Implementing Task-Based Language Instruction ?????????

1
Implementing Task-Based Language
Instruction?????????

• Luo Shaoqian
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Beijing Normal University

2
Three Dimensions of Language Teaching

• Goal (i.e. why the language is being taught)
• Content (i.e. what is taught)
• - Type A syllabuses
• - Type B syllabuses
• Methodology (i.e. how it is taught)
• - accuracy
• - fluency

3
Grammar Translation
Goal Content Methodology
Ability to read literature in the L2 Type A (list of grammar rules and words to be taught) Accuracy (i.e. accurate translation of L2 into L1)
4
Audio-Lingualism
Goal Content Methodology
Ability to communicate Type A (list of linguistic items to be taught) Accuracy (I.e. focus on target-like use of the L2)
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Notional/Functional Teaching
Goal Content Methodology
Ability to communicate Type A (i.e. a list of notions and functions Accuracy (i.e. focus on target-like use of the L2)
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Task-Based Teaching
Goal Content Methodology
Ability to communicate Type B (i.e. a series of message-focused tasks) Fluency (i.e. focus on message conveyance)
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Traditional - Task-based

• Task-based pedagogy
• -- students able to control topic development
• -- speakers can self-select

• Traditional form-focus pedagogy
• --Teacher controls topic development
• -- turn taking is regulated by the teacher

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• questions that questioner already knows the
  answer to
• little need or opportunity to negotiate meaning
• Scaffolding directed primarily at enabling
  students to produce correct sentences

• questions that the questioner does not know the
  answer to
• Opportunities to negotiate meaning when
  communication problems arise
• Scaffolding directed primarily at enabling
  students to say what they want to say

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• Form-focused feedback,i.e.the teacher responds
  to the correctness of students utterances
• The teacher repeats what a student has said for
  the benefit of the whole class

• Content-focused feedback,i.e.the teacher responds
  to the message content of the students utterance
• A student elects to repeat something another
  student or teacher has said as private speech or
  to establish intersubjectivity

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First generation tasks

• The main aim of first generation tasks is to
  develop students communicative ability in a
  specific type of situation or area of language.
  The task is often structured around a particular
  set of functions or a simple problem.
• (Littlewood, 2004 Ribe
  Vidal, 1993)

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Second generation tasks

• The tasks in the second category pose challenges
  of a broader nature. They aim at developing not
  only communicative skills but also general
  cognitive strategies of handling and organizing
  information, such as analysing what information
  is needed in order to complete the task,
  collecting information,selecting relevant data

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Third generation tasks

• With third generation tasks, the scope widens
  further. In addition to the communicative and
  cognitive strategies, they also aim to develop
  the personality of students through the
  experience of learning a foreign language. They
  go further than the previous tasks in aiming to
  fulfill wider educational objectives, such as
  enhancing motivation and awareness, developing
  creativity and interpersonal skills

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Task Types

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

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An Example of a Pedagogic Task

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

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Some Typical Pedagogic Tasks

• Information-gap tasks (e.g. Same or Different)
• Opinion-gap tasks (e.g. Balloon debates)
• Reasoning-gap tasks
• Personal tasks
• Role-play tasks
• Note Tasks can be dialogic or monologic they
  can be performed orally or in writing.

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A Real-World 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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Role-play activities

• Very often in role-play situations there is no
  actual outcome for students to achieve, other
  than to enact their roles. Students have to think
  of suitable things to say to each other, but they
  are unlikely to be exchanging real meaning.
• 
  Jane Willis

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Two Approaches to Using Tasks

• Use tasks to support a Type A approach.
• - task-supported teaching (Type A)
• - weak form of communicative language teaching
• Use tasks as the basis for teaching
• - task-based teaching (Type B)
• - strong form of communicative teaching

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A Focused Task

• Can you spot the differences?
• B

A
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A Focused Task

• Can you spot the difference?
• A

B
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A Framework for Describing Tasks

• Goal
• Input
• Conditions
• Predicted outcomes
• a. Process
• b. Product

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Implementing task-based instruction from a
processing-pedagogic view point

• Dangers if implemented without care, likely to
  create pressure for immediate communication
  rather than inter-language change and growth may
  encourage learners to use excessively and
  prematurely lexical modes of communication.
• Possibility to minimize the dangers to draw on
  cognitive psychology and second language
  acquisition research that emphasizes processing
  factors.
• Learners must be able to develop their
  inter-language systems in more complex ways
  through cycles of analysis and synthesis
  revisiting areas learning in a simple,
  straightforward manner developing by
  relexicalizing available syntactically which need
  not be used on such a basis.

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The Methodology of Task-Based Teaching

• Three phases in a task-based lesson
• Pre-task phase
• Main task phase
• Post-task phase

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• Task 1 Highlighting main ideas
• Task 2 Planning the weekend
• Task 3 Expressing environmental views
• Task 4 Shopping in a supermarket
• Task 5 Radio weather information

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Methodological stages in implementing
tasks?????????

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Methodological stages in implementing tasks

• Stage Goal Typical techniques
• Pre-task Restructuring Consciousness-
  ---establish target language raising
  ---reduce cognitive load Planning
• During Mediate accuracy fluency Task
  choice Pressure manipulation
• Post 1 Encourage accuracy Public performance
• restructuring Analysis/Testing
• Post 2 Cycle of synthesis Task sequences
• analysis Task families

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Pre-task work

• At this stage, the task itself is the primary
  factor, task
• completion is the aim that dominate.
• 1)To set up the relevant language for a task to
  deal some form of pre-teaching, can be both
  explicit and implicit
• 2) Give learners a pre-task to do and then equip
  them with the language they need

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Pre-task work

• to ease the processing load when learners doing a
  task a range of tasks can be used to reduce
  ?????
• 1) familiarity leads to recall schematic
  knowledge they have
• 2) observe similar tasks on video or listen to
  or read comparable tasks
• 3) do related tasks to activate schema
• 4) engage in pre-task planning language to use,
  meanings to express.
• So they can devote more attention to how to carry
  out the
• task and produce more accurate, complex, and
  fluent
• language.

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The Pre-task Phase

• Three purposes
• ---to serve to introduce new language that
  learners can use while performing the task
• ---to mobilize existing linguistic resources
• ---to ease processing load, and to push
  learners to
• interpret tasks in more demanding ways
• Some options
• Allow the students time to plan.
• Provide a model
• Do a similar task
• Pre-teach key linguistic items

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The Pre-task Phase

• On general cognitive demands of the task
• ??????????
• An emphasis on linguistic factors ??????
• Supporting learners in performing a task similar
  to the task they will perform in the during-task
  phase of the lesson ?????????????????????
• Non-task preparation activities
• --- brain storming ????
• --- mind map ???

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The Pre-task Phase

• Addressing linguistic demands of a task
• ---predicting, i.e. asking learners to
  brainstorm a list of
• words related to the task title or topic
• Providing a model ??????
• Asking students to observe a model of how to
  perform the task
  ????????????
• Performing a similar task ?????????
• --- simply observing others perform a task can
  help
• reduce the cognitive load on the learner
  
• (Skehan, 1996)

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????????????????????????????,?Pre-task
phase??????????,?????????????????,????????????????
???,?????????????????????????????????
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The During-Task Phase

• Some options
• Participatory structure ???? Whole-class vs.
  small group work individual or interaction
• Set a time for completing the task.
• Vary the number of participants.
• Introduce a surprise element.
• Tell students they will have to present a report
  to the whole class.
• pair and group work are seen as central to
  task-based teaching not all tasks are
  interactive

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(?)????????(during- task phase)

• the main task phase??????????
• ??

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During the task

• At this stage, learners are reminded that fluency
  is not the
• only goal during task completion, and that
  restructuring
• and accuracy also have importance
• Task choice the appropriate difficulty level.
• too difficult excessive mental processing to
  communicate any sort of meaning ellipsis,
  context, strategies and lexicalization which
  reduce the pedagogic value of a task-based
  approach.
• 2 too easy boring, no serious engagement no
  gain in terms of stretching interlanguage or
  automaticity development (Swain, 1985)

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During the task

• Syllabus implementation decisions
• to alter the task difficulty
• manipulate the way in which attention is directed
• - accuracy to be stressed?
• - specific structures to be used
• to make a task less difficult visual support,
  such as a diagram
• to make a task more difficult surprise elements
  which learners dont expect, e.g. additional
  evidence in a judge task.
• The communicative stress factors time, modality,
  participants/relationships, importance of the
  task, participants control over the task.

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The Post-Task Phase

• Three major pedagogical goals
• --- ?????????
• (to provide an opportunity for a repeat
• performance of the task)
• --- ??????????
• (to encourage reflection on how the
  task was
• performed)
• --- ???????
• (to encourage attention to form)

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Post-task activities

• Post 1
• performance the knowledge while the task is
  being done may have to be re-done publicly this
  leads to learners attention to the goals of
  restructuring and accuracy.
• analysis the concern with syntax and analysis is
  infiltrated into the task work without the
  heavy-handedness of the teacher intervention and
  error correction.

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Repeat performance

• Carry out second performance publicly (??,??)
• -Complexity increases ??????
• -Express more clearly ??????
• -Become more fluent ??????

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Post-task activities

• Post 2
• examine task sequences, task progression, and how
  sets of tasks relate to one another 1) to repeat
  tasks so learners are more effective with the
  analysis and synthesis
• 2) parallel tasks tasks are similar but with
  new elements so to engage the learner interest.
• 2 task families groups of tasks resemble one
  another and have similar language or cognitive
  demands (Candlin, 1987) so learners are clearer
  of the goals of such task groups and teachers and
  learners share views about task requirements.

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The post-task phase???????

• Reviewing of learner errors????
• Consciousness-raising tasks????
• Production-practice activities????
• Noticing activities ???????

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Reviewing of learner errors

• Teacher moves from group to group to listen and
  note down the errors
• Address these errors with the whole class
• - can be written on the board
• - students can be invited to correct it
• - listen again and edit their own performance
• - teacher comments on

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Consciousness-raising tasks

• There is an attempt to isolate a specific
  linguistic feature for focused attention
  ???????????
• The learners are provided with data that
  illustrate the targeted feature or an explicit
  rule describing or explaining the feature
• ?????????????????
• The learners are expected to utilize intellectual
  effort to understand the targeted features
  ??????????
• Learners may be optionally required to verbalize
  a rule describing the grammatical structure
  ?????????
• To direct students to attend explicitly to a
  specific form they used incorrectly or failed to
  use at all in the main task ????

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Production-practice activities

• Repetition ????
• Substitution ????
• Gapped sentences ????
• Jumbled sentences ?????
• Transformation drills ????
• Dialogues ??

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Noticing activities

• Focusing on linguistic form
• Dictation
• Editing
• Writing and teacher comments

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Reflecting on the task

• Present a report on how they did the task and
  what they decided or discovered oral or written
  
• Summary the outcome of the task
• Reflect or evaluate of their own performance
  (fluency, complicity or accuracy)
• Metacognitive strategies ?????(planning,monitoring
  and evaluating)

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• ?Post-task activity???,???????
• ??,?????????
• 1????????????(life-like situations)
• 2????????????(information gap)
• 3???????(problem solving)
• 4?????????(active)????(creative)?

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• (?)??????????

Task Circle
Pre-task preparation
Mechanical practice
Meaningful practice
While-task procedure
Post-task activity
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The Foods I Eat (for students)

• Task 1 Having a picnic
• Situation Some children are going to have a
  picnic. What food are they going to have? Can you
  give them some ideas? What food do you usually
  have? Name some of your favourite ones.
• Subtask1 What food do they want for the picnic?
• Instruction Now the children are deciding what
  they want. Look at the picture carefully and find
  out the answer by filling in the blanks.
• Subtask2 buying food at the food shop
• Instructions Lily and Mary are at the
  supermarket. They are buying food for the picnic.
  Please listen to their conversation carefully.
  Fill in the chart.
• Subtask3 eating at the picnic
• Instructions Now the children are at the picnic.
  They have lots of food. Read the conversation
  between Coco and Sam. Complete the one between
  Helen and Tim.

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The Foods I Eat (for teachers)

• Task 1. Having a picnic
• Aims of the task
• 1. to identify kinds of foods
• 2. to express likes or dislikes
• 3. to understand the communicative language at
  the food shop

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Subtask2 buying food at the food shop

• Task requirements Communicative language at a
  shop. Listening skill
• General To ask and answer questions about buying
  and selling at shops
• Specific
• To assess students ability to
• -make a conversation at a shop.
• -get information from a conversation.
• -sum up the main idea of the conversation.
• -write money in numbers.

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WHO'S WHO IN THE FAMILY

• Family members, BE, Who / whose
• Structure/Vocabulary
• Family members, BE, Who / whose
• Functions
• Talking about families

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• Materials
• (1) Cards with description of a new family (1per
  student)
• (2) "Find Someone Who..." Sheet
• (3) Model Paragraph

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PRE ACTIVITY

• Skills Speaking and listening
• Organization Whole class
• Procedures Class asks teacher about his / her
  family(real) or imaginary.

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ACTIVITY

• Skills Speaking, listening, writing.
• Organization Mixer
• Procedures
• (l) Give out cards (one per student) explain
  that this is their new family.
• (2) Explain any vocabulary or pronunciation
  problems.
• (3) Give out "Find Who...? sheet and explain how
  it works. Students will answer with information
  from their new families.
• (4) Done as a mixer. The first student to fill
  out the sheet correctly wins.

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POST ACTIVITY

• Skills Writing, (speaking, listening)
• Organization Individual / pairs.
• Procedures
• (1) Go over model paragraph.
• (2) Individually, students write similar
  paragraphs about their new families.
• (3) Then, put students into pairs and they
  correct each other's paragraphs. (The paragraphs
  can later be collected and corrected by the
  teacher.)

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• Father Hugh, taxi river, 35
• Mother Marilyn, actress, 30
• You student, 10
• Father Edward, politician, 35
• Mother Mildred , deceased
• You university student, 20
• Father John, retired, 99
• Mother Henrietta, retired, 98
• You retired, 75

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• FIND SOMEONE WHOSE
• ... mother is deceased.
• ...mother is an actress.
• father is a taxi driver.
• father is a taxi driver.
• FIND SOMEONE WHO -
• is a student.
• is retired.
• is 20.

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Model Paragraph

• My Family
• My name Is Olivia. I'm 10 and I'm a student. My
  father's name is Joseph. Hes a scientist. Hes
  44. My mother 's name is Joan. She is a teacher.
  Shes 42. I have no brothers or sisters.
• MY FAMILY

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Focusing on forms ????

• direct focus on grammar
• -- focus on the features of the forms??????
• -- address errors ??????
• -- address gaps in the students knowledge
  ????????

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Focussing on Form
Opportunities to focus on form arise in
task-based teaching Definition 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) cf. Focus on forms
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Three Types of Focus on Form

1. Reactive focus on form (error correction)
2. Teacher-initiated focus on form
3. Student-initiated focus on form

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Reactive Focus on Form An Example

• 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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Dual Focus

• Learner 1 And what did you do last weekend?
• Learner 2 I tried to find a pub where you
  dont see where you dont see many tourists.
  And I find one
• Teacher Found.
• Learner 2 I found one where I spoke with two
  English women and we spoke about life in
• Canterbury or things and after I came back
• Teacher Afterwards

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Combinations of skills

• listening with speaking and writing
• reading with speaking and writing
• sometimes all four skills

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Problems and Solutions
Problem Solution
1. Students lack proficiency to communicate in the L2 Devise activities that develop ability to communicate gradually.
2. Students unwilling to speak English in class. Use small group work allow planning time learner training
3. Students develop pidginized language system Select tasks that demand fully grammaticalized language
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Problems with the Educational System and Solutions
Problems Solutions
1. Emphasis on knowledge learning Review philosophy of education.
2. Examination system Develop new more communicative exams
3. Large classes Use small group work develop tasks suited to large classes.
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Conclusions

1. Task-based teaching offers the opportunity for
   natural learning inside the classroom.
2. It emphasizes meaning over form but can also
   cater for learning form.
3. It is intrinsically motivating.
4. It is compatible with a learner-centred
   educational philosophy.
5. It can be used alongside a more traditional
   approach.

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References

• Candlin, C. (1987). Towards task-based language
  learning. In C. Candlin and D. Murphy (eds).
  Language Learning Tasks. Englewood Cliffs, NJ
  Prentice Hall.
• Crookes, G. (1989). Planning and interlanguage
  variation. Studies in Second Language
  Acquisition. 11 367-383.
• Foster, P. and Skehan, P. (1994). The influence
  of planning on performance in task-based
  learning. Paper presented at the British
  Association of Applied Linguistics, Leeds.
• Prabhu, N.S. (1987). Second Language Pedagogy.
  Oxford OUP.
• Skehan, P. and Foster, P. The influence of
  planning and post-task activities on accuracy in
  task-based learning. Thames Valley University
  Working Papers in Englsih Language Teaching, Vol.
  3
• Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence Some
  roles of comprehensible output in its
  development. In S. Gass and C. Madden (eds).
  Input in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, MA
  Newbury House.
• Willis, D. and Willis, J. (1988). COBUILD Book 1.
  London Collins.

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Reference

• Rod Ellis Task-Based Language Teaching University
  of Auckland
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