Jane Willis (a 3 minute read).
Task-based learning involves meaning-based interactions – teacher with class or learners with learners. Words and phrases are vital for getting meanings across successfully, and success is the key to motivation. For beginners, start with teacher-led tasks that involve mainly listening for meaning.
Here are some tasks suitable for beginners which illustrate six basic principles in TBLT
1 Start with words and phrases they know and talk about them.
Brainstorming task: collect international words of English and see how many they can get. Then classify them in different ways, e.g. sports, food.
Purposes: to show learners how much they know already; to help them adapt their pronunciation. Also to encourage them to go on ‘collecting’ English words and phrases from outside sources.
2 Lots of exposure to spoken English – teacher talk is good, interaction is vital.
Task: classifying familiar words and phrases, extending categories and talking about them.
Purposes: to help learners notice key words in the stream of speech; to begin to familiarise them with new language in a meaningful context – language they will need later in the teaching sequence or meet later in written form in their text book.
3 Engage learners – set precise tasks with clear goals and minimal speaking.
Task: sequencing/ordering e.g. alphabet dictation of pupils’ names, then ordering; classifying names of alphabet letters according to pronunciation of their vowel sounds; matching (e.g. towns to countries or to languages).
Purposes: to allow learners to experience success in achieving the goals; to show that achieving the task outcome is more important than achieving linguistic perfection
4 Have fun – use number games, guessing games, memory challenges, sing songs.
Tasks: Bingo (numbers and words), Odd word out, What’s in my bag? The Tray Challenge, Picture Hide and Seek.
Purposes: to recycle language in different ways; to show that learning English can be enjoyable; to create a relaxed atmosphere in class.
5 Empower learners – wherever possible, give them choices (of what? or how?).
Task: survey of clothes and colours – learners bring items of clothing from home and/or pictures from magazines rather than stick to text book pictures. Also, learners can create their own questionnaires, quiz questions, test items, feed-back forms, blogs.
Purposes: to redress the balance of power in the classroom; to generate a spirit of co-operation; to show you can use the text book flexibly and not be boring!
6 Be positive about your learners’ contributions – accept, recast and extend.
Purposes: to show that you value what they offer; to encourage learners to activate and use and extend whatever English they have; to recognise that mistakes are a necessary part of language development. Feeling a sense of success at getting meaning across is paramount; success breeds motivation. Failure kills it.
See also: activities for primary teachers.
Jane’s pairwork story 1975 – the beginnings of TBL?
Back in 1975 I was teaching a class of early intermediate learners in Teheran. The text book followed a structural syllabus with tightly controlled teacher-led grammar practice activities. I was planning a lesson for one of my two practical teaching exams for the RSA Diploma in ELT. I had to show the examiner I could carry out each stage of a PPP lesson ‘effectively’. But I felt I wanted to do something a bit different. I had never attempted pair-work of any description before and I was scared of losing control. The target structure was ‘How long does it take to .. / take you to…
I told my class I was going to be observed teaching. I felt that if the RSA examiner was present things were less likely to descend into chaos. But it was still risky. When finalizing my lesson plan to give to the examiner, I bravely wrote in the words: Learners practice in pairs and then ask each other questions. I remember feeling very nervous the whole lesson leading up to the pair-work. When I divided them into pairs, my heart was in my mouth. I explained and demonstrated what they had to do, and went round to monitor them… they were simply doing what I had asked. I was amazed! They all pretty much stuck to English, and we