Arthur and I discuss chapters 1-2 of Mike Long (2015) Second Language Acquisition and Task-Based Language Teaching.Quotations read out during the podcast, with added context:§1.1, page 3: 'Most of us are familiar with traditional student populations: captive school children required to “pass” a foreign language (often for no obvious reason), college students satisfying a language requirement or working toward a BA in literature, young adults headed overseas for university courses, as missionaries or to serve as volunteers in the Peace Corps and similar organizations, and adults needing a L2 for vocational training or occupational purposes in the business world, aid organizations, the military, federal and state government, or the diplomatic and intelligence services. Typically, these students are literate, well educated, relatively affluent, learning a major world language, and, the school children aside, doing so voluntarily.'§1.2, page 7: '[W]hat is gained by blurring the original meaning of (in this case) ‘task-based’ until it denotes something quite different, and indeed, opposed to the original meaning of the term? In fact, it is not hard to see what is gained and by whom. Synthetic approaches, especially grammatical syllabuses, are palatable to commercial publishers and various politically powerful LT institutions because they are what underlie at least 90% of existing, commercially highly successful textbooks sold around the world.'§1.3, page 8: 'As with any theory, the embryonic cognitive-interactionist theory goes beyond the data in hand, so may eventually turn out to be wrong, wholly or in part, thereby under- mining the validity of parts of TBLT. That is the nature of theories, which by definition go beyond the facts in an attempt to fill in the gaps in our knowledge and, more importantly, seek to explain the facts we think have been established.'§1.3.2: 'The principles [of TBLT] are ones to which most language teachers and students subscribe in their everyday lives – principles that need not be forgotten in the classroom. They include educating the whole person, learning by doing, rationalism, free association, learner-centeredness, egalitarian teacher–student relationships, and participatory democracy. Interestingly, the implications of these philosophical principles and those of TBLT’s psycholinguistic underpinnings converge in most cases.'§1.3.6, page 13: 'There is some evidence, after all, that a certain degree of tension, or classroom anxiety, can have a positive effect on learning (Scovel 1978), probably because it activatesa process known to be critical for language learning: attention.'Other references: Taking Children Seriously: https://takingchildrenseriously.com/Sponge ELT's discussions of Long which talk about how to apply it to children:Sponge Chats - Perspectives on TBLT teacher education with Lara Bryfonski • Sponge Chats - Perspectives on TBLT teache... Sponge Chats - Perspectives on TBLT with Martin East • Sponge Chats - Perspectives on TBLT with M...
