Task based learning

 How often do we as teachers ask our students to do
something in class which they would do in everyday
life using their own language? Probably not often
enough.

 If we can make language in the classroom meaningful
therefore memorable, students can process language
which is being learned or recycled more naturally.

 Task-based learning offers the student an opportunity
to do exactly this. The primary focus of classroom
activity is the task and language is the instrument
which the students use to complete it. The task is an
activity in which students use language to achieve a
specific outcome.

 Most of the task-based lessons in this section are
what Scrivener* classifies as authentic and
follow the task structure proposed by Willis and
Willis*.

 Each task will be organised in the following way:
 Pre-task activity an introduction to topic and
task
 Task cycle: Task > Planning > Report
 Language Focus and Feedback
 A balance should be kept between fluency, which
is what the task provides, and accuracy, which is
provided by task feedback.

 Level:
 Pre-intermediate and above

 It is assumed in this lesson that your school has the following student
resources; books (graded readers), video, magazines and Internet. Don’t
worry if it doesn’t, the lesson can be adjusted accordingly.

 Pre-task Preparation:
 One of the tasks is a video exercise which involves viewing a movie clip
with the sound turned off. This can be any movie depending on
availability, but the clip has to involve a conversation between two
people.

 Pre-task activity:
 In pairs students discuss the following questions:
 Do you use English outside the classroom?
 How?
 What ways can you practise English outside the classroom?

 Stage One - Running dictation.
 Put the text from worksheet one on the wall either inside
or outside the classroom. Organise your students into
pairs. One student will then go to the text, read the text
and then go back to her partner and relay the information
to her. The partner who stays at the desk writes this
information. When teams have finished check for accuracy.
You can make this competitive should you wish.

 Stage Two
 In pairs students then read the Getting To Know Your
Resources task sheet (worksheet two). Check any problem
vocabulary at this stage. This worksheet can be adapted
according to the resource room at your school.


 Stage Three
 Depending on how the resources are organised in your
centre, students then go, in pairs, to the resource room or
wherever the resources are kept and complete the tasks on
the task sheet.

 Stage Four
 Working with a different partner students now compare
and share their experience.

 Stage Five - Feedback.
 Having monitored the activity and the final stage, use this
opportunity to make comments on your students’
performance. This may take form of a correction slot on
errors or pronunciation, providing a self-correction slot.


 Level:
 Pre-intermediate and above
 Students may need at least a week to do this
activity, depending on the availability of the teachers
in your centre

 Pre-task activity
 In pairs students talk about an English teacher they
have had.
 What was her name?
 Where was she from?
 How old was she?
 Do you remember any of her lessons?
 What was your favourite activity in her class?

 Stage One
 Using the Getting To Know Your Teachers task sheet (worksheet
three) and the Interview Questions (worksheet four) students
write the questions for the questionnaire they are going to use to
interview the teachers.

 Stage Two
 To set up the activity students then interview you and record the
information.

 Stage Three
 Depending on which teachers are free at this time they can then
go and interview other teachers and record the information. You
may wish to bring other teachers into your class to be
interviewed or alternatively give your students a week or so to
complete the task, interviewing teachers before or after class, or
whenever they come to the centre.

 Stage Four
 Working with a different partner students compare their answers and
experiences then decide on their final answers on the superlative
questions.
 Stage Five
 Feedback and reflection. Allow time for students to express their
opinions and experiences of the activity. Provide any feedback you feel is
necessary.

 Further Activities
 The Get To Know Your Resources task sheet could be turned into a school
competition entry form. Possible prizes could include a video or some
readers.

 *Stephen Krashen, The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the
Classroom, 1996
 *Jim Scrivener Learning Teaching 1995
 *Jane Willis and Dave Willis Challenge and Change in Language Teaching


 Tim Bowen
 1. Introduction
 At the outset of my teaching career, I readily
adopted what little teaching methodology I was
aware of to my classroom practice. As with most
new teachers fresh from the CELTA course, my
lessons followed the PPP
(presentation, practise, production) model, or
slight variations thereof. However, as my
teaching quickly developed on a steep learning
curve, so did my awareness of other
methodological possibilities, and also the
shortcomings of the method I had thus far
applied. Nevertheless, I persisted with this
method.

 . A Comparison of Approaches

PPP
 As stated, the model I based much of my early teaching on
was PPP In this method, a particular language item is
.
presented by the teacher, it is then practised in a
controlled way by the learners2, and then finally used by
the learners in freer practise activities. My reasons for
using this model were twofold. Firstly, it was the one
presented to me during my initial teacher training.
Furthermore, it offered me a very safe framework in which
to operate as an inexperienced teacher, in that it is a
reasonably straightforward process to present a structure
from a grammatical syllabus (most coursebooks tend to
have this to a lesser or greater extent).

 TTT
 A radically different model exists in the form of TTT
(test, teach, test), in that the production stage
occurs first: the learners are required to perform a
task3 without any input or guidance from the teacher.
The grammatical or lexical problems that this activity
generates are used by the teacher for language
analysis, the learners then being asked to do a
similar/the same task again. Although Bowen suggests
that the language presented in the 'teach' can be
predicted (especially if the initial test is car fully
chosen)4, there is a distinct danger of randomness
which in turn means that the language focus may not
reflect the needs of the learner

 TBL
A third model for organising lessons is
offered by Willis (1996)5. Task-based learning
is not entirely different from the
aforementioned TTT, although this approach
clearly takes into account the need for
authentic communication. Typically there are
three stages6;

 The Pre-task Phase
 Before the task, the teacher explores the
topic with the class. Useful (relevant) lexical
items may be given. Also, the learners may
be given further input, such as a recording of
someone doing a similar task or part of an
authentic text as a lead in. During the pre-
task stage the learners will have their
schemata7 activated, and given the
opportunity to become personally involved in
the lesson.

 The Task Cycle
 The task cycle can be broken down into three
stages8; task, in which the learners do the task;
planning, when the learners prepare to report to
the whole class (usually orally or in writing) how
they did the task; and report, when the reports
are presented to the class and results compared.
 During the task, the teacher monitors and
encourages all attempts at communication
without correcting. Willis suggests that this
harbours a free environment in whish learners
are willing to experiment (as mistakes aren't
important)9. At this stage in a PPP lesson the
focus would be very much on accuracy, with all
mistakes corrected.

 Language Focus
 The language focus consists of analysis and
practice. In the analysis learners examine
the recording or text for new lexical items or
structures, which they then record. The
teacher conducts a practice of the new items
either during the analysis or after. The
learners are given the opportunity to reflect
on how they performed the task and on the
new language they used in this final part of
the lesson12.


 What TBL Offers
 Such a framework theoretically provides the
learner with an opportunity to use the
language they need for genuine
communication13. I will now consider how
this approach benefits the learner, and how
it theoretically eliminates the pitfalls of
other teaching approaches.


 Motivation
A need to achieve the objectives of the task
and report on it provide short-term
motivation. Long-term motivation will be
gained from successfully completing tasks14.
Bowen (2002) notes that the range of useable
tasks15 offer a great deal of flexibility and
should also lead to more motivating activities
for learners16. TBL also therefore
accommodates different learning styles

 Private v Public
 There are clear instances in TBL in which the
learner has the chance to privately practice
the language, using it fluently, and then to
publicly show other learners that they can
use the language in a fluent and accurate
manner. There is no such opportunity or
necessity for public performance in the other
methodologies.

 Reflection
 Task-based learning offers action and
reflection. In contrast, PPP is relatively low
in action and offers little if any chance for
reflection as the language focus comes at the
start of the lesson, and is entirely teacher
generated.


 Potential Shortcomings
 Learners who are used to a more traditional
grammatical syllabus may find this approach
difficult to come to terms with. This is
primarily due to the apparent randomness of
TBL, a criticism shared with TTT. Littlewood
(1999) notes that one of the features of TBL
that worries teachers is that it seems to have
no place for the teaching of grammar17.

 Relevance to Teaching Contexts
 As stated, PPP is popular with many new
teachers, as it offers what Scrivener (1996)
defines as a single, simple, clear, workable
lesson model21. Furthermore, it is very
comforting for the teacher to be in charge of
proceedings22, and this method of teaching is
largely based on teacher activity. This ties in
with shortcomings mentioned in the
introduction, in that it isn't facilitating the
needs of learners so much as easing the life
of the teacher.

 Conclusion
 TBL offers a structured approach to
learning, and supports the notion that learning
occurs most effectively when related to the real-
life tasks undertaken by an individual. TBL
encourages the development of the reflective
learner, and accommodates a wide range of
learning styles. TBL offers an attractive
combination of pragmatism and idealism:
pragmatism in the sense that learning with an
explicit sense of purpose is an important source
of student motivation and satisfaction; idealism
in that it is consistent with current theories of
education.

 What is Task-Based Learning?

 Using tasks
 Teachers have been using tasks for hundreds of years.
Frequently, in the past, the task was a piece of
translation often from a literary source. More
recently, tasks have included projects for producing
posters, brochures, pamphlets, oral
presentations, radio plays, videos, websites and
dramatic performances.
The characteristic of all these tasks is that rather
than concentrating on one particular
structure, function or vocabulary group, these tasks
exploit a wider range of language. In many
cases, students may also be using a range of different
communicative language skills.

 Does it work?
 Task-based learning can be very effective at
Intermediate levels and beyond, but many
teachers question its usefulness at lower
levels. The methodology requires a change in
the traditional teacher's role. The teacher
does not introduce and 'present' language or
interfere ('help') during the task cycle. The
teacher is an observer during the task phase
and becomes a language informant only
during the 'language focus' stage.

 Present Practice Produce (PPP)
During an initial teacher training course, most teachers become
familiar with the PPP paradigm. A PPP lesson would proceed in
the following manner.
 First, the teacher presents an item of language in a clear
context to get across its meaning. This could be done in a variety
of ways: through a text, a situation build, a dialogue etc.
 Students are then asked to complete a controlled practice
stage, where they may have to repeat target items through
choral and individual drilling, fill gaps or match halves of
sentences. All of this practice demands that the student uses the
language correctly and helps them to become more comfortable
with it.
 Finally, they move on to the production stage, sometimes called
the 'free practice' stage. Students are given a communication
task such as a role play and are expected to produce the target
language and use any other language that has already been
learnt and is suitable for completing it.

 The problems with PPP
It all sounds quite logical but teachers who use this
method will soon identify problems with it:
 Students can give the impression that they are
comfortable with the new language as they are
producing it accurately in the class. Often though a
few lessons later, students will either not be able to
produce the language correctly or even won't produce
it at all.
 Students will often produce the language but overuse
the target structure so that it sounds completely
unnatural.
 Students may not produce the target language during
the free practice stage because they find they are
able to use existing language resources to complete
the task.

A Task-based approach
Task -based Learning offers an alternative for
language teachers. In a task-based lesson the
teacher doesn't pre-determine what language
will be studied, the lesson is based around
the completion of a central task and the
language studied is determined by what
happens as the students complete it. The
lesson follows certain stages.

 Pre-task
The teacher introduces the topic and gives
the students clear instructions on what they
will have to do at the task stage and might
help the students to recall some language
that may be useful for the task. The pre-task
stage can also often include playing a
recording of people doing the task. This gives
the students a clear model of what will be
expected of them. The students can take
notes and spend time preparing for the task.

 Task
The students complete a task in pairs or groups using the
language resources that they have as the teacher monitors
and offers encouragement.
 Planning
Students prepare a short oral or written report to tell the
class what happened during their task. They then practice
what they are going to say in their groups. Meanwhile the
teacher is available for the students to ask for advice to
clear up any language questions they may have.
 Report
Students then report back to the class orally or read the
written report. The teacher chooses the order of when
students will present their reports and may give the
students some quick feedback on the content. At this stage
the teacher may also play a recording of others doing the
same task for the students to compare.

 Analysis
The teacher then highlights relevant parts from
the text of the recording for the students to
analyse. They may ask students to notice
interesting features within this text. The teacher
can also highlight the language that the students
used during the report phase for analysis.
 Practice
Finally, the teacher selects language areas to
practise based upon the needs of the students
and what emerged from the task and report
phases. The students then do practice activities
to increase their confidence and make a note of
useful language

 The advantages of TBL
Task-based learning has some clear advantages
 Unlike a PPP approach, the students are free of
language control. In all three stages they must use all
their language resources rather than just practising
one pre-selected item.
 A natural context is developed from the students'
experiences with the language that is personalised
and relevant to them. With PPP it is necessary to
create contexts in which to present the language and
sometimes they can be very unnatural.
 The students will have a much more varied exposure
to language with TBL. They will be exposed to a
whole range of lexical phrases, collocations and
patterns as well as language forms.

 The language explored arises from the
students' needs. This need dictates what will
be covered in the lesson rather than a
decision made by the teacher or the
coursebook.
 It is a strong communicative approach where
students spend a lot of time communicating.
PPP lessons seem very teacher-centred by
comparison. Just watch how much time the
students spend communicating during a task-
based lesson.
 It is enjoyable and motivating.

Task based learning

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Task based learning