Warmest Greetings to My Dear Fellow Teachers Warm Greetings from Chen Lin

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Warmest Greetings toMy Dear Fellow Teachers
Warm Greetings fromChen Lin
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• While there are three
  people, there must be one who can be my teacher.
• ---Confucius

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TASK-BASED LANGUAGE LEARNING

• The Task-Based Approach to
• Language Learning
• Chen Lin

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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.

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Approach, Method and Technique

• Language teaching is usually discussed
  in terms of three related aspects Approach,
  Method and Technique.

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• 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).

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Approach

• An approach (??,??)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.

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• 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

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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

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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.

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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

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• The pedagogical principle of TBLL
• Learning by doing
• Doing in learning
• Learning for doing
• Learning in interacting

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• 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

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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

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• 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

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Kinds of Tasks

• Language learning tasks
• Real Life (Real world) Tasks

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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

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• 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 citys
  English signage and prepare a report

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• 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 dont 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

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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.

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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

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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

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• 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

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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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Remember It is always ideal to combine
  the practice of two or more skills in one
  task-based activity.

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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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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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.

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• II. The success of the implementation of TBLL
  depends heavily on
• 1. Teachers understanding and confidence in
  the effectiveness of the new approach
• 2. Teachers ability to adapt the approach
  to the situation which the students are in
• 3. Teachers command of the language

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• 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.

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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 ThemeFunctionStructureTask
• Two. The TBLL
• Three. Local Context

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• Thank you for
• your attention.
• All comments are
• welcome.