Preparing Future-Ready TESOL Educators in the Age of GenAI
By Dr Gavin Bui
The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong
In the context of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), L2 task performance has traditionally been measured in terms of complexity, accuracy, lexis, and fluency (CALF). However, these parameters focus exclusively on the linguistic properties of the language used, neglecting pragmatic competence in task performance. The concept of functional adequacy (FA) has been proposed to address this gap (Kuiken and Vedder, 2016, 2018), encompassing scales of content, task requirements, comprehensibility, and coherence and cohesion. To date, most studies on FA have concentrated on quantitative results, with little research exploring learners’ perceptions of FA from a qualitative perspective. Moreover, there is a scarcity of research on how learner backgrounds, such as cultural understanding, impact learners’ perceptions and performance of FA. To address these research gaps, the current study collected data from post-task interviews with eight university students, their preparatory notes taken prior to and during task performance, as well as the researcher’s field notes. The results indicated that, although learners’ perceptions of FA could generally be categorised according to Kuiken and Vedder’s quadripartite FA framework, there were some misalignments in the “content” and “task requirements” components of FA. Additionally, it was found that cultural sensitivity may be an additional dimension that needs to be addressed in a reliable and valid FA framework. Theoretical and pedagogical implications will be discussed.
Biography
Gavin Bui is an Associate Professor and Associate Head in the English Department at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, where he also serves as the Director of the MA in English Language Teaching and Assessment programme. He is the co-editor of the Asian Journal of English Language Teaching and served as the President of the Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics from 2021 to 2023. His primary research interest lies in task-based language teaching and learning. His recent publications have appeared in international journals such as Studies in Second Language Acquisition (2024), Journal of English for Academic Purposes (2024), Language Teaching Research (2024, 2022), and Studies in Second Language Teaching and Learning (2021).
