THE MICHEL BLANC LECTURE IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS 2022 - Prof Andrea Révész: Investigating task-based speech production processes: Methodological advances, opportunities, and challenges
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street
In the past few decades, much second language (L2) acquisition research has been dedicated to investigating the characteristics of task-based speech production. This has led to significant advances in describing and understanding the behaviours of L2 speakers during task-based work. Considerably less is known, however, about the neurocognitive processes in which L2 learners engage when they complete oral tasks. In this talk, I will first propose that, to promote L2 theory-building and advance task-based pedagogy, it is essential that more research attention is allocated to task-generated processes. Then, I will turn to a review of various methods that have been used to explore task-based processes. I will describe and discuss previous research using subjective techniques (questionnaires, interviews, and stimulated recall protocols) as well as objective tools (dual-task methodology, eye-tracking, and fMRI), while considering the potential of each technique to generate insights about L2 neurocognitive processes during oral task performance. I will also demonstrate how an interdisciplinary approach, combining cognitive and neuroscience methods, can help us obtain a fuller and more complete understanding of L2 speech production. In doing so, I will draw on my own and colleagues' work examining the processes in which L2 learners engage during oral task performance. I will end the talk with methodological recommendations for future task-based research into speech production processes.
Contact name:
Lisa McEntee-Atalianis
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Prof. Andrea Revesz
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Andrea Révész is a Professor of Second Language Acquisition at the IoE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. Her main research interests lie at the interfaces of second language acquisition, instruction, and assessment, with particular emphases on the roles of task, input, interaction, and individual differences in SLA. Currently, she is also working on projects investigating the neurocognitive processes underlying second language speaking and writing performance. She is co-winner of the 2017 TBLT Best Research Article Award and co-recipient of the 2018 TESOL Award for Distinguished Research. Currently, she serves as associate editor of Studies in Second Language Acquisition, co-editor of the John Benjamins Task-based Language Teaching series, and vice-president of the International Association for Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT).