How Task-based Language Learning And Teaching Was Presented?

By Author: carling
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The experience aspect of the programme included two hour lectures on different skill and language areas (for example, reading, grammar) and principles (for example, interaction) by members of the language studies department (including the author). Task-based learning and teaching was presented at the end of the second week. Lectures were followed by workshops in which the teachers performed and then designed activities, including but not limited to tasks. For example, after the reading lecture, the teachers chose to work in their content area groups to design a task based on graphic organizers, which was then 'experienced' by teachers from other content areas.

The task-based learning and teaching lecture was largely based on the first chapter of Task-based Language Learning and Teaching (Ellis 2003). Although it covered a variety of topics, the key point was the summary of task criteria:
1. A task is primarily focused on meaning (rather than language).
2. A task involves some kind of 'gap'.
3. A task involves real-world processes of language use.
4. A task has a clearly defined outcome that is ...
... achieved communicatively.

During the lecture the teachers did a 'listen and do' information gap task on map directions and a reasoning gap task on whether five different activities (on science topics) met the criteria for tasks. In the workshop and throughout the programme, the teachers experienced other tasks illustrating task design features, such as different types of gaps (information, opinion, and reasoning); different information configurations (split, when everyone has different information, or shared, when everyone has the same information); and different interaction requirements (one-way, when one person speaks while everyone else listens, or two-way, when everyone speaks and listens).

They also designed and performed their own tasks, which they had to explain. Thus when the math's group designed a task for bisecting a right angle, the teachers explained that it created an opportunity for using language because the information gap, split information configuration, and one-way interaction pattern meant students had to listen to and understand spoken instructions in order to successfully complete the task.

The examination aspect of the programme was centred around five writing assignments that asked the teachers to reflect on the lectures. For example, the teachers were asked how ideas from different lectures were related to each other or could be applied to their teaching situations. They were also regularly asked to reflect on how ideas and activities might be useful for the in-service workshop they would design in the second phase of the programme. The final assignment asked the teachers to write about the most important things they learnt. However, they were never directly asked to discuss the lecture on tasks in any of the assignments. Thus, if any of the teachers brought up tasks at any point, it was because they chose to do so.

Three of the four teachers in this study directly stated that TB LT was one of the most important things they learnt. For example, the fourth item that the chemistry teacher listed was 'how to design task-based learning and teaching for maths and science without ignoring focus on form ...'. The physics teacher wrote, Teachers must be able to prepare or design tasks or activities which will focus on both the content and the language form. The students will eventually learn language indirectly while they do the tasks'. The maths teacher wrote, 'By designing a task or any method that is student-centred it can cater [to] the learning style of the student'. Even the biology teacher, who did not did directly mention tasks, wrote a comment that reflected a key principle behind tasks: 'While doing activities learners have to communicate using language, the more they communicate, the more they improve their language'.

It is clear that most of the teachers in this study found tasks useful, as did the majority of the other teachers. Significantly, different teachers focused on different aspects that were highlighted in the task lecture or made associations with other lectures in the programme. This demonstrates how the teachers were examining new information in light of their own experience-based personal practical knowledge.Our Coach Replica Bags with detailed imitation, qualified materials and lowest price endow you the same dignity and elegance of the original one. You would love Coach bags 14510 PEYTON big in peach leather at first sight.