TBLT (Task Based Language Teaching)

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION……………............3
APPROACH…………………………………..............21
THEORY OF LANGUAGE…………………………............21
THEORY OF LEARNING…………………………..............23
PRINCIPLES………………………………………...............24
DESIGN………………………………………..............28
OBJECTIVES………………………………………..............28
SYLLABUS…………………………………………..............32
TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES….33
LEARNER ROLES………………………………….............34
TEACHER ROLES………………………………….............35
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS…………………………….36
PROCEDURE………………………………….………37
THE FRAMEWORK FOR TBL INSTRUCTION…………..37
PRE-TASK – TASK CYCLE – POST-TASK……………….38
CONCLUSION………………………………..............43
ADVANTAGES OF TBLT……………………………………43
DISADVANTAGES OF TBLT……………………………….45
ACTIVITY…………………...…………………...........51
REFERANCES……………………………….............53

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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)

A task is any activity that learners engage
in to process of learning a language.
(Williams and Burden, 1997:168)
6

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)
7

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)
8

What is Task Based Language
Teaching?
9

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.
10

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)
11

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)
12

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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• Preparing a meal
• Ordering food in a cafe
• Talking to someone on
the phone
• Compiling qualities of a
good friend.
• Two pictures or texts to
find the differences
• Solving a problem
• Designing a brochure.
14

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Help! Thieves!
Can you describe
the thieves?
There were two
thieves, a man
and a woman
Did the
woman wear
glasses?
Yes, glasses
and long black
hair. She is
young.
Did the man
have a
moustache?
A black
moustache, but
no glasses. He
has short hair.
Look at these
pictures.
Yes, here
they are!
A task taken from
a task-based syllabus for
beginners.

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)
16

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Why do we use a task-based
approach?

19
• 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.

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)
20

APPROACH DESIGN PROCEDURE CONCLUSION
1. Language is primarily a means of making meaning.
2. Multiple models of language inform task based
instruction.
(Richards & Rodgers, 2001: 226-228)
21

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.
22

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.
23

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)
24

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)
25

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)
26

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)
27

• to facilitate students’ language learning by engaging them in
a variety of tasks that have a clear outcome.
(Larsen-Freeman, 2001: 156)
28

• 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,
29
(Willis, 1996: 35–6)

• 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)
30

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LISTING: Processes - Brainstorming, fact-finding.
ORDERING AND SORTING: Processes - Sequencing, ranking, categorizing, classifying.
COMPARING: Processes - Matching, finding similarities, finding differences.
PROBLEM SOLVING:
Processes - Analysing real or hypothetical situations,
reasoning, and decision making.
SHARING PERSONAL
EXPERIENCES:
Processes - Narrating, describing, exploring and explaining
attitudes, opinions, reactions.
CREATIVE TASKS:
Processes - Brainstorming, fact-finding, ordering and sorting,
comparing, problem solving and many others (Willis 1996).

Synthetic Syllabus
32

1. Jigsaw Tasks
2. Information-gap Tasks
3. Problem-solving Tasks
4. Decision-making Tasks
5. Opinion exchange Tasks
33

1.Group Participant
2.Monitor
3.Risk-Taker and Innovator
34

1. Selector and Sequencer Of Tasks
2. Preparing Learners For Tasks
3. Consciousness-Raising
35

36
-Books
-Newspaper
-Magazine
-Radio programs
-CDs
-TV
-Internet
-Board
-Worksheets

Pre-task
Task Cycle
Post-task
37

• 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.
38

• 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.
39

• 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.
40

Pre-task
Introduction to topic and task: Teacher explores the topic with the class,
highlights useful words and phrases, helps students understand task
instructions and prepare.
Task Cycle
Task: Students do the task, in pairs or small groups. Teacher monitors.
Planning: Students prepare to report to the whole class( orally or in writing)
how they did the task, what they decided or discovered.
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).
Language
Focus
Analysis: Students examine and discuss specific features of the text or
transcript of the recording.
Practice: Teacher conducts practice or new words, phrases and patterns
occurring in the data, either during or after the analysis. (Willis 1996: 38)
41

42

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• TBLT is applicable and suitable for students of all
ages and backgrounds.
• Students will have a much more varied exposure
to language with TBLT.
• Students are free to use whatever vocabulary
and grammar they know, rather than just the
target language of the lesson.
• TBLT helps students pay close attention to the
relationship between form and meaning

44
• TBLT allows meaningful communication.
• Students will be exposed to a whole range of lexical
phrases, collocations and patterns as well as language
forms.
• Encourages students to be more ambitious in the
language they use.
• The psychological dynamics of the group which
works together to complete a task will have a great
influence on the success.

45
• TBLT requires a high level of creativity and
initiative on the part of the task.
• There is a risk for learners to achieve fluency
at the expense of accuracy.
• TBLT requires resources beyond the
textbooks and related materials usually found
in language classrooms.

46
• Task-based instruction is not teacher-centered and it
requires individual and group responsibility and
commitment on the part of students. If students are
notably lacking in these qualities, task-based
instruction may, indeed, be difficult to implement.
• Evaluation of task-based learning can be difficult. The
nature of task-based learning prevents it from being
measurable by some of the more restricted and
traditional tests.
(Krahne, 1987)

• While Task-Based Instruction may fruitfully develop
learners’ authority of what is known, it is significantly less
effective for the systematic teaching of new language.
This is especially so where time is limited and out-of-class
exposure is unavailable, such as in Turkey.
47

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)
48

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.
49

50
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.

Work with three other students.
You are on a ship that is sinking. You
have to swim to a nearby island. You
have a waterproof container, but can
only carry 20 kilos of items in it. Decide
which of the following items you will
take. (Remember, you can’t take more
than 20 kilos with you.)
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• Waterproof sheets of fabric (3 kilos each.)
• Notebook computer (3.5 kilos)
• Rope (6 kilos).
• Fire lighting kits (500 grams each)
• Portable CD player and CDs (4 kilos.)
• Short-wave radio (12 kilos)
• Medical kit (2 kilos.)
• Bottles of water (1.5 kilos each)
• Packets of sugar, flour, rice, powdered milk,
coffee, tea. (Each packet weighs 500 grams)
• Cans of food (500 grams each)
• Box of novels and magazines (3 kilos)
• Axe (8 kilos)
52

• Richards, Jack C. - Rodgers, Theodore S. (2001), Approaches and Methods in
Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press.
• Larsen-Freeman, Diane. (2000), Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching,
Oxford University Press.
• Harmer, Jeremy. (2007), The Practice of English Language Teaching, Ashford Colour
Press
• Ellis, Rod. The Methodology of Task-Based Teaching
53

• Dickinson, Paul. Implementing Task-Based Language Teaching in a
Japanese EFL Context
• Priyana, Joko. Task-Based Language Instruction
• Littlewood, William. The Task-Based Approach :Some Questions and
Suggestions
• Akbar, Ali - Farahani, Khomeijani. The Effects of Task- Based
Techniques, Gender, and Different Levels of Language Proficiency on
Speaking Development
54

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• Branden, Kriss Van den. Task Based Language Education From theory to
practice
• Rahman, M. Mojibur. Teaching Oral Communication Skills: A Task-Based
Approach
• Sanchez, Aquilino. The Task-Based Approach in Language Teaching
• Skehani, Peter. Task-Based Instruction
• Skehan, Peter. A Framework for the Implementation of Task-Based
Instruction
• Seyyedi, Keivan. Task-Based Instruction

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• Finch, Andrew. A Task-Based Approach: Online Resources for Teachers
• Littlewood, William. Task-Based Learning of Grammar
• Zhao, Huajing. How Far Do the Theories of Task-Based Learning
Succeed in Combining Communicative and Form-Focused Approaches to L2
Research
• Dorathy, A. Anne. Second Language Acquisition through Task-Based
Approach – Role-play in English Language Teaching
• Büyükkarcı, Kağan. A Critical Analysis Of Task-Based Learning

TBLT (Task Based Language Teaching)

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