Activity sequencing in foreign language teaching textbooks: a cognitive and communicative processes-based perspective.

Abstract

This book is about activity sequencing in Foreign Language Teaching. lt is divided into two parts. Part I includes the operationalisation of the construct of activity sequencing, definition and analysis of the P-P-P (“Presentation-Practice-Production model of activity sequencing”), application of cognitive psychology to teaching sequencing and a critical review of the CPM (“Communicative Processes-based model of activity sequencing”) and other contemporary sequencing models from pedagogic and cognitive perspectives. Part II describes the quasi-experimental study implemented to determine the influence on learning of the CPM in contrast to the P-P-P. Key findings confirm the importance of activity sequencing in TEFL and draw our attention to the fact that, in order to be effective, activity sequencing should go hand in hand with the sequence(s) of cognitive processes. This book will be valuable to researchers in foreign language teaching methodology and graduate students in applied linguistics, particularly for those who believe in the need of developing empirical studies in real-life classrooms and of applying Cognitive Psychology to foreign language teaching research.