- Activities and tasks can be either those that learners might need to achieve
in real life and those that have a pedagogical purpose specific to the classroom.
- Activities and tasks of a task-based syllabus are sequenced according to
difficulty. -
The difficulty of tasks depends on a range of factors including the previous experience of the learner, the complexity of the task, the language required
to undertake the task, and the degree of support available. Since motivation plays a significant role in learning and teaching, a
language teacher is constantly challenged to find creative and meaningful activities and tasks that will motivate students to be interested and get actively
involved in what is going on in their classes. The need to find ways of improving these situations is therefore essential. One alternative is a task-based approach in
language classroom.
a. The Procedure of Using Task-Based Learning
A three-stage procedure is commonly recommended by Nunan 1980: 1.
Pre-task - Introduction to the topic and task
- Provision of useful input listening, reading, brainstorming, etc - if necessary, reactivation or provision of essential language
- definition of the task objectives, procedures, time limits, etc 2.
Task - Planning task
- Doing the task - Reporting on the task or presenting the product of the task
teacher monitoring and guiding as necessary all the time 3.
Post-task - Focus on the language used
- Practice of the language as necessary - Retrospective discussion of the task---awareness-raising
Task-Based Learning can be used with other approaches in a number of ways, for example, as an alternative way of introducing new language, to do
language review and remedial work, and to do skills, and general language development work.
b. Types of Activities
Pattison 1987 proposes seven activity types: 1.
Questions and Answers The activities are based on the notion of creating an information gap by
letting learners make a personal and secret choice from a list language items which all fit into a given frame e.g. the location of a person or object. The
aim is for learners to discover their classmates’ secret choices. This activity can be used to practice almost any structure, function or notion.
2. Dialogues and Role-plays
These can be wholly improvised ‘if learners are given some choice of what to say, and if there is a clear aim to be achieved by what they say in their
role-plays, they may participate more willingly and learn more thoroughly than when they are told to simply repeat a given dialogue in pairs’.
3. Matching activities
Here, the task for the learner is to recognize matching items, or to complete pairs or sets.
4. Communication strategies
There activities are designed to encourage learners to practice communication strategies such as paraphrasing, borrowing or inventing
words, using gesture, asking for feedback, simplifying. 5.
Pictures and picture stories Many communication activities can be stimulated through the use of
pictures e.g. memory test, spot the difference, sequencing pictures to tell a story.
6. Puzzles and problems
These require learners to make guesses, draw on their general knowledge and personal experience, use their imagination and test their powers of
logical reasoning. 7.
Discussions and decisions These require learners to collect and share information to reach a decision
e.g. to decide which items from a list are essential to have on a desert island.
Finally, the integrated-skill approach which is found is task-based language learning instruction can be highly motivating to the students of all ages
and background.
7. School-Based Curriculum 2006
