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    Key Concepts in ELT: ELT Journal Volume 52/3 July 1998 © Oxford University Press 1998

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    Key Concepts in ELT: ELT Journal Volume 52/3 July 1998 © Oxford University Press 1998

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    Key Concepts in ELT: ELT Journal Volume 52/3 July 1998 © Oxford University Press 1998

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    honganh1982

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Key concepts in ELT

    Task participants are given clues and asked to


    Nunan (1989: 10) defines task as 'a piece of interpret them to solve a murder. Decision-
    classroom work which involves learners in making tasks are those in which participants are
    comprehending, manipulating, producing or expected to work towards one outcome from a
    interacting in the target language while their number of possible outcomes available to them.

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    attention is principally focused on meaning Other tasks include jigsaw, role-plays and
    rather than on form'. Task provides a purpose simulations, oral discussions, and project work.
    for the use and learning of language other than A problematic area in task design is finding clear
    simply learning language items for their own sake. criteria for the selection and grading of tasks. This
    Within the varying definitions of task found in the is because several factors come into play in
    literature (Kumaravadivelu 1993), three recurrent determining task difficulty, including the
    features stand out: task consists of specific goals or cognitive difficulty of the task, the amount of the
    outcomes, e.g. drawing a map or making a hotel language which the learner is required to process
    reservation; some input data, e.g. oral instructions and produce, the psychological stress involved in
    on how to draw the map or facsimile of hotel carrying out the task, time pressure, and the
    advertisements; and one or more related activities amount and type of background knowledge
    or procedures, e.g. deciding upon which hotel to involved.
    reserve based on the advertisements supplied.
    For example, a 'spot the difference' task which
    The term 'task' came into deliberate use in only requires students to establish the presence or
    applied linguistics in the early 1980s. Today it is absence of an (undescribed) object will clearly be
    a widely used concept both in second language linguistically less demanding than one which
    syllabus design and in second language acquisition requires greater precision of description.
    research (SLA). Because tasks promote Similarly, a passage which contains headings and
    naturalistic learning and catalyse acquisitional sub-headings, photographs, drawings, tables,
    processes, particularly when combined with graphs, and so on should be easier to process
    group work, they provide a close fit with than one in which there is no contextual support.
    communicative language teaching.
    Studies in SLA have proposed that some tasks are
    Tasks have been classified on pedagogic grounds, more beneficial than others in learners' language
    i.e. in terms of their potential to effectively development. Thus, two-way tasks, where each
    structure classroom interaction processes and participant in an interaction has information to
    generate negotiation, and on psycholinguistic transmit, are considered more effective than one-
    grounds, i.e. in terms of their potential to way tasks, where one participant has information
    stimulate internal processes of acquisition. A to give, and the other simply responds to that
    distinction is also made between target or real- information. Convergent tasks (where one answer
    world tasks and classroom learning tasks. must be agreed upon) are found to generate more
    One type of pedagogic task that has found a wide language than divergent tasks (where different
    variety of uses in language teaching is the viewpoints from participants are accepted).
    information gap task. An information gap is Other considerations in varying levels of difficulty
    created when each participant holds information and complexity in task construction involve the
    that the other does not already know, and must incorporation of pre-task and post-task activities,
    exchange it in order to complete a task. 'Spot the the provision of visual support, and the framing of
    difference' is an example of this kind of task, in tasks for learners. Salient concerns for task design
    which participants are given similar but slightly have been the inclusion of authentic texts and
    different pictures, and without looking at each activities and the integration of the language skills.
    other's pictures are asked to come to a consensus
    Tasks of one sort or another have provided the
    about the differences between them.
    basis for three distinct syllabus types: process
    Another communicatively productive task is the (Breen 1984, 1987), procedural (Prabhu 1987),
    problem-solving task, as, for example, when and task (Long 1985).
    264 ELT Journal Volume 52/3 July 1998 © Oxford University Press 1998
    Despite the brief history of task-based syllabuses, Long, M. 1985. 'A role for instruction in second
    task-based teaching has been particularly language acquisition: task-based language
    influential in generating quantities of stimulating teaching' in K. Hyltenstam and M. Pienemann
    instructional material, and has radically changed (eds.). Modelling and Assessing Second Lan-
    conceptions of what good teaching practice guage Acquisition. Clevedon: Multilingual Mat-
    involves from what it was twenty-five years ago. ters.
    Nunan, D. 1989. Designing Tasks for a Commu-
    nicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge
    References University Press.
    Breen, M. P. 1984. 'Process syllabus for the Prabhu, N. S. 1987. Second Language Pedagogy.
    language classroom'. ELT Documents 118: Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    47-60.
    Breen, M. P. 1987. 'Contemporary paradigms in The reviewer

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    syllabus design: Part IF. Language Teaching. Rani Rubdy is a Senior Lecturer in the Depart-
    July: 157-74. ment of English Language and Literature at the
    Candlin, C. N. and D. F. Murphy. 1987. Language National University of Singapore, where she
    Learning Tasks. Engelwood Cliffs, N.J.: teaches courses on language education and teach-
    Prentice Hall International. ing ESP. Prior to this, she taught at the Central
    Kumaravadivelu, B. 1993. 'The name of the task Institute of English and Foreign Languages,
    and the task of naming: methodological aspects Hyderabad, India. Her current research interests
    of task-based pedagogy' in G. Crookes and S. include teaching, classroom-based research, and
    M. Gass (eds.). Tasks in a Pedagogical Context. curriculum innovation.
    Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. E-mail: <[email protected]>

    Key concepts in ELT 265

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