TBLT and Peter Skehan: Insights, impacts, and the festschrift

Abstract

The objective of this proposed symposium is twofold, first, it aims to provide state-of-the-art reviews of key theoretical and methodological issues in current L2 task performance and pedagogy research. Second, it is also a tribute to Peter Skehan for his decades of celebratory achievements in various research domains of applied linguistics and second language acquisition in general, and his pioneering work as well as intellectual academic leadership in L2 task performance and pedagogy in particular. The papers presented in this symposium are mostly based on and slightly expanded from major chapters in the festschrift entitled “Researching L2 Task Performance and Pedagogy in honour of Peter Skehan” edited by the two convenors (Wen & Ahmadian, 2019) and published in the TBLT series of John Benjamin. As such, the symposium is structured as follows. It begins with (1) an introduction by Edward Wen who will outline the background, its structure, and major contents as well as key features of the recent Festschrift dedicated to Peter Skehan. Then, (2) Mohammad Ahmadian and Edward Wen continue to provide an overview of Peter Skehan’s many contributions to the broad domains of Applied Linguistics and SLA as a productive researcher, gifted teacher, and supportive mentor and particularly highlights his influence in TBLT and task performance and pedagogy. Following this, (3) Jiaxin Xing first compares Peter Skehan’s Limited Attention Capacity hypothesis vis-à-vis Peter Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis and then reports on results of an investigation into the effects of reasoning demands on Chinese EFL learners’ oral performance and cognitive processes. Then, (4) Jan Wang and Gavin Bui expound the theoretical framework of ‘Task-readiness’ as well as results of an empirical study applying this framework to investigate task performance among L2 EFL learners across proficiency levels. Finally, (5) the two discussants John Norris and Kris Van den Branden will comment on the presentations and further highlight directions for future research in L2 task performance and pedagogy based on theoretical and methodological issues raised in the colloquium and the festschrift.