Introducing Task-based

Language Teaching

Rod Ellis
University of Auckland
Task-based teaching some introductory comments
TBLT advocates

1. Nunan
2. Long
3. Skehan
4. Ellis
5. Willis
6. Norris
7. Van den Branden
What is a task?

1. A task involves a primary focus on

meaning?.
2. A task has some kind of gap.
3. The participants choose the linguistic
resources needed to complete the task.
4. A task has a clearly defined outcome.
An example

I am going to play a number game with you. When I

have finished:
1. Play the game in pairs.
2. Imagine you are writing a book of games for
children and want to include this game. Write an
entry in the book for this game.
3. Compare your entry with that of another student.
Whose entry is better?
4. Develop a set of criteria for evaluating written
entries in the book.
Some questions

1. What type of task is this?

- information gap/ opinion gap
- one way./ two way
- open/closed
2. What language skills were involved in performing
this task?
3. What kinds of processing demands does this task
place on students?
4. Are there any linguistic forms that are essential or
useful for performing this task?
5. How could you decide if this task has worked?
Why do TBLT

1. Tasks can be easily related to students real-life

language needs (i.e. pedagogic tasks can be
designed to reflect target tasks).
2. Tasks create contexts that facilitate second
language acquisition (i.e. an L2 is best learned
through communicating).
3. Tasks create opportunities for focusing on form.
4. Students are more likely to develop intrinsic
motivation in a task-based approach.
5. A task-based approach enables teachers to see if
students are developing the ability to communicate
in an L2.
Using tasks in language teaching

1. Task-supported language teaching

i.e. the syllabus is a structural one and the
approach is focus on forms. Tasks (really
situational exercises) are used in the final
stage of a PPP methodology
2. Task-based language teaching
i.e. the syllabus is task-based and the
approach is focus on form. The
methodology centres around students
performing a series of tasks.
The methodology of task-based teaching
Two aspects of methodology

1. The organisation of task-based lessons

- pre-task phase
- main task phase
- post-task phase
2. The participatory structure of task-based lessons
- individual student activity
- teacher-class activity
- small group work
Options for the Pre-Task Phase

The purpose of the pre-task phase is to

prepare students to perform the task in ways
that will promote acquisition.
Three approaches:
- motivational
- focus on cognitive demands
- focus on linguistic demands
Procedural Options for the Pre-
Task Phase
1. Supporting learners in performing a task
similar to the main task
2. Providing learners with a model of how the
task might be performed.
3. Engaging learners in non-task activities
designed to help them perform the task.
4. Providing learners with the opportunity to
plan how to perform the task.
Performing a Similar Task

See Prabhu (1987)

- the pre-task is a task in its own right

- it is performed through teacher-class

interaction with the teacher using questions
to guide the students to the task outcome
Rationale can be found in sociocultural theory
expert-novice interaction scaffolds zones of
proximal development.
Providing a Model

Providing a demonstration of an ideal

performance
Analysing the features of an ideal text
Training in the use of a strategy (e.g. learning
to live with uncertainty)
Effects of such task priming need
investigating (cf. Lam and Wong 2000)
Non-Task Preparation Activities

These centre of reducing the cognitive or

linguistic load:
Activating schema relating to topic of the task
(e.g. brainstorming)
Pre-teaching vocabulary (e.g. Newton 2001 -
predicting, co-operative dictionary search,
matching words and definitions)
Strategic Planning

Students have access to task.

Options:
Unguided planning

Guided planning (focus on content vs. focus

on linguistic form)
Time allocated (Mehnert 1998)

Participatory organisation
Example of Guided Planning
Foster and Skehan 1999
Strategic planning options
1. No planning
2. Guided planning language focus
3. Guided planning content focus
Description
The students were introduced to the
idea of a balloon debate, assigned roles
and then asked to debate who should be
sacrificed.
The students introduced to the idea of a
balloon debate and shown how to use
modal verbs and conditionals in the
reasons a doctor might give for not
being thrown out of the balloon (e.g. I
take care of many sick people If you
throw me out, many people might die.
The students were introduced the idea
of a balloon debate. The teacher
presents ideas that each character might
use to defend his or her right to stay in
the balloon and students were
encouraged to add ideas of their own.
Options for the Main Task Phase

Two sets of options:

Task-performance options (relating to
decisions taken prior to performance of the
task)
Process options (relating to on-line decisions
taken during the performance of the task
focus on form)
The Danger of Restricted
Communication
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).
Task Performance Options

Main options are:

Performance of task with or without task
pressure (Yuan and Ellis 2003)
Performance of task with or without access to
input data (borrowing Prabhu)
Introduction of surprise element (cf. Foster
and Skehan 1997)
Theoretical rationale for focus on form

To acquire the ability to use new linguistic forms communicatively,

learners need the opportunity to engage in meaning-focused
language use.
However, such opportunity will only guarantee full acquisition of the
new linguistic forms if learners also have the opportunity to attend to
form while engaged in meaning-focused language use.
Given that learners have a limited capacity to process the second
language (L2) and have difficulty in simultaneously attending to
meaning and form they will prioritize meaning over form when
performing a communicative activity (VanPatten 1990).
For this reason, it is necessary to find ways of drawing learners
attention to form during a communicative activity. As Doughty (2001)
notes the factor that distinguishes focus-on-form from other
pedagogical approaches is the requirement that focus-on-form
involves learners briefly and perhaps simultaneously attending to
form, meaning and use during one cognitive event (p. 211).
Incorporating a Focus on Form

Attention to form in the context of performing

a task can occur:
Reactively (through negotiation of meaning or
form)
Pre-emptively

cf. Ellis, Basturkmen and Loewen

Implicit Focus-on-Form

Two principal procedures:

1. Request for clarification (i.e. Speaker A
says something that Speaker B does not
understand; B requests clarification allowing
A opportunity to reformulate)
2. Recast (i.e. Speaker A says something that
Speaker B reformulates in whole or in part)
An Example of an Implicit Focus
on Form
Learner: He pass his house.
Teacher: He passed his house?
Learner: Yeah, he passed his house.

Recasts provide learners with the

opportunity to uptake the correction but
they do not always make use of it.
Explicit Focus-on-Form

1. Explicit correction (e.g. Not x, y)

2. Metalingual comment (e.g. Not present
tense, past tense)
3. Query (e.g. Why is can used here?)
4. Advise (e.g. Remember you need to use
the past tense).
Example of Explicit Focus-on-
Form
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
(Seedhouse 1997)
Picas research

Pica (2002) examined the extent to which learners and their

teachers modified the interaction that arose in content-based
instruction in order to attend to developmentally difficult form-
meaning relationships (for example, English articles) - Pica reported
very little attention to form.

She commented one of the most striking findings of the study was
that the majority of student non-target utterances went unaddressed
in any way (p. 9). One reason for this was that the students
utterances, although often ungrammatical, did not require any
adjustment in order to be understood.

In other words, the interesting and meaningful content that

comprised these lessons drew learners attention from the need to
attend to form.
Addressing the problem

Three ways:
1. Pica (2005) suggested that one way of addressing
this is to develop focused tasks (especially
information-gap tasks) that direct learners attention
to form.
2. Negotiation of form i.e. teachers didactically
address form even though no communication
breakdown has occurred.
3. Reviewing the linguistic problems learners
experienced in the post-task phase of the lesson.
The Post-Task Phase

Three main options:

Repeat performance

Reflection on performance of the task

Attention to form
Repeat Performance

Research shows that when learners repeat a task

their production improves in a number of ways (e.g.
complexity increases, propositions are expressed
more clearly, and they become more fluent).
A repeat performance can be carried out under the
same conditions as the first performance (i.e. in
small groups or individually) or the conditions can be
changed.
Reflecting on the Task
Performance
Students present an oral or written report:
- summarising the outcome of the task.
- reflecting on and evaluating their own performance of the task.
- commenting on which aspect of language use (fluency,
complexity or accuracy) they gave primacy to
- discussing communication problems
- reporting what language they learned from the task
- suggesting how they might improve their performance of the
task.
Attention to Form

Options include:
- review of learner errors (proof listening
Lynch)
- CR tasks

- Production practice

- Noticing activities (dictation; making a

transcript)
Some Problems and their Solutions
Pedagogical problems Solutions

1. Students lack Devise activities that

proficiency to develop ability to
communicate in the L2 communicate
gradually.
2. Students unwilling Use small group work;
to speak English in allow planning time;
class. learner training
3. Students develop Select tasks that
pidginized language demand fully
system grammaticalized
language
Educational problems Solutions

1. Emphasis on Review philosophy of

knowledge learning education.

2. Examination Develop new more

system communicative exams

3. Large classes Use small group work;

develop tasks suited to
large classes.
Concluding comments
Advantages of task-based teaching

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.