چکیده:
Task variation is an integrative method aiming at the importance of learner-to-learner interactions in a wide range of learning contexts and fostering authentic use of language and meaningful communication. This study investigated the impact of task variation on the accuracy and complexity of Iranian EFL learners’ oral speech. In so doing, 80 intermediate EFL learners, majoring English at the Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon branch, were randomly assigned to four equal groups based on their scores on OPT: Experimental Group 1 (EXG1), treated by a variation of three tasks, i.e., dialogue completion, group dialogue, and dialogue unscrambling; Experimental Group 2 (EXG2), treated by a variation of two tasks including dialogue completion and dialogue unscrambling; Experimental Group 3 (EXG3), instructed through a single task (dialogue unscrambling), and the Control Group (CONG), instructed through teacher routine or conventional method. The speaking part of the Preliminary English Test (PET) was administered to the groups as a pretest and posttest. The four groups received their required instructions for ten sessions. The results of the ANOVA and Post Hoc analyses indicated that the three task variations were effective on two features of accuracy and complexity. It was also revealed that the EXG1, treated through a variety of three tasks, outperformed the other three groups in terms of accuracy and complexity. Task variation is hence advised to be incorporated in EFL teaching and testing contexts as a useful tool to improve learners’ oral performance on accuracy and complexity.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The Effects of Task Variation on the Accuracy and Complexity of Iranian EFL Learners’ Oral Performance 1Shokoufeh Abbasi Dogolsara 2Saeideh Ahangari*IJEAP- 1905-1385 3Zohreh Seifoori Abstract Task variation is an integrative method aiming at the importance of learner-to-learner interactions in a wide range of learning contexts and fostering authentic use of language and meaningful communication.
About the effective use of dialogues in EFL and ESL contexts, Kuehn (2009) highlights five reasons why they play a role in listening and speaking classes: first, they are manifestation of real- life speech and represent the way speech is used in real-life contexts; second, they have learners practice culture in different social situations; third, students find chances to get involved in roleplaying; fourth, dialogue patterns supply rooms for practicing and learning new vocabulary and sentence structure; fifth, scaffolding learning is initiated and encouraged by dialogue representation which results in improved conversation ability.
Testing the Second Null Hypothesis In order to examine whether there was any difference in the participants’ performance on the oral speech complexity pretest scores among the four groups of the study (EXG1, EXG2, EXG3, and CONG), a one-way ANOVA was conducted, the results of which were given in Tables 8 and 9.
The findings of this study seem to be in line with the results achieved by Birjandi and Alipour, (2010), Munirah and Muhsin (2015), Safari Vesal, Safari Vesal, and Tavakoli (2015) Seifoori and Goudarzi (2012), Teng (2007), and Witton-Davies (2016), through which they examined EFL learners’ speaking accuracy and complexity through a variety of task-based instruction and reported effective results in learners’ improvement in these two components.