminate, GoToMeeting to practice presentation skills. Virtual Environments are spaces where students have the opportunity to interact in different activities with other speakers in the foreign language; through avatars students can visit places, ask for directions, attend a conference, get to know people, conduct a survey, interview someone from the group, etc. A real life performance assessment could be to use interactive Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, or GPS navigator to find directions to a restaurant, to a hotel, to the airport, to the train station, etc. Searching the internet is another real life skill necessary to search for information. An assessment could integrate the se of search engines like Google Yahoo, Bing, or Ask in the foreign language.
Teachers will have to consider accessibility to the technology tools as well as the student technology skills to integrate technology for tasks as well as for assessment. The author gives practical examples of different possible ways to integrate technology to language teaching.
The author gave practical examples of activities to practice writing and performance in the foreign language by integrating technology tools into the curriculum for language teaching. During my time as a student learning a new language, looking back, the process of learning would have been a more practical and enriching experience if it had the integration of technology

[Kerri Patton · Rating 4 out of 5]

As technology rises to the forefront of education, many foreign language teachers who want to realize its potential in the classroom are struggling to find ways to implement it in a meaningful manner. Though technology and tools of technology are exciting, in her book, A Practical Guide to Integrating Technology into Task-Based Language Teaching, University of Hawaii’s Marta González-Lloret (2016), an associate professor in Spanish, posits that unless their “design, use and evaluation are guided by principles for educational language development” (p. ix), they are useless. She supports task-based language teaching (TBLT) and learning (TBLL) as ideal methodologies by which to fully realize the potential of technological advances in engaging learners in the use of languages, stating that the “innovative blend of tasks and technology, guided by TBLT and TBLL principles, can bring about unique affordances for language learning” (Jones, 2016, p. ix). Owing to the current lack of resources in this area, González-Lloret wrote this book to function as a practical, one-of-a-kind guide that illustrates how theoretical principles of TBLT can be translated into relevant classroom activities with the addition of technology-mediated materials. Though oftentimes heady, this resource manual effectively shows how to incorporate technology into the TBLT classroom to engage learners and improve their language learning.

Throughout her book, González-Lloret provides theoretical discussions and examples of technology-mediated TBLT. Whether the goal is to conduct a needs analysis, to develop classroom or homework materials, or to implement a new approach to student assessment, her book acts as a resource for both classroom instructors and those looking for professional development in the area of technology integration in language education. Given her background, she writes primarily through a university lense, only occasionally mentioning other educational groups, which could make it difficult to readily apply the research if one is serving in any other level or facet of education. Effective implementation of her methodologies is also dependent upon extensive research, data collection, data interpretation, and data synthesis, and though theoretically sound, the practicality of constant, ongoing data mining to inform every task-based practice is impractical, particularly for an instructor with little time or few resources to do this. However, at the end of each chapter, she lists helpful reflective questions that encourage further exploration and discussion of the given topic. The addition of this reflection piece lends itself well to thinking critically about technology in the task-based learning environment. This also enables the reader to better conceptualize the headier theories and research being discussed in each chapter, bringing them into the reality of realistic instructional tasks. Moreover, the reflection section is particularly useful if using this book in a professional learning group to guide the process of developing TBLT-based curricula.

Following the reflection questions, González-Lloret includes suggested activities for implementing technology-mediated materials, which aids the reader in generating ideas for his/her own classroom. Then, if the reader should desire more information, González-Llore provides recommended readings at the end of each chapter and example units in the appendix, which not only bolsters her research but gives further credibility to her book being a practical resource guide.

After spending the time to wade through the sometimes didactic pedagogy of each chapter's content (which might be cumbersome if one is not first interested in reading about theoretical tenets, pedagogical definitions, research analyses, etc.), the reader will find the true goldmine in the reflection questions, suggested activities, recommended readings, and example units (provided in the appendix). These additions balance the pedagogical base of the manual with practical concepts, which turn the research and theoretical underpinnings outlined in each chapter into doable action items for the classroom. Without these key pieces, the guide would be less reader-friendly and less effective at meeting its goal of “showing teachers how to incorporate technology into TBLT in the classroom and develop engaging technology-mediated materials” (González-Lloret, 2016, [outside back cover]). With these pieces, however, the solid academic work turns into workable gold!

References
González-Lloret, Marta. (2016). A practical guide to integrating technology into task-based language teaching. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.