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What Is Task Based Language Teaching

Task based language teaching (TBLT) is an approach that provides students with tasks to complete using the target language. This allows students to actively engage with and process language in order to achieve a goal. Common tasks include making tea, writing an essay, or talking on the phone. TBLT aims to develop students' language skills through providing meaningful tasks and using language to solve them. The approach follows a cycle including a pre-task, task, planning, report, analysis, and practice phases.

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Dovilė Paužuolytė
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103 views

What Is Task Based Language Teaching

Task based language teaching (TBLT) is an approach that provides students with tasks to complete using the target language. This allows students to actively engage with and process language in order to achieve a goal. Common tasks include making tea, writing an essay, or talking on the phone. TBLT aims to develop students' language skills through providing meaningful tasks and using language to solve them. The approach follows a cycle including a pre-task, task, planning, report, analysis, and practice phases.

Uploaded by

Dovilė Paužuolytė
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is task based language teaching?

There are numerous theories and approaches to teaching a second language, some exotic some mundane but all have one thing in common a desire to make the acquisition of a foreign or second language as efficient and effective as possible. Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is an approach which offers students material which they have to actively engage in the processing of in order to achieve a goal or complete a task. Much like regular tasks that we perform everyday such as making the tea, writing an essay, talking to someone on the phone, TBLT seeks to develop students interlanguage through providing a task and then using language to solve it.

Pre-task In the pre-task, the teacher will present what will be expected of the students in the task phase. Additionally, the teacher may prime the students with key vocabulary or grammatical constructs, although, in "pure" task-based learning lessons, these will be presented as suggestions and the students would be encouraged to use what they are comfortable with in order to complete the task. The instructor may also present a model of the task by either doing it themselves or by presenting picture, audio, or video demonstrating the task.[1] Task During the task phase, the students perform the task, typically in small groups, although this is dependent on the type of activity. And unless the teacher plays a particular role in the task, then the teacher's role is typically limited to one of an observer or counselorthus the reason for it being a more student-centered methodology. Planning Having completed the task, the students prepare either a written or oral report to present to the class. The instructor takes questions and otherwise simply monitors the students. Report The students then present this information to the rest of the class. Here the teacher may provide written or oral feedback, as appropriate, and the students observing may do the same. Analysis Here the focus returns to the teacher who reviews what happened in the task, in regards to language. It may include language forms that the students were using, problems that students had, and perhaps forms that need to be covered more or were not used enough. Practice The practice stage may be used to cover material mentioned by the teacher in the analysis stage. It is an opportunity for the teacher to emphasize key language.

Advantages Task-based learning is advantageous to the student because it is more student-centered, allows for more meaningful communication, and often provides for practical extra-linguistic skill building. Although the teacher may present language in the pre-task, the students are ultimately free to use what grammar constructs and vocabulary they want. This allows them to use all the language they know and are learning, rather than just the 'target language' of the lesson. Furthermore, as the tasks are likely to be familiar to the students (eg: visiting the doctor), students are more likely to be engaged, which may further motivate them in their language learning. Disadvantages While task-based language learning is increasingly promoted world-wide and has the advantages described above, there are trade-offs and pitfalls to be considered in planning instruction around it. These include the risk that students will stay within the narrow confines of familiar words and forms, just "getting by", so as to avoid the extra effort and risks of error that accompany stretching to use new words and forms. As with all group work, in group tasks, some students can "hide" and rely on others to do the bulk of the work and learning.. A third challenge, one applying to many otherwise valuable language teaching methods, is the difficulty of implementing task-based teaching where classes are large and space limited and/or inflexible.

The World Tomorrow Students are asked to write down a list of changes they expect to see in the world by a date 50 years in the future. For example: We will have a working day of four hours. Every home will have a video telephone. People will live to be 100 years old or more. They may be told to write as many ideas as possible in the time given or they may be asked to write ideas for a particular topic-area (e.g. education, sport, fashion, technology, etc.). The ideas are then read out and discussed. Those that most of the class agree with may be written up on the board.

Variations: In groups, students try to sort their predictions into optimistic and pessimisticones.

Later, students may choose predictions that appeal to them and use them as the topic for a short essay.

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