Research On Task - Based Teaching Group Activities From The Perspective Of Activity Theory

Task-based language teaching is one of mainstream modern foreign language teaching methods, in which students learn a language through engaging in the process of communicative tasks. Besides learning language, students also gain in their capabilities of inquiry-based and cooperative learning. Over the past decades people have mainly discussed characteristics and advantages of the TBLT from the perspective of communicative language teaching and second language acquisition. This research attempts to use the framework of "activity theory", an alternative perspective to examine TBLT, focusing on the actual process of students doing the task in groups and effectiveness of TBLT activities.Activity theory is a part of social culture theory originally developed by Vygotsky, which holds that development of human mind is the result of participation in social activities. When communicating and interacting with others in such activities, humans use language and other cultural products (artifact) as mediating tool to realize the meaning construction, and finally it will turn into the individual mental construction. Activity theory is a descriptive framework on the process of social activities and operations, which includes six elements:subject, object, mediation, community, division of labor and the rules. According to the theory, a social activity can be analyzed at three levels:activity action and operation.This study uses the activity theory as the analytic framework. The researcher observed and analyzed the team work of TBLT in senior high schools, which reveals how teachers and student groups carried out the tasks at the levels of activity, action and operation; and how the six elements of the TBLT group activity system, i.e. subject, object, community, rules, and labor division functioned and related to each other. Particularly, the researcher use conversation analysis method in the third level (operation) to deeply describe the characteristics of interaction process of team members as well as their cognitive development.The research data was collected during the process of implementing a poster-making task in two classes of a high school in Nanjing. The data included tape recordings of classes and group discussions, and collection of the club posters as products. After activity-theory-based data analysis, the following results are achieved:Firstly, the task group of students could form an activity system, subject being the group members, and the core content is implementation of tools toward the object, these actions point to the intention of the "product", namely the objective of the task. From each element in the activity system, it is a very comprehensive aspect to analyze the process of how students do the task.Secondly, the tools used performed functions of assigning the task, mental representation, and making the product. In terms of entity or physical tools, the computer was the most frequently used. In terms of abstract/psychological tools, language plays an important mediating role:teacher talk can help students understand the task goals, input the task information, help students understand tasks in context. Students’interactive discourse can enhance their understanding of the task.Thirdly, the "community" and "division of labor" and "rules" in the TBLT activities investigated were closely linked. In the teaching process, the teacher acted as the leader, the assigner, the students are learners, and will follow the rules in the wishes of teachers. In group activity process, different members did different work. The team leader formed a relationship between his members as an organizer and guider. Establishment of mutual trust and cooperation between team members were highly important to efficiency and quality of the product achieved.Fourthly, the students’actions and the teacher’s aim-oriented guidance formed a graphical blueprint of the’guidance cycle’. The cycle was based on students’concrete actions taken under the drive of their goals. With the mediation of teachers, the first step of students’language development was the internalization of the task. And in the process of completing the task through cooperation, students processed information through the teacher and other peers’discoursive mediation. Finally they externalized the mental development into product.Fifthly, effectiveness of the activity and quality of the product were affected by several factors.1) The agreement of group members’opinions when deciding on the task subject-matter:more congruous preference about the subject led to better individual’s initiative and group cooperation, hence individual’s cognitive development.2) A clear goal in group discussion:the grasp of the situational context had effects on the product. And3) Application of the group discussion results to product-making:only when applying explicitly the collective wisdom arising in discussion to actual making of the products can the good quality of products were achieved.