A Study On EFL Learners' Performance In Synchronous Task-based Computer-mediated Communication Environment

Around the early 1960s, EFL language teaching began to shift from structural to communicative perspectives. Since then the focus of instruction has broadened from the teaching of discrete grammatical structures to the fostering of communicative ability, negotiation of meaning has come to take precedence over structural drill practice, comprehension has taken on new importance, and providing comprehensible input has become a common pedagogical imperative.It is in the context of these multifarious changes that interest in task-based language learning has begun. A branch of classroom-centered researches have conducted interesting investigations into the types of tasks likely to stimulate interactive language use to verify the belief that communicative tasks help develop competence in foreign language through negotiation of meaning. Alongside the interest in tasks stemming largely from 'the communicative approach' to language teaching, one of the most significant areas of innovation in language education - computer-assisted language learning (CALL) - has come of age, corresponding to the shifting perspectives on language learning and teaching.This thesis deals with one form of CALL- network-based language learning (NBLL). NBLL is language learning that involves the use of computers connected to one another in either local or global networks. Whereas CALL has traditionally been associated with self-contained, programmed applications such as tutorials, drills, simulations, instructional games, tests, and so on, NBLL represents a new and different side of CALL, where human-to-human communication through network isthe focus. Human-to-human communication occurring in NBLL is named network-based communication (NBC), or computer-mediated communication (CMC), which is equal to NBC and therefore used interchangeable in this paper. NBC includes synchronous and asynchronous communication such as chatting online and electronic mail. This thesis zeroes in on synchronous dimension. Additionally, since it occurs in a written, electronically archived form and gives students opportunities to plan their discourse and to notice and reflect on language use in the messages they compose and read, network-based communication is believed helpful to promoting general language learning.Some researches have been conducted in traditional classroom to examine second language learning during task performance, anticipating different focus on form and meaning due to the format of task, while some researches have observed student's performance in synchronous NBC setting. But few studies have combined the two kinds of researches to explore the effects of different tasks on language learners' performance in synchronous network-based communication environment and the relationship between the use of computer networks and language learning. The purpose of this thesis is to study what task is more effective to language learning in synchronous NBC setting through discovering students' performance and then finally to guide language teaching.