TASK BASED LANGUAGE

TEACHING
What is a task?

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TASK (1): a piece of work that must be done,
especially one that is difficult or that must be
done regularly.

TASK (2): to give someone the responsibility for

doing something.

(Longman English Dictionary)

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 A task is any activity that learners engage
in to process of learning a language.
(Williams and Burden, 1997:168)

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 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)

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 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)

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 What is Task Based Language
Teaching?

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 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’ interlanguage through providing
a task and then using language to solve it.

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 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)

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 On the other hand, using tasks for teaching first
appeared in the vocational training practice of the 1950’s.
Task focused here first derived from training design
concerns of the military regarding new military technologies
and occupational specialities of the period. Task analysis
initially focused on solo psychomotor tasks for which little
communication or collaboration was involved.

(Richards & Rodgers, 2001:225)

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 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)

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 Some Concrete Examples of a Task

• Preparing a meal • Two pictures or texts to

• Ordering food in a cafe find the differences
• Talking to someone on • Solving a problem
the phone • Designing a brochure.
• Compiling qualities of a
good friend.

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 Help! Thieves!

Can you describe There were two Did the Yes, glasses and
the thieves? thieves, a man woman wear long black hair.
and a woman glasses? She is young.

Did the man

have a
A black
moustache, but
Look at these Yes, here A task taken from
pictures. they are!
moustache? no glasses. He
has short hair.
a task-based syllabus for
beginners.

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 TBLT constitutes a strong version of Communicative
Language Teaching.
(Skehan, 2003b)

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: ix)

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Why do we use a task-based
approach?

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• 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.

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 What is Focusing on Form?

Two essential characteristics of focus-on-

form:
1) the overriding focus in a form-focused
classroom is meaning or communication, and
2) attention to form arises incidentally in
response to communicative need

(Ellis, 2001)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

THEORY OF LANGUAGE

1. Language is primarily a means of making meaning.

2. Multiple models of language inform task based

instruction.

(Richards & Rodgers, 2001: 226-228)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

THEORY OF LANGUAGE

3. Lexical units are central in language use and

language learning.

4. “Conversation” is the central focus of language

and the keystone of language acquisition.

(Richards & Rodgers, 2001: 227-228)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

THEORY OF LEARNING

1. Tasks provide both the input and output processing

necessary for language acquisition.

2. Task activity and achievement are motivational.

3. Learning difficulty can be negotiated and fine-tuned

for particular pedagogical purpose.
(Richards & Rodgers, 2001: 228-229)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

PRINCIPLES
1. Making errors is natural and is considered as a part
of the process in acquiring the target language.

2. Exposure to comprehensible input is crucial.

3. Learning tasks facilitating learners to engage in

interactions are essential.

(Priyana, 2006)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

PRINCIPLES
4. Learners need to be encouraged to produce the target
language as producing the target language facilitates
learning.

5. Although language production may be encouraged

from the early stage in the learning process, it is
reasonable to allow a silent period.

6. Focus on form is necessary.

(Priyana, 2006)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

PRINCIPLES
7. Second language teaching and learning pace should be
made reasonable for both learners with higher and lower
aptitude.

8. Language learning tasks should be varied to cater for the

needs for both extrovert and introvert learners.

9. Learning tasks should encourage learners to attend to both

meaning and form and be varied in order to accommodate
learners with different learning strategy preferences.

(Priyana, 2006)
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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

PRINCIPLES
10. Teaching and learning processes should foster
motivation and minimize learner anxiety.

11. The choice of teaching and learning tasks and content

should be based on learner age.

12. Learning tasks should arouse and maintain learners’

learning motivation.

(Priyana, 2006)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

OBJECTIVES

• to facilitate students’ language learning by engaging them in

a variety of tasks that have a clear outcome.

(Larsen-Freeman, 2001: 156)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

OBJECTIVES

• to give learners confidence in trying out whatever language

they know,
• to give learners experience of spontaneous interaction,
• to give learners the chance to benefit from noticing how
others express similar meanings,
• to give learners chances for negotiating turns to speak,

(Willis, 1996: 35–6)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

OBJECTIVES

• to engage learners in using language purposefully and

cooperatively,
• to make learners participate in a complete interaction, not
just one-off sentences,
• to give learners chances to try out communication
strategies,
• to develop learners’ confidence that they can achieve
communicative goals.

(Willis, 1996: 35–6)

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 APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

LISTING: Processes - Brainstorming, fact-finding.

ORDERING AND SORTING: Processes - Sequencing, ranking, categorizing, classifying.

COMPARING: Processes - Matching, finding similarities, finding differences.

Processes - Analysing real or hypothetical situations,

PROBLEM SOLVING:
reasoning, and decision making.

SHARING PERSONAL Processes - Narrating, describing, exploring and explaining

EXPERIENCES: attitudes, opinions, reactions.

Processes - Brainstorming, fact-finding, ordering and sorting,

CREATIVE TASKS:
comparing, problem solving and many others (Willis 1996). 28
APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

SYLLABUS

Analytic Syllabus Synthetic Syllabus

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

1. Jigsaw Tasks
2. Information-gap Tasks
3. Problem-solving Tasks
4. Decision-making Tasks
5. Opinion exchange Tasks

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

LEARNER ROLES

1.Group Participant

2.Monitor

3.Risk-Taker and Innovator

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

TEACHER ROLES

1. Selector and Sequencer Of Tasks

2. Preparing Learners For Tasks

3. Consciousness-Raising

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

- Books
- Newspaper
- Magazine
- Radio programs
- CDs
- TV
- Internet
- Board
- Worksheets

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

THE FRAMEWORK FOR TBL INSTRUCTION

Pre-task

Task Cycle

Post-task

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

PRE-TASK
• Use materials such as
picture/text/song etc. to lead into
the topic.
• Brainstorming, comparing ideas,
sharing experiences.
• Provide elicit vocabulary.
• Provide a model, exploit role-play.
• Do a similar task
• Allow the students time to plan.

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

TASK CYCLE

• Pair work and small group work

versus the whole class.
• Introduce a surprise element.
• Set a time for completing the task.
• Vary the number of participants.
• Tell students they will have to
present a report to the whole class.

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

POST-TASK
• Students give a report.
• Repeat the task (e.g. students switch groups)
• Consciousness-raising activities.
• Students listen to a recording or watch a clip
of fluent speakers doing the same task, and
compare their tasks with theirs.
• Teacher gives feedback and evaluates the
success of the task.

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 Introduction to topic and task: Teacher explores the topic with the
Pre-task class, highlights useful words and phrases, helps students understand
task instructions and prepare.

Task: Students do the task, in pairs or small groups. Teacher monitors.

Planning: Students prepare to report to the whole class( orally or in
Task writing) how they did the task, what they decided or discovered.
Cycle Report: Some groups present their reports to the class, or exchange
written reports and compare results. (Students receive feedback on their
level of success on completing the task).

Analysis: Students examine and discuss specific features of the text or

Languag transcript of the recording.
e Focus Practice: Teacher conducts practice or new words, phrases and patterns
occurring in the data, either during or after the analysis. (Willis
1996: 38)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

How is error correction

done?

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

TBLT is based on the principle that

language learning will progress most
successfully if teaching aims simply to create
contexts in which the learner’s natural
language learning capacity can be nurtured
rather than making a systematic attempt to
teach the language bit by bit.
(Ellis, 2009:222)

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

It may help to encourage students to use the

target language actively and meaningfully.

But still, many aspects of TBLT have to be

justified such as task type, task sequencing and
evaluation of task performance.

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APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION

The basic assumption of TBLT -that it

provides for a more effective basis for teaching
than other language teaching approaches-
remains in the domain of ideology rather than
fact.
It depends on tasks as the primary source
of pedagogical input in teaching, but the
absence of a systematic grammatical syllabus
entails current versions of TBLT.

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