Task-Based Language Teaching: Sorting Out the Misunderstandings

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Task-Based Language Teaching Sorting Out the
Misunderstandings

• Rod Ellis
• Department of Applied language Studies and
  Linguistics
• University of Auckland

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Scoping my talk

• Defining and classifying tasks
• Defining task-based language teaching
• Identifying and addressing misunderstandings
• Some genuine problems with TBLT
• Some conclusions about TBLT

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PART ONE

• Defining and classifying tasks.

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What is a task?

• A task is goal directed.
• A task involves a primary focus on meaning.
• The participants choose the linguistic resources
  needed to complete the task.
• A task has a clearly defined outcome.

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Types of Tasks

• Unfocused tasks
• a. Pedagogic
• b. Real world
• Focused tasks

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An example of a pedagogic unfocused task

• Four students each has one picture and
  describes it to the rest of the class.
• Students from the rest of the class ask the four
  students questions about their pictures.
• One student from the class tries to tell the
  story.
• If necessary Steps 2 and 3 are repeated

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Example of a real-world unfocused task

• Look at the e-mail message below. Listen to Mr.
• Pointers instructions on the tape. Make notes if
• you want to. Then write a suitable reply to
  Lesieur.
• Dear Mr. Pointer
• Please send flight number, date and time of
  arrival
• and I will arrange for someone to meet you at
  the
• airport.
• Lesieur.

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An example of a focused task

• You are the owner of a private language school
  and have advertised for a new English teacher.
  Below
• are summaries of the CVs of four applicants.
  Discuss each applicant and then decide which one
  to
• offer the job to.
•  
• JOCK, aged 30
• B.A. in social studies.
• Has spent a year working his way round the world.
  
• Has spent six years teaching economics in state
  school.
• Has written a highly successful novel about
  teachers.
• Has lived in a back-to-nature commune for two
  years.
• Has been married twice - now divorced. Two
  children.
• Has been running local youth group for three
  years.
•  
• BETTY, aged 45
• Has been married for 24 years, three children.
• Has not worked most of that time.
• Has done evening courses in youth guidance.
• Has spent the last year teaching pupils privately
  for state with good results.
• Has been constantly active in local government -
  has been elected to local council twice.

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Types of focused tasks

• Structure-based production tasks
• Structure-based comprehension tasks
• Consciousness-raising tasks

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Tasks and the four language skills

• A common misunderstanding of task-based
  instruction is that it necessarily involves oral
  interaction.
• But tasks can be designed to develop any of the
  four language skills (listening, speaking,
  reading and writing).
• Many tasks are integrative (i.e. involve more
  than one skill).

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PART TWO

• Defining task-based language teaching
• (TBLT)

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What is task-based language teaching?

• TBLT is an approach to teaching a second/foreign
  language that seeks to engage learners in
  interactionally authentic language use by having
  them perform a series of tasks. It aims to both
  enable learners (1) to acquire new linguistic
  knowledge and (2) to proceduralize their existing
  knowledge.

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Focus on forms vs. focus on form

• 1. Focus on forms
• Focus on forms entails the prior selection of a
  linguistic element which is presented and
  practised (e.g. PPP).
• 2. Focus on form
• Focus on form overtly draws students
  attention to linguistic elements as they arise
  incidentally in lessons whose overrriding focus
  is on meaning or communication.
• Long (1991 45-6)

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Three ways of focusing on form

• Reactive focus on form (error correction)
• Teacher-initiated focus on form
• Student-initiated focus on form

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Types of Instruction
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An important distinction

• 1. Task-based language teaching involves focus
  on form (i.e. attention to form occurs within
  the context of performing the task) a strong
  form of communicative language teaching
• Task-supported language teaching involves
  focus-on-forms (i.e. specific forms are
  pre-taught and tasks are used to provide free
  practice) a weak form of communicative
  language teaching.

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Three Types of Task-Based Courses

• Entirely unfocused tasks (e.g. Prabhu 1987).
• Entirely focused tasks (assumes a linguistic
  syllabus).
• An amalgam of unfocused and focused tasks.

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Methodology of task-based language teaching

• Pre-task (e.g. opportunity for pre-task planning)
• Main task (e.g. pre-emptive and reactive focus on
  form)
• Post-task (e.g. language practice activities).

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Core and peripheral tasks (Mariko Boku)

• Core task Peripheral task
• learner-centered teacher-fronted

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Core and peripheral tasks - sequence

• C1 P 1 C1 C2 P2
  C2 C3 P3 C3 C4 P4

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The TBLT Cavaliers

• Long (1996)
• Willis (1996)
• Skehan (1998)
• Ellis (2003)

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Key Characteristics of TBLT (Swan 2005)

• Natural or naturalistic language use
• Learner-centred rather than teacher controlled
• Focus on form (intervention while retaining
  naturalness).
• Tasks serve as the means for achieving natural
  language use.
• Traditional approaches are ineffective.

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Differences in TBLT approaches
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PART THREE

• Addressing the misunderstandings

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The TBLT roundheads

• Seedhouse (e.g. 1999 2005)
• Sheen (e.g. 1994 2003)
• Swan (e.g. 2005a 2005b)

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Misunderstanding (1)

• Seedhouse (1999) argues that the interaction that
  results from tasks is
• often impoverished and can lead to fossilization.
• L1 What?
• L2 Stop.
• L3 Dot?
• L4 Dot?
• L5 Point?
• L6 Dot?
• LL Point, point, yeh.
• L1 Point?
• L5 Small point.
• L3 Dot
• (From Lynch 1989, p. 124 cited in Seedhouse
  1999).

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Response

• It all depends on the choice of task in
• relation to the developmental level of the
• learner
• for beginners the extract Seedhouse cites
• as evidence of impoverished interaction
• may not be impoverished at all
• more complex tasks will result in more complex
  
• language .

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Misunderstanding (2)

• Seedhouse (2005) argues that task-as-workplan
  has weak construct validity because the
  interaction that transpires when learners perform
  a task (i.e. the task-as-process) frequently
  does not match that intended by designers of the
  task.

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Response

• This is a serious criticism because, if
• correct, it means that it will be impossible to
• design a task-based course to ensure
• adequate coverage of the target language.
• But, in fact, there is substantial evidence to
• suggest that it is possible to design tasks
• that are predictive of language use.

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The effects of task characteristics on
complexity, accuracy, and fluency (Skehan 2001)
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Misunderstanding (3)

• Sheen (2003) claims that in TBLT there is
• no grammar syllabus.
• TBLT writers generally offer little more than a
  brief list of suggestions regarding the selection
  and presentation of new language.
• TBLT outlaws the grammar syllabus (Swan 2005).

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Response

• It is true that in some versions of TBLT (e.g.
  Longs
• or Skehans) there is no grammar syllabus. But
  this is seen
• as advantageous in that teaching discrete points
  of
• grammar is problematic as learners interlanguage
  does not
• develop incrementally.
• Ellis version of TBLT does allow for a grammar
  syllabus
• which can be used alongside a task-based syllabus
  either
• as a separate module in the whole course or as a
  checklist
• to guide the selection of grammatical features
  for focused
• tasks.
• All versions of TBLT allow for attention to
  grammar through focus on
• form at some stage in a task-based lesson.
• In TBLT the focus is on remedial grammar.

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Misunderstanding (4)

• Sheen(2003) also characterizes TBLT as
• requiring that any treatment of grammar
• take the form of quick corrective feedback
• allowing for minimal interruption of the task
• activity.

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Response

• Only Long characterizes focus-on-form as
  involving brief corrective feedback (recasts).
• Skehan sees attention to form originating from
  design and implementational options (e.g.
  pre-task planning).
• Ellis emphasizes that focus-on-form can involve
  pre-emptive work as well as corrective feedback
  and can be quite explicit.

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Misunderstanding (5)

• Sheen (2003) also claims and that in TBLT
• any post-task grammar work is supposed to
• take the form of grammar-problem solving
• tasks (i.e. CR tasks).

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Response

• In Willis (1996) and Ellis (2003) post-task work
  on grammar can take a variety of forms, including
  explicit instruction, problem-solving tasks and
  practice activities.

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Misunderstanding (6)

• Sheen (2003) claims that the only grammar to
  be dealt with (in TBLT) is that which causes a
  problem in communication.

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Response

• This again reflects Longs position not
  Skehans or Elliss.
• Long relates attention to form to contexts
  where there is a communication problem leading to
  negotiation of meaning. Ellis acknowledges that
  attention to form can occur didactically as
  well as conversationally.

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Didactic Focus on Form

• T What were you doing?
• S I was in pub
• (2)
• S I was in pub
• T In the pub?
• S Yeh and I was drinking beer with my
• friend.

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Misunderstanding (6)

• The theoretical rationale for TBLT is typically
  limited to the acquisition of grammar vocabulary
  and phonology are ignored (Swan 2005)

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Response

• This is false. There have been a number of
  studies that have focused on the acquisition of
  grammar through TBLT (e.g. Mackey 1999) but
  several other studies have examined the
  acquisition of vocabulary (e.g. Ellis et al
  1994). There have been few studies that have
  examined phonology (but see Loewen 2005).

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Misunderstanding (7)

• TBLT puts the emphasis on output.
• It remains true that TBLT provides learners with
  substantially less new language than
  traditional approaches.
• In the tiny corpus of a years task-based input,
  even some basic structures may not occur often,
  much core vocabulary is likely to be absent, and
  many other lexical items will appear only once or
  twice.
• (Swan 2005)

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Response

• This is the most fundamental misunderstanding of
  TBLT because it assumes that tasks must
  inevitably involve interaction and production.
  But, in fact, tasks can also be input-based
  (i.e. involve listening or reading). Indeed,
  extensive reading activities can be viewed as
  tasks. Arguably, a task-based course is capable
  of providing much greater exposure to the target
  language than a traditional course.

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Misunderstanding (8)

• The thrust of TBLT is to cast the teacher in
  the role of manager and facilitator of
  communicative activity rather than an important
  source of new language.
• That is, TBLT promotes learner-centredness at
  the expense of teacher-directed instruction.
• (Swan 2005)

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Response

• Again, this depends on the version of TBLT one
  is considering. Swans comment is largely true
  of Longs version of TBLT but not of others.
• Ellis has consistently argued that tasks can be
  usefully performed in teacher-class interaction
  (i.e. need not involve group or pair work) and
  points to the advantages this have for ensuring a
  teacher-led focus on form. Prabhu (1987) insists
  that tasks are better performed in lock-step
  teaching.
• In fact, all stages of a task-based lesson can
  be performed in either a learner-centred or
  teacher-led way (e.g. pre-task planning).
• Thus TBLT is largely neutral as to whether it is
  learner- or teacher-centred way.

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Misunderstanding (9)

• Beginner learners need to be taught grammar
  because they will not be able to shift attention
  to code features in interaction if in fact they
  know so little basic grammar that they cannot
  produce discourse to shift from.
• TBLT is only suitable for acquisition-rich
  contexts.
• Swan (2005)

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Response

• Of course beginner learners will not be able to
  engage productively in discourse. But this is
  only a problem for TBLT if it is assumed (as Swan
  wrongly does) that TBLT necessarily involves
  production. In fact, a TBLT course for beginners
  would necessarily have to focus on input-based
  tasks to develop initial proficiency (see Prabhu
  1987).
• The early stages of L2 acquisition are
  agrammatical one does not need grammar to start
  communicating.
• In fact, TBLT may be better suited to
  acquisition-poor contexts (e.g. EFL in Japan) in
  that it is more likely to develop communicative
  confidence and fluency.
• The argument comes down to whether it is better
  to adopt a fluency first or accuracy first
  approach.

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Misunderstanding (10)

• Both Sheen and Swan argue that there is no
  empirical evidence to support either the
  hypotheses that construct the theoretical
  rationale for TBLT or to demonstrate that TBLT is
  superior to traditional focus-on-forms
  appraoches.
• Legislation by hypothesis.

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Response
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Response (cont.)

• Neither Sheen nor Swan make any reference to
  Prabhu (1987) and Beretta and Davies (1985)
  evaluation of this TBLT project in India.
• The conclusions of this evaluation were
• In the tests favouring the traditional group,
  this group did best
• In the tests favouring the TBLT group, this group
  did best
• In the neutral tests (e.g. a contextualized
  grammar test dictation listening/reading
  comprehension), the TBLT group did best.
• But there are problems with conducting such
  evaluations and also with the kind of comparative
  method studies that Sheen constantly asks for.

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Part Four

• Some real problems and their solutions.

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Pedagogic problems
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Problems with the Educational System and Solutions
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Conclusions

• Task-based teaching offers the opportunity for
  natural learning inside the classroom.
• It emphasizes meaning over form but can also
  cater for learning form.
• It is intrinsically motivating.
• It is compatible with a learner-centred
  educational philosophy but also allows for
  teacher input and direction.
• It caters to the development of communicative
  fluency while not neglecting accuracy.
• It can be used alongside a more traditional
  approach.