Task Based Language Teaching

Background
Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), as we know it today,
was first developed in the 1980s by N Prabhu, a teacher and
researcher in Bangalore, South India. He suggested that
language acquisition is “an unconscious process which is best
facilitated by bringing about in the learner a preoccupation
with meaning, saying and doing”. He believed that using tasks
would help tap into learners’ natural mechanisms for second
language acquisition.
Although TBLT emerged from the previously elaborated
Communicative Language Teaching, it goes beyond just
communication by incorporating real-life language needs into
the learning process. The Communicative Teaching Project,
started by Prabhu, thus had no linguistic syllabus. Instead, it
specified a number of problem-solving and meaning-focused
activities or tasks.
The definition of what exactly constitutes a task has since
been modified and worked on by a number of researchers in
the field of SLA, and continues to be a subject of keen
debate. The general consensus, however, is that learning a
language requires active involvement with it. This is our
philosophy at Langschool – learning by experiencing!
Characteristics/ Principles
Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is an approach which
offers students opportunities to actively engage in
communication in order to achieve a goal or complete a task.
TBLT seeks to develop students’ interlanguage through
providing a task and then using language to solve it. Task-
based learning focuses on the use of authentic language
through meaningful tasks. In a task-based approach, learners
learn by doing. Task activities are usually rich in language,
involving a wide variety of language areas, as well as all the
skills; reading, writing, listening and speaking. By definition, a
task must involve the processing of information, and some
kind of communication or interaction. And a task can be
something that you do alone, or that you do with someone
else or in a group.
The principles of TBLT are:
1. Activities that involve real communication are essential for
language learning.
2. Activities in which language is used for carrying out
meaningful tasks promote learning.
3. Language that is meaningful to the learner supports the
learning process.
Characteristics of task based language teaching
1) It gives an emphasis on learning to communicate through
interaction in the target language.
2) It introduces authentic texts into the learning situation
3) It provides opportunities for learners to focus, not only on
language but also on the learning process itself.
4)It enhances the learner’s own personal experiences as
important contributing elements to classroom learning.
(5) It attempts to link classroom language learning with
language activation outside the classroom.

Classroom activities
Willis (1999) has offered the following practical activity
patterns:
1. Listing is a form of activity that aims to enable students to
express their opinions in a way that is about gathering ideas
and finding truth.
2. Ordering and sorting is a type of activity that trains
students to use language to correctly sort and sort subjects.
3. Comparing is a type of activity that enables students to
compare data from different sources with the same
characteristics in order to compile different and similar
content.
4. Problem solving is a form of activity that gives students
feedback and reasoning while also giving them the
opportunity to solve problems with results.
5. Sharing personal experience is an activity that encourages
students to use a language that is close to the context of
their daily lives.
6. Creative tasks are those that allow students to work as a
pair or group. Sometimes, students may have to go out to do
activities outside the classroom, work together to complete
them, have managerial skills, and work together.
Nunan (2005) has offered the following practical activity
patterns:
1. Questions and answers: This activity is based on the
concept of the exchange of information, enabling students to
learn in the form of a language with subjects. Enabling
learners to practice language structure.
2. Dialogues and role plays include options or themes,
allowing the student to choose whether he or she will be
able to accomplish a goal on his or her own rather than
following an existing activity.
3. Matching activities, The task is to match, with the phrase
give and do a match.
4. Communication strategies: design activities that encourage
students to practice language for communication, such as
abbreviation, lending or generating words, using poses, and
asking questions to find results.
5. Pictures and picture stories Different communication
activities can use images to learn, such as finding differences
in images, motivation tests, ordering images, and telling
stories from images.
6. Puzzles and problems offer a wide range of activities, such
as challenging general knowledge, telling stories from
experience, and giving students the opportunity to use ideas,
imagination, and reasoning.
7. Discussions and Decisions enable students to gather
information and share information to lead to decisions on the
subject.

Teacher role/ Learner role

The language teacher aiming at implementing task-based
language teaching in the foreign language classroom
should perform three main roles:
(1) selector and sequencer of tasks;
(2) preparing learners for tasks;
(3) consciousness-raising.
Relevant to the first teacher role, it can be stressed that the
language teacher has an active role in choosing, adapting and
designing tasks and then building these tasks in keeping with
learner needs, expectations, interests and language skill
levels. Related to the second teacher role, it can be stated
that some training for pre-task is prominent for language
learners. These training activities may include topic
introduction, specifying task instructions, assisting students in
learning or recalling beneficial words and phrases to make
the task accomplishment easy, and offering partial display of
task process. As for the third teacher role, it can be
emphasized that the teacher deploys an amalgamation of
form-focusing techniques, covering attention-focusing pre-task
activities, examining the given text, guided exposure to similar
tasks, and employment of highlighted material
(Richards and Rogers, 2001).
The language learner who is exposed to the implementation
of task based language teaching in the foreign language
classroom should carry out three major roles:
(1) group participant;
(2) monitor;
(3) risk-taker and innovator.
Regarding the first learner role, it can be indicated that the
learners perform a number of tasks either in pairs or small
groups. Pair or group work may involve some adaptation for
those learners who are more used to whole-class activities
and/or individual work. Related to the second learner role, it
can be stressed that tasks are employed as a tool for
facilitating the learning process in task-based learning.
Classroom activities should be organized so that learners can
have the opportunity to observe how language is utilized in
communication. Learners themselves should “attend” both
to the message in task work and to the form where such
messages typically come packed. Relevant to the third
learner role, it can be stated that many tasks will push
learners to generate and expound messages for which they
do not have full linguistic resources and prior experience. In
reality, this is said to be the point of such tasks. The skills of
making guesses from linguistic and contextual clues, asking
for explanation, and consulting with other learners may need
to be enhanced (Richards and Rogers, 2001).

Advantage /Disadvantage
Advantage
การเรียนรู้แบบเน้นงานปฏิบัตค
ิ ือผู้เรียนได้มีโอกาสใช้ ภาษาจริง
ระหว่างการปฏิบัติภาระงาน มุ่งเน้นการสื่อความหมายมากกว่ารูปแบบ
ของภาษา ชิน
้ งานที่กำหนดต้องมีความสอดคล้องกับสถานการณ์จริง
สามารถนำไปใช้ได้จริงในชีวิตประจำวัน ส่งผลให้ ผู้เรียนเห็นความสำคัญ
ของเนื้อหาที่เรียน ทำให้เกิดแรงจูงใจในการเรียน ชญาภรณ์ ธีรชัยมงคล
กุล (2561) กล่าวถึงข้อดีของการเรียนรู้แบบเน้น ภาระงาน ไว้ว่า
1.) เป็ นการเรียนรู้ที่สามารถประยุกต์ได้และเหมาะสมกับผู้เรียนทุกช่วง
อายุและภูมิหลังการเรียนรู้
2.) ผู้เรียนจะเปิ ดรับและมีโอกาสได้เรียนรู้ภาษามากขึน
้
3.) ผู้เรียนมีอิสระในการใช้ ภาษา คำศัพท์ และไวยากรณ์ที่ผู้เรียนทราบ
แล้วมากกว่าใช้ภาษาในบทเรียน
4.) ผู้เรียนได้มีการ สื่อสารผ่านตัวภาษาอย่างมีความหมาย
5.) ผู้เรียนจะได้เรียนรู้รูปแบบของภาษา รวมไปถึงโครงสร้าง ต่างๆ
6.) ส่งเสริมให้ผู้เรียนมีความทะเยอทะยานในการเรียนรู้ภาษามากขึน
้
 Practical work-focused learning means that students
have the opportunity to use real language during workload
practice. It focuses more on communicating meaning than on
forms of language. The assigned task must be consistent with
real-life situations and can be practically applied in everyday
life. As a result, students see the importance of the content
they learn, creating motivation to learn. The Prophecy of
Theresia Mung-Cluck (2561) speaks of the advantages of
focused learning. The burden of work is assumed to be
1.) It is a learning experience that is applicable and suitable
for students of all ages and learning backgrounds.
2.) Students will be open and have the opportunity to learn
more languages.
3.) Students are free to use languages, phrases, and grammar
that they already know rather than language in the lesson.
4.) Students have had meaningful language communication.
5.) Students will learn language formats, including various
structures.
6.) Encourage students to have more ambition to learn
languages
Nunan (2004) กล่าวว่า TBL เน้นให้ผู้เรียนสื่อสารผ่านปฏิสัมพันธ์
ในภาษาเป้ าหมาย แนะนำตัวบทที่แท้จริงในห้องเรียน ผู้เรียนไม่เพียงแต่
ให้ความสำคัญกับภาษาเท่านัน
้ แต่รวมถึงกระบวนการเรียนรู้ด้วย และ
TBL ทำให้ประสบการณ์ส่วนตัวของผู้เรียนเองเป็ นปั จจัยที่มีส่วนสำคัญใน
การ ห้องเรียน.
 Nunan (2004) states that TBL emphasises on learners to
communicate through interaction in the target language,
introduces authentic texts into the classroom, learners focus
not only on language but the learning process itself and TBL
makes the learners’ own personal experiences important
contributing factors to the classroom.
Disadvantages
Seedhouse (1999) ให้ความหมายว่าอาจโต้แย้งได้ว่า TBL เน้นที่
งานและสื่อความหมายมากเกินไป ซึ่งอาจส่งผลต่อการใช้ภาษาในรูปแบบ
ที่ถูกต้อง นอกจากนี ้ สิง่ สำคัญคือต้องตระหนักว่ามีการสื่อสารมากกว่า
การปฏิบัติงาน
Seedhouse (1999) implies that it could be argued that
TBL emphasises too much on tasks and communicating
meaning and this could have an impact on how to use the
language with the correct form. In addition to this it is
important to realise that there is a lot more to
communication than performing tasks.
Skehan (1996) ระบุว่า TBL อาจมีอันตรายหากดำเนินการไม่ถูก
ต้อง และอาจส่งผลต่อการเติบโตและการเปลี่ยนแปลงของภาษาระหว่าง
ผู้เรียนภาษา ดังนัน
้ จากมุมมองนีเ้ ราจะเห็นว่าการกลายสภาพเป็ นฟอสซิล
บางอย่างอาจเกิดขึน
้ ภายในตัวนักเรียนและทำให้เกิดอุปสรรคต่อความ
ก้าวหน้าของผู้เรียน TBL ยังไม่น่าเชื่อว่าเป็ นวิธีการสอนที่เหนือกว่า
Skehan (1996) expressed that TBL could have some
dangers if it is not executed correctly and could result in
affecting the growth and change of the language learners’
interlanguage. So from this view we can see that some sort of
fossilization may occur within the students and cause barriers
for the learners to progress. TBL is still not convincing, that it
is a superior teaching method
Advantages of Task-Based Learning
 Student interaction is ‘built in’ to the lesson, as they
need to communicate to complete the task.
 Students’ communication skills improve.
 Students’ confidence can improve as tasks can mimic
real life.
 Students’ motivation can improve due to the same
reason.
 Students’ understanding of language can be more
profound as it’s used in realistic contexts.
Disadvantages of Task-Based Learning
 Tasks have to be carefully planned to meet the correct
criteria.
 It can take longer to plan.
 It’s also time-consuming adapting PPP-style coursebook
lessons.
 Too much scaffolding in the early stages can turn a TBL
class into a PPP class.
 Students can avoid using the target language to
complete the task if:
 Tasks aren’t well-designed
  Students aren’t motivated.
 Students are too excited.
 Students feel lazy

Your ideas
ในส่วนที่เป็ นข้เสีย ครูผู้สอนจะต้องคอยติดตามกระตุ้น ตลอดจนช่วย
เหลือ ให้กำลังใจอย่างใกล้ชิด เพื่อปรับเปลี่ยนแก้ไขพฤติกรรมที่ไม่พงึ
ประสงค์ นอกจากนีย
้ ังต้องจัดเตรียมให้ผู้เรียนรับรู้และตระหนักถึงหน้าที่
รับผิดชอบในการเรียนรู้ และการสร้างสรรค์ชน
ิ ้ งานด้วยตนเอง ครูจะต้อง
ให้การช่วยเหลืออย่างใกล้ชิดในระยะแรกที่ผู้เรียนยังปรับตัวไม่ได้ ตลอด
จนครูต้องตระหนักในบทบาทหน้าที่ที่เปลี่ยนไป ทัง้ บทบาทการสอน การ
วัดผลประเมินผล ทัง้ นีห
้ ากดำเนินการได้ครบถ้วนก็จะสามารถลดทอนข้อ
ด้อยของการจัดการเรียนรู้แบบนีล
้ งได้บ้าง และอาจพบช่องทางในการที่
จะพัฒนารูปแบบการจัดการเรียนการสอนในลักษณะนีใ้ ห้ดียิ่งๆ ขึน
้ ต่อไป
Three Reasons TBL Classes Go Badly
Here are three reasons TBL classes typically go wrong and
what to do about it.
1. If Tasks Aren’t Well Designed
What happens: Students might get into the task, but if it’s
designed around communication, then there’s no need to
talk, and students can complete the task by themselves.
Which inevitably happens.
Why it happens: there’s no gap in the task (see earlier)
Solution: design your task with one of the communicative
gaps mentioned earlier. Here’s a helpful podcast where I
discuss task design.
2. If Students are ‘Lazy’ or Bored
What happens: Students will do the bare minimum to
complete the task. They’ll avoid the target language and use
the most straightforward language they know, even single-
word utterances, to get by.
Why it happens: the topic isn’t interesting, hasn’t been
presented clearly, they don’t understand, or there’s no
rapport with the teacher.
Solution: choose an interesting topic/context/material for
learners, grade your language appropriately, check your
instructions, and work on rapport building.
3. If Students are too Excited
What happens: students are so excited to complete a task
that they revert to a mixture of crazy interlanguage, body
language and shouting (“That.. Here! No, wrong, it, it —
[speaks own language] — ta-da! Teacher, teacher, done!” )
Why it happens: they’re over-excited and want to complete
the task as soon as possible. The good news is that you
chose a topic, context and materials connected with them —
congratulations! The bad news is that it got in the way of the
task…
Solution: If you expect your task to excite the students,
make sure that you set the standards very clearly. Show a
model of some kind, and be clear about the minimum
standard. If appropriate, quantify it; “you have to record at
least 20 lines of speech, everyone must speak at least three
times…” and so on.

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