Teaching Tips

Task Design for Second Language Spanish Fluency Development

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Abstract

This teaching tip offers a guide for task design aimed at promoting fluency development in intermediate-level second language (L2) Spanish. Tasks—defined as language-teaching activities during which learners negotiate for meaning to achieve a nonlinguistic outcome (e.g., Ellis, 2009)—have been shown to encourage development of L2 grammar and lexis. Recently, scholars have investigated the role of tasks in promoting L2 pronunciation development (see Gurzynski-Weiss, Long, & Solon’s [2017] special issue), and this growing body of work has focused on segmental and suprasegmental aspects of L2s. To demonstrate task design for fluency development, we present and explain in detail our task that incorporates stories presented in videos and encourages meaningful practice for intermediate-level classroom learners of Spanish. Our detailed description of the task and its objectives are followed by an evaluation of how it meets the criteria for a task (Ellis, 2009) and suggestions for implementation and manipulation. From this teaching tip, the reader will learn how to design a task to promote fluency in a L2.

How to Cite:

Long, A. Y., Alarcon, L. & Ruiz-Pérez, S., (2018) “Task Design for Second Language Spanish Fluency Development”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 10(1).