Task-based Instruction Task-based Instruction

Chen ChinfenChen Chinfen Graduate School of Children English Education Graduate School of Children English Education

National Taipei University of Education National Taipei University of Education

BACKGROUND

• Teaching objective • Content of course design• Conventional concern: Words,

structure, notion, function, topic and situation and further selection, grouping and grading.

• identification of valid, user-friendly sequencing criteria( Long and Crookes, 1992:46)

DEFINITION: PBL

• “one of a set of differentiated, sequenceable, problem-posing activities involving learners and teachers in some joint selection from a range of varied cognitive and communicative procedures applied to existing and new knowledge in the collective exploration and pursuance of foreseen or emergent goals within a social milieu” (cited in Long and Crookes 1992:38). , 1992:46)

A scheme for decision-making about TBL task difficulty

• How to preserve a controlled approach to language development

• To ensure a balance between the competing pressures of restructuring/complexity, accuracy and fluency.

• To be challenging for the language learner –not too difficult so that achieving meaning predominates and not too simple as in this case nothing is being learned or developed.

Skehan (1994:190)

Course Design: Concerns • Cognitive complexity /familiarity -how easily a ta

sk can be completed by drawing on existing schematic knowledge. The teacher introduces the topic and the students do a similar task so that the task requirements are made clear.

• Code complexity : Focusing on the target language code/ forms that is useful in the coming tasks. Ensure the text structure and vocabulary load just beyond the students’ current knowledge.

• Choose authentic, useful texts & choice of activities focusing on scanning for information.

• Implementability. How the task is transacted: Manipulating pressure, such as time limits, the length of text, type of response & number of participants

Pre-Task Phase

• Introduce & define the topic and task

• Co-exploration. Teacher explores the topic with the class, highlights useful words and phrases, and helps learners understand task instructions and prepare.

• Demonstration. Show a recording of others doing a similar task, or assign a paper to read about the task.

.

During Task Phrase : Task Cycle • Engagement. • Students engage in activities which either

help them to recall words and phrases that will be useful during the performance of the main task or to learn new words and phrases that are essential to the task.

• No error correction. Students do the task, in pairs or small groups. Teacher monitors from a distance, encouraging all attempts at communication, not correcting. Since this situation has a "private" feel, students feel free to experiment. Mistakes don't matter.

Task Cycle • REPORT. (oral/written output) • Some groups present their reports to the class, or

exchange written reports, and compare results. Teacher acts as a chairperson, and then comments on the content of the reports.

• Students in pairs or samll groups prepare to report to the whole class (orally or in writing) how they did the task, what they decided or discovered. Since the report stage is public, students will naturally want to be accurate, so the teacher stands by to give language advice.

Language-focus Phase

• Collective analysis of forms. Students examine/identify and then discuss specific language features from the task and highlighted and worked on, which lead learners to switch attention repeatedly between accuracy and restructuring and fluency”

• It also encourages learners to investigate language for themselves, and to form and test their own hypotheses about how language works

Language Focus

• Finally, students need time to note down useful words, phrases, and patterns into a language notebook. Regular revision of these will help vocabulary acquisition

• Practice • Conducts practice of new words,

phrases, and patterns occurring in the data, either during or after the Analysis

Teachers’ Roles

• Facilitator. • Exposure, use and motivation • Variety of topics and real-life contents

and task types provide learners a lot of choices

• Implicit guider.

Types of Tasks to Promote Language Use

• Any topic or theme can give rise to different types of tasks, which can be generated with the help of the typology as follows.

• Ordering / Sorting/

classifying

Sharing personal experienceAnecdote telling

Listing Comparing/matching Problem solving

Creative tasks/ Project

work

• Involving different cognitive processes. The top three types (Listing Ordering / Sorting/ classifying Comparing/matching

) increase in cognitive complexity from left to right, but less challenging than the three (Problem solving Sharing personal experience, Anecdote telling, Creative tasks/ Project work ) at the bottom. These involve more complex cognitive operations or combinations of simpler task types.

• Richard (2001) presented five pedagogical tasks

• (1) Jigsaw tasks • (2) Information-gap tasks • (3) Problem-solving tasks• (4) Decision-making tasks• (5) Opinion exchange tasks

NegotiationBreen & Candlin's Process Syllabus (1980)

• A psycho-social rationale (Kumaravadivelu (1993), considerating cognitive, expressive and social parameters negotiated among the participants of the mini-society of the classroom. a Vygotskian framework, by determining what was learned and the syllabus retrospectively, rather than a priori. Negotiation takes place inside task activity about what, with whom, how, in what participant structure, and what task is to be learned. Students co-manage their own learning.

• Taking "cats,“ as an example, • a listing task – List three reasons why

people think cats make good pets.• A comparing task - compare cats and

dogs as pets.• A problem-solving task – find three low

budget solutions to the problem of looking after a cat.

• An experience sharing task - stories about cats.

• It is always a good idea to record two or three pairs of fluent speakers doing (and reporting) the tasks, so that you can choose the best recording, transcribe it, and use it in class to illustrate features of spontaneous and planned language. Working with real data is exciting; there are always discoveries to be made, and here the risk is reduced by having time to prepare for what crops up in the recording

Impacts on Learning • Getting exposure to new knowledge &

recalling things they have learned. The task cycle gives them speaking and writing exposure with opportunities for students to learn from each other.

• Offer students opportunities to use whatever language they have, both in private (where mistakes, hesitations, and approximate renderings do not matter so long as the meaning is clear) and in public (where there is a built-in desire to strive for accuracy of form and meaning, so as not to lose face).

Impacts on Learning • Close focus on form: The planning stage betw

een the private task and the public report promotes close attention to language form. As learners strive for accuracy, they try to organise their reports clearly and check words and patterns they are not sure of. In the final component, language analysis activities also provide a focus on form through consciousness-raising processes. Learners notice and reflect on language features, recycle the task language, go back over the text or recording and investigate new items, and practice pronouncing useful phrases

Impacts on Learning

• Motivation: The need to achieve the objectives of the task and to report back on it. Success in doing this can increase longer term motivation.

• Motivation to listen to fluent speakers doing the task is strong too, because in attempting the task, learners will notice gaps in their own language, and will listen carefully to hear how fluent speakers express themselves

Conclusion • TBL offers a change from the grammar practice

routines through which many learners have previously failed to learn to communicate. It encourages learners to experiment with whatever English they can recall, to try things out without fear of failure and public correction, and to take active control of their own learning, both in and outside class.

• For the teacher, the framework offers security and control. While it may be true that TBL is an adventure, it can be undertaken within the safety of an imaginatively designed playground.

•  

Conclusion • In TBL, language is used for an

authentic purpose meaning which real communication should take place, and that at the stage where the learners are preparing their report for the whole class, they are forced to consider language form in general rather than concentrating on a single form.

• The aim of TBL is to integrate all four skills and to move from fluency to accuracy plus fluency.  

Suggestions • 學習主題 :夏日假期計畫• 校園景點介紹 : (文法結構 )• 訪問老師、社區人士、偶像 : (錄音、人權、 copy right)• Focus on Form: Prior English knowledge & predicta

ble leaning content (input)• Negotiation: Decision making of choice, topics for f

ocus, Semi-structured Interview (Implementation)• Performance: Written performance Writing draft ；

Oral presentation (Output)• Creative rewarding strategies recording, putting on

face books/ you tube or …

References and Further Reading

• Long M. and Crookes G., (1992), Three approaches to task-based syllabus design”, TESOL Quarterly, 26 (1), 27-56.

• Skehan P., (1994). Second language acquisition strategies, interlanguage sevelopment and task-based learning, in, Bygate M., Tonkyn A & Williams, E (eds), Grammar and the language teacher, pp. 175-199. Prentice Hall, Hemel Hempstead

References and Further Reading • Williams, J. (1995). Focus on form in

communicative language teaching:. TESOL Journal, 4(4),12-16.

• Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. Harlow,U.K.: Longman Addison, Wesley.

• Willis, J., & Willis, D. (1996). (Eds.). Challenge and change in language teaching. Oxford: Heinemann

• Willis J., (1996). A flexible framework for task-based learning, in Jane Willis & Dave Willis (eds), Challenge and change in language teaching, pp. 52-62 Heinemann.

Based on Jane Willis’Task-Based Learning: What Kind

of Adventure?

Let’s Start Our Adventure!