What a TBI Case Offers to College-Level L2 Learners

Abstract

This study was an attempt to investigate whether the Task-Based Instruction (TBI) can fulfill its promises by looking into how a group of EFL college learners would perform in a TBI course. The research findings based on the analyses of the participants'performance on the proficiency tests of speaking and writing, the writing samples produced by the weekly journal task, and their responses to a questionnaire showed that the TBI course was effective enough to assist the learners to significantly improve proficiency levels of the L2 during such a time period of a 15-week long semester. The study also revealed that whether the learners would find the task topic interesting was significantly related to their confidence in using the L2, evaluation on the instructor's way of teaching, and overall evaluation on the TBI course. It also found that the college-level learners did not favor grammar instruction provided in an explicit way while appreciating opportunities to use the L2 in productive modes.