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Introduction
Task-based Learning (TBL) is an increasingly important approach in ELT. It is considered to be a breakthrough as it is thought to replicate everyday situations; learners are encouraged to, as Nunan (2004:1) states, utilise the language of everyday life ‘beyond’ the classroom. Ultimately, TBL is one of the approaches which focus on meaning and communication more than form and structure; learners are given opportunities to use language for natural communication in a classroom setting (Willis & Willis, 2007:4).
This article will provide the definition of Task-based Learning; present the stages of a TBL lesson; and discuss some advantages and disadvantages of the approach.
What is Task-Based Learning?
In his seminal book, Nunan (2004:1) suggests six principles for TBL, which constitute the basic tenets of the approach:
- The content is chosen based on the learners’ needs.
- Communication is done through using the target language for interaction.
- Authentic materials are included in learning.
- Giving learners opportunities to focus on what and how they learn.
- Valuing learners’ experiences as significant factors in learning.
- Connecting language learning in classrooms with the authentic everyday use of language.
Significantly, these criteria focus on interaction, communication and authenticity. Such goals are achieved by, as the very name of the approach demonstrates, giving learners ‘tasks’. Although it might be perceived that any activity learners do in class is a task, Thornbury (2006:222-223) draws a distinction between a ‘task’ and an ‘activity / exercise’. He argues that ‘tasks’ are classroom exercises which focus on communicative meaningful outcomes, such as solving a problem or drafting a plan. On the other hand, an ‘activity’ or an ‘exercise’ focuses on practising language items, for instance, the present perfect, in a controlled way without any communicative objectives.
Therefore, Task-based Learning is centred around simulating real-life tasks in the classroom to encourage learners to use the language in a natural communicative manner. This does not mean that focus on form is totally neglected, but there is room for it depending on the performance of the learners during tasks.
Stages of a TBL lesson
Typically, a TBL lesson has three main phases: a) pre-task; b) task cycle; c) language focus, as illustrated by Willis (1996:38). Nevertheless, Willis (in Harmer 2001:87) noted that Task-based Learning is more complex than simply a three-stage methodology. The following is a brief account of each stage based on Willis (1996:39-103):
1) Pre-task:
In this phase, learners are introduced to the topic of the target task. The teacher may need to pre-teach some examples of important phrases learners will need to use when performing the task. Additionally, the teacher will make sure that he / she facilitates instructions so that student understand what they need to do. A key step is that learners hear or watch a similar task as a model for them to follow; for example, if the task is to give a presentation about tourist attractions in their countries, they watch or listen to a presentation about the same topic.
2) Task cycle:
The task cycle is probably the most productive phase which gives the opportunity for learners to be autonomous and creative. Content and meaning are the sole focus of this phase; learners are not provided language work. The task cycle consists of three steps:
First, they do the task by brainstorming ideas and organising their thoughts in pairs or groups, meanwhile, the teacher monitors from a distance. At this stage, learners’ communication skills are supposed to develop. Going back to the example task of giving a presentation, students at this stage should be deciding on the content, the outline, the pictures of attractions, etc.
Second, students will plan how they are going to report to the rest of the class; e.g., plan how they will deliver the presentation; who will start, who will finish, timings of each students, etc. The teacher’s role here is a ‘language advisor’ who helps students with, for instance, alternative vocabulary to make meanings clearer; grammatical structures which illustrate ideas more meaningfully.
Third, students report their production to colleagues normally orally but can also be in a written form. Apparently, students, who were selected beforehand, report to the rest of the class; they, for example, give time-bound presentations group by group. The role of the teacher is a chairperson who organises the procedures and responds to the content of the presentations.
3) Language focus:
Unlike the PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production) approach in which the language focus comes at the start, TBL concludes with it. It gives learners the opportunity to investigate language they used during the task cycle. Useful language which emerges from the task is analysed and discussed so that students are able to notice it when they encounter the same task in real-life. In order to consolidate such language, learners are given practice activities to help them process useful functional phrases needed for the successful achievement of the task when they do it again either inside the classroom or outside it.
Perceived Advantages and Disadvantages
There are a number of issues which some ELT practitioners perceive about Task-based Learning. Willis and Willis (2007:200) illustrated ten perceived obstacles; they relate mainly to timing, learners, motivation, administration and classroom management. They state that:
- Most books do not use TBL, so there will be a need to find timing to design tasks.
- Lack of timing to integrate TBL into existing syllabi.
- Teacher may be confused about how to teach TBL if they are not used to it.
- Some learners ask for concrete outcomes such as grammatical rules.
- Learners may not be motivated enough to take TBL seriously.
- Given that the approach uses ‘real’ tasks, it is not suitable for low-level students.
- Overwhelming use of L2 for learners during the different phases of TBL.
- Student feel no sense of progress; the outcomes of learning are not clear.
- Challenging for teachers (and learners) because there is no control over language.
- There is a gap between TBL and existing exam systems- exams are not based on tasks.
Although the abovementioned points are feasible, there are ways to overcome them. Consequently, advantages can be derived from such perceived disadvantages. The following are examples of the numerous advantages of Task-based learning:
- It focuses on meaning and production; this lets off steam as it does not confine students to use pre-taught language.
- Learners make efforts to understand each other and to get their messages across, which enables students to acquire language easily (Larsen-Freeman, 2000:144).
- Attention is given to the language needed for genuine communication, not to learn language items simply because they exist in language (Nunan, 2004:7).
- TBL facilitates collaboration, teamwork, negotiation and other skills needed for effective communication.
- Learners experiences are valued, the teacher is not the source of knowledge but rather a facilitator. So, there is a principle of sharing.
- It boosts creativity due to the flexibility of tasks. Although students carry out tasks of the same theme, each individual / group create their own unique tasks.
Conclusion
This essay has presented some key features of Task-based Learning: the premise underlying the approach is to focus on meaning via real-life simulations of genuine tasks learners are expected to encounter outside the classroom. TBL, in its popular framework, has three phases: 1) the pre-task, in which learners are introduced o the topic and watch / listen to the task they will be doing; 2) the task cycle, this is when students create the task, prepare how to report it to the class and then report it; 3) the language focus phase in which useful language examples are analysed and practised.
While there are supposed limitations to TBL implementation; such as motivation, teachers’ readiness and time constraints; I think that there is always room for experimenting with it and investigating whether or not it suits our learners. I suggest that reading a good TBL book would make it less intriguing and would definitely encourage us to try it out for our learners.
Bibliography
Harmer, J. (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching. 8th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000) Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nunan, D. (2004) Task-based Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thornbury, S. (2006) An A-Z of ELT. Oxford: Macmillan Publisher Limited.
Willis, D. & Willis, J. (2007) Doing Task-based Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Willis, J. (1996) A framework for Task-based Learning. Essex: Longman.
Well done Mr. Ahmed 👍🏻