2. Task-based language teaching Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is regarded as a natural extension of communicative approach (Harmer, 2007). Task is defined as ‘a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than on form’ (Nunan, 1989:10). In other words, a task emphasizes on language communicative functions and requires participants to convey meaning effectively. According to Prabhu (1987), learners tend to achieve a higher target language proficiency when training through communicative tasks. Compared with traditional language teaching methods, task-based language teaching creates a natural language learning environment, in which students can connect classroom learning with communication in the real world (Nunan, 2004; Van den Branden, 2006). That is to say, tasks seem to create real-world situations and engage students in authentic and interactive communication. Therefore, the authenticity of tasks has attracted considerable attention from researchers. As Ellis (2003) suggests, a task can attain contextual authenticity by emulating real-life activities, such as making a reservation, ordering in a restaurant and opening a back account. In this lesson, the video and oral practice (p Appendix) simulate the communicative challenges that students may be confronted with in the real life, namely how to ask and give directions.
2. How does task-based learning differ from grammar-based one in terms of improving students’ language proficiency (speaking, listening, writing, reading, use of language) ?
Communicating what we want to say, how we want to say it is the goal of expressing ourselves linguistically. For English Language Learners (and their teachers), the ability to do that successfully in their new language presents a challenge. In the content areas of instruction, it is especially important to draw out the information that a student already knows in their native language – even when they do not have the linguistic ability to express themselves in English – in order to assess their level of understanding and engage prior knowledge. Using non-linguistic representations provides a way of bridging that gap between actual understanding and the ability to express that
Contact sports like football, boxing, wrestling, and hockey have health risks associated with repetitive head trauma that can produce concussions. Players of these types of sports are at a significantly higher risk for developing long-term brain damage and cognitive impairment later in life. A concussion is a subset of a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and results from shaking the brain within the skull. The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (the “AANS”) has defined a concussion as “a clinical syndrome characterized by an immediate and transient alteration in brain function, including an alteration of mental status and level of consciousness, resulting from mechanical force or trauma.” (Sports-related
Introduction. Managed health care is a system that is used to control the financing and the method of delivery of healthcare services to those individuals who are enrolled is specific types of healthcare plans such as Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO) and Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO). Managed healthcare main goal is to ensure that the care that is received by the patient is not just routinely done so that the providers are making a high profit but to ensure that providers are delivery a high quality of care that is also cost effective.
James is the permanent Management Assistant (MA) for the Accounts Management headquarters team, PPM(I). During this rating period, he was promoted to serve for 120 days as the MA for W&I Operation Support, Capitol Management & Oversight, Finance Team. He successfully exceeded in completing all of his assignments on this team before returning to his permanent position.
Task-based language teaching is an approach that use task as the basic teaching strategy. Task-based language teaching is a
This paper presents results from an online survey designed to explore teacher perceptions of Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) in the Canadian context. The survey was grounded in Ellis’ (2009) definition of TBLT as focusing on communication and meaning with a necessary exchange of information, a reliance on students own linguistic resources and an ultimate outcome. Participants were recruited from the Teachers of English as a Second Language Canada Federation (TESL Canada) membership, with a total of 217 out of a possible 6,833 members taking part. Through the coding and grouping of participant responses, emergent themes arose in the data regarding successful examples of TBLT tasks, the benefits of TBLT, the drawbacks of TBLT, and participants’ further thoughts on the topic.
Language learning has many misconceptions. One specific misconception is that second language learning is simpler for young children, but in all actuality language learning is difficult and complex for people of all ages (Ovando and Combs, 2012). The timeframe for acquiring a second language can be lengthy and varying greatly depending on the individual learner (Ovando et al., 2012). Teaching an ELL student to read English can be perplexing often causing the brain to multitask concurrently (Ovando et al., 2012). When instructing literacy there are five components that work together for literacy success: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, reading comprehension and fluency.
The clip can be viewed as a sequence of “episodes” where each episode is “a bonded unit which roughly correlates with a single teaching activity” (Gibbons, 2006:95). The class follows the 'task-based teaching ' structure found to be common in English as a second language and moves from listening tasks to a speaking task.
Lin, T., Wang, S., Grant, S., Chien, C., & Lan. Y. (2014). Task-based teaching approaches of Chinese as a foreign language in Second Life through teachers’ perspectives. Procedia Technology, 13, 16-22.
In this section we draw on the TIP task to illustrate a number of general features of second language tasks. First, as can be seen, the task is holistic in the sense that it requires learners to decide on potential relevant meanings, and use the phonology, grammar, vocabulary and discourse structures of the language to convey these in order to carry out the task. A second feature of any task is the need to achieve one or more meaningful outcomes. This is essential for the dynamic of the task. In the TIP task, the learners were asked to come up with a description of the likely owner of the objects. Depending on the teacher’s instructions this could take one of various forms: written, oral or possibly a non-verbal representation, such as a picture, set of notes or ID forms, selected from an array. What these have in common is a target outcome in the form of a verbal or nonverbal representation of information. That is, it is not sufficient for them to produce accurate language: they have to produce a pragmatically credible response.
Andon investigated the influence of TBLT theory and research on teachers’ conceptions and practices of task-based pedagogy on the grounds that task-based language teaching (TBLT) has gained enormous popularity and it has been compiled into a considerable variety of countries’ curriculum. Two interconnected questions
Task Based Language Teaching (TBT) has received a lot of attention in the recent years and language teachers consider it as a very important and popular part of learning and teaching process. Many researchers have conducted studies on different aspects of task based language teaching. (Robinson 1995; Skehan & Foster 1999; Yuan & Ellis 2003; Gilabert 2005)
Every English language student is expected to master the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Among these, listening is a greatly integrative skill and it plays a vital role in the process of language learning, promoting the rise of other language skills since it is the first skill students are exposed to. It is a receptive skill which involves taking in information through the ears, processing and understanding the message and its importance and giving feedback. Actually, listening is the most common communicative activity in daily life, since people listen twice as much as they speak, four times more than they read, and five times more than they write (Morley, 1991:82). In spite of its importance, teachers appear to avoid teaching the listening skill to their students and focus only on speaking, writing and reading skills. Listening is commonly viewed as the most challenging skill both to learn and teach, because of its temporal nature, the complexity of the listening processes and the special features of spoken language (Ur, 1984). What is more, the constrained class time, lack of resources at
It has been proven through research that young learners benefit from participating in both informal and formal talk throughout the school day. The aim of teaching a second language is to assist the young learner to speak fluently and communicate effectively in a second language.