Last week I presented this topic for TESOL-Arabia. The participants were interested in the nature of task design and implementation. The presentation also gave participants an opportunity to explore and discuss ways for developing new language tasks to be implemented in synchronous mode using modern technology. See the abstract and other details below..

“With the expansion in technologies and wide adaptation of teaching and learning online approaches, there is a need to review and assess the current ways of educational task design and implementation. This presentation discussed examples of alternative synchronous tasks for EFL classes and learners’ self-access purposes. Klapper’s (2003) definition of teaching tasks as meaning-based and related to the actual communicative needs of real-world situations, urge’s today’s teachers and curriculum developers to reconsider the whole process of designing tasks with synchronous components.

A definition and rationale for using synchronous tasks in online or blended teaching contexts will be presented. A review of literature related to Computer-Medicated Communication and its role in SLA will be discussed, Lee (2002). Issues and concerns related to task design in accordance with the construction and negotiation of meaning and the types of tasks in a synchronous online situation will be discussed based on practice and the literature. This will be done in consensus with two sample models; where tasks are oriented towards goals, (Pica et al 1993) and the model of lexical negotiation for Varonis and Gass (1985).

The question of whether our current tasks and practices should be replaced or ‘virtualized’ will be discussed where findings and action plans will be developed. Finally, a demonstration of sample synchronous activities will be presented for further clarification.”

Tags: design, online, synchronous, task, Teaching