Centering communicative tasks as the backbone of the language classroom
01
What is it?
Task based language teaching is a methodology that centers communicative tasks as the organizing feature of instruction. Tasks involve the expression and interpretation of meaning and have a purpose that is NOT language practice. In other words, the point of tasks is not to practice doing certain things in the TL. Every task has a communicative purpose. Can Do statements (ACTFL's or others) serve as a very good scaffold to backwards plan tasks onto.
02
How is this different?
For Task-based teachers, the TASK is at the center of planning. This can be different from other proficiency-based approaches that do not have a specific linguistic task in mind. For non-task based teachers, the
acquisition of the language is the goal through slightly-less targeted means. Rather than thinking of it as either / or, think of task-based teaching as one more tool in your chest of proficiency-oriented strategies.
More Thoughts and in-depth Discussion
How do you start with task-based teaching?
Task-based teachers begin their curriculum design with questions of: what do I want students to be able to do at the end of this unit? How
will they show that they can accomplish that task? What language will
they need in order to accomplish it? How can I provide comprehensible
input for them to acquire that language? How will they practice the
task? What resources can I use to help them prepare for the
task? Those questions provide the backbone with which to shape activities and lessons on top of.
What are the CAN Do Statements?
The purpose of setting tasks is to help refine all communicative interactions in instruction to be meaningful for a given purpose. ACTFL's Can-Do statements (of which there are pages and pages to help guide and inspire!) are quality examples to help guide a teacher's instruction towards helping students acquire enough language to communicate in a real world setting. These are not prescriptive, however. A teacher should create their own to fit their individual setting.
Does this work with Novice learners?
If the goal is for students to acquire enough language to be able to communicate purposefully in real-world settings, it may be helpful and more efficient to start novice learners with high-frequency structures to make sure they have the strong foundation they need in order to accomplish tasks. That being said, ACTFL's Can-Do statements start at the Novice level, which suggests that there is a lot of adaptability within this framework.
Are Task-based, Content-based, and project-based language teaching different from one another?
Yes, there are differences between them all. Each strategy has a different emphasis, though all fall under the umbrella of proficiency-based instruction. They each deserve their own interrogation into how a proficiency-oriented teacher can accomplish their goals for their students through these methods. See below to discover more about each strategy.
