Making Decisions for Task-Based Learning

Page No.: 
15
Writer(s): 
David Willis

Task-based learning (TBL) can be seen as a two
stage process. The first stage is to involve learners' communicative tasks.
The second stage is to look closely at the language involved in carrying
out a task and learn from that language.

Nunan (1993) defines a task as "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." J. Willis (1996) defines a task as an activity "where
the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal)
in order to achieve an outcome." Here the notion of meaning is subsumed
in "outcome." In a communicative task language is used to bring
about an outcome through the exchange of meanings.

Let us look at a prediction task based on a short text: Can you complete
the following text in not more than 30 words?

Stick at nothing

My three year old brother, who had been playing outside all morning,
came into the kitchen, begging for a snack. I gave him a slice of bread
and peanut butter. Holding the bread carefully in both hands, he started
to leave, but when he reached the closed kitchen door, a puzzled expression
came over his face. He was too small to open the door without using both
hands to turn the doorknob. After a moment's consideration, he found a
solution. He . . .

In order to solve the problem, students first need to read the text with
understanding. There will be a focus on meaning, and there is an outcome,
the identification of a possible ending to the text. Put yourself in the
position of a student. Think about a solution to the task and prepare to
discuss it with others. (The actual ending of the text is at the end of
the article.)

In helping students to work with a task like this, there are class management
decisions to be made. We need to decide whether the task is to be done individually,
in pairs or in groups. There are organisational decisions about how these
working units are to be handled. How much preparation time will they have?
Will they be given the chance to compare solutions with other groups? In
order to answer these questions we need to think carefully about the parameters
of classroom organisation and about possible staging of a task as students
work towards a solution.

There are also teaching decisions to be made. We also need to decide
how much help to give students before they undertake the task. Because of
possible difficulties with vocabulary you may need to introduce some items
before the students read the text. You could possibly do this by giving
a them simplified spoken version of the text accompanied by appropriate
actions.

The second stage in a task-based methodology has to do with language.
We need to look carefully at a text and ask two questions. The first question
is what language is there that would be useful for my students at their
present stage of development? Looking at the text above we can readily identify
a number of possibilities, for example:

Relative clauses: "My three year old brother, who
had been playing outside all morning"

-ing forms: "who had been playing outside all morning";
"begging for a snack"; "Holding the bread carefully in both
hands"; "without using both hands to turn the door knob."

Past perfect:"who had been playing outside all morning"

Double object verbs: "I gave him a slice of bread
and peanut butter."

If we are to make good decisions here we need a model of language to
guide us. There are, of course, a number of different ways of looking at
language. The important thing is that we have a systematic way of looking
at the possibilities in a text.

The second question involves considering which of these possibilities
we should focus on in the context of this particular text. This will depend
on our learners, involving factors such as their level of competence, their
previous learning experience, their native language and the way it relates
to English, and so on. Having identified elements for language focus work,
we need to set up activities to enable students to think carefully and critically
about the points we have identified by looking at language they have encountered
in previous tasks and texts. Almost certainly they have encountered many
uses of -ing forms, for example, in their previous learning. How can we
use that experience to help them look critically at the way these forms
are used in English?

It is therefore possible to break down a complex process, in this case
task-based learning and teaching, into basic stages. It is then possible
within those stages to identify the kinds of teaching decisions which have
to be made. Having identified crucial decision-making points, we can access
knowledge which will help us make good decisions: knowledge to do with language
structure, classroom management and teaching techniques, knowledge about
students, their previous learning and their first language. For experienced
teachers a lot of this knowledge is already in place. The trick is organise
it systematically and make it work for us. By analysing classroom procedures
and identifying what is required at each stage we can bring hard-won experience
and expertise to bear on extending our range in the classroom.

Once these procedures have been established we are in a position to learn
rapidly from experience, adjusting tasks and the accompanying language work
in principled ways to find out what works best for a particular groups of
students, to build on successful teaching sequences, and to adjust and reorganise
less successful sequences.

Note

1 The final sentence of the text reads as follows:

"He plastered the sticky side of his bread to the wall, used both
hands to turn the knob, peeled his bread off the wall and went out happily
to play."

References

Nunan, D. (1993). Task-based syllabus design: selecting, grading and
sequencing tasks. In G. Crookes and S. Gass (eds) Task and language learning:
Integrating theory and practice.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. AddisonWesley
Longman.