The Methodology of TaskBased Language Teaching
Rod Ellis
University of Auckland
The Methodology of TaskBased Lessons
1. The organisation of task-based lessons
- pre-task phase
- main task phrase
- post-task phase
2. The participatory structure of task-based lessons
- individual student activity
- teacher-class activity
- small group work
Organisation (1) – 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
Cf. 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
Description
1. No planning
The students were introduced to the idea of a
balloon debate, assigned roles and then asked
to debate who should be sacrificed.
2. Guided planning – language focus
The students were introduced to the idea of a
balloon debate and then 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.’
3. Guided planning – content focus
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.
Organisation (2) - 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)
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)
Process Features
1. Discourse that is ‘conversational’ in nature
2. Discourse that encourages the explicit formulation of
messages.
3. Opportunities for students to take linguistic risks.
4. Occasions where the task participants focus implicitly
and/or explicitly on specific linguistic forms.
5. Shared goals for the task (including the use of the L1).
6. Effective scaffolding of the studentss’ efforts to
communicate in the L2.
Form-focussed pedagogy
Task-based pedagogy
Rigid discourse structure - IRF
Loose discourse structure adjacency pairs
Teacher controls topic development
Students able to control topic
development
Turn-taking is regulated by the
teacher.
Turn-taking follows same rules that
govern everyday conversation.
Display questions
Referential questions
Students are placed in a responding
role and consequently perform a
limited range of language
functions.
Little need or opportunity to
negotiate meaning.
Students function in both initiating
and responding roles and thus
perform a wide range of language
functions.
Opportunities to negotiate meaning
when communication problems
arise
Scaffolding directed primarily at
enabling students to produce
correct sentences.
Scaffolding directed primarily at
enabling students to say what they
want to say.
Form-focussed feedback
Content-focussed feedback
Echoing
Repetition
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).
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.
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-onForm
Learner 1:
Learner 2:
And what did you do last weekend?
… I tried to find a pub where you don’t see –
where you don’t 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)
Organisation (3) – The PostTask 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)
Using the Framework
1. Decide on the basic format of the lesson
(i.e. which phases to include)
2. Decide on the options to use within each
phase
The process options provide guidance for
the actual performance of the task
Some Methodological
Principles For Teaching Tasks
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Ensure an appropriate level of difficulty.
Establish clear goals for the performance of the task.
Develop an appropriate orientation for performing the
task in the students.
Ensure the students adopt an active role.
Encourage students to take risks.
Ensure students are primarily focussed on meaning.
Provide opportunities for focussing on form.
Require students to evaluate their performance and
progress.