[Webinar] Pre-Task Preparation and Second Language Speech Production

A pre-task preparation stage (i.e., planning content and language to be used in a future classroom task) has long been considered an important part of task-based language teaching (Skehan, 1996; Willis, 1996) and one that can be manipulated or “easily acted upon by teachers” (Ellis, 2018, p. 92). However, when choosing to prepare students for an L2 speaking task, teachers are faced with a number of implementation choices, each potentially impacting students’ task performances differently. This talk will report on a recently completed experimental study conducted with Japanese EFL learners that investigated four forms of pre-task preparation: same task repetition, parallel task repetition, collaborative L1 planning, and collaborative L2 planning. Drawing on an analysis of task performance transcripts, I will first show the relative impact of each preparation condition on the fluency of L2 speech processing (overall speed, conceptualization, encoding and monitoring). Secondly, using data from learners’ planning discussions, I…