Abstract

This study examined perceptions of students of the benefits of consciousness-raising tasks (CRT) and communicative tasks (CT) when compared with actual learning outcomes in a Saudi secondary school context. Qualitative data were collected from 60 Saudi speaking learners of English, at various proficiency levels, who had engaged in a sequence of collaborative speaking and writing tasks. The results showed the value of the TBL approach which was not in question but makes a significant contribution regarding the importance of the role of interaction in mixed ability groups. The findings indicate that there was a variation in outcomes particularly in terms of how the students perceived the benefits and contribution of the intervention type to their learning. In addition, there was a further impact from the sociolinguistic context of the interaction, which indicates the role of group dynamics and individual variations of Saudi learners. This implies that fluency and accuracy during sociolinguistic interaction is influenced by a wide range of features than cannot be assessed through traditional fluency measures alone. The findings therefore lend support for a TBL approach to maintain the development of fluency, accuracy, and learning.

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