Designing Group Tasks in Online Task-Based Language Teaching Environments: A Systematic Review

Group Tasks in Online Environment

Task types have been found to play an influential role in learner interaction in the online language learning environment. A TBLT task should have a clearly defined outcome, some gaps of information, and resemble communication in the real-world (Ellis, 2009; González-Lloret & Ortega, 2014). Pica et al.'s (1993) typology of tasks has been widely adopted in research, including jigsaw, information gap, problem-solving, decision-making, and opinion exchange. However, conflict findings are presented in the literature. Blake (2000) found that jigsaw tasks in online text-based communication elicited more negotiation of meaning than information-gap and decision-making tasks. However, Smith (2003) pointed out that decision-making tasks produced more negotiation episodes than jigsaws when considering target lexical items. Along the same line, Pellettieri (2000) indicated that jigsaw tasks elicited fewer negotiations than information-gap tasks in a synchronous discussion. Moreover, Yilmaz and Granena (2010) found that dictogloss tasks were more effective than jigsaw tasks in producing language-related episodes in text-based communication. These conflict findings showed that task effects might vary in different contexts. It underscored the need to further examine factors that influence communication, such as the technologies used. Without further investigating the task conditions and process, researchers would only attain a vague understanding of online task implementation (Yilmaz, 2011).