Task based approach что это
Examples of task based language teaching
Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is an approach based on doing tasks without traditional preliminary explanation and language practice. The idea of TBLT was greatly popularized by Narahari Umanath Prabhu, an Indian-American mathematician, who worked at school in South India. The students, he worked with, were learning the language focusing on certain language structures, not on the form. He did not give his students any language structures, like in conventional teaching methods. His students were fully concentrated on tasks they had to perform or a problem which was necessary to solve.
This technique presupposes that the language works NOT as an exercise, but an instrument of achieving goals. In such a role, the language is a source of communication in real interaction. This approach reflects the natural process of language acquisition. First, we want to say something, then we try to say it and, finally, we say it and try to make our language better. In TBLT the teacher’s goal is to create an opportunity to use the language in speaking, which we can achieve getting away from language forms and structures.
Benefits and drawbacks of TBLT
The TBLT technique, like any other ones, obviously has its benefits:
As long as the TBLT technique has its advantages, it also has its drawbacks. The major disadvantage is that TBLT is suitable for students with higher levels of the language (Intermediate and higher). And the other disadvantage is that teachers do not know when and how to assess the results.
Stages of a TBLT lesson
All approaches in English Language Teaching (ELT) presuppose that we have to follow the stages that allow students to master the necessary material, developing their level of the language. This technique is not an exception. Teachers must go through the following stages :
In the pre-task stage, the teacher and students explore the topic and the teacher can highlight useful vocabulary for students to understand the task instructions. In the course of the task stage, students do the task in pairs or groups, while the teacher monitors the activity from the distance. After that, students discuss (plan) how to present the information to the whole class and then they report on what they have discussed. In the language focus stage students discuss specific features of the task, which the teacher provides and controls.
All tasks in the context of the TBLT are considered as a type of activity, in which students use the language as a communicative goal to achieve certain results. Students are concentrated on the meaning, but not on the form. In addition, doing such tasks presupposes students being involved in the exercise. They need to apply all their knowledge and skills to perform this exercise.
Examples of TBLT approach
To fully understand the TBLT approach, it is necessary to give example exercises. They are such tasks as:
Here is an example of an exercise. The lesson is about networking and its opportunities. The task is the following: one of the characters had a networking conversation with a stranger at a conference. Students have to listen to the conversation and evaluate how effective and correct the networking process was. They analyse and can suggest their own ideas on how to improve the conversation if there are any mistakes.
All my students from Pre-Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate claim that they are absolutely in love with such an approach, which boosts their speaking skills and motivation. They are fully involved in our discussions, ready to speak about anything and they do not notice how time goes by. At the end of the lessons, they all tell me how interesting and exciting our lessons are and they are even surprised when our lessons are over. Time goes too fast, while negotiating. These words are one of the most rewarding things that a teacher can imagine. It means that students are interested, involved and motivated next time.
Feel free to follow the task based language teaching technique and your students will be highly motivated!
An approach to teaching English: task-based learning
Apart from the more traditional PPP (Present, Practice, Produce) approach there is a great number of different methods and approaches to teaching ESL. One of subcategories of communicative language teaching is TBL (task-based learning). Although it has been used for many years, its popularity has dramatically increased in recent years. This article presents an overview of this approach.
Van den Branden defines task-based language learning as “an approach to language education in which students are given functional tasks that invite them to focus primarily on meaning exchange and to use language for real-world, non-linguistic purposes”. In other words, TBL refers to an approach to teaching and learning which views the completion of meaningful tasks through authentic communication as an effective way to improve language proficiency in the natural, practical, and functional use. Task-based language learning and teaching give students something real to do using the language they are learning. Such tasks can include visiting a doctor, planning a tour, conducting an interview. Assessment is primarily based on task outcome rather than on accuracy of prescribed language forms, therefore there is no prior focus on language. This makes TBLT especially popular for developing target language fluency and student confidence.
What are the advantages of TBL?
1. The focus of the learning process moves from a teacher to students. Students themselves decide on the content of the task and they are free of language control. The role of the students is far from being one of the passive recipients of comprehensible input; students are now seen to take the leading role in their own learning, learners are autonomous to negotiate course content or to choose linguistic forms when performing a task. Teachers just address students’ needs and interests by becoming facilitators / guides.
2. It can bring teaching from abstract knowledge to real world application, a natural context. It promotes real communication or the exchange of meanings rather than linguistic forms.
3. It gives the student a different way of understanding language as a tool instead of as a specific goal.
4. It is a strong communicative approach where students spend a lot of time communicating.
5. TBL involves many different skills and knowledge.
6. It brings a variety to your lessons and motivate students greatly.
What are the disadvantages of TBL?
1. Potentially unpredictable as it is impossible to plan 100% what language the students will use during the task, therefore the teacher should be very flexible.
2. Time-consuming. Doing a task might extend over longer periods of time, more than just one lesson. If you want your students to make a poster or a video, they will have to do after the lesson in their free time.
A framework of a TBL lesson
Pre-task
In the pre-task, the teacher introduces the topic, gives instructions and presents what will be expected of the students in the task phase.
Skehan distinguishes between the ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ versions of TBLT approach. In weak end version a model of the task is shown before the students do it, the teacher may help the students to recall some key vocabulary or grammatical constructions. Moreover, teachers may present a model of the task by doing it themselves or by presenting pictures, audios, or video demonstrating the task. This gives the students a clear model of what will be expected of them. In «strong» task-based learning lessons, learners are responsible for selecting the appropriate language for any given context themselves.
Task cycle
Language focus
TBL lesson demo:
The teacher uses a task based approach to present the use of Passive Voice.
Task-based lesson on speaking:
A night out
As Jane and Dave Willis say the “the best way to learn about TBL is to DO it.”
Hope you will enjoy TBL lessons. If you have already tried this approach, please write about your experience in comments.
Task-Based Approach
As a proponent of the Task-based learning approach, I would say that TBL greatly integrates the four skills speaking, reading, writing and listening. It’s a misconception that task-based activities only refer to the oral activities or activities which emphasize the speaking skill development. Whenever I am preparing for the TBL activities to be introduced in my classroom, I always consider three things: 1) The primary focus is on meaning 2) There is a problem to solve 3) the real-life language similar to that of the native speakers. We also shouldn’t mix up the communicative activity and TBL activity. In the communicative activity, we practice mostly a specific linguistic item or grammatical encounter within a set of restricted language that is the linguistic outcome. In the TBL activity, the outcome of the performance should be non-linguistic though tangible, for example, some kind of report, booklet, or presentation.
Though I am not sure about my syllabi if they are purely task-based, I would say that they are task-supported. I support and scaffold my Ss with the additional language input, offer additional language opportunities, and we perform pedagogical tasks. Sometimes, the primary focus is not on the meaning, but on practicing grammatical and lexical items, as well as skills. As a matter of fact, it’s challenging for me to integrate task-based activities if my principal areas focus include grammatical encounters, and various skills/strategies development.
I don’t agree with the idea of explaining the grammar issues in the Language Focus stage, I would include some grammatical features in the Pre-task stage, so that Ss will be better prepared or equipped for the Task stage.
Task-based learning: Что это за метод и кому он подходит
Анастасия Румянцева
Task-based learning (на русском получается что-то типа «обучение, основанное на заданиях», ну или «метод коммуникативных заданий») — один из коммуникативных методов обучения английскому языку. В чём суть этого метода, какие у него достоинства и недостатки — разберём в этой статье.
О чем метод Task-based learning
Суть метода. Главная идея метода Task-based learning заключается в том, чтобы поместить ученика в коммуникативную ситуацию и попросить его выполнить коммуникативное задание или задачу.
По сути коммуникативная ситуация — это любая жизненная ситуация, где используется речь, так что сюда входят и small talks с бывшими одноклассниками, и бронирование апартаментов за сутки до начала отпуска, и словесная перепалка с торговцами на условном базаре.
Лексика и грамматика не всегда являются фокусом задания. Подразумевается, что вы уже изучили грамматические конструкции и лексику ранее, используя coursebook, а теперь оттачиваете мастерство. Так что, на мой взгляд, методика TBL скорее подходит как вспомогательная, чем ведущая на уроках.
Стадии урока по методике TBL
Урок строится на следующих стадиях:
Допустим, студенты получают задание заказать столик в ресторане. Для начала преподаватель может помочь студентам и показать видео, где решается подобная коммуникативная ситуация. Также можно обсудить слова и структуры, которые будут полезны для выполнения задания.
Цель стадии — подготовить студентов ментально и лингвистически к выполнению задания.
Task preparation. С туденты получают чёткие инструкции, которым они будут следовать при выполнении задания.
During task. Студенты выполняют задание, используя имеющиеся знания. Дополнительно обращу внимание — в большей мере студенты сами выбирают лексику и грамматические структуры; этап pre-task здесь все-таки вспомогательный и студентам не обязательно использовать заданные учителем конструкции. Речь студентов должна быть спонтанной, а цель — выполнить задание, а не добиться 100% грамотности речи.
Post-task. Обратная связь от учителя. В конце урока выделите несколько минут на обсуждение сильных и слабых языковых структур. Уточните, какие структуры оказались наиболее и наименее удачными.
Демо-версия урока по методу Task-based learning с профессором Betsy Jo Divine:
Типы заданий по методике TBL
Reasoning-gap activity. Студенты получают информацию, затем используя метод рассуждений, дедукции, логики используют её для выполнения задания. Например, студенту нужно решить, какой курс изучения иностранного языка выбрать — самый дешевый, самый быстрый или самый инновационных — для заданной преподавателем цели и в рамках заданных ограничений.
Opinion-gap activity. Используется для выявления личных предпочтений или обмена мнениями по конкретному вопросу. Для этого типа задания нет правильного или неправильного ответа. Например, вы даете студентам историю с пропущенными словами — от разных вариантов будет меняться только смысл истории, но не правильность ответа.
Достоинства метода:
Недостатки:
Кому подходит эта методика?
Ваши студенты уровня не ниже Pre-Intermediate
Методика предполагает, что у студентов уже есть опеределенный запас грамматики и лексики по теме, поэтому здесь важно понимать, насколько ваши студенты уже готовы использовать язык осознанно и выполнять с его помощью задания. Я бы рекомендовала внедрять методику с уровня Pre-Intermediate.
У вас более-менее свободная программа
Если вы каждый урок плотно идете по курсбуку, вам, вероятнее всего, сложно будет внедрять уроки и задания по TBL, так как они часто имеют нефиксированный тайминг. Тем не менее, всегда можно использовать для этих целей спикинг или лексичекий урок.
Вы готовы «прощать» студентам ошибки
В заданиях по TBL акцент всегда на спонтанности, а не точности речи. Здесь учителю важно «не замечать» ошибки во время выполнения задания; можно делать заметки, давать обратную связь после, но ни в коем случае не вклиниваться в упражнение с исправлениями.
Task-based learning неплохо смещает фокус с механического повторения выученных языковых единиц на осознанное использование языка. Если вы заметили, что уроки пошли по накатанной и студентам не хватает стимулов для использования языка, попробуйте провести урок по методу TBL или внедрите пару заданий из методики — это поможет расшевелить класс и повысить вовлеченность студентов в процесс обучения.
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Task-based approach
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In recent years a debate has developed over which approaches to structuring and planning and implementing lessons are more effective.
Present Practise Produce (PPP)
During an initial teacher training course, most teachers become familiar with the PPP paradigm. A PPP lesson would proceed in the following manner.
The problems with PPP
It all sounds quite logical but teachers who use this method will soon identify problems with it:
A Task-based approach
The advantages of TBL
Task-based learning has some clear advantages
Conclusion
PPP offers a very simplified approach to language learning. It is based upon the idea that you can present language in neat little blocks, adding from one lesson to the next. However, research shows us that we cannot predict or guarantee what the students will learn and that ultimately a wide exposure to language is the best way of ensuring that students will acquire it effectively. Restricting their experience to single pieces of target language is unnatural.