up
Presentation of Peach Richmond
ETAS Berne, May 6, 2000
Notes from Graham Tritt, formatted
for the Web
Contents
Conventional lessons and tasks
Definition of a task
Task-based exercises
Tasks for Beginners
Differences between drills and tasks
Lesson sequence
Talking about yourself
Building a family tree
Discussion
References
Abstract
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:
-
pre-task - preparation by the teacher and students
-
the task cycle - student work, planning, reporting
-
the language focus - analysis, practice
Conventional lessons and tasks
The lesson aims to teach beginners the terminology of time. See the
Time
Exercise
Method 1: the teacher dictates, the students write. This is a
drill, not a task.
Method 2: listen to the tape, write the answers. This is still
a drill, it could be called a pseudo-task
Method 3: ask your neighbor and fill in the blanks. This is a
task. It places practice in the context of the task of
getting to know your partner.
We compared the different methods. Note that we have not yet considered
how we place a drill or task in the context of a lesson.
| Method 1: Drill |
Method 2: Pseudo-task |
Method 3: Task |
paced, no time wasted
well-defined
students are passive
meaningful for the teacher |
well-defined, one-sided
input is defined
students are passive
meaningful for teacher and students |
efficiency is lower distraction easy
not focussed, unlimited time
interactive exercise
most meaningful for students |
Method 4: Point to a clock face and ask what is the time. This is
typical of many course books.
Definition of a task
using language in order to achieve a communicative goal
My objection - the goal need not be communicative. For instance,
the task could be to work in pairs to change oil on a car,
the result is clear, and the language training happens along the way. Peach
agreed - some are only pedagogical with no use outside of the class, others
simulate real-life.
We would mix drills and both types of tasks.
Task-based exercises
The attendes examined various course books for task-based activities. Here
I have designed some task-based exercises - roughly
based on what Max and I found.
-
Choosing a family holiday
-
Planning a school excursion
-
Planning a party or a menu
Tasks for Beginners
-
"finding English words used in Swiss-German".
This list is extended with my previous work.
Please mail me any more
words and I will add them to my list.
-
Jumbled words - e.g towns rasip, thaignwos
-
Match countries with foods or companies etc
-
List countries
-
Search for a piece of chocolate in the room. Good for prepositions:
under
the table, behind the door, on the shelf ... Answer:
getting
colder / warmer
Pick a topic which can lead to a discussion
Differences between drills and tasks
| Drills |
differ in this aspect |
Tasks |
| usually one |
skills |
multiple, one leads to more |
| no |
in context |
yes |
| no |
connunicative |
yes |
| usually no |
authentic |
usually yes |
| meaningless |
language use |
with meaning |
| form |
focus on |
content |
| immediate |
correction |
observer and later correct |
| strict |
control |
mostly free |
Lesson sequence
Traditional: PPP: 1 Presentation, 2 Practice, 3 Production
Task-based exercises are basically reversed: Produce first, present
at the end
The students are thrown in to the water and must sink or swim. We continued
with an example
Talking about yourself
Peach described an exercise from First Lessons by Jane Willis, called
Talking
about the Past.
I have described this in detail with both
the text and interactive forms.
-
pre-task - preparation by the teacher and students
-
the task cycle - student work, planning, reporting
-
the language focus - analysis, practice
The task-based method needs much more time
Building a family tree
This exercise, to explain possessive forms, was
based on an exercise from New Hotline..
Related exercises: solving a murder mystery, logic puzzles
Discussion
These are some opinions from the Peach and participants.
-
You can take a traditional textbook and modify exercises to give task-based
or communicative material. But it is a lot of preparation work.
-
TBL is best for students up to about intermediate level, say about 14 years
old.
-
TBL is not very useful for Business English.
Objection: in my opinion (Graham) the case-study and scenario methods
are
real-time task-based methods.
-
There is no material for exam-based courses, since the standard exeams
do not include task-based exercises.
References
There are few texts or sources of task-based exercises. Many traditional
drills and exercises can be modified into a suitable form - but it would
be useful if there were ready-made tasks for teachers to use.
Texts
-
Jane Willis, Longman, the Frameworker
-
David Nunan, Design Tasks for the Communicative Classroom
-
Planning Classwork: a Task-Based Approach
Online
top