3 Learners as group participants
When doing the tasks, learners are often required to work in groups, in which they have to cooperate with other learners. Eventually, those tasks will improve
learners’ communication skills, such as negotiating, respecting others’ opinion, and improving their thinking skills Willis, 1996. Knowing learners’ roles in TBL will
help the writer to select the learning activities appropriate for TBL, in which the learners function as the language users, language learners and group participants.
e. Teacher’s Roles in Task Based Learning
Willis 1996 describes the roles of the teacher as follows:
1 Teacher as a facilitator
The teacher mainly functions as a facilitator because task based learning is a learner-centred approach. The teacher sets up tasks, gives the instruction to do them,
and makes sure that learners do the task using the target language and learn something from the activities.
2 Teacher as a monitor
This will take place in the task-cycle phase. The teacher should keep minimum interference with working learners and stop teaching. They should observe
and encourage the learners from a slight distance, as well as reminding them to use the target language. If the teacher stands too close with the learners, they tend to ask
the teacher for words they do not know rather than to express it in another way. 21
3 Teacher as a language advisor
In the planning stage, the teacher should help the learners find phrases that can precisely convey what they mean. Teachers can suggest the learners to look up
the definition of unfamiliar words in the dictionary, encourage the other members of the group to edit the report draft together, and give positive comments on their good
points as well as creative use of the language.
4 Teacher as a chairperson
Teacher’s role as a chairperson takes place in the report stage. Teachers have to introduce the presentation, set a purpose for listening, nominate which group
speaks next, and make a summary at the end. Teachers should not interrupt or correct learners during their presentation because it can be discouraging. Teachers who are
inexperienced with task based learning need to be well-informed of how to act and respond to learners’ errors when implementing the materials.
4. Journals in Language Teaching and Learning
In task based learning, the success of learning lies heavily on the learners. This may cause some difficulties for the learners who do not have good learning
strategies. It will also be difficult for the teachers to monitor the learning progress of those learners. This may lead to a condition where the learners fail to obtain the sense
of achievement, and in turn will make learning as a demotivating experience for them. One of the possible solutions is to use a learning journal.
