Tasks in action in Vietnamese EFL high school classrooms: The role of rehearsal and performance in teaching and learning through oral tasks
Authors:   , Nguyen Thi Bao Trang 
Published: November 2021

<p>Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has attracted considerable attention in research on language teaching and learning. Numerous publications have made a case for TBLT and the role of tasks in learning. TBLT has been introduced in language curricula around the world, including English as a foreign language (EFL) curricula in many countries in Asia. Yet research into tasks in action from both teaching and learning perspectives is rare with scant examination of decisions on task design and implementation that teachers make in the classroom and how their pedagogical decisions are linked to student learning and engagement. The present research addresses these gaps. The research was conducted in two phases in a Vietnamese high school where a series of task-based EFL textbooks have been adopted to promote curriculum innovation. Phase 1 was a descriptive study which investigated how the Vietnamese EFL teachers implemented oral textbook tasks through adapting task design and creating classroom activity and how learners engaged in the tasks. The data were collected over two and a half months through classroom observations, stimulated recalls and in-depth interviews with teachers and students. The results revealed that the teachers displayed a strong tendency to adapt or replace the textbook tasks, with specific preferences for open over closed tasks, input-independent over input-dependent tasks and divergent over convergent tasks. They also opted for tasks that are not just 'real world', but 'real' to students. Teacher task choices were found to be guided by their own task experimentation, by clearly articulated beliefs about teaching and learning and by a strong orientation to learner engagement. Decision making by all the teachers reflected a general commitment to a final public performance of the task by groups of students. This public performance was preceded by rehearsal for the performance, involving students doing the task in pairs or groups to prepare for the performance of the task in front of the class. The terms rehearsal and performance were used because they captured the teachers' and students' orientation and intent as observed in the lessons and explained in the interviews. Rehearsal and performance constituted two of four identifiable stages of task implementation used by the teachers: pre-task, rehearsal, performance and post-task. Both the teachers and students valued the notion of performance as a driving force for the use of English and as a social classroom event to engage students in task work. The centrality of public performance in these EFL classrooms, and a lack of empirical evidence about its impact in task-based learning motivated Phase 2 of the thesis. Phase 2 specifically addressed the impact of task design and learner proficiency on the occurrence and resolution of language-related episodes (LREs) (Swain, 1998) in task rehearsal and on the subsequent take-up in the public performance of the language items which were focussed on in LREs. Three proficiency groups (n=8 dyads in each) from six intact classes carried out two tasks: one problem-solving task (a convergent task) and one debate task (a divergent task), with a 15-minute rehearsal for their performance. The first group was composed of dyad members of the same higher proficiency (HH); the second group consisted of mixed proficiency dyads (HL) and the third group was lower proficiency dyads (LL). The total data included 48 rehearsals and 48 corresponding performances collected in normal classroom hours. Students were also interviewed after they had finished all the tasks. The results showed that task design and proficiency affected not only the occurrence and resolution of LREs in task rehearsal but also uptake in the public performance. Specifically, while the problem-solving task induced more LREs, the debate task was more conducive to uptake because the latter task, from the students' perspective, lent itself to performance in ways that the former did not. Overall lower proficiency dyads produced more LREs in rehearsal than higher proficiency dyads. However, it was how LREs were resolved rather than the frequency of LREs that correlated positively with successful uptake in performance. Proficiency also influenced the problem-solving strategies that the learners adopted to prepare for the public performance. Taken as a whole, this thesis suggests that teacher thinking plays an essential role in transforming tasks in classrooms, and that building in performance to tasks and rehearsal for that performance may contribute to language learning and development. The research has useful implications for task design and implementation, as well as for theory and research methodology.</p>