The Review Study： The Effect of Task-based Approach on the Advanced EFL Learners＇ Narrative vs. Expository Writing

This study was an attempt to determine the effect of task-based approach vs. traditional approach on the narrative and expository writing of the EFL （English as a Foreign Language） learners. This study also tried to see if there is any difference between the narrative and expository writing of the advanced EFL learners＇ when the task-based approach is the instruction of methodology. It was concluded that teaching writing to EFL learners through task-based approach is more effective than teaching writing to the advanced EFL learners traditionally. But, it was found that task-based approach is not biased toward one of the two narratives vs. expository writing modes. For EFL contexts in many countries, there is a strong need for learners to develop their EFL writing ability.

The Impact of Storyline Complexity on L2 Learners’Written Performance

Task-based Language Teaching(TBLT)research has provided ample evidence that cognitive complexity is an important aspect of task design that influences learner’s performance in terms of fluency,accuracy,and syntactic complexity.Despite the substantial number of empirical investigations into task complexity in journal articles,storyline complexity,one of the features of it,is scarcely investigated.Previous research mainly focused on the impact of storyline complexity on learners’oral performance,but the impact on learners’written performance is less investigated.Thus,this study aims at investigating the effects of narrative complexity of storyline on senior high school students’written performance,as displayed by its complexity,fluency,and accuracy.The present study has important pedagogical implications.That is,task design and assessment should make a distinction between different types of narrative tasks.For example,the task with single or dual storyline.Results on task complexity may contribute to informing the pedagogical choices made by teachers when prioritizing work with a specific linguistic dimension.

Narrating the Past in Different Contexts:C-BI Approach to the Present Perfect and Past Simple

Concept-based instruction(C-BI)has proven to be effective in improving students’command of grammar items used out of context by offering the students revision lessons,but its effect in teaching newly-introduced grammar items in a complex context of a specific genre remains unclear.To probe C-BI’s effect on students’use of the past simple and present perfect tenses out of context and in the context of a narrative by its description of the grammar concept in its materialization,that is,the Schemas of a Complete Orienting Basis of an Action(SCOBAs),we taught the two tenses to 40 eighth-graders in a Chinese middle school in our three-week teaching experiment.The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results shows that i)in both out-ofcontext use and in-context use,accuracy of using the target tenses is higher after C-BI intervention;ii)by improving their conceptual knowledge through C-BI,the students are helped to pin down reference time and are hence more certain in using the target tenses.Moreover,they are encouraged to use the newly-introduced tenses in the complex context of the narrative genre;iii)both in simple contexts or complex contexts,the SCOBAs are effective in helping students navigate the learning task and determine their intended meaning by establishing temporal reference in the context.