are expected to play in carrying out learning tasks as well as the social and interpersonal relationships between the participants. ‘Settings’ refers to the
classroom arrangements specified or implied in the task. It also requires consideration of whether the task is to be carried out wholly or partly outside the
classroom.
c. Sequencing Tasks
In developing materials, the tasks should be arranged in an appropriate order. Nunan 1985 suggests that activities can be graded according to the
cognitive and performance demands made upon the learner. Nunan 1989: 118- 119 also proposes the following steps of teaching sequence for written language
with some modifications which can be used as a guidance to sequence the tasks developed in the Units.
1 Processing comprehending
a Read a text – no overt response.
b Read a text and give a non-verbal, physical response e.g. learner raises hand every time key words are heard.
c Read a text and give a non-physical, non-verbal response e.g. tick a box or grid each time key words are heard.
d Read a text and give a verbal response repeat or write key words when they are heard.
2 Productive
a Read cue utterances, dialogue fragments and rerwite.
b Read a cue and complete a substitution or transformation drill. c Read a cue e.g. question and give a meaningful response i.e. one that is true
for the learner.
d Interactive
a Simulation e.g. reading a text about family, students, working from role cards, circulate and find other members of their family.
b Discussion e.g. students in small groups discuss texts about their families. c Problem solving e.g. in an information gap task, students are split into three
groups; each group read an incomplete description of a family; students recombine and have to complete a family tree, identify which picture from a
number of alternatives represents the family etc.. In this ten-step sequence, the demands on the learner gradually increase,
both within each phase, and from one phase to the next. It illustrates the notion of task continuity, where skills acquired or practiced in one step are then utilized and
extended in succeeding steps Nunan, 1989: 119.
d. Principles of Task-Based Language Teaching
Nunan 2004: 35 summarizes seven underlying principles for task-based language teaching. They are explained as follows.
1 Principle 1: Scaffolding
Lessons and materials should provide supporting frameworks within which the learning takes place. At the beginning of the learning process, learners
