Using task-based elicitation to measure effectiveness of counterfactual conditional instruction

counterfactual conditional;elicit;elicitation;illocutionary act;proof-by-contradiction;refusal;second conditional;task natural;task naturalness;task-based learning;task-based testing

Fitzpatrick, Shawn ; Davidson ; Frederick G.

关键词: counterfactual conditional;    elicit;    elicitation;    illocutionary act;    proof-by-contradiction;    refusal;    second conditional;    task natural;    task naturalness;    task-based learning;    task-based testing;   

Others  :  https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/18429/Fitzpatrick_Shawn.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

美国|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

This study investigates the feasibility of using meaning-focused tasks to evaluatethe degree to which ESL / EFL learners are able to use counterfactual secondconditionals and related grammatical structures to perform certain illocutionary acts. Tothis end the researcher attempted to create tasks for which the production of the targetgrammatical structures would be “natural” (Loschcky & Bley-Vroman, 1993, p. 132). Forthe purpose of this study, “task naturalness” was defined as successful elicitation from a“significant majority” of native speakers. Using a process of “iterative, consensusbased,specification-driven testing” (Davidson & Lynch, 2002, p. 7), two types of taskswere developed: 1) Spoken dyadic role-plays designed to elicit expressions ofwillingness (e.g., “I’d love to help, but…”) and 2) Written logic puzzles designed to elicitproof-by-contradiction (e.g., “If the light were off, Sherlock would know the answer.”). Ingeneral, both task types were successful at eliciting either counterfactual secondconditionals or related grammatical structures. This study represents the first step in along term project to develop instructional materials to teach counterfactual secondconditionals and related structures.