Language learning is believed to depend on immersing students not merely in “comprehensive input” but in tasks that require them to negotiate meaning and engage in naturalistic and meaningful communication

Q: How do the advocates of TBLT view language?

Language is primarily a means of making meaning Language is structural, functional, interactional Conversation is the central focus of language and the keystone of language acquisition

The focus is on process rather than product. Basic elements are purposeful activities and tasks that emphasize communication and meaning. Learners learn language by interacting communicatively and purposefully while engaged in the activities and tasks. Activities and tasks of a task-based syllabus are sequenced according to difficulty.

Activities and tasks can be either:  those that learners might need to achieve in real life:  those that have a pedagogical purpose specific to the classroom. The difficulty of a task depends on a range of factors including the previous experience of the learner, the complexity of the task, the language required to undertake the task, and the degree of support available.

Information-gap activity Opinion-gap activity Reasoning-gap activity (Prabhu, 1987) Project work

Assessment is primarily based on task outcome (in other words the appropriate completion of tasks) rather than on accuracy of language forms. The core of the lesson is the task. All parts of the language used are deemphasized during the activity itself, in order to get students to focus on the task.

Advantages of TBLT Student-centered Meaningful communication Practical extra-linguistic skill building Tasks familiar to the students motivate them in their language learning

Criticism Not appropriate as the foundation of a class for beginning students- the focus of task-based language learning is on output, when beginning language learners often go through a silent period requiring massive amounts of comprehensible input. Certain tasks require certain forms of language, others being neglected of

Suggestions for English teachers in Korea Tasks shouldn’t be too difficult in order to enable learners to tackle both fluency and accuracy at the same time. Noticing is essential for acquisition