Task based language teaching @mehdi sufi Task based language teaching @mehdi sufi Task based language teaching @mehdi sufi Task based language teaching @mehdi sufi Task based language teaching @mehdi sufi

1. Task-Based Language Teaching
TBLT (by: Mehdi Karimi)
TBLT is an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and teaching in language
pedagogy. It has its origin in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). TBLT earlier was used by
Malaysian and Bangalore Projects.
TBLT draws on severalprinciples that formed part of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
movement from the 1980s such as:
Activities that involve real communication are essential for language learning;
Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning;
Language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.
The key assumptions ofTBLT are:
 Focus on process rather than product
Emphasis on communication and meaning;
Language learned by interacting communicatively and purposefully;
 Activities and tasks can be achieved in real life and have a pedagogical purpose;
Activities and tasks of a task-based syllabus are sequenced according to difficulty.
TBLT proposes the notion of ‘task’ as a central unit of planning and instructing, it means ‘task’ is an
activity or goal that is carried out using language.
Nunan says the communicative task is a piece of classroom work which involves learners in
 Comprehending
 Manipulating
 Producing
 Interacting
Task-based training identified severalkey areas of concern:

2. analysis of real-world task-use situations
the translation of these into teaching tasks descriptions
the detailed design of instructional tasks
the sequencing of instructional tasks in classroom training/teaching
In TBLT, Task Analysis and Instructional Designing turned to team tasks. There are four categories of
team performance function:
 Orientation Functions (processes for generatinganddistributinginformation necessarytotask accomplishment toteam members)
 Organizational Functions (processes necessary for members to coordinateactions necessaryfortaskperformance)
 Adaptation Functions (processes occurringas teammembers adapt their performance toeach othertocomplete the task)
 Motivational Functions (definingteamobjectives and"energizingthe group"tocomplete thetask)
Academic tasks have also been the focus of considerable attention in general education since the early
1970s. Doyle noted that in elementary education, “the academic task is the mechanism through which the
curriculums enacted for students”. Academic tasks are defined as having four important dimensions:
 the products students are asked to produce
 the operations they are required to use in order to produce these products
 the cognitive operations required and the resources available
 the accountability system involved
TBL Approaches Theory of Language Theory of Learning
Theory of Language
TBLT is motivated primarily by a theory of learning rather than a theory of language. However,several
assumptions about the nature of language can be said to underlie current approaches to TBLT. These are:
 LANGUAGE IS PRIMARILY A MEANS OF MAKINGMEANING

3.  MULTIPLE MODELS OF LANGUAGE INFORMATION
Advocates of task-based instruction draw on structural, functional, and interactional models of language.
 LEXICAL UNITS ARE CENTRAL IN LANGUAGE USE AND LANGUAGE LEARNING
Vocabulary has been considered to play a more central role in second language learning than was
traditionally assumed. Vocabulary is here used to include the consideration of lexical phrases, sentence
stems, prefabricated routines, and collocations, and not only words as significant units of linguistic lexical
analysis and language pedagogy.
 "CONVERSATION"IS THE CENTRAL FOCUS OF LANGUAGE AND THE KEYSTONE OF
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Theory of Learning
TBI shares the general assumptionsabout the nature of language learning underlying Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT) . However some additional learning principles play a central role in TBLT
theory. These are:
 Tasks provide both the input and the output.
 Task activity and achievement are motivational.
 Learning difficulty can be negotiated and fine-tuned for particular pedagogical purposes.
DESIGN
Objectives: Goals are to be determined by the specific need of particularlearners.Selection of tasks,
according to Long and Crookes , should be based on a careful analysis of the real-world needs of
learners.
Syllabus
The differences between a conventional language syllabus and a task-based one are discussed below. A
conventional syllabus typically specifies the content of a course from among these categories:
 language structures
 functions
 topics and themes

4.  macro-skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking)
 competencies
 text types
 vocabulary targets
A TBLT syllabus, therefore,specifies the tasks that should be carried out by learners within a program.
Nunan suggests that a syllabus might specify two types of tasks:
 real-world tasks,which are designed to practice or rehearse those tasks that are found to be important
in a needs analysis and turn out to be important and useful in the real world
 pedagogical tasks,which have a psycholinguistic base and research but do not necessarily reflect real-
world tasks
In addition to selecting tasks as the basis for a TBLT syllabus, the ordering of tasks also has to be
determined. We can see that the intrinsic difficulty of tasks has been proposed as a basis for the
sequencing of tasks,but task difficulty is itself a concept that is not easy to determine. Honeyfield (1993)
offers the following considerations:
Procedures,or what the learners have to do to derive output from input
Input text
Output required
a) Language patterns: vocabulary, structures,discourse structures, processability,
b) Skills, both macro-skills and sub-skills
c) World knowledge or "topic content"
d) Text handling or conversation strategies
Amount and type of help given
Role of teachers and learners
Time allowed
Motivation
Confidence

5. Learning styles
Types of learning and teaching activities:
There are different views on the definition of the term task:
 Breen (1987): a structured plan.
 Prabhu (1987): an activity.
 Crookes (1986): piece of work or activity.
 Willis proposes six task types built on more or less traditional knowledge hierarchies. She labels her
task examples as follows:
 listing
 ordering and sorting
 comparing
 problem solving
 sharing personal experiences
 creative tasks
 Pica,Kanagy, and Falodun classify tasks according to the type of interaction that occurs in task
accomplishment and give the following classification:
 Jigsawtasks:
These involve learners combining different pieces of information to form a whole (e.g., three individuals
or groups may have three different parts of a story and have to piece the story together).
 Information-gap tasks:
One student or group of students has one set of information and another student or group has a
complementary set of information. They must negotiate and find out what the other party's information is
in order to complete an activity.
 Problem-solving tasks:
Students are given a problem and a set of information. They must arrive at a solution to the problem.
There is generally a single resolution of the outcome.
 Decision-making tasks:

6. Students are given a problem for which there are a number of possible outcomes and they must choose
one through negotiation and discussion.
 Opinion exchange tasks:
Learners engage in discussion and exchange of ideas. They do not need to reach agreement.
Other characteristics of tasks have also been described, such as the following:
one-way or two-way: whether the task involves a one-way exchange of information or a two-way
exchange
 convergent or divergent:whether the students achieve a common goal or severaldifferent goals
 collaborative or competitive:whether the students collaborate to carry out a task or compete with
each other on a task
 single or multiple outcomes:whether there is a single outcome or many different outcomes are
possible
 concrete or abstract language:whether the task involves the use of concrete language or abstract
language
 simple or complex processing:whether the task requires relatively simple or complex cognitive
processing
 simple or complex language:whether the linguistic demands of the task are relatively simple or
complex
 reality-based or not reality-based:whether the task mirrors a realworld activity or is a pedagogical
activity not found in the realworld
Learner roles
A number of specific roles for learners are assumed in current proposals for task-based instructions. Some
of these overlap with the general roles assumed for learners in Communicative Language Teaching while
others are created by the focus on task completion as a central learning activity. Primary roles that are
implied by task work are:
GROUP PARTICIPANT
Many tasks will be done in pairs or small groups.

7. MONITOR
In TBLT, tasks are not employed for their own sake but as a means of facilitating learning. Class
activities have to be designed so that students have the opportunity to notice how language is used in
communication. Learners themselves need to “attend” not only to the message in task work, but also to
the form in which such messages typically come packed. A number of learner-initiated techniques to
support learner reflection on task characteristics,including language form, are proposed in Bell and
Burnaby
RISK-TAKER AND INNOVATOR
Many tasks will require learners to create and interpret messages for which they lack full linguistic
resources and prior experience. In fact,this is said to be the point of such tasks. Practice in restating,
paraphrasing, using paralinguistic signals (where appropriate), and so on, will often be needed. The skills
of guessing from linguistic and contextual clues, asking for clarification, and consulting with other
learners may also need to be developed.
Teacher roles
Additional roles are also assumed for teachers in task-based instructions, including:
SELECTOR AND SEQUENCER OF TASKS
A central role of the teacher is in selecting, adapting, and/or creating the tasks themselves and then
forming these into an instructional sequence in keeping with learner needs, interests, and language skill
level.
PREPARINGLEARNERS FOR TASKS
tasks “cold” and that some sort of pre-task preparation orcuing is important.Such activitiesmight
include topic introduction, clarifying task instructions, helping students learn or recall useful words and
phrases to facilitate task accomplishment, and providing partial demonstration of task procedures. Such
cuing may be inductive and implicit or deductive and explicit.
CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING
Current views of TBLT hold that if learners are to acquire language through participating in tasks they
need to attend to or notice critical featuresof the language they use and hear. This is referred to as
“Focus on Form.” TBLT proponents stressthat this doesnot mean doing a grammar lesson before
students take on a task. It does mean employing a variety of form-focusing techniques, including
attention-focusing pre-task activities, text exploration, guided exposure to parallel tasks, and use of
highlighted material.

8. The role of instructional materials
 Pedagogic materials
Materials that can be exploited for instruction in TBLT are limited only by the imagination of the task
designer. Many contemporary language teaching texts cite a “task focus” or “task-based activities” among
their credentials, though most of the tasks that appear in such books are familiar classroom activities for
teachers who employ collaborative learning, Communicative Language Teaching, or small-group
activities. Several teacher resource books are available that contain representative sets of sample task
activities
 Realia
TBLT proponents favor the use of authentic tasks supported by authentic materials wherever possible.
Popular media obviously provide rich resources for such materials.The following are some of the task
types that can be built around such media products: Newspapers,Television, & Internet
Procedure has the following sub-branches:
 Pre-task
Is the introduction to the topic and the task. The teacher helps the students to understand the theme and
objectives of the task. Brainstorming ideas, mime, personal experience, read the text, think vocabulary,
etc.
 Task
Is done by the students. The teacher walks monitoring and encouraging them.
 Planning
In this stage the students prepares the next step (Report). They make a draft of what they want to say or
write.
 Report
The teacher ask the students to report to the whole class what they did in the task.
 Post-task
The students listen to a recording of fluent speakers doing the same task,and compare the ways in which
they did the task themselves.

9. Conclusion
Few would question the pedagogical value of employing tasks as a vehicle for promoting communication
and authentic language use in second language classrooms, and depending on one’s definition of a task,
tasks have long been part of the mainstream repertoire of language teaching techniques for teachers of
many different methodological persuasions. TBLT, however, offers a different rationale for the use of
tasks as well as different criteria for the design and use of tasks. It is the dependence on tasks as the
primary source of pedagogical input in teaching and the absence of a systematic grammatical or other
type of syllabus that characterizes current versions of TBLT, and that distinguishes it from the use of
tasks in Competency-Based Language Teaching, another task-based approach but one that is not wedded
to the theoretical framework and assumptions of TBLT. Many aspects of TBLT have yet to be justified,
such as proposed schemes for task types, task sequencing, and evaluation of task performance. And the
basic assumption of Task-Based Language Teaching – that it provides for a more effective basis for
teaching than other language teaching approaches – remains in the domain of ideology rather than fact.
Enjoy Learning,
Mehdi Karimi, Magic 7