Investigating the Effects of Authentic Activities on Foreign Language Learning: A Design-based Research Approach

Introduction The inquiry voiced by Allwright (1979) as "Are we teaching language (for communication)? " or "Are we teaching communication (via language)? " (p. 167) addresses the issues related to communicative competence (Hymes, 1972) in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, where learners may have minimal opportunities to authentic use of the target language. When this is coupled with form-focused language teaching methods (as opposed to meaning-focused ones) in class, education often results in learners gaining extensive knowledge about the target language by being equipped with know what (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989) yet having minimal or no chance to gain know how skills (Bowles, 2011; Rebuschat & Williams, 2012; Stalnaker, 2012), a problem referred to as "inert knowledge" (Whitehead, 1929). Harmer (2007) emphasises the inadequate structure of form-focused language teaching methods and argues that this type of approach "stops students from getting the kind of natural input that will help them acquire language because it fails to give them opportunities to activate their language knowledge" (p. 49). In such cases learners can talk about grammar rules, while they usually fail to use their knowledge for real communicative purposes. As a remedy for the deficiencies caused by the form-focused language teaching methods, meaning-focused methods, specifically task-based language teaching (TBLT), have been proposed to give learners communicative competency so that they use the target language for communication (Ellis, 2003; Nunan, 2004; Willis & Willis, 2007). Ellis (2009), as a reaction to those who see TBLT simply as an exercise to do rather than a task to complete, points out that in TBLT learners address real problems and relate what they learn to everyday life. Likewise, constructivist learning environments support question-based, issue- based, case-based, project-based, problem-based or task-based learning, all of which differ in depth of complexity but are built on ". the same assumption about active, constructive, and authentic learning" (Jonassen, 1999, p. 219). Any task aimed at giving learners usable knowledge should parallel the real world as closely as possible, and the tasks that have real world relevance are "authentic activities" (Herrington et al., 2003). Authentic learning, according to Herrington, Reeves, and Oliver (2010), can situate learning tasks in contexts that close the gap between classrooms and real life. Based on this conception, this paper reports a study that provided learners with opportunities to use the target language in purposeful and complex ways through authentic activities. Literature review In order to inform the investigation, a literature review was undertaken across relevant areas of study including the "assistance dilemma" and authentic learning, as discussed below. Assistance dilemma Controversy about how instructional guidance in education should be provided has engaged many educational researchers (e.g., Hwang & Wang, 2016). While some researchers argue that explicit and direct instruction is the optimum method of education (Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006; Rosenshine, 2009), others argue that learners should be given opportunities to construct knowledge themselves under the guidance of more capable persons (Alfieri, Brooks, Aldrich, & Tenenbaum, 2011; Lee & Anderson, 2013). This controversy has been referred to as the "assistance dilemma" by Koedinger and Aleven (2007). The following section will give information about direct instructional guidance and its drawbacks, and constructivist teaching methods. Direct instructional guidance in language learning According to this method, there is one correct answer to the problem and both the answer and the path are known by the teacher who is assumed to provide systematic detailed instructions to learners to achieve the outcome and the learning objectives (Kirschner et al. …