This paper reports the findings of a study into the use of task- and
topic-based activities in small-group work during English speaking lessons
and whether such activities promote collaborative interaction among group
members. The setting is an ELT pre-service teacher training programme in
western Turkey. Following a description of the contextual background to the
study, brief reviews are given of theoretical concepts concerned with the
development of speaking as a major language skill for teachers of English,
pedagogical tasks and collaborative learning experiences. The purpose of the
study was to try and discover whether these concepts combine neatly for
pedagogical purposes, as they would appear to. A description of the study is
followed by a section on the aims, methodology and analysis. Finally, the
findings of the study are presented and discussed and some conclusions are
drawn.