Category four: Communicative needs and processes to support the task

In category four, the experience of TBLT in a TEL environment is viewed as one which shapes and influences the communicative needs and processes required in order for the TBLT approach and its related methodologies to be effective. In the previous category, the focus centred on technological skills needed by the individual learner. Category four differs from that in the perception that effective use of TBLT in TEL contexts demands supportive technological processes that address the needs of both the individual and the group.

1_{Note that the absence here of a ‘Language focus stage’ for Category three is deliberate and}

Pre-task stage

A key area involves communication that takes place in the pre-task stages. First of all, ensuring that all students view the task as achievable within the blended context is seen as a significant communicative need.

T6: I think in an online environment that has to be explained, before a task is done you really have to go through it with them to show them that it’s possible.

Likewise, there is a perception that the need for a clear demonstration or model outcome may be more important in this type of context.

T3: I do think it's important to have a sample and have instructions. I think it's also important to role play and model how you would go through doing that.

A further element to the pre-task stage is the need to ensure that learners are aware of how and where to find resources which may be of use to them during the task cycle.

T2: I would also add a possibility for them to access anything they might feel might help them in achieving the task.

T2: Having a teacher maybe suggest resources that he or she finds useful for the process would be great.

The greater need for clarity in steps and instructions is further extended to a perceived need for learners to be aware of their role and responsibilities in the task stage. There is

also the perception that there may be a need for an approval step or contractual element to this process.

T1: I get them to give me a plan. A very detailed plan of who's going to do what and their timeline. That has to be approved before they actually go and start the task or start the project or whatever they're doing.

T7: What I ask my students to do is put them into groups, and then I tell them that, “Before you go away from here you need to tell me, give me a list of who’s going to do what.” It’s a, preparing a PowerPoint, b, making a survey, and I said, “You need to keep me updated”.

On-task stage

There is also the perception that any provision of resources for use during the task cycle may conflict to some extent with the tenet that, within the on-task stage of TBLT, students should mainly draw upon their own linguistic resources, rather than have recourse to additional support mechanisms.

T2: As teachers, we are not supposed to give them a set of grammatical structures, vocabulary or any language that we expect them to use. They are supposed to start with their activity, their task and then as a result we might deal with some problems that arise while the task is being completed.

To facilitate effective progress through the on-task stage, there is a perception that ensuring learners remain on track to complete a task successfully may require additional planning or supervision.

T1: The challenges for a blended environment might be just to make sure that the task is being followed the way that I had planned it.

T3: You really have to be reaching out to the students, making sure that they're on task because you don't have those clues again as in the classroom.

There is a perception that creating a more formalised process of documentation in terms of task progress can help learners remain focussed and on task. This can take the form of self-reflection by students individually.

T1: They might just log in and say, "This week my plan is to do this." Then the next week they would log in and say, "Well I tried to do this last week but I got up to here so this week my plan is to do that."

In a blended environment, the option to conduct the monitoring process on a face-to- face basis is perceived as a useful approach to ensuring students remain on task.

T7: So it was a schedule I made, like any of us would make a schedule, right so, that's one way and then I monitor them. So every time like I used to meet them once a week, so the second time I meet them I ask them how far has it gone, have you met your deadline? I think it's important to monitor.

T3: Lots of things… really starting with them, and their self-awareness like, "Do you think you're on task? Are you understanding things? What do you think you need to learn more?" Giving some probes and prompts to keep them in the direction that they need to go.

There is also the perception that monitoring may need to be stricter than in a traditional classroom-based TBLT environment.

T1: Online, I would have - I would make it really even stricter. They would have to check in with me.

T7: …but think of an environment when I don't meet my students, and then of course again you have some kind of an Excel sheet ready where you put in your not done, not done, have done, on the way, you know, in progress, so that's all I've been monitoring.

Language focus stage

The need to create formalised ongoing feedback mechanisms (in this instance meaning ones that are primarily focussed on areas such as participation and task progress rather than on language issues) to which students and teachers have either frequent or continuous access is also perceived as an effective technique for the successful achievement of task objectives.

T3: One thing I have that I've seen and done is have folks summarise what their participation in the activity was and have them summarise what the group did and make sure that it matches up. If you set up a group space well, in a discussion forum for example or wiki, you can be going in and looking at the revision history and then seeing who's participating, and again reach out to those folks who aren’t maybe as engaged.

The process of self-reflection can be opened up to involve other learners so that the reflective process involves advice from learners who have experienced similar issues.

T1: Maybe other students could chime in and say, "You know I had that problem too, I overcame it in this way." Just sort of have a discussion about some of the things that they are doing.

As well as self-reflection and related feedback from other learners, there is the belief that ongoing pair or group reflections closely monitored by the instructor are beneficial in achieving successful task outcomes. Allowing students to work through this reflective process with little teacher intervention is also perceived as a positive goal.

T5: You could do just many consultations with them, in a pair or individually, if you sense that there's some kind of challenges in the group, or you know even better yet maybe it creates an opportunity for the pair or the group to discuss or talk about their contributions to the activity, maybe create some kind of questionnaire or evaluation checklist that they could complete and discuss as a

group, because that maybe removes the teacher and allows the students to address those sorts of things.

In addition to the importance of these feedback processes, there is also the perception that including a group feedback component as part of the formally assessed elements of an assignment or course can be an effective means of facilitating this process.

T1: At the end, I would have sort of a group feedback and have something where they would have to write about, how this whole thing went. Depending on the nature of the course and nature of the task, maybe have that group feedback as part of the marks.

4.3.5 Category five: The nature of communication as a factor influenced by the