Task-Based

Language
Learning
Prof. Lilian Gómez A. (PhD)
Universidad de Concepción
ligomez@udec.cl
 Why Task-Based
Teaching?
 Responsiveness to learners' precisely
specified communicative needs
 Potential for developing functional
language proficiency without
sacrificing grammatical accuracy
 Attempt to harmonize the way
languages are taught with what SLA
research has revealed about how
they are learned
 What is Task-Based
Language Teaching
(TBLT) ?
 TBLT is an embryonic theory of
language teaching rooted in
cognitive and interactionist SLA
theory & research, philosophy, SLA,
psycholinguistics, language teaching,
curriculum theory, & educational
psychology
 Concerned about what can be done
to make language teaching more
efficient
 It proposes the notion of “task” as a
 Key Assumption of TBLT
 Focus on process rather than product
 Basic elements are purposeful activities &
tasks that emphasize communication &
meaning
 Learners learn language by interacting
communicatively & purposefully while
working on the task
 Activities & tasks can be either those that
 learners need to achieve in real life
 e.g. using the phone
 Have a pedagogical purpose specific to the
Key Assumption of TBLT
 The difficulty of a task depends on a
range of factors including:
 Previous experience of the learner
 Complexity of the task

 Language required to undertake the

task
 Degree of support available
 Components of TBT
 There are six components of the
design, implementation, and evaluation
of a genuinely task-based language
teaching program:
 (a) needs and means analysis
 (b) syllabus design (content & learning
outcomes)
 (c) materials design
 (d) methodology and pedagogy
 What is a Task ?
 A communicative task is a piece of
classroom work which involves
learners in comprehending,
manipulating, producing or
interacting in the target language
while their attention is principally
focused on meaning rather than
form.
 The task should have a sense of
completeness, being able to stand
alone as a communicative act in its
 Examples of TBLT
materials
 Class timetables
 Construct timetables with subject names
& times
 Planning a vacation
 Deciding where you can go based on a
budget
 Booking a flight
 Choosing a hotel
 Booking a room
 Planning a tour of the city

 Programs & Itineraries

 Examples of Task Types
 Listing  Jigsaw tasks
 Ordering & sorting  Information-gap
 Comparing tasks
 Problem solving  Problem-solving
tasks
 Sharing personal
experiences  Decision-making
 Creative tasks tasks
 Opinion exchange
(Willis, 1996) tasks
 Participant Roles
STUDENT ROLES TEACHER ROLES
 Group participant  Selector &

 Monitor sequencer of tasks

 Risk-taker &  Preparing learners

innovator for tasks

 Consciousness
raising
 Instructional Materials
for TBLT
 Pedagogic material
 Similar to materials used in collaborative
learning, communicative language
teaching, small group activities
 Realia
 Newspapers
 Television
 Internet
 Maps, menus, instructional manuals
 Examples of task using
realia
 Newspapers
 Ss prepare their weekend entertainment plan
using the entertainment section
 Ss prepare a job-wanted ad using examples
from the classified section
 Television
 Ss listen to an infomercial, identify the “hype”
words & construct a similar ad w/ them
 Internet
 Ss conduct a comparative shopping analysis of
3 sellers to buy a book
 Ss search w/ 3 different search engines to find
an inexpensive hotel in Chicago, comparing
search times & analyzing the first 10 hits to
determine the most useful egine
 Example of task design
 Pre-task activities
 Brainstorming, ranking exercises,
problem-solving to prepare Ss for role-
plays by revealing schemata
 Task activity
 Ss perform a role-play by negotiating
the cued task
 Posttask activities
 Listen to recordings of native speakers
performing the same role-play &
Another example of TBLT
 Pre-task
 Task cycle
 Task
 Planning to report
 Report
 Post-task listening

 Language focus
 Analysis
 Practice
(Willis, 1996)
 TBLT Methodological
Principles (MP) &
Pedagogic Procedures (PP)
 MPs are desirable instructional design
features based on theory and research
findings, that practitioners must rely on
 MPs are language teaching universals
 PPs comprise an infinite range of local
options for realizing the principles at the
classroom level.
 PP choice is determined by such factors as
 teacher philosophy and preference;
 learner age, proficiency, literacy level, aptitude
and cognitive style;
 the class of target linguistic features for which the
procedures are to be use;

 TBLT Methodological
Principles
Principles L2
Implementation
Activiti Use tasks, not texts, task-based
es as the unit of analysis. language teaching
(TBLT; target tasks,
MP 1 pedagogical tasks,
MP2 Promote learning by task sequencing)
doing.
Input Elaborate input (do negotiation of
not simplify; do not meaning;
MP 3 rely solely on interactional
MP4 "authentic"
Provide rich texts).
(not modification;
exposure to varied
impoverished) input. elaboration
input sources
 TBLT Methodological
Principles
Principles L2
Implementation
Learnin Encourage implicit
g inductive instruction
Process ("chunk")
es
MP 6 learning.
Focus on form. attention; form-
MP 5 function
mapping
MP 7 Provide negative feedback on
feedback. error (e.g.,
recasts); error
"correction"
 TBLT Methodological
Principles
Principles L2 Implementation

Learning Respect "learner timing of

Processe syllabuses"/develo pedagogical
p-mental intervention to
s
processes. developmental
MP
MP 8
9 Promote negotiation of
readiness
cooperative/ meaning;
collaborative interactional
Learners Individualize
learning. needs analysis;
modification
instruction consideration of
MP 10 (according to individual
communicative differences (e.g.,
needs, and memory & aptitude)
psycholinguistically and learning
adapted from Doughty 2000b, 2001b
 TBLT Pedagogic
Procedures
 Different choices of PPs are potentially
justified at different times with the same
learners or at the same time with different
learners. There is no one right or wrong
choice.
 By way of illustration, let us consider MP 7.
 There is good evidence, and widespread
agreement, that feedback on error is
facilitative.
 "Provide negative feedback," therefore,
has the status of a methodological
principle in TBLT.

 Pedagogic Procedures for
MP 7: "Provide negative
feedback"
 Options range from overt and explicit
procedures…
 e.g., use of a rule or explanation delivered in
oral, manual, or written mode, in the L1 or L2,
 or repetition of the correct response, followed
by an elicitation move of some sort designed to
test for incorporation
 …through less intrusive ones…
 e.g., teacher "clarification requests" in the
absence of any real communication
breakdown, designed to elicit learner re-runs
with self-repair)
 …to covert and implicit ones
 e.g., manipulation of input frequency to
increase perceptual salience,
 Pedagogic Procedures for
MP 7: "Provide negative
feedback"
 Different pedagogic procedures for
providing negative feedback may be
needed for
 literate and illiterate learners,
 for children and adults
 with the same group of learners for different
classes of problematic target-language forms
 e.g., free and bound morphology,
 meaning-bearing and communicatively redundant
items,
 forms that are learnable and unlearnable from positive
evidence alone)
 While the PPs chosen will vary, all will
 Examples of TBLT-Like
Materials
 Dustin Simulation
 Beginning level
 Korean TBLT Following
Directions Module
 Beginning level
 smoking prevention program
 Advanced level
 Selected References
 Doughty, C. & Long, M. (2003). Optimal
psycholinguistic environments for distance
foreign language learning. Language
learning and technology, 7, 3, 50-80.
 Long, M. H. (1985). A role for instruction in
second language acquisition: task‑ based
language teaching. In K. Hyltenstam & M.
Pienemann (Eds.), Modeling and assessing
second language development (pp. 77-99).
Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.