TASK, journal on task-based language teaching and learning, Dec 16, 2021
This paper argues that TBLT researchers should dedicate more effort to investigating the cognitiv... more This paper argues that TBLT researchers should dedicate more effort to investigating the cognitive processes in which L2 learners engage during task work to facilitate theoryconstruction and to inform pedagogical practices. To help achieve this, a review follows of various subjective (questionnaires, interviews, think-aloud/stimulated recall protocols) and objective (dual-task methodology, keystroke-logging, eye-tracking) methods that are available to TBLT researchers to examine cognitive processes underlying task-based performance. The paper concludes that, to obtain a more valid understanding of taskgenerated cognitive processes, it is best to combine various methods to overcome the limitations of each. Finally, some methodological recommendations are provided for future cognitively-oriented TBLT research. methodology need to include a baseline condition, which enables researchers to observe how participants would perform on the primary task in the absence of a secondary task. Keystroke-logging Keystroke-logging is another objective tool that TBLT researchers can rely on when studying L2 writing processes. Keystroke-logging programs register all the keystrokes and mouse movements that writers produce. The resulting log files then can be used for further analyses to obtain detailed information about concurrent writing behaviours, for example, by the means of fluency, pausing, and revision indices (Lindgren & Sullivan, 2019; Van Waes, Leijten, Lindgren, & Wengelin, 2016). Keystroke logging was already used more than 20 years ago to study the impact of task-related variables on L2 writing behaviours. In a pioneering study, Spelman Miller (2000) employed keystroke-logging software to examine whether fluency and L2 pausing behaviours were different across evaluative and descriptive essay writing tasks. While the participants, L2 writers of English and L1 English writers, produced the two essays, their keystrokes were recorded. Then, the researcher analysed the log data for several fluency and pausing measures. Another seminal keystroke-logging study by Thorson (2000) examined how the revision behaviours of L2 writers vary by task genre. All the participants wrote a newspaper article as well as a letter in L1 English and L2 German, during which their keystrokes were captured. More recently, researchers have started to use keystroke-logging more widely to investigate L2 task effects. For example, Révész, Kourtali et al. (2017) have employed keystroke logging, in combination with stimulated recall, to explore the impact of a task complexity manipulation on the speed fluency, pausing, and revision behaviours of L2 writers. Keystroke-logging has also been utilised to look into how writing behaviours may vary across independent and integrated writing tasks, so far mostly focusing on testing tasks (Barkaoui, 2016; Michel et al., 2020). Another area where keystroke-logging is beginning to be used is the study of text-chat interactions. Charoenchaikorn's (2019) study provides a good example of how keystroke-logging can be utilised in this context. The researcher assessed participants' revision behaviours, speed fluency, and accuracy during task-based text-chat interactions based on logs obtained through keystroke-logging software. It is not surprising that task-based researchers show an increased interest in using keystroke-logging to study writing processes. Being an unobtrusive data collection tool and generating real-time data, keystroke logging has several benefits in comparison to verbal protocols that have traditionally been used to investigate cognitive writing processes. Unlike verbal protocols, however, keystroke-logging data have the drawback of supplying no direct information about L2 writers' cognitive activities. Additionally, data gathered via keystroke logs cannot reveal insights about the reading processes in which L2 writers engage.
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Papers by Andrea Revesz