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Some classroom studies (e.g., Chan, 2012; Magharabi, 2019) and researchers (e.g., Ellis, 2015; Ellis et al., 2020) have warned that the construct of task, the key concept in task-based language teaching (TBLT), is often confused with the construct of exercise, causing the task's loss of 'taskness.' However, no systematic attempt has been made to distinguish between the task and exercise constructs. Therefore, this article systematically compares the construct of a task with that of an exercise to help teachers distinguish between the two (Ellis et al., 2020, p. 10), thus enabling them to use pedagogic activities properly. To this end, the article answers the question "Based on the task-based language teaching approach, how do we distinguish a task from an exercise?" Using a reading activity as an illustrative example with two scenarios, the article identifies and explains 10 key differences between a task and an exercise. Acknowledging that these differences are not always clear, the article concludes by emphasizing its purpose: not to suggest that exercises are worthless and tasks are worthy but to outline the value of understanding their differences for their pedagogical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speakers in dialogue tend to adopt the language patterns of the other, aligning their language to their interlocutor. This can happen at many levels of communication, including the tendency to code switch (CS), or change to another language. Alignment has often been considered the result of an unconscious automatic process that facilitates speakers' mutual understanding. In dialogues with a second language (L2) learner, alignment is constrained by the proficiency of the learner, and additional non-automatic processes will be at play, namely the individual pedagogical goals of learner and tutor. In this study, we investigate alignment in dialogues between Spanish/Catalan learners of English and their tutors. We analyse CS incidence, whether code switching can be explained as automatic alignment between speakers, and whether this is independent of other, non-automatic factors related to speakers' goals. We find that alignment of code switching is present, varies with learner proficiency, and that code switching can additionally be triggered by lexical overlap and turn taking asymmetry, which we attribute to conscious pedagogical choices on the part of both tutor, at lower levels, and learner, at higher levels of student proficiency. • Incidence of the L1 in L2 learning dialogue varies with learner proficiency. • In L2 instruction, code switching is both aligned to, and employed as a communication strategy. • Turn taking asymmetry can predict code switching behaviour in L2 learner dialogue. • Low lexical overlap can predict L2 tutor's switch to L1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated whether written chat-based activities foster alignment and learning of multiple simultaneously-targeted second language (L2) syntactic structures. It further examined how these were affected by prior knowledge of the targeted structures and learners' decisions to use or avoid each structure. We tested 47 Spanish first language (L1) speakers learning L2 English. In a chat-based activity with an L1 English speaker, we examined alignment in the production of three target structures that differed in their likely familiarity for participants (genitives, passives and datives) by comparing target structure production after prime versus baseline sentences. We also compared target structure production in a post-test relative to a pre-test to assess learning (increased structure usage) and we asked participants whether they made conscious decisions to use or avoid the structures. The learners experienced chat-based alignment and learning across structures. Although prior knowledge and decisions did not significantly affect alignment and learning, more prior knowledge and choosing to use the targeted structures increased overall target structure production. Thus, chat-based activities are well-suited to support L2 grammar learning, even when they embed multiple structures. However, instructors may need to encourage learners to explicitly use the targeted structures to maximize alignment tasks' language learning outcomes. • L2 learners experience chat-based alignment across structures. • Chat-based alignment supports long-term L2 learning across structures. • Alignment boosts production of highly familiar structures most. • Conscious decisions and explicit processes affect L2 language production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this exploratory study, we investigated the relationship between level of English metalinguistic knowledge, or explicit knowledge about the English language, and cognitive style on the wholist/analytic dimension in an intact group of young adult Polish learners of English as a foreign language. Contrary to expectation, metalinguistic knowledge was found to be correlated with a wholist stylistic orientation in the participants. It is argued that there may be an association between a preference for considering information in context and for thinking inductively by moving from observation to principle, and successful performance on a range of language tasks, including metalinguistic tasks which require the correction of highlighted errors and the statement of grammar rules. The paper concludes with proposed implications for learners and teachers in the language classroom. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: It is now generally acknowledged that teachers are curriculum makers and adapters rather than mere transmitters of written plans and prescriptions. This study reports on the curriculum making practices of three capable, experienced teachers of adult ESOL in high, medium and low-constraint contexts over the duration of one complete course for each teacher. Through iterative interviewing and analysis of curriculum documents, it details the tentativeness and sketchiness of teachers’ written planning (particularly in the pre-course phase). It goes on to describe how teachers’ plans were constantly revised in response to the powerful influence of learner feedback, received through explicit negotiations and responses as well as their own perceptions about the way the instructional curriculum was being received. Teachers in all three types of instructional context responded to learners’ developmental and affective needs in a variety of ways, and to the fullest extent possible within the constraints of their teaching situations and their own theories of best practice. Study findings indicate the importance of assisting novice teachers to acquire awareness and abilities in this area as a goal for second language teacher education. Areas of research are suggested as possible further contributions to the development of an epistemology of practice for TESOL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study examines tensions in the grammar teaching beliefs and practices of three practising teachers of English working in Turkey. The teachers were observed and interviewed over a period of 18months; the observations provided insights into how they taught grammar, while the interviews explored the beliefs underpinning the teachers’ classroom practices. Drawing on the distinction between core and peripheral beliefs, the analysis indicated that, while at one level teachers’ practices in teaching grammar were at odds with specific beliefs about language learning, at another level, these same practices were consistent with a more generic set of beliefs about learning. The latter, it is hypothesized, constituted the teachers’ core beliefs and it was these, rather than the more peripheral beliefs about language learning, that were most influential in shaping teachers’ instructional decisions. It is argued that attention to the relative influence of core and peripheral beliefs on teachers’ practices allows for more complex understandings of tensions in teachers’ work. Claims are also made here for the benefits of grounding the study of tensions between stated beliefs and classroom behaviours in the qualitative analyses of teachers’ actual classroom practices. Some implications of this study for language teacher education are also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study documents students' experiences during the Emergency Online Transition of Spring 2020 in a Spanish language program at a large public university in the United States. Data from students' mid-term and end-of-term questionnaires, as well as teachers' journals, were collected in the Spring, and follow-up teacher interviews were carried out in Fall 2020. Results indicate that students' overall stress levels diminished from beginning to end of the academic term but that individual experiences were extremely varied. While some students enjoyed the increased autonomy and self-paced learning opportunities of the online format, others felt distressed in this less directed modality and emphasized the negative effect of reduced social interactions on their levels of engagement. Only few students mentioned technological difficulties as a central challenge in their learning process, but many believed that they had learned less than in traditional face-to-face courses. Instructors' views differed in this respect, as they considered that the reduced group-size of synchronous Zoom sessions allowed them to hear more of each student, which they saw as evidence of increased student talk as compared to the usual whole-class face-to-face sessions. This more intimate virtual set-up also increased a sense of proximity between teachers and students. • "Sense of community" impacts above all the perception of emergency online education. • Teachers' culture of adaptation is critical to face crisis-prompted change. • Students' development of autonomy in online education requires explicit support. • Future research should explore avenues for community building in online education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]