Framework for 3D Task Design: An Immersive Approach

Background

By definition (see Breen, 2009; Ellis, 2003, 2009; Ellis et al., 2020; González-Lloret & Ortega, 2014; Nunan, 2004; Pica et al., 1993; Willis & Willis, 2007 among others), tasks are goal-oriented activities with a clear task outcome (e.g., making a shopping list). Although the primary focus is on meaning, learners are to use their linguistic resources and pay attention to form to express meaning. The target forms required by the task may not be explicitly stated, but tasks can be designed to coerce learners to employ them, for example, by requiring learners to use prepositions to describe a room or use the simple past to describe a recent trip. Tasks include some kind of an information gap or a problem, which pushes learners to produce authentic and spontaneous language while attempting to recover the missing information or solve a problem. As learners interact with linguistic input, negotiate meaning and/or form, perform interactional modifications, and scaffold each other, they engage in second language acquisition (SLA) processes that facilitate language learning.