THE VALUE AND ACCURACY OF TASK AS A WORKPLAN: VARIABILITY IN CLASSROOM PRACTICE

This paper describes a case-study based project which focused on the development of a specially designed single task-based lesson in order to identify how materials design can be more closely aligned with and conducive to variability in classroom task enactment. A series of communicative micro-level tasks functioning within the boundary of a larger macro-level task were given to two university lecturers. The two lecturers then enacted these micro-level tasks within an EFL classroom environment. The two lecturers were interviewed prior to the lesson to elicit their attitudes toward the basic notion of task within an EFL context. They were also requested to submit a workplan outlining their intended use of the given task materials. Two 90-minute lessons were then observed and field notes were combined with post-lesson interviews. Detailed reports of each teacher’s enactment are presented and the need for further large-scale research looking at the variability between task design and task enactment is called for based on the outcome of the current project.