Implementing Task-Based Language Instruction

实施任务型语言教学

Luo Shaoqian

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Beijing Normal University

Three Dimensions of Language Teaching

• Goal (i.e. ‘why’ the language is being taught)• Content (i.e. ‘what’ is taught)

- Type A syllabuses

- Type B syllabuses• Methodology (i.e. ‘how’ it is taught)

- accuracy

- fluency

Grammar Translation

Goal Content Methodology

Ability to read literature in the L2

Type A (list of grammar rules and words to be taught)

Accuracy (i.e. accurate translation of L2 into L1)

Audio-Lingualism

Goal Content Methodology

Ability to communicate

Type A (list of linguistic items to be taught)

Accuracy (I.e. focus on target-like use of the L2)

Notional/Functional Teaching

Goal Content Methodology

Ability to communicate

Type A (i.e. a list of notions and functions

Accuracy (i.e. focus on target-like use of the L2)

Task-Based TeachingGoal Content Methodology

Ability to communicate

Type B (i.e. a series of message-focused tasks)

Fluency (i.e. focus on message conveyance)

Traditional - Task-based

• Traditional form-focus pedagogy

--Teacher controls topic development

-- turn taking is regulated by the teacher

• Task-based pedagogy

-- students able to control topic development

-- speakers can self-select

• questions that questioner already knows the answer to

• little need or opportunity

to negotiate meaning

• Scaffolding directed primarily at enabling students to produce correct sentences

• questions that the questioner does not know the answer to

• Opportunities to negotiate meaning when communication problems arise

• Scaffolding directed primarily at enabling students to say what they want to say

• Form-focused feedback,i.e.the teacher responds to the correctness of students’ utterances

• The teacher repeats what a student has said for the benefit of the whole class

• Content-focused feedback,i.e.the teacher responds to the message content of the students’ utterance

• A student elects to repeat something another student or teacher has said as private speech or to establish intersubjectivity

First generation tasks

• The main aim of first generation tasks is to develop students’ communicative ability in a specific type of situation or area of language. The task is often structured around a particular set of functions or a simple problem.

(Littlewood, 2004; Ribe & Vidal, 1993)

Second generation tasks

• The tasks in the second category pose challenges of a broader nature. They aim at developing not only communicative skills but also general cognitive strategies of handling and organizing information, such as analysing what information is needed in order to complete the task, collecting information,selecting relevant data…

Third generation tasks

• With third generation tasks, the scope widens further. In addition to the communicative and cognitive strategies, they also aim to develop the personality of students through the experience of learning a foreign language. They go further than the previous tasks in aiming to fulfill wider educational objectives, such as enhancing motivation and awareness, developing creativity and interpersonal skills…

Task Types

1. Unfocussed tasks

a. Pedagogic

b. Real world

2. Focused tasks

An Example of a Pedagogic Task

1. Four students – each has one picture and describes it to the rest of the class.

2. Students from the rest of the class ask the four students questions about their pictures.

3. One student from the class tries to tell the story.

4. If necessary Steps 2 and 3 are repeated.

Some Typical Pedagogic Tasks

1. Information-gap tasks (e.g. Same or Different)

2. Opinion-gap tasks (e.g. Balloon debates)3. Reasoning-gap tasks4. Personal tasks5. Role-play tasksNote: Tasks can be dialogic or monologic;

they can be performed orally or in writing.

A Real-World Task

Look at the e-mail message below. Listen to Mr. Pointer’s instructions on the tape. Make notes if you want to. Then write a suitable reply to Lesieur.

Dear Mr. Pointer

Please send flight number, date and time of arrival

and I will arrange for someone to meet you at the

airport.

Lesieur.

Role-play activities

• Very often in role-play situations there is no actual outcome for students to achieve, other than to enact their roles. Students have to think of suitable things to say to each other, but they are unlikely to be exchanging real meaning.

Jane Willis

Two Approaches to Using Tasks

1. Use tasks to support a Type A approach.

- task-supported teaching (Type A)

- weak form of communicative language teaching

2. Use tasks as the basis for teaching

- task-based teaching (Type B)

- strong form of communicative teaching

A Focused Task

Can you spot the differences?

B

A

A Focused Task

Can you spot the difference?

A

B

A Framework for Describing Tasks

1. Goal

2. Input

3. Conditions

4. Predicted outcomes:

a. Process

b. Product

Implementing task-based instruction from a processing-pedagogic view point

• Dangers: if implemented without care, likely to create pressure for immediate communication rather than inter-language change and growth; may encourage learners to use excessively and prematurely lexical modes of communication.

• Possibility to minimize the dangers: to draw on cognitive psychology and second language acquisition research that emphasizes processing factors.

• Learners must be able to develop their inter-language systems in more complex ways through cycles of analysis and synthesis: revisiting areas; learning in a simple, straightforward manner; developing by relexicalizing available syntactically which need not be used on such a basis.

The Methodology of Task-Based Teaching

Three phases in a task-based lesson:

1. Pre-task phase

2. Main task phase

3. Post-task phase

• Task 1 Highlighting main ideas

• Task 2 Planning the weekend

• Task 3 Expressing environmental views

• Task 4 Shopping in a supermarket

• Task 5 Radio weather information

Methodological stages in implementing tasks实施任务的方法阶段

阶段 目标 典型技巧任务前 重构（句子 / 思维） 意识培养

--- 语言创建 准备 / 计划--- 减轻认知压力

任务中 平衡 / 融合语言的 任务选择准确和流利 控制压力

任务后 1 鼓励准确性及重构 公众演示分析 / 测试

任务后 2 综合 / 分析演练 任务排序任务分类

Methodological stages in implementing tasks

Stage Goal Typical techniquesPre-task Restructuring Consciousness-

---establish target language raising ---reduce cognitive load Planning

During Mediate accuracy & fluency Task choicePressure manipulation

Post 1 Encourage accuracy & Public performancerestructuring Analysis/Testing

Post 2 Cycle of synthesis & Task sequencesanalysis Task families

Pre-task work

At this stage, the task itself is the primary factor, task

completion is the aim that dominate.

• 1)To set up the relevant language for a task: to deal some form of pre-teaching, can be both explicit and implicit

2) Give learners a pre-task to do and then equip them with the language they need

Pre-task work

2 to ease the processing load when learners doing a task: a range of tasks can be used to reduce 认知复杂度 – 1) familiarity leads to recall schematic knowledge they have; 2) observe similar tasks on video or listen to or read comparable tasks; 3) do related tasks to activate schema4) engage in pre-task planning: language to use, meanings to express.

So they can devote more attention to how to carry out thetask and produce more accurate, complex, and fluent language.

The Pre-task Phase

• Three purposes:---to serve to introduce new language that learners can use while performing the task; ---to mobilize existing linguistic resources;---to ease processing load, and to push learners to

interpret tasks in more demanding ways• Some options:Allow the students time to plan.1. Provide a model2. Do a similar task3. Pre-teach key linguistic items

The Pre-task Phase

• On general cognitive demands of the task 对任务要求的总体感知• An emphasis on linguistic factors 关注语言因素• Supporting learners in performing a task similar to the task they will

perform in the during-task phase of the lesson 让学生做一些在后面完成任务时需要的准备工作

• Non-task preparation activities --- brain storming 大脑风暴--- mind map 思维图

The Pre-task Phase

• Addressing linguistic demands of a task---predicting, i.e. asking learners to brainstorm a list of

words related to the task title or topic• Providing a model 提供一个示范• Asking students to observe a model of how to perform t

he task 让学生观察完成任务的模式• Performing a similar task 完成一些简单的任务

--- simply observing others perform a task can help reduce the cognitive load on the learner

(Skehan, 1996)

这个阶段是以学习者为中心及任务型学习模式的有关理论为指导，在 Pre-task phase 这一环节的教学安排时，考虑为学生的学习创设良好的学习环境，使学生成为主动学习者。在呈现新的内容时，将构成任务内容的新的语言材料的音、意和语言使用环境同时输入给学生。

The During-Task Phase

Some options:1. Participatory structure 参与方式 : Whole-class vs.

small group work; individual or interaction 2. Set a time for completing the task.3. Vary the number of participants.4. Introduce a surprise element.5. Tell students they will have to present a report to the

whole class.• pair and group work are seen as central to task-b

ased teaching; not all tasks are interactive

（二）新语言材料的操练（ during- task phase）

the main task phase 是指语言技能的习得

过程。

研究内容：

探讨了如何使语言技能的训练能够吸引学生积极、主动的参与，如何使语言知识的积累、语意功能的训练与主题结合。

During the task

At this stage, learners are reminded that fluency is not theonly goal during task completion, and that restructuringand accuracy also have importance

Task choice: the appropriate difficulty level.1 too difficult: excessive mental processing – to communic

ate any sort of meaning: ellipsis, context, strategies and lexicalization which reduce the pedagogic value of a task-based approach.

2 too easy: boring, no serious engagement – no gain in terms of stretching interlanguage or automaticity development (Swain, 1985)

During the task

Syllabus: implementation decisions –

1 to alter the task difficulty2 manipulate the way in which attention is directed

- accuracy to be stressed?- specific structures to be used

3 to make a task less difficult: visual support, such as a diagram 4 to make a task more difficult: surprise elements which learners

don’t expect, e.g. additional evidence in a “judge” task.5 The communicative stress factors: time, modality,

participants/relationships, importance of the task, participants’ control over the task.

The Post-Task Phase

• Three major pedagogical goals:

--- 提供再做任务的机会（ to provide an opportunity for a repeat

performance of the task ）--- 反思任务是怎样完成的

（ to encourage reflection on how the task was

performed ）--- 关注语言的形式

（ to encourage attention to form ）

Post-task activities

Post 1

1 performance: the knowledge while the task is being done may have to be re-done publicly – this leads to learners’ attention to the goals of restructuring and accuracy.

2 analysis: the concern with syntax and analysis is infiltrated into the task work without the heavy-handedness of the teacher intervention and error correction.

Repeat performance

• Carry out second performance publicly （全班，当众）

－ Complexity increases 复杂度提高了－ Express more clearly 表达更清楚了－ Become more fluent 语言更流利了

Post-task activities

Post 21 examine task sequences, task progression, and how s

ets of tasks relate to one another: 1) to repeat tasks so learners are more effective with the analysis and synthesis2) parallel tasks: tasks are similar but with new elements so to engage the learner interest.

2 task families: groups of tasks resemble one another and have similar language or cognitive demands (Candlin, 1987) so learners are clearer of the goals of such task groups and teachers and learners share views about task requirements.

The post-task phase的四种主要活动

• Reviewing of learner errors 反思错误

• Consciousness-raising tasks 语法意识

• Production-practice activities 操练活动

• Noticing activities 注意语言的准确

Reviewing of learner errors• Teacher moves from group to group to listen and

note down the errors

• Address these errors with the whole class - can be written on the board- students can be invited to correct it- listen again and edit their own performance- teacher comments on

Consciousness-raising tasks

• There is an attempt to isolate a specific linguistic feature for focused attention 就某一语法现象单独讲解

• The learners are provided with data that illustrate the targeted feature or an explicit rule describing or explaining the feature

给例子说明语法用法或对语法详细描述• The learners are expected to utilize intellectual effort to u

nderstand the targeted features 通过思考理解语法用法• Learners may be optionally required to verbalize a rule d

escribing the grammatical structure 可以是学生口头表达• To direct students to attend explicitly to a specific form t

hey used incorrectly or failed to use at all in the main task 补充不足

Production-practice activities

• Repetition 重复活动• Substitution 替换练习• Gapped sentences 填空练习• Jumbled sentences 打乱的句子• Transformation drills 变换句型• Dialogues 对话

Noticing activities

• Focusing on linguistic form

• Dictation

• Editing

• Writing and teacher comments

Reflecting on the task

• Present a report on how they did the task and what they decided or discovered – oral or written

• Summary the outcome of the task• Reflect or evaluate of their own performanc

e (fluency, complicity or accuracy)

• Metacognitive strategies 元认知策略 (planning,monitoring and evaluating)

在 Post-task activity 环节中，安排的语言输出活动，应该有以下几个特点：1 、贴近生活的语言使用环境 (life-like situations) ；2 、交谈的双方之间有信息差 (information gap) ；3 、解决实际问题 (problem solving) ；4 、发挥学生的自主性 (active) 或创造性 (creativ

e) 。

（一）“任务型学习模式”的框架

Task Circle

Pre-task preparation

While-task procedure

Post-task activity

Mechanical practice

Meaningful practice

The Foods I Eat (for students)Task 1: Having a picnic• Situation: Some children are going to have a picnic. What food a

re they going to have? Can you give them some ideas? What food do you usually have? Name some of your favourite ones.

Subtask1: What food do they want for the picnic?• Instruction: Now the children are deciding what they want. Look

at the picture carefully and find out the answer by filling in the blanks.

Subtask2: buying food at the food shop• Instructions: Lily and Mary are at the supermarket. They are buy

ing food for the picnic. Please listen to their conversation carefully. Fill in the chart.

Subtask3: eating at the picnic• Instructions: Now the children are at the picnic. They have lots o

f food. Read the conversation between Coco and Sam. Complete the one between Helen and Tim.

The Foods I Eat (for teachers)

Task 1. Having a picnic

• Aims of the task:

1. to identify kinds of foods

2. to express likes or dislikes

3. to understand the communicative language at the food shop

Subtask2: buying food at the food shop

• Task requirements: Communicative language at a shop. Listening skill

• General: To ask and answer questions about buying and selling at shops

• Specific:

To assess students ability to: • -make a conversation at a shop.• -get information from a conversation.• -sum up the main idea of the conversation.• -write money in numbers.

WHO'S WHO IN THE FAMILY

• Family members, BE, Who / whose

• Structure/Vocabulary:

• Family members, BE, Who / whose

• Functions:

• Talking about families

• Materials:

• (1) Cards with description of a new family (1per student)

• (2) "Find Someone Who..." Sheet

• (3) Model Paragraph

PRE – ACTIVITY

• Skills: Speaking and listening

• Organization: Whole class

• Procedures: Class asks teacher about his / her family(real) or imaginary.

ACTIVITY • Skills: Speaking, listening, writing. • Organization: Mixer

• Procedures: • (l) Give out cards (one per student): explain that this is their new family.

• (2) Explain any vocabulary or pronunciation problems.

• (3) Give out "Find Who...?” sheet and explain how it works. Students will answer with information from their new families.

• (4) Done as a mixer. The first student to fill out the sheet correctly wins.

POST – ACTIVITY

• Skills: Writing, (speaking, listening)• Organization: Individual / pairs. • Procedures: • (1) Go over model paragraph.

• (2) Individually, students write similar paragraphs about their new families.

• (3) Then, put students into pairs and they correct each other's paragraphs. (The paragraphs can later be collected and corrected by the teacher.)

• Father: Hugh, taxi river, 35 • Mother: Marilyn, actress, 30 • You: student, 10

• Father: Edward, politician, 35

• Mother: Mildred , deceased • You: university student, 20

• Father: John, retired, 99 * • Mother: Henrietta, retired, 98 • You: retired, 75

• FIND SOMEONE WHOSE • ... mother is deceased.• ...mother is an actress. • …father is a taxi driver.• …father is a taxi driver.

• FIND SOMEONE WHO -• is a student.• is retired.• is 20.

Model Paragraph • My Family

• My name Is Olivia. I'm 10 and I'm a student. My father's name is Joseph. He’s a scientist. He’s 44. My mother 's name is Joan. She is a teacher. She’s 42. I have no brothers or sisters.

• MY FAMILY

Focusing on forms 学习语法

• direct focus on grammar

-- focus on the features of the forms 讲解重点语法

-- address errors 纠正语言错误

-- address gaps in the students’ knowledge 补充语言知识不足

Focussing on Form

Opportunities to focus on form arise in task-based teaching:

Definition: Focus on form … overtly draws students’

attention to linguistic elements as they arise incidentally in lessons whose overrriding focus is on meaning or communication. (Long 1991)

cf. Focus on forms

Three Types of Focus on Form

1. Reactive focus on form (error correction)

2. Teacher-initiated focus on form

3. Student-initiated focus on form

Reactive Focus on Form: An Example

T: What were you doing?

S: I was in pub

(2)

S: I was in pub

T: In the pub?

S: Yeh and I was drinking beer with my

friend.

Dual Focus

Learner 1: And what did you do last weekend?Learner 2: … 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 backTeacher:Afterwards …

Combinations of skills

• listening with speaking and writing

• reading with speaking and writing

• sometimes all four skills

Problems and Solutions Problem Solution

1. Students lack proficiency to communicate in the L2

Devise activities that develop ability to communicate gradually.

2. Students unwilling to speak English in class.

Use small group work; allow planning time; learner training

3. Students develop pidginized language system

Select tasks that demand fully grammaticalized language

Problems with the Educational System and Solutions

Problems Solutions

1. Emphasis on ‘knowledge’ learning

Review philosophy of education.

2. Examination system Develop new more communicative exams

3. Large classes Use small group work; develop tasks suited to large classes.

Conclusions

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.

References

Candlin, C. (1987). Towards task-based language learning. In C. Candlin and D. Murphy (eds). Language Learning Tasks. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Crookes, G. (1989). Planning and interlanguage variation. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 11 367-383.

Foster, P. and Skehan, P. (1994). The influence of planning on performance in task-based learning. Paper presented at the British Association of Applied Linguistics, Leeds.

Prabhu, N.S. (1987). Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: OUP.

Skehan, P. and Foster, P. The influence of planning and post-task activities on accuracy in task-based learning. Thames Valley University Working Papers in Englsih Language Teaching, Vol. 3

Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass and C. Madden (eds). Input in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Willis, D. and Willis, J. (1988). COBUILD Book 1. London: Collins.

Reference Rod Ellis Task-Based Language Teaching University of

Auckland

龚亚夫 罗少茜 《任务型语言教学 》 人民教育出版社龚亚夫 罗少茜 《任务型评价 》 人民教育出版社施嘉平 任务型学习模式在英语教学中的运用

—对小学低年级英语“主题式教学”的实践研究 上海市徐汇区教育学院