Abstract
This chapter discusses current models of L2 task sequencing based on the cognitive demands for L2 processing that they make on learners. Two psycholinguistic models of task-based instruction are compared: The Limited Attention Capacity Hypothesis (Skehan, 1996, 2009, 2014, 2016) and the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2001, 2011). However, before discussing these models, some background issues, integral to them both, are discussed. These issues relate to theories of attention, speech production, and the cognitive processes of SLA. The chapter then compares the similarities and the differences between the two models together with their implications for L2 instructional planning. The primary concern in both models has been with how learners’ attention is focused during the completion of tasks as reflected by general measures of the fluency, accuracy and syntactic complexity of their L2 production. These three facets of performance have been taken as general indices of learners’ attention to the form and the meaning of the language that they use, and they it is presumably assumed that a balance of attention to these aspects language during L2 use will ultimately relate to balanced L2 development.
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Lambert, C. (2019). Tasks in L2 Syllabus Design. In: Referent Similarity and Nominal Syntax in Task-Based Language Teaching. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3089-6_4
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