Task-Based Learning offers an alternative framework to the PPP Presentation, Practice, Production lessons that we all know too well. It is based on sound principles of language learning and combines the best insights from communicative language teaching with a systematic focus on language form. This workshop tries to explain each component in a task-based lesson:
Teaching English Through English by Jane Willis, ASIN: 0582746086. This book provides a practical course in teaching English as a second or foreign language, useful for teacher training and also as a reference book for qualified teachers. Published by Longman. Amazon out of print.
A Holistic Approach to Task-Based Course Design by Jane Willis, The Language Teacher Online, February, 2000
Email j.r.willis@aston.ac.uk
Dave Whittington, Department of Computer Science, University of Strathclyde, Scotland UK, G1 1XH, dave@cs.strath.ac.uk
Lorna Campbell, Center for Educational Systems, University of Strathclyde, Scotland UK, G4 0LN, lmc@strath.ac.uk
This paper outlines three task-based learning environments that have been created on the Web to support task-based learning and encourage students to develop and apply their skills and knowledge. These environments are supported by Clyde Virtual University, an initiative sponsored by the ScottishHigher Education Funding Council since 1995.
http://www.hku.hk/engctr/staff/davidn.html
dcnunan@hkucc.hku.hk
For those of you who have heard of me, it will come as no surprise that my hobby is writing books. I have just finished three professional titles: New Ways in Teaching Listening (jointly edited with Lindsay Miller, and published by TESOL); Voices from the Language Classroom, a series of naturalistic investigations jointly edited with Kathi Bailey from Monterey Institute of International Studies in California, and The Self-Directed Teacher, jointly authored with Clarice Lamb. In addition, I have just finished writing an international coursebook series called ATLAS: Learning-Centered Communication, published by Heinle and Heinle in Boston. This series attempts to give practical realisation to ideas I have been developing over many years in learner-centered teaching and task-based materials design. It has 28 components, including videos and a testing program, and, as you can imagine, consumed an enormous amount of time and energy.
I currently teach English for Arts Students and English Enhancement for Law at undergraduate level. I also have several doctoral students, and, from next year, will be teaching on our new M.A. in Applied Linguistics. My current research interests include task-based learning, learner strategy training (particularly as it relates to motivation), self-assessment, and the nature of academic written discourse.
Collaborative Language Learning and Teaching (Cambridge Language Teaching Library) by David Nunan(Editor) (1992)
Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom (Cambridge Language Teaching Library) by David Nunan. (1989)
Search for authod David Nunan on Amazon.
The potential impact of the Web on teaching and learning is enormous. The use of the Web to deliver teaching/training material online is now commonplace and many tools exist to support teachers and trainers. The use of discussion mechanisms, both synchronous and asynchronous, is also widespread, but fewer, purely educational tools exist to support this type of activity. Web-based assessment and evaluation is becoming more important and tools are also being developed in this area.
Innovative use of the Web to create "Virtual Environments" that support task-based learning and simulation are now possible by making use of Java, VRML, Desktop video conferencing etc. Tools that support the development of these "Virtual Environments" are thin on the ground, but it is likely that new tools will be developed to meet the demand.
Examples of "best practice" need to be identified. This applies to both the identification, with justification, of the best tools and the recognition of innovative techniques for using the Web to support learning online.
This workshop brought together practitioners from both the academic and the commercial worlds to discuss the issues surrounding learning with the Web.
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To summarise the Learning Online workshop it is clear that the same range of issues were of significant concern to delegates from both the academic and commercial spheres. In addition it was apparent that all delegates were extremely resourceful and dedicated to the development and advancement of new learning materials and new forms of learning. In his opening address Tim Berners Lee suggested that the exponential growth of the web should be slowed down in order to allow time for standards to be developed. Education however is in the process of entering an unparalleled and accelerating period of change.
Traditional educational paradigms are dissolving and being replaced by frameworks capable of supporting new forms of open and flexible lifelong learning. The Internet is the perfect medium for the delivery of these new forms of education. However if learning online is to fulfil its early potential we must recognise the importance of slowing down and developing internationally recognisable data standards. High quality learning materials may continue to be time consuming and costly to produce but if we can encode these materials with transferable standard data we will help to ensure that production costs will fall, materials will reach a wider audience and learning online will be able to fulfill its real potential.
1. Bob Metcalfe, From the Ether "Web father Berners-Lee shares
next-generation vision of The Semantic Web"
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayNew.pl?/metcalfe/990524bm.htm
2. "W3C issues web content accessibility guidelines as a recommendation" http://www.w3.org/1999/05/WCAG-RECPressRelease
3. The "Learning Online" workshops at the last three successive World Wide Web Conferences have been facilitated by Dave Whittington of the Robert Clark Centre forTechnical Education, University of Glasgow.
4. Learning Online WWW8 Workshop homepage http://www.cs.strath.ac.uk/~dave/www8workshop/
5. Lawrence Stedman, Vision "New Media and Borderless Education: A Review of the Convergence Between Global Media Networks and Higher Education Providers" http://horizon.unc.edu/ts/vision/1998-07.asp
P & P is a long-established specialist English language training provider, offering intensive residential courses in the UK. Based near Cardiff - the capital of Wales - we have been providing global and medium-sized companies from all over the world with English language courses since 1991.
Predominantly aimed at company managers, our courses are tailor-made to suit our clients' needs, be it general and social refresher needs, general business needs or very specific needs for the client's particular industry and job area.
The Institute for Computer Based Learning is a centre for staff development training in the methods, tools and technologies for flexible learning. Our staff development programmes build on the Institute's research and dissemination expertise and focus on the effective exploitation of broadband technologies and on open learning approaches. Training is offered through online courses, videoconferencing and regional events
Flexible learning is a key research theme for the Institute for Computer Based Learning. Building on ground-breaking work of the early 1990s, recent research projects have further developed the understanding of task-based learning environments, telematics-based learning, the design of information gateways, and the exploitation of metadata descriptions.
The Institute for Computer Based Learning is a centre of expertise in the integration of learning technologies into everyday teaching practice. Innovative programmes of implementation support and dissemination have been developed for the Scottish Higher Education sector. These support teachers who are planning a significant change in their approaches to student learning. The Institute specialises in the evaluation and dissemination of learning technologies.
Simulations are a powerful resource for learning, putting into the student's hands the power to explore complex systems. The Institute for Computer Based Learning has developed a toolkit for the efficient development of network-based simulations. Through research and dissemination projects, we have developed the understanding of how to effectively integrate educational simulations within online learning.
The Tritt method is a technique for stepwise analysis of problems and
generation of solutions. It was developed to define a standard easy-to-learn
procedure to
organise and streamline the often complex discussions which occur in
dealing with business problems. (The word tritt means step in German.)
The method uses brainstorming and mind-mapping and is highly effective in group problem solving. It applies techniques from psychology, business management and process engineering. It was written for use in technical and business English classes and communication courses. It can be taught in a day by practical use with a case study.
The booklet with two complete examples costs $15 or SFr. 30, further cases are $5 or SFr. 10.- each. Teachers are encouraged to submit their cases which will be resold on the same basis.