Transcript 臺北市98年度國小 英語童書繪本創作比賽 陳錦芬 兒童英

Task-based Instruction
Chen Chinfen
Graduate School of Children English Education
National Taipei University of Education
BACKGROUND
•
•
•
•
Teaching objective
Content of course design
Conventional concern: Words, structure, notion,
function, topic and situation and further selection,
grouping and grading.
identification of valid, user-friendly sequencing
criteria( Long and Crookes, 1992:46)
DEFINITION: PBL
•
“one of a set of differentiated, sequenceable,
problem-posing activities involving learners
and teachers in some joint selection from a range
of varied cognitive and communicative
procedures applied to existing and new
knowledge in the collective exploration and
pursuance of foreseen or emergent goals within a
social milieu” (cited in Long and Crookes
1992:38). , 1992:46)
A scheme for decision-making
about TBL task difficulty
•
•
•
How to preserve a controlled approach to
language development
To ensure a balance between the competing
pressures of restructuring/complexity, accuracy
and fluency.
To be challenging for the language learner –not
too difficult so that achieving meaning
predominates and not too simple as in this case
nothing is being learned or developed.
Skehan (1994:190)
Course Design: Concerns
•
•
•
•
Cognitive complexity /familiarity -how easily a task
can be completed by drawing on existing schematic
knowledge. The teacher introduces the topic and the
students do a similar task so that the task requirements
are made clear.
Code complexity : Focusing on the target language
code/ forms that is useful in the coming tasks. Ensure
the text structure and vocabulary load just beyond the
students’ current knowledge.
Choose authentic, useful texts & choice of activities
focusing on scanning for information.
Implementability. How the task is transacted:
Manipulating pressure, such as time limits, the length of
text, type of response & number of participants
Pre-Task Phase
•
•
•
.
Introduce & define the topic and task
Co-exploration. Teacher explores the topic
with the class, highlights useful words and
phrases, and helps learners understand task
instructions and prepare.
Demonstration. Show a recording of
others doing a similar task, or assign a
paper to read about the task.
During Task Phrase : Task Cycle
•
Engagement.
•
Students engage in activities which either help them to
recall words and phrases that will be useful during the
performance of the main task or to learn new words and
phrases that are essential to the task.
•
No error correction. Students do the task, in
pairs or small groups. Teacher monitors from a
distance, encouraging all attempts at
communication, not correcting. Since this
situation has a "private" feel, students feel free
to experiment. Mistakes don't matter.
Task Cycle
•
•
•
REPORT. (oral/written output)
Some groups present their reports to the class, or
exchange written reports, and compare results. Teacher
acts as a chairperson, and then comments on the content
of the reports.
Students in pairs or samll groups prepare to report to the
whole class (orally or in writing) how they did the task,
what they decided or discovered. Since the report stage
is public, students will naturally want to be accurate, so
the teacher stands by to give language advice.
Language-focus Phase
•
•
Collective analysis of forms. Students
examine/identify and then discuss specific language
features from the task and highlighted and worked on,
which lead learners to switch attention
repeatedly between accuracy and restructuring
and fluency”
It also encourages learners to investigate
language for themselves, and to form and test
their own hypotheses about how language
works
Language Focus
•
•
•
Finally, students need time to note down useful
words, phrases, and patterns into a language
notebook. Regular revision of these will help
vocabulary acquisition
Practice
Conducts practice of new words, phrases, and
patterns occurring in the data, either during or
after the Analysis
Teachers’ Roles
•
•
•
•
Facilitator.
Exposure, use and motivation
Variety of topics and real-life contents and task
types provide learners a lot of choices
Implicit guider.
Types of Tasks to Promote Language Use
•
Any topic or theme can give rise to different
types of tasks, which can be generated with the
help of the typology as follows.
•
Ordering / Sorting/
classifying
Listing
Comparing/matching
Problem solving
Creative tasks/ Project work
Sharing personal experience
Anecdote telling
•
Involving different cognitive processes. The top
three types (Listing Ordering / Sorting/
classifying Comparing/matching ) increase in
cognitive complexity from left to right, but less
challenging than the three (Problem solving
Sharing personal experience, Anecdote telling,
Creative tasks/ Project work ) at the bottom.
These involve more complex cognitive
operations or combinations of simpler task types.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Richard (2001) presented five pedagogical
tasks
(1) Jigsaw tasks
(2) Information-gap tasks
(3) Problem-solving tasks
(4) Decision-making tasks
(5) Opinion exchange tasks
Negotiation
Breen & Candlin's Process Syllabus (1980)
• A psycho-social rationale (Kumaravadivelu
(1993), considerating cognitive, expressive and
social parameters negotiated among the
participants of the mini-society of the
classroom. a Vygotskian framework, by
determining what was learned and the syllabus
retrospectively, rather than a priori.
Negotiation takes place inside task activity
about what, with whom, how, in what
participant structure, and what task is to be
learned. Students co-manage their own
learning.
•
•
•
•
•
Taking "cats,“ as an example,
a listing task – List three reasons why people
think cats make good pets.
A comparing task - compare cats and dogs as
pets.
A problem-solving task – find three low budget
solutions to the problem of looking after a cat.
An experience sharing task - stories about cats.
•
It is always a good idea to record two or three
pairs of fluent speakers doing (and reporting) the
tasks, so that you can choose the best recording,
transcribe it, and use it in class to illustrate
features of spontaneous and planned language.
Working with real data is exciting; there are
always discoveries to be made, and here the risk
is reduced by having time to prepare for what
crops up in the recording
Impacts on Learning
•
•
Getting exposure to new knowledge & recalling
things they have learned. The task cycle gives
them speaking and writing exposure with
opportunities for students to learn from each
other.
Offer students opportunities to use whatever
language they have, both in private (where
mistakes, hesitations, and approximate
renderings do not matter so long as the meaning
is clear) and in public (where there is a built-in
desire to strive for accuracy of form and meaning,
Impacts on Learning
•
Close focus on form: The planning stage
between the private task and the public report
promotes close attention to language form. As
learners strive for accuracy, they try to organise
their reports clearly and check words and
patterns they are not sure of. In the final
component, language analysis activities also
provide a focus on form through consciousnessraising processes. Learners notice and reflect on
language features, recycle the task language, go
back over the text or recording and investigate
new items, and practice pronouncing useful
Impacts on Learning
•
•
Motivation: The need to achieve the objectives of
the task and to report back on it. Success in
doing this can increase longer term motivation.
Motivation to listen to fluent speakers doing the
task is strong too, because in attempting the task,
learners will notice gaps in their own language,
and will listen carefully to hear how fluent
speakers express themselves
Conclusion
•
•
•
TBL offers a change from the grammar practice routines
through which many learners have previously failed to
learn to communicate. It encourages learners to
experiment with whatever English they can recall, to try
things out without fear of failure and public correction,
and to take active control of their own learning, both in
and outside class.
For the teacher, the framework offers security and
control. While it may be true that TBL is an adventure,
it can be undertaken within the safety of an
imaginatively designed playground.
Conclusion
•
•
In TBL, language is used for an authentic
purpose meaning which real communication
should take place, and that at the stage where the
learners are preparing their report for the whole
class, they are forced to consider language form
in general rather than concentrating on a single
form.
The aim of TBL is to integrate all four skills and
to move from fluency to accuracy plus fluency.
Suggestions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
學習主題:夏日假期計畫
校園景點介紹: (文法結構)
訪問老師、社區人士、偶像: (錄音、人權、copy right)
Focus on Form: Prior English knowledge & predictable
leaning content (input)
Negotiation: Decision making of choice, topics for
focus, Semi-structured Interview (Implementation)
Performance: Written performance Writing draft ；
Oral presentation (Output)
Creative rewarding strategies recording, putting on face
books/ you tube or …
References and Further Reading
•
•
Long M. and Crookes G., (1992), Three
approaches to task-based syllabus design”,
TESOL Quarterly, 26 (1), 27-56.
Skehan P., (1994). Second language acquisition
strategies, interlanguage sevelopment and taskbased learning, in, Bygate M., Tonkyn A &
Williams, E (eds), Grammar and the language
teacher, pp. 175-199. Prentice Hall, Hemel
Hempstead
References and Further Reading
•
•
•
•
Williams, J. (1995). Focus on form in
communicative language teaching:. TESOL
Journal, 4(4),12-16.
Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based
learning. Harlow,U.K.: Longman Addison,
Wesley.
Willis, J., & Willis, D. (1996). (Eds.). Challenge
and change in language teaching. Oxford:
Heinemann
Willis J., (1996). A flexible framework for taskbased learning, in Jane Willis & Dave Willis (eds),
Based on Jane Willis’
Task-Based Learning: What Kind of
Adventure?
Let’s Start Our Adventure!