Task-based Instruction

1. Task-based Instruction

2. Aims to provide learners with a natural context for language use. • Ss work to complete a task. • Ss have abundant opportunity to interact. • This interact facilitates language acquisition. • By interacting, Ss have to check if they have comprehended correctly and get to listen to lang. beyond their ability.

3. Do not focus on a particular function or a form of the language. • Pedagogic focus on task completion instead of on the language used in the process. • T uses a wide variety of linguistic forms to make context clear.

4. Prabhu (1987)- 3 types of tasks • Information-gap activity: exchange info. to complete a task. e.g.: Ss describe a picture for another S to draw. • Opinion-gap activity: Ss give their personal preferences, feelings to complete a task. e.g.: topic on unemployment and be ask the solutions.

5. Prabhu (1987)- 3 types of tasks (cont.) • Reasoning-gap activity: derive new info. by inferring from info given. e.g.: Ss are given a railroad timetable and asked to work out the best route to get to a particular place. • Work the best because it encourages a more sustained engagement with meaning.

6. Project-based Approach • 1st stage: in the classroom planning, collaboration w/ T, content, scope of the project. • 2nd stage: outside the classroom Gathering necessary information- conducting interviews, taking photos, preparing visual materials.

7. Project-based Approach (cont.) • 3rd stage: Review the project monitoring work, receiving feedback from T. • T works with Ss as a counselor , not the project director. • Help Ss bridge the gap between language study and use.

8. Conclusion • Candlin and Murphy (1987): “The central purpose we are concerned with is language learning, and tasks present this in the form of a problem-solving negotiation between knowledge that the learner holds and new knowledge.”