Task based language teaching

2. • Task-based Language Teaching
• What is task?
• Task-based Language Teaching Background
• Types of Task in TBLT
• Macrofunctions
• A framework for TBLT
• Syllabus Design

4. • It refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of
planning and instruction in language teaching.
• It is presented as a logical development of Communicative Language
Teaching.
• Some researchers (Kumaravadivelu, 2006) argue that TBLT is significantly
different from CLT but some (Ellis, 2003) thinks that TBLT is at the very
core of CLT. This pedagogy puts the use of TASKS at the core of language
teaching.

5. • A task is any activity that learners engage in to process of learning a language.
(Williams and Burden, 1997:168)
• A task is a range of learning activities from the simple and brief exercises
to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or
simulations and decision-making. (Breen, 1987:23)
• An activity which required learners to arrive at an outcome from given
information through some process of thought and which allowed teachers
to control and regulate that process was regarded as a task. (Prabhu , 1987:24)

6. • Task can be thought of as Function + context.
• Task allows for functions (and grammar) to be activated in a particularparticular
communicativecommunicative context.
• The communicativecommunicative task is a piece of classroom work which involves
learners in ComprehendingComprehending; ManipulatingManipulating; ProducingProducing; InteractingInteracting

7. The communicativecommunicative tasks is “as a piece of classroom work which
involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or
interacting in the target language while their attention is primarily
focused on meaning rather than form. The task should also have
sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a
communicativecommunicative act in its own right”.

8. Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT)
is an approach which offers students opportunities to actively
engage in communication in order to achieve a goal or complete
a task. TBLT seeks to develop students’ inter-language through
providing a task and then using language to solve it.

9. • It was first developed by N. Prabhu in Bangladore, Southern
India.
• Prabhu believed that students may learn more effectively when
their minds are focused on the task, rather than on the language
they are using. (Prabhu, 1987; as cited in Littlewood, 2004)

10. • TBLT makes the performance of meaningful tasks central to
the learning process.
• Instead of a language structure or function to be learnt, students
are presented with a task they have to perform or a problem they
have to solve. (Harmer, J. The practice of English Language
Teaching, 2007:71)

11. • TBLT constitutes a strong version of Communicative Language
Teaching. (Skehan, 2003)
• Teacher’s dominant authority turns into teacher’s guiding in TBLT;
because, teacher centered learning (PPP) becomes learner centered.
• It can be seen as both a refinement of Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) and a reaction to the use of PPP. (Ellis, 2003)

12. • Tasks can be easily related to students’ real-life language needs.
• They create contexts that facilitate second language acquisition.
• Tasks create opportunities for focusing on form.
• Students are more likely to develop intrinsic motivation in a task-based
approach.
• A task-based approach enables teachers to see if students are developing the
ability to communicate in an L2.

13. 1. Target tasks:
• which students must achieve beyond the classroom.
• Much more specific and more explicitly related to classroom instruction.
• Specifies a context.
1. Pedagogical tasks:
• Form the nucleus of the classroom activity
• Include series of techniques to ultimately teach students to perform the target task.
• Involve students in some form of simulation of the target task.
• Distinguished by their specific goals that point beyond the language classroom to the target task.

14. • Tasks ultimately points learners to the application of language in real-life situations.
• Tasks are not heavily guided by the need for correct grammatical and structural
aspects of the language.
• Tasks specifically contribute to communicative goals.
• Their objectives are well specified so that you can at some later point accurately
determine the success of a task over another.
• Tasks engage learners, at some level, in genuine problem-solving activity.

15. 1. To exchange goods and services (transactional or service
macrofunction)
2. To socialize with others (interpersonal or social
macrofunction)
3. To enjoy (aesthetic macrofunction)

17. 1. Communicative involvement in pedagogical tasks is the necessary and
sufficient condition of successful L2 acquisition.
• L2 acquisition is a subconscious process in which conscious teaching of grammar is
unnecessary.
• Language is best taught when it is being used to transmit messages not when it is
explicitly taught for conscious learning. (Krashen and Terrell 1983:55)
• The classroom should attempt to simulate natural process of acquisition, and that
form-focused exercises are unnecessary.

18. 2. Nunan believes:
• Language classrooms are unnatural by design,
• They exist precisely to provide for learners the kinds of practice opportunities that do
not exist outside the classroom.
• Students in early stages can benefit from a focus on form. (Doughty and William 1998;
Long 1985; and Robinson 1998)
• A pedagogy that reveals to learners systematic interrelationships between form,
meaning and use is needed. (Larsen-Freeman 2001)

20. • A kind of ‘half-way house’
1. Similar to language exerciseslanguage exercises: provide manipulated
practice of restricted set of language items.
2. Similar to pedagogical taskspedagogical tasks: have element of
meaningful communication.

21. • Task are tied together:
1.Units of work or lessons through the principle of
chaining
2.At the broader syllabus level, topically/ thematically
through macrofunctions, microfunctions and
grammar elements

22. • Synthetic syllabus: a static target language product orientation, just one or
two “shots” at the item in the question P. 29
• Task-based syllabus:
 allows for a great deal of naturalistic recycling,
 grammatical and functional items: numerous times in diverse range of contexts,
 favors an organic view of language acquisition,
 is spiral rather than ‘one-shot’.

23. 1. Schema building
2. Controlled practice ‘communicative context’
3. Authentic listening practice
4. Focus on linguistic elements
5. Provide freer practice ‘pushed output’
6. Introduce the pedagogical task

24. 1.1. ScaffoldingScaffolding: Lessons should provide supporting framework within which the learning takes place.
2.2. Task dependencyTask dependency: Within a lesson, one task should grow out of, and build upon, the ones that have gone before.
3.3. RecyclingRecycling: Recycling language maximizes opportunities for learning and activates ‘organic’ learning principle.
4.4. Active learningActive learning
5.5. IntegrationIntegration: Learners should be taught in a ways that make clear the relationship between linguistic form,
communicative function and semantic meaning.
6.6. Reproduction to creationReproduction to creation
7.7. ReflectionReflection: Learners should be given opportunities to reflect on what they have learned and how well
they are doing.

25. Shavelson and Stern (1981):
1. Content
2. Materials
3. Activities
4. Goals
5. Students
6. Social community

26. Candling (1987):
Tasks should contain input, roles, setting, actions,
monitoring, outcomes and feedback.

27. Wright (1987a)
Tasks need to contain only two elements:
1.Input data
2.Initiating question

29. • Input
• Genuine
• Altered
• Adapted
• Simulated
• Minimal/incidental
• Task types:
• Information gap
• Reasoning gap
• Opinion gap

30. • Procedure
• Procedural authenticity
• Focus and goal in a procedure
• Accuracy VS Fluency
• Locus of control in a task procedure
• Teacher-Learner Role
• Setting

32. Thank you for your patience.
For any further question refer to:
•Dickinson, Paul. Implementing Task-Based Language Teaching in a
Japanese EFL Context
•Priyana, Joko. Task-Based Language Instruction
•Littlewood, William. The Task-Based Approach :Some Questions
and Suggestions
•Skehani, Peter. Task-Based Instruction• Skehan, Peter. A
Framework for the Implementation of Task-BasedInstruction