FEAI 1

2°F2 & 2°F3

Prof. Melisa Milla
TASK-BASED
APPROACH
(Material in Virtual Classroom)

James Bourke
Professor Jack. C. Richards

✓ TBT: A teaching approach

✓ TBT (Task-Based Teaching) starts with tasks that

students do (production-practice), and from their
performance on those tasks the teacher identifies
what language the students need to develop
(presentation), so it is the ‘reverse’ of a typical
PPP lesson (Presentation-Practice-Production)

TBT uses a curriculum built around tasks or activities, and from them
language takes place.

In contrast, a typical PPP lesson is built around a grammar paradigm,

where each lesson is based on the grammar focus of the lesson.
You can see more here.
Professor Jack. C. Richards

Kinds of tasks:

(1) Classroom tasks Activities designed to simulate real-life tasks within a classroom
setting. They are used simply to create the context for communication
(e.g. information gap tasks, role-playing a conversation in a restaurant, etc);

(2) Real-world tasks Activities that students might encounter in their daily lives outside the
classroom (they will use the language in those situations )
(e.g. interviews, checking into a hotel).

Use:
Tasks can be used to
(1) assess what students are able to do;
(2) set priorities for teaching, and
(3) build language awareness around students’ performance on tasks
Use:
Tasks can be used to

(1) assess what students are able to do:

By assigning tasks, teachers can observe and evaluate how well students use the language
in practical contexts. This helps in understanding their actual communicative competence,
rather than just their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.

(2) set priorities for teaching:

Observing students helps teachers identify areas where students struggle, which allows
teachers to prioritize certain aspects of language instruction that need more attention. In
this way, teachers can adjust their lesson plans to focus on specific skills or language areas
that require improvement,

(3) build language awareness around students’ performance on tasks

After completing a task, discussing what went well and what didn’t can raise students'
awareness of their language strengths and weaknesses, thus making them reflect on and
understand the way in which they used language
Professor Jack. C. Richards
TBT may be difficult to use as the sole basis for a language course
because it puts a huge amount of responsibility on the teacher.

Also, the students’ performance is likely be a little unpredictable

depending on what their language proficiency is; so, there’s a lot of
work on the teachers’ part to really build language development around
the students' task performance.

James M. Bourke
(Designing a topic-based
syllabus for young
learners, p. 284)
David Nunan
TBT has strengthened the following principles and practices:
Content to be taught
✓ A needs-based approach to content selection. and learned depends on
what students need
✓ An emphasis on learning to communicate through
interaction in the target language.
Through
communicative tasks
✓ The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation. and enabling tasks

✓ The provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on

language but also on the learning process itself.

✓ An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as

important contributing elements to classroom learning.

✓ The linking of classroom language learning with language use

outside the classroom.
David Nunan | Defining ‘Task’

❖ Long (1985)
Real-world
“Target tasks” → Tasks are non-technical and non-linguistic -what Tasks (Richards)
people in the street do and what they would answer when asked about
what they were doing-. Tasks may not have a linguistic outcome. Tasks
may be part of a larger sequence of tasks.

Classroom
❖ Richards, et al. (1986) | Willis (1996) | Skehan (1998) | Ellis (2003)
Tasks
(Richards)
“Pedagogical tasks” → What the learners do in class rather than in
the world outside the classroom, but there's a relationship to
comparable real-world activities: Meaning is primary – The goal is to
achieve a (linguistic or non-linguistic) outcome
David Nunan | Defining ‘Task’ Classroom Tasks
(Richards)
❖ Richards, et al. (1986) | Willis (1996) | Skehan (1998) | Ellis (2003) Pedagogical Tasks
(Nunan)

✓ Taks may or may not involve the production of language (Richards et al) In a realistic way that is based
✓ The TL is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order on practical rather than
to achieve an outcome (Willis, 1996) theoretical considerations.
✓ Taks requires learners to process language pragmatically in order to
achieve an outcome that can be evaluated in terms of whether the correct
or appropriate propositional content has been conveyed (Ellis, 2003)
David Nunan
Defining ‘Task’

❖ Nunan (2004)

A pedagogical task is a piece of classroom

work that involves learners in comprehending,
manipulating, producing or interacting in the
target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in
order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to
manipulate form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone
as a communicative act in its own right with a beginning, a middle and an end.
Complete with these words:

___________ AND ___________ ARE HIGHLY INTERRELATED:

___________ EXISTS TO ENABLE THE LANGUAGE USER TO ___________

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE KEYS, HERE.

All definitions of pedagogical tasks emphasise that:

Pedagogical tasks involve communicative language use in which the user’s attention is
focused on meaning rather than grammatical form.

What is the use of grammatical knowledge?

(Thinks of an answer and compare it with the one provided in the KEYS)

How do tasks differ from grammatical exercises?

(Thinks of an answer and compare it with the one provided in the KEYS)

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE KEYS, HERE.

Rod Ellis
What other ideas does he contribute to the topic of TBT?
Expand on the following:
❖ Task: Definition
❖ Task vs Exercise
❖ Focused tasks vs Unfocused Tasks
❖ Task-based teaching (TBT) vs Task-supported teaching (TST)
❖ Incidental language acquisition vs Intentional language acquisition
❖ Limitations of TST
❖ Advantages of TBT
❖ Task: Definition

A language teaching activity that must satisfy four criteria:

Find out more about ‘information gap activities’ here and here
❖ Task vs Exercise

TASK EXERCISE

1. Primary focus on trying to communicate 1. Primary focus on using language correctly

2. There is a gap. 2. There is no gap.

3. Learners use own linguistic resources 3. Text manipulating

4. Successful performance = outcome of task 4. Successful performance = accurate use of

achieved target feature

❖ Focused tasks vs Unfocused Tasks

involve using a
whole lot of
language in
different ways
❖ Task-based teaching (TBT) vs Task-supported teaching (TST)
❖ Incidental language acquisition vs Intentional language acquisition
❖ Limitations of TST
 Optional, but highly recommended…

Unpacking terms: Implicit/Explicit Knowledge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=q2eVuAgdKrM
❖ Advantages of TBT

Why does Ellis say that TST resembles PPP?

Is there any focus on form during TBT? Explain
 TASK
EXERCISE
ACTIVITY
All tasks are activities but not all activities are tasks. E.D.

What is the difference between a task, an exercise and an activity?

Go to https://www.professorjackrichards.com/difference-task-exercise-
activity/ and check.
After you’ve read about it, complete the image with the correct terms:

…………….

……………. …………….

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE KEYS, HERE.

 FOCUS ON FORM
VS
FOCUS ON FORM(S)
From everything you have read so far about TBT, would you say this
approach adopts a Focus on Form, or a Focus on Form(S)?
Justify
 Optional, but highly recommended…

Unpacking terms: Focus on Form

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDus5H5USmc
 Further videos
(Recommended)

Tasks Content-based Instruction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UezNdfR5PE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFhMUHHyMF0
KEYS
Complete with these words:

FORM AND ___________

___________ MEANING ARE HIGHLY INTERRELATED:

GRAMMAR EXISTS TO ENABLE THE LANGUAGE USER TO COMMUNICATE

___________ ___________

GO BACK
All definitions of pedagogical tasks emphasise that:

Pedagogical tasks involve communicative language use in which the user’s attention is
focused on meaning rather than grammatical form.

What is the use of grammatical knowledge?

Grammar provides the learner with the linguistics tools he/she needs
to convey a particular meaning.

How do tasks differ from grammatical exercises?

TASKS: learners are free to use a range of language structures to
achieve task outcomes
GRAMMATICAL EXERCISES: the forms are specified in advance.
GO BACK
After you’ve read about it, complete the image with the correct terms:

…………….

……………. …………….

GO BACK