Warm Greetings
from
Chen Lin
While there are three
people, there must be one
who can be my teacher.
---Confucius
TASK-BASED
LANGUAGE LEARNING
The Task-Based Approach to
Language Learning
Chen Lin
Requirements for FL Teachers
As foreign language teachers, we
should be armed with the basic
theories and practice in Applied
Linguistics and Foreign Language
Learning Methodology, particularly
their latest developments in our
own context.
Approach, Method and Technique
Language teaching is usually
discussed in terms of three
related aspects: Approach,
Method and Technique.
Different theories about the
nature of language and how
languages are learned (the
approach) imply different ways
about teaching and learning a
language (the method), and
different methods make use of
different kinds of classroom
activity (the technique).
Approach
An approach (路子，途径）is the
perception, essential concept and basic
guiding principle about how languages
are taught and learned. In other words,
it is the theory, philosophy and
principles underlying a particular set of
teaching practices.
 There have been the following
approaches:
The aural-oral approach
The natural approach
The cognitive code approach
The functional-notional approach
The communicative approach
The task-based approach
Method
There have been the following methods:
The grammar-translation method
The direct method
The audiolingual method
The sentence-pattern method
The situational method
The total physical response method
The immersion method
Techniques
Teaching techniques include:
playing games, singing songs, acting,
tongue twister, reciting dialogues,
filling in blanks, multiple choice,
matching of words with pictures, cloze
test, sentence making, translating, etc.
drills, role play, pair work, group
discussion, retelling, etc.
Task-based Language Learning
The theoretical basis of TBLL:
1. Language is for communication
2. Language is for conveying interpersonal meaning
3. Language is for doing things with it
3. Language exists in contexts
The pedagogical principle of TBLL:
Learning by doing
Doing in learning
Learning for doing
Learning in interacting
The Features of TBLL:
1. Learning a language by doing things with it
2. The situations should be as real as possible
3. Language activities should always be
integrated with culture
4. Language activities should be for expressing
ideas instead of parroting things
5. There should not be an identical answer to a
question or identical outcome of an activity
6. Student-centered, not teacher-centered
7. Students are encouraged to use language
creatively
8. Activities of different skills should be
integrated
Tasks & Exercises
Exercises are mainly for:
1. Checking the command of language knowledge
2. Reviewing and consolidating language knowledge
3. Drilling on language forms
4. Working on separate words or sentences without a
context
5. Working for separate language skills
6. Working in rather mechanical drills, such as filling
blanks, matching, choosing the right answer, translating
separate sentences, checking answers, locating the right
sound, etc.
7. Arriving at one unified answer for the question
Tasks are mainly for:
1. Arousing students’ interest
2. Doing things
3. Communicating ideas
4. Conveying information
5. Solving problems
6. Working in context
7. Involving more than one language knowledge
or skill
8. Analyzing, discussing, negotiating
9. Working in pairs or groups
10. Allowing different end-products
Kinds of Tasks
Language learning tasks
&
Real Life (Real world)
Tasks
What is the Real World?
The student him/herself
His/Her family members and home
His/Her teachers and classmates
The school, the campus
The community, the neighbourhood
The city, its parks, museums, libraries, etc
The country, its neighbouring countries
The World, the nations, their histories, cultures
The universe
Examples of Real World tasks:
1. Decorating the classroom with slogans in
English
2. Writing simple captions for pictures for
classroom decoration
3. Writing a notice to parents
4. Mock healthcare check & mock census
5. Mock food price survey; mock court trial
6. Write a report about a sport match
7. Make a shopping list for a class party
8. Prepare a wall newspaper for the class
9. Make a survey of mistakes in the city’s
English signage and prepare a report
Examples of Language Learning Tasks:
1. Act out a sketch in the textbook
2. Listen to a talk and write out what you agree
and don’t agree
3. Look at the pictures in the textbook and write
captions
4. Teacher puts four hats on the table and have
students say how they are different (style, color,
size, for man or woman, for young or old, etc.)
5. Students look at pictures of two persons and
say how they are similar or different
A Notice
Sometimes it is difficult to make a
distinction between a Language
Learning Task and a Real Life Task.
In any case, the more creativity
ability is required, the better is the
activity.
The Role of teacher in TBLL
1. The designer of the tasks
2. The initiator of the tasks
3. The participant in the tasks
4. The negotiator in the tasks
5. The appraiser of the fulfillment of the
tasks
Some advice for teachers when designing
activities for a class or a textbook
1. Be sure that the activities are task-based
instead of being mechanical language exercises
2. Language tasks are necessary but real world
tasks always arouse more interest and helpful
3. Set a definite aim for each task-based activity
4. Provide students with necessary reference
materials, or guide them in finding them
5. Give students some idea about the procedure for
fulfilling the task
6. Define clearly the role of the student(s)
7. Define clearly the role of the teacher (or parents)
8. Set the time for the fulfillment of the task
9. Set the form of the feedback
10. Set the standard and form of the assessment of
the performance
Examples
of
Tasks
For Listening Skill
1. Listen to a story and answer questions
2. Listen to the descriptions of people in a picture and point
out who is who
3. Listen to the description of a person and try to draw a
picture of him(her)
4. Listen to the description of a room and try to draw a
picture of it
5. Listen to the recording of an argument and try to write a
report of it and give your own idea about the matter
6. Listen to the tape of a short story and make an oral report
to the class about the content and give your ideas
For Speaking skill
1. Describe one of the students in the class
2. Teacher sets a question for a debate and lets two students
prepare for it (by themselves separately) and debate before
the class the next day
2. Describe a job in an ad and offer interviews to applicants
3. Teacher provides the student with a map of the city and
has him/her tell about the route to a certain destination
and how to get there
4. Have a group of students act as members of a family and
discuss about a family matter
5. Give a student a cartoon picture and have him/her
describe it
6. A mock conference over a certain matter
7. A mock court trial
For Reading Skill
1. Have a student read the captions of pictures and tell
the class what they are about
2. Have a student read a short story, a newspaper
dispatch, an ad, etc. and report to the class
3. Make a student read the manual of an electrical or
electronic apparatus and tell the class how to operate
it
4. Read the biography or autobiography of a person
and write a chronological table of his/her life
5. Put the scrambled paragraphs of a story in order
6. Fill in the blanks with the right words
For Writing Skill
1. Show the students the pictures of two persons and
have them write about their differences
2. Read to students a story and have them write it out
3. Have students write out something after all the
previously mentioned activities for listening,
speaking and reading
4. Provide a situation and have students write out
their ideas
5. Write a report of a book or story
6. Provide part of a story and have the students
complete it
7. Have students write about topical matters they read
in the web
Remember: It is always
ideal to combine the
practice of two or more
skills in one task-based
activity.
Procedure of fulfilling a Task
Pre-Task :
1. The teacher sets the task
2. The teacher defines the aim of the task
3. The teacher provides necessary information
about the task
4. The teacher provides or reminds students of
necessary language (vocabulary and/or grammar)
5. The teacher allows students time to prepare for
the execution of the task
During task:
1. Students fulfill the task by conscientiously
making use of their language knowledge and
skills, the information in their command and their
creative ability.
2. Students bring to best play their independent
working ability and group cooperation.
3. Students make use of various resources, such as
websites, libraries, newspapers, as well as human
resources.
4. Students prepare for their report back.
5. Students report back orally and/or in writing.
Post Task:
1. Students make their own evaluation of their
work
2. Classmates appraise the performance,
pointing out achievements and shortcomings
3. Teacher gives all-round appraisal of the
work, from point of view of both task
fulfillment and language use.
4. Teacher and students together set follow-up
work to consolidate what has been learnt and
to make up for what has not been achieved.
An Important Note
I. The
TBLL Approach does not reject
the effective elements of any of the
other approaches or methods. Instead,
TBLL is a reasonable development of all
that is useful and effective in the other
approaches and methods.
II. The success of the implementation of TBLL
depends heavily on:
1. Teacher’s understanding and confidence in
the effectiveness of the new approach
2. Teacher’s ability to adapt the approach to the
situation which the students are in
3. Teacher’s command of the language
A Word for our Teachers
Therefore, each teacher should
try and find his/her own way of
implementing TBLL in his/her
class(es). And this will take
some time.
A Word for Textbook Writers
In our textbook compilation work we should
always keep the three fundamental principles in
mind:
One. Follow the basic approach in textbook
writing: Theme—Function—Structure—Task
Two. The TBLL
Three. Local Context
Thank you for
your attention.
All comments are
welcome.