Examining the Intersection between Task-Based Learning and Technology

Less than two decades ago most of the activities in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) were created with a “one-size-fits-all” understanding of how computers could enhance language learning. Across the board, the sole rationale for using technology, mostly computerbased, was that it was useful and motivating for learners. The obvious lack of a solid research base for such practice gradually led both CALL researchers to approach the use of technology in language teaching and learning more empirically. Only recently has the field of CALL begun to undergo self-evaluation (Gonzalez-Lloret & Ortega, 2014), and researchers are now claiming that in order for the field to progress, it is necessary to look to SLA principles that make language teaching effective (Chapelle, 1998; Levy, 1999). Several SLA scholars have recognized the potential of task-based language teaching (TBLT), and its associate task-based language learning (e.g., Long, 2009; Robinson, 2001; & Skehan, 1998) as a framework within which technology-mediated activities for language learning can be designed and organized (Chapelle, 2003; Doughty & Long, 2003). Notably, two task-related issues have received considerable attention by CALL researchers. The first of these is related to the various roles that tasks play in synchronous and asynchronous computermediated interactions aimed at facilitating language learning (e.g., Collentine, 2009, 2011; Kitade, 2008; Lamy, 2006; Yilmaz & Granena, 2010). The latter is related to the importance of task design in successful telecollaborations primarily in the service of intercultural communication and learning (e.g., Dooley, 2011; O’Dowd & Ware, 2009). Notwithstanding this gradual and delicate synergy between the fields of TBLT and CALL, especially with respect to computer-mediated interaction, there remains the crucial but underresearched question of how to integrate new technological tools and language learning tasks into a mutually effective whole with methods empirically validated by task-based research. Researchers have argued that language learning tasks mediated by new technologies can bring about profound, beneficial effects, such as encouraging learners to take risks and be creative while using language to make meaning; minimizing their fear of failure, embarrassment, or losing face; and most importantly, enabling language learners to meet other speakers of the language distantly, potentially leading to “transformative exposure to authentic language environments and cultural enactments, along with tremendous additional sources of input” (Gonzalez-Lloret & Ortega, 2014, p. 4). However, in order for new technologies to be integrated into TBLT and for pedagogic tasks to benefit from the revolutionary nature of new technologies, there needs to be a comprehensive consideration of the tenets of TBLT and its application for technology-mediated language teaching and learning. Several benefits of CMC have been categorically reported in literature. These benefits include but are not limited to fostering negotiation of meaning, provision of linguistic modification and corrective feedback (Blake, 2000; Pallietieri, 2000), enhanced perceptual salience of forms, provision of processing and planning time, and an enduring visual trace (Lin, Huang, & Liou, 2013). These empirically