Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)

1. Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) EDU 452 Methodologies & Materials in the Teaching of ESL Professor Dr. Naomi Vega Nieves Methods Presentation By: Vanessa Sánchez-Negrón

2. WHAT IS TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING? • It is an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in language teaching. • It draws on multiple principles. • Activities that involve real communications are essential for language learning. • Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning. • Language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.

3. Task-Based Language Teaching (continued) Engaging learners in task work provides a better context for the activation of learning processes. Language learning is believed to depend on immersing students not in “comprehensible input” but in tasks that require them to negotiate meaning and engage in natural and meaningful communication.

4. Key assumptions of task-based learning summarized by Feez (1998:17) • The focus is on process rather than product. • Basic elements are purposeful activities and tasks that emphasize communication and meaning. • Learners learn language by interacting communicatively and purposefully while engaged in the activities and tasks. • Activities and tasks can be either: • those that learners might need to achieve in real life; • those that have pedagogical purpose specific to the classroom.

5. Key assumptions of task-based learning (continued) • Activities & tasks of a task-based syllabus are sequenced according to difficulty. • The difficulty of a task depends on a range of factors including the previous experience of the learner, the complexity of the task, the language required to undertake the task, and the degree of support available.

6. TBLT Proposes the notion of “task” as a central unit of planning and teaching. Task is defined as an activity or goal that is carried out using language. “Tasks…are activities which have meaning as their primary focus. Success in tasks is evaluated in terms of achievement of an outcome, and tasks generally bear some resemblance to real-life language use. So task-based instruction takes a fairly strong view of communicative language teaching” (Skehan1996b:20)

7. Task-Based Training Identifies Analysis of real-world task-use situations The translation of these into teaching task descriptions The detailed design of instructional tasks The sequencing of instructional tasks in classroom training/teaching These are several key areas of concern when approaching a TBLT curriculum.

8. Academic Tasks: Define four important dimensions “The academic task is the mechanism through which the curriculum is enacted for students” (Doyle1983:161). the products students are asked to produce the operations they are required to use in order to produce these products the cognitive operations required & the resources available the accountability system involved

9. Team Performance Function: Four major categories

10. TBLT Approach: TBLT is motivated primarily by a theory of learning rather than a theory of language. Theory of Language Language is primarily a means of making meaning Multiple models of language inform TBI Lexical units are central in language use and language learning “Conversation” is the central focus of language and the keystone of language acquisition

11. TBLT Approach:(continued) Theory of Learning Tasks provide both the input and output processing necessary for language acquisition Task activity and achievement are motivational Learning difficulty can be negotiated and fine-tuned for particular pedagogical purposes

12. TBLT Syllabus The aim is for the students to acquire language skills using real-world activities and complimenting them with pedagogical tasks. 1. real – world tasks – designed to practice or rehearse a needs analysis and important and useful in the real world. 2. pedagogical task – have a psycholinguistic basis in SLA (second language acquisition) , but do not necessarily reflect real-world tasks. Example: Using a telephone is an example of a real-world task, and informational-gap task is a pedagogical task.

13. Task-Based Designed Curriculum:Elementary (Primary Age) Adapted from Prabhu and cited in Nunan 1989:42-44

14. Task-Based Designed Curriculum:Elementary (Primary Age) (continued) Adapted from Prabhu and cited in Nunan 1989:42-44

15. What to consider when selecting tasks? • Procedures, or what the learners have to do to derive output from input • Input text • Output required • Language items: vocabulary, structures, discourse structures, process ability, and so on • Skills, both macro-skills and subskills • Word knowledge or “topic content” • Text handling or conversation strategies Considerations by Honeyfield (1993:129)

16. What to consider when selecting tasks? (continued) Amount and type of help given Role of teachers and learners Time allowed Motivation Confidence Learning styles The list demonstrates how to create operational tasks that will enrich the learning process of students. Considerations by Honeyfield (1993:129)

17. Task design & categories

18. Types of task accomplishment & interaction: • Pica, Kanagy & Falodun (1993) classify tasks according to the type of interaction that occurs in task accomplishment and give the following classification: • Jigsaw tasks: • Involves learners combining different pieces of information to form a whole (three individuals or groups may have three different parts of the story and have to piece the story together). • Information-gap tasks : • Individual student or a group has one set of information and another student or group has a complimentary set of information. They must negotiate and find out what the other party’s information.

19. Types of task accomplishment & interaction:(continued) • Problem-solving tasks: • Students are given a problem and a set of information. They must arrive at a solution to the problem. There is generally a single resolution to the outcome. • Decision-making tasks: • Students are given a problem for which there are number of possible outcomes and they must choose one through negotiation and discussion. • Opinion exchange tasks: • Learners engage in discussion and exchange of ideas. They do not need to reach agreement; they can agree to disagree.

20. Other types of task characteristics

21. Other types of task characteristics (continued)

22. Learner Roles

23. Teacher Roles

24. The role of instructional materials “Materials that can be exploited for instruction in TBLT are limited only to the imagination of the task designer” (Richards & Rodgers 2001:236)

25. Examples: Uses of instructional materials

26. Procedure for TBLT • Needs analysis identify target tasks to be done in English. • A set of role-play activities is developed focusing on situations the students would encounter and the transactions they would have to carry out in English.

27. Procedure for TBLT (continued)

28. TBLT Conclusion The authors conclude that few would question the pedagogical value of utilizing tasks to promote communication and authentic language use in L2 classrooms. Tasks have long been part of language teaching techniques. However, TBLT offers a different rational and criteria for the design and use of tasks. The dependence of tasks is the primary source of input teaching rather than the systematic grammatical or other types of syllabus in current versions of TBLT. TBLT provides for a more effective basis for teaching than other language teaching approaches.

29. References Hyltenstam, K., & Pienemann, M. (1985). A role for instruction in second language acquisition: Task-based language teaching. Modelling and assessing second language acquisition (pp. 77-97). San Diego, Calif.: College-Hill Press. Nunan, D. (1989). Task-based language teaching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Resources. (n.d.). U-System Unix Information. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from http://www.u.arizona.edu/~sacosta1/resources.html Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Task-Based Language Teaching. Approaches and methods in language teaching: a description and analysis (2nd ed., pp. 223-241). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Skehan, P. (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

30. References: Images Microsoft Office. (n.d.). Images . Retrieved July 29, 2011, from office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/academic-CM079001901 School of Informatics and Computing: Indiana University Bloomington . (n.d.). School of Informatics and Computing: Indiana University Bloomington. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from http://www.soic.indiana.edu/ Students talking in classroom [BLD079818] > Stock Photos | Royalty Free | Royalty Free Photos > VisualPhotos.com. (n.d.). Stock Photos | Royalty Free | Royalty Free Photos > VisualPhotos.com. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from http://www.visualphotos.com/image/2x4650195/students_talking_in_classroom Jeff Korha ” New Media and Small Business Marketing. (n.d.). Jeff Korhan” New Media and Small Business Marketing. Retrieved May 28, 2011, from http://www.jeffkorhan.com