Task- Based Language Teaching

Designed By:

Erna Norma Candra L.M.S 2011002085

Eko Arum Septiani 2012002050

Erwin Desty Purwaningrum 2012002079

Maria Anggryani.E.Toda 2012002075

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND

UNIVERSITY OF SARJANAWIYATA TAMANSISWA

2014

Task Based Language Teaching

A. The definition of task

‘’A task is an activity where the target language is used by the learner for a

communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome’’( Jane Wilis)

‘’A Task is an activity which requires learners to arrive at an outcome from given

information trough some process of thought and which allows teachers to control

and regulate that process. (Prabu 1987:17)

“A task an activity that learners engage in to process of learning language

(Williams and Burden, 1997:168)

B. The definition of TBLT

TBLT is an approach to teaching a second language or foreign language that

seeks to engage learners in interactive authentic language use by having them

perform a series of tasks.

C. TBLT Design

Objectives:

As with other communicative approaches, goals in TBLT are determined by the

specific needs of particular learners.

The Syllabus:

Task –based syllabuses represent a particular realization of Communicative

Language Teaching (Nunan1989). The designer conducts a needs analysis, which

yields a list of the communicative tasks that the learners will need to carry out.

D. The goals of TBLT

To provide students with opportunities and language to be able to communicate

more effectively in everyday life.

E. The Features of TBLT

The Real Word Language

Completing tasks that focus on everyday language gives learners

occasions where realistic language can be practiced and eventually used outside

of the classroom. Jeon and Hahn believe that for Asian students it is difficult to

sufficiently practice the target language outside the classroom, thus making TBLT

an important method of teaching that provides students with authentic chances to

use the target language in the classroom (2006:124). This does not necessarily

mean that students will have to recreate authentic dialogues but that the task is

within a real scenario, which in turn would provide realistic language to be

spoken These tasks could provide learners, who do not have opportunities to

practice the target language beyond the classroom, a chance to communicate in a

realistic setting. This also gives the students, who do have opportunities to speak

in the target language a chance to practice the language before they use it in a real

situation outside of the classroom.

Learner-Centered

One of the unique features of TBLT is that it highlights student-focused

tasks as a method to gain communicative competence. “As a rule, the teacher

withdraws after allocating tasks to the learners, to allow them to manage the

interaction themselves”(Seedhouse, 1999:150). Once the task begins, the teacher

leaves it up to the students on how and what language they use to complete the

task. Therefore, the role of the teachers to be an observer in order to give students

opportunities to naturally used the language throughout the task.

Thus, putting students into ‘real world’ situations without teacher input seems to

encourage learners to use the target language and language that they have already

been taught in order to complete the task. This could give students just the

opportunity they need to produce and practice the language that they have learnt

into a natural context. J.

Willis (1996, cited in Swan, 2005:390) suggests that, Tasks remove the

teacher domination, and learners get chances to open and close conversations, to

interact naturally, to interrupt and challenge, to ask people to do things and to

check that they have been done. This would provide a comfortable and natural

environment for students to be able to practice the target language with each

other. However, Willis (1996, cited in Swan 2005:390) continues by arguing that,

…if students do not already know the linguistic convention for opening and

closing conversations, interrupting and challenging, etc, how are they supposed to

learn them without input from the ‘dominating’ teacher? This could be

problematic if students were unable to learn valuable linguistic communicative

interaction skills and strategies without the input that is needed. Swan’s concern

of the teacher’s position is that once engaged in the task the teacher becomes the

director of the task rather than an imperative input of new language (2005:391).

Thus, causing a lack of new vocabulary or sentence structure being taught, this

may result in no new language being spoken or learnt. Swan furthers his concerns

by saying, “The naturalistic communication-driven pedagogy characteristic of

TBI has serious limitations, especially as regards the systematic teaching of new

linguistic material” (Swan, 2005:397). In short, without the teacher’s role as a

provider, it would seem that there might not be any vital new language being

taught and therefore learnt.

Focus on Meaning

Another element of TBLT is the focus on meaning during the task. In fact, according to Acar, “The most important characteristic of a task is its communicative purpose in which the focus in on meaning rather than form” (2006). Swan references (Prabu (1987),Nunan (1989), J. Willis (1996), Skehan (1998), and R. Ellis (2003), cited in 2005:377) by stating that, “…instructed language learning should primarily involve ‘natural’ or ‘naturalistic’ language use, based on activities concerned with meaning rather than language.” It appears that with merely concentrating on meaning, students are provided with opportunities to use the language that they have been taught in a natural environment, having their only concern being to complete the task with the language that they already know. “…

language learning is a developmental process promoting communication and social interaction rather than a product acquired by practicing language items, and that learners learn the target language more effectively when they are naturally exposed to meaningful task-based activities” (Jeon and Hahn, 2006:125).Some benefits to this may be that students might have to take the language that they have already learnt to complete a communicative task with their peers. This would provide learners with opportunities to retrieve language from memory that might never be used again. Students can communicate with each other without any interruptions, which may improve fluency and natural speaking. Once students have a proficient grasp of English grammar and vocabulary, open communication would be beneficial in order to activate the language already known. A potential problem is that students might use the most minimal language in order to complete the task. Seed house suggests that students often lower their language ability in order to complete the task and goes as far as saying that the language that they speak is similar to a pidgin (1999:153-154). Consequently, students would tend to lose focus on the language that they were using and concentrate on the meaning they were trying to convey to complete the task. Also, if students do not have the skills to communicate or complete the task in the target language, this could diminish future inspiration to continue studying languages for these students. The last stage of TBLT is said to concentrate on the form of language used in the task. Being at the end of the task, teachers can show students the mistakes that they might have made and the correct language they could have used. However, once the teacher becomes involved again, the classroom turns into a controlled environment, which takes away from the natural

language being spoken and therefore diminishes the ‘real-world’ nature of the experience for the students.

Completion Of TaskThere must be a finish line in order for the students to

know when they have successfully completed the task. This provides a reason to do the task and encourages motivation from students. On the other hand, seeing that there is a finish line could contribute to students rushing through tasks not necessarily using the target language to accomplish the task. Seed house describes learners as if they “… appear to be so concentrated on completing the task that linguistic forms are treated as a vehicle of minor importance” (1999:154).This suggests that the completion of the task has more importance for learners then the actual language being spoken. Additionally, Seed house states that, “…the pedagogical and interactional focus is on the accomplishment of the task rather than on the language used” (1999:150). This could add to learners’ use of inaccurate language, minimal language, and/or pidgin language as long as there is successful completion of the task. This might be how one acquires their first language, but for students who do not have opportunities to use the target language everyday creating bad habits and using minimal language could inhibit communicative development.

F. The Characteristics of TBLT

Tasks ultimately points learners to the application of language in real-life

situations.

Tasks are not heavily guided by the need for correct grammatical and structural

aspects of the language.

Tasks specifically contribute to communicative goals.

Their objectives are well specified so that you can at some later point accurately

determine the success of a task over another.

Tasks engage learners, at some level, in genuine problem-solving activity.

G. Role of Teacher

Cooperate, Listen and respond to students need

Decide what tasks to work on

Decide when to try a new task

Correct and keep feedback

Help students monitor each other

H. Role of Students

Work individually or with the groups equally

Gather and organize information

Present the results to others students or teacher

I. The Procedures

Pre- task Introduction to the topic and task: teacher explores the topic with the class and help students to understand task instruction and prepare.

Task activity 1. Task: students do in pairs or small groups. Teacher as a monitor

2. Planning: Students prepare to report the task to the whole class (orally or in writing)

3. Report: Some groups present their reports to the class

Language Focus Analysis: Students examine and discuss specific features of the text or transcript of the recording.Practice: Teacher conducts practice or new words, phrases and patterns occurring in the data, either during or after the analysis. (Willis 1996: 38)

J. Types of tasks

Jigsaw tasks

These involve learners combining different pieces of information to form a

whole.

Information-gap tasks

One student or group of students has one set of information and another

student or group has a complementary set of information. They must negotiate

and find out what the other parts of information is in order to complete an

activity.

Problem-solving tasks

Students are given a problem and a set of information. They must arrive at a

solution to the problem. There is generally a single resolution of the outcome.

Decision-making tasks

Students are given a problem for which there are a number of possible

outcomes and they must choose one through negotiation and discussion.

Opinion exchange tasks

Learners engage in discussion and exchange of ideas. They do not need to

reach agreement.

Jigsaw and information-gap tasks can be

applied in young learners to develop their

ability to learn second language.

Lesson Plan

School : Elementary School

Subject : English

Topic : Body Parts

Skill : Listening

Class / Semester : V1/ 2

Time Allocation : 1x 45 minutes

1. Standard Competencies :

Listening

Understand the meaning of body parts by mentioning the words

2. Basic Competencies:

Listening

Respond an audio with arrange and find missing information

3. Indicator

Listening and understanding the meaning of body parts

Identifying the information about body parts

4. Goals

Listening

a. The students are able to mention parts of body

b. The students are able to arrange picture of body parts

c. The students are able to complete the information about parts of body

Material

a. Audio parts of body

Teaching and Learning activities

Time Teacher’s activities Student’s activities

1 5’ Pre- activity: Greeting and Praying

- “Good morning students.”

- ‘How are you’

One of the students lead the

praying

- “Good morning miss.”

- “I’m fine, thank you.”

2 5’ Main Activity:

Teacher explain about materials

- teacher asks students to look at themselves

- teacher asks students about their habit if they

want to use something in their body parts

-follow the teacher instruction

3 30’ Exploration

Activity 1

- teacher asks students to make some

small groups

- teacher gives pieces of paper about part

of body to each group

- teacher plays an audio about parts of

body

Activity 2

- teacher gives each group a set of

uncompleted information of body parts

and asks each group to complete the

information with another group

Activity 3

- teacher asks each group to present the

tasks in front of the class

- follow the instruction

- arrange the pieces of

paper, make them

unity and write the

name of each part

- Find an uncompleted

information in another

group and make it

complete.

- Each group present the

tasks in front of the

class

4 3’ Post activity

- Teacher review all the materials - Students follow the

instruction

5 2’ Closing:

- Teacher ask one of the students to lead

praying

- One of the students

lead the praying.

1 Teaching Aids :

a. Laptop

b. LCD

c. Paper ( picture )

List of score

Score Result Value

90 – 100 Completed 90%-100% Excellent

80 -89 Completed 80%-89% Great

75 -79 Completed 80%-89% Good

70 -74 Completed 70%-74% Enough

0-69 Incomplete 0%-69% Not enough

ATTACHMENT

PART OF BODY

The human body is the entire structure of a human being and comprises a head, neck,

two arms and hands and two legs and feet. Every part of the body has different

function.

Audio of part of body

Task 1

Please arrange the piece of paper becomes a good picture and write down the

name of each part.

Task 2

Information gaps

Please look for some information in another group to complete your task and

present the task in front of the class.

Group 1

Group 2

HEAD

HAND

THIGH

Group 3

Analysis

Find the words that related to the topic.

My part of body

Head

Brown

Hand

Solider

Eyes

Shoulder

FOOT

WRIST

KNEE

CHEEKS

LEG

SHOULDER

Knee

Hands shake

Teeth

Bag

Lips

Shoes

Clothes

Glasses

Legs

Cheeks

Hat

Watch

Mouth

Turtle