Delphi module

3.3.5
Task-based learning

Activity 11

Tasks are not a new technique in language teaching, and have been around for some time. However, it is only in recent years that Task-based Learning (TBL) has been put forward as a complete method in itself.

Typically, tasks have involved students working in pairs or groups to solve some problem or other. Very traditional tasks are things like picture-difference and map-direction activities used in pair situations. What kind of tasks do you use? What benefits do these offer learners?

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Task-based Learning is the subject of Module 4 and so will be discussed only briefly here. TBL uses a topic-based rather than grammatical syllabus, and asks learners to detect and study language patterns that appear in their own output. Typically, it will provide a number of tasks to be carried out around the list of topics; on completion of the tasks, learners are asked to focus on grammar patterns which emerged during their own language production. TBL has a learn-while-doing approach, and is in some ways compatible with Vygotskyan scaffolding, ie the use of prior knowledge and activity to build new knowledge. For Vygotsky,

the most significant moment in the course of intellectual development, which gives birth to the purely human forms of practical and abstract intelligence, occurs when speech and practical activity, two previously completely independent lines of development, converge. (Vygotsky, 1978: 24)

The TBL cycle proposed by Willis (1996), and the role grammar plays in the cycle, is shown in Table 3.1:

		STUDENTS	TEACHER
PRE-TASK:		note useful words prepare individually	introduces task/topic helps with useful words ensures task is understood
TASK CYCLE:	Task	do the task in pairs/small groups	monitors and encourages
	Planning	prepare report on task outcome rehearse report presentation	acts as language advisor helps with report organization
	Report	present spoken report to class or circulate written report	acts as chairperson gives feedback on report
LANGUAGE FOCUS:	Analysis	C-R activities to identify/process language patterns	reviews analysis activity may point out phrases, patterns
	Practice	practise words, phrases, and patterns	conducts practice activities

Table 3.1: the TBL cycle (from Willis, 1996)

For Willis,

The aim of the task is to create a real purpose for language use and provide a natural context for language study. Students prepare for the task, report back after the task and then study the language that arises naturally out of the task cycle and its accompanying materials. (Willis, 1996: 1)

We can see from this that there is a focus on form in TBL, but this focus is not predetermined by any syllabus, but is instead dependent on student production. Like C-R, TBL is inductive-FOF.

Activity 12

Fill in the table below to show how the different methodologies (GT, ALM, PPP, C-R, TBL, Protogrammar) fit into the inductive/deductive clines, and the FOFS / FOF / ZERO distinctions.

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	Inductive	Deductive
FOFS
FOF
ZERO POSITION

Table 3.2: methodologies as inductive / deductive and FOFS / FOF / ZERO