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11 - Child Interaction in Task-Supported EFL/CLIL Contexts

from Part V - Task-Based Language Teaching with School-Age Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

By
María del Pilar García Mayo
Edited by
Mohammad Javad Ahmadian and
Michael H. Long
Mohammad Javad Ahmadian
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
Michael H. Long
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
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Summary

The present chapter focuses on the benefits of task-supported interaction among child foreign language learners. It reviews research carried out in English as a foreign language (EFL) and content and language integrated learning (CLIL) contexts, and highlights the affordances of child–child interaction in settings where access to input is restricted. The chapter provides a rationale for the increasing interest in research with the underexplored population of young learners in foreign language contexts. It also features a summary of the main findings from research carried out to date within two frameworks, namely, interactionist (Long, 1996) and sociocultural (Vygotsky, 1978). The children in the studies are in the so-called middle childhood stage, a developmental stage characterized by their becoming more logical in their thinking. The studies chosen for this chapter have considered the importance of negotiation of meaning and the impact of repeating a task on interactional patterns, attention to language form, complexity, accuracy and fluency of production and the use of the first language. The contribution ends with several suggestions for further research with young learners.

Keywords

childrenCLILcognitiveEFLinteractionsocioculturaltasks.

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The Cambridge Handbook of Task-Based Language Teaching , pp. 397 - 415
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Enever, J. (2018). Policy and politics in global primary English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Enever, J. and Lindgren, E. (2017), eds. Early language learning. Complexity and mixed methods. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
García Mayo, M. P. (2017), ed. Learning foreign languages in primary school. Research insights. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Murphy, V. A. (2014) Second language learning in the early school years: Trends and contexts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pinter, A. (2011). Children learning second languages. New York: Palgrave McMillan.Google Scholar

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