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Date Posted: 09:08:20 07/04/03 Fri
Author: Ronaldo G.M. Rosa
Subject: Task9 / Task-based approach

TASK 9 / NINTH CLASS


TASK-BASED APPROACH


The task-based approach consists in presenting to the learners graded activities or tasks in order to develop their communicative competence.


In the essay "A Task-Based Approach to Teaching English for Science and Technology", Gregory Hadley cites the definitions of task and task-based learning by various authors:

"" Willis defines a task as:
a goal-oriented activity in which learners use language to achieve a real outcome... learners use whatever target language resources they have in order to solve a problem, do a puzzle, play a game, or share and compare experiences.

Long interprets task-based learning as:
a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some reward. Thus, examples of tasks include painting a fence, dressing a child, filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline reservation -- in other words, by "task" is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life.

Richards, Platt and Weber take a different view. For them, a task is:
an activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding language (i.e. as a response). For example, drawing a map while listening to an instruction and performing a command... A task usually requires the teacher to specify what will be regarded as successful completion of the task.

Skehan sees task-based learning as "...activities which have meaning as their primary focus ...A task-based approach sees the learning process as of learning through doing ...it is by primarily engaging in meaning that the learner’s system is encouraged to develop." ""


And, finally, Gregory Hadley himself defines Task and Task-Based Learning as "a series of graded activities that require learners to work with the target language, with the purpose of preparing learners to meet the challenges of real-world functions".
( Gregory Hadley. “A Task-Based Approach to Teaching English for Science and Technology”. http://www.nuis.ac.jp/~hadley/publication/kosentbl/taskbased.htm )


An important aspect of task-based approach is the gradual increase of difficulty in the tasks, in order to improve the learner's performance and knowledge:

"The tasks become more complex, so they require a more developed set of communicative skills. A communicative syllabus should, according to this approach, be constructed according to the difficulty of the tasks required of the learner at different stages in a course. A task-based syllabus is also sometimes referred to as a procedural syllabus."
("The task-based approach". http://simsim.rug.ac.be/staff/elke/recpast/taskbased.html)


It is necessary to be attentive to the equilibrium between what the learner has already achieved and what s/he has still to develop, in order to get a well balanced challenge for the student:

" Skehan (1994:190) argues that the key to Task Based Learning is how to preserve a controlled approach to language development and ensure a balance between the competing pressures of restructuring/complexity, accuracy and fluency. The tasks must be challenging for the language learner - not too difficult so that achieving meaning predominates and not too simple as in this case nothing is being learned or developed.

Skehan (1994:191-192) developed a scheme to help teachers with their decision-making about task difficulty. He also presents a three-phase approach to task implementation as he insists that "analyzing and selecting tasks does not automatically determine task difficulty" (Skehan: 1996:24). In each phase (pre-task, during-task, post-task) he identifies which aspects of task difficulty should be considered so that task implementation can have a positive effect on task value and task selection/ grading can become a "less arbitrary" process. "

("A new approach to Course Design: Task Based Learning". http://www.tesolgreece.com/dinou01.html )


The task-based approach is not necessarily restricted to traditional drills and classroom. Dealing with the matter of language laboratory as an instructional technology tool, in the essay "Task-Based Activities: Making the Language Laboratory Interactive", LeeAnn Stone points to the characteristics of the task-based activities and states that there are three main criteria for them:

" First, they have a goal or purpose that requires the use of the target language, but is not itself centered on that language. (...)
The second criterion involves making use of the unique features of a language lab to create a learning environment that cannot be recreated in the regular classroom. (...)
The third characteristic of a task-based activity is that it involves the student in a way that intrinsically motivates, lowers the affective filter, and creates a desire to excel. (...) "

And Stone comments on the role of these task-based lab activities:

"The role of task-based activities is to provide learners with opportunities to use the target language contextually, and to explore the target language through situational activities. In this way, the language lab can serve as an invaluable tool in the language learning and teaching process, for it provides opportunities for learning that cannot be duplicated in the classroom."

(Stone, LeeAnn - Task-Based Activities: Making the Language Laboratory Interactive. ERIC Digest. http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed343407.html )




Bibliography and references:


HADLEY, Gregory. A Task-Based Approach to Teaching English for Science and Technology. http://www.nuis.ac.jp/~hadley/publication/kosentbl/taskbased.htm

STONE, LeeAnn - Task-Based Activities: Making the Language Laboratory Interactive. ERIC Digest. http://www.ericfacility.net/ericdigests/ed343407.html

"The task-based approach". http://simsim.rug.ac.be/staff/elke/recpast/taskbased.html

Tesol Greece. "A new approach to Course Design: Task Based Learning". http://www.tesolgreece.com/dinou01.html


Ronaldo G.M. Rosa
04/July/2003

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