Improving the Understanding of Communication During Negotiations by Using Familiar tasks and Subtitled videos in an Online Task-Based Language Learning (TBLL) Environment

Abstract

It is via the utilization of subtitled films that this study investigates the influence that task familiarity has on the process of meaning negotiation. is a virtual environment that is designed to facilitate language acquisition through the use of activities that are task-based. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the extent to which individuals who are not native speakers (NNSs) engage in the process of negotiating meaning in order to improve their understanding of information and to boost their ability to learn a second language. Acquiring a new language to learn. Through the utilization of a chat feature in WebCT-Vista and an online task-based language learning (TBLL) environment that was developed expressly for this project, ten pairs of individuals who were not native speakers worked together to accomplish four communication tasks. A total of five pairs of students were shown movies with subtitles before they completed the tasks, whereas the remaining five pairs of students completed the tasks without watching the videos on their own. By utilizing Smith's (2003) modification of Gass and Varonis's (1985) model for negotiating meaning sequences in online communication, we were able to determine the degree of meaning negotiation that had taken place. As a result of the examination of the conversation transcripts, it was discovered that non-native speakers (NNSs) who had a better comprehension of the tasks engaged in longer conversations in order to explain the meaning, in contrast to those who did not have this level of comprehension.

Keywords-Understanding of Communication , Negotiations, Familiar tasks and Subtitled videos , Task-Based Language Learning (TBLL) Environment