Paste your eThe present chapter reviews the literature related to teaching English language grammar to EFL learners through cooperative method. The first section, theoretical background, examines and reviews the literature on different conceptualizations of teacher learning, its importance, the models and theories of language teacher education, and the concept of teacher education knowledge base. Then comes a brief discussion of a number of PD strategies suggested to be used both in pre-service preparation and in-service PD. The next part of the chapter is allocated to review of past empirical studies conducted on different EFL teachers’ PD and their result.
2.2 TBLT definition
Task-based language teaching (TBLT), also known as task-based instruction (TBI), focuses on the use of authentic language and on asking students to do meaningful tasks using the target language. Such tasks can include visiting a doctor, conducting an interview, or calling customer service for help. Assessment is primarily based on task outcome (in other words the appropriate completion of real world tasks) rather than on accuracy of prescribed language forms. This makes TBLT especially popular for developing target language fluency and student confidence. As such TBLT can be considered a branch of communicative language teaching (CLT).
TBLT was popularized by N. Prabhu while working in Bangalore, India Prabhu noticed that his students could learn language just as easily with a non-linguistic problem as when they were concentrating on linguistic questions. Major scholars who have done research in this area include Teresa P. Pica, Martin East and Michael Long.
2.2.1 Background of TBLT
Task-based language learning has its origins in communicative language teaching, and is a subcategory of it. Educators adopted task-based language learning for a variety of reasons. Some moved to task-based syllabus in an attempt to make language in the classroom truly communicative, rather than the pseudo-communication that results from classroom activities with no direct connection to real-life situations. Others, like Prabhu in the Bangalore Project, thought that tasks were a way of tapping into learners' natural mechanisms for second-language acquisition, and weren't concerned with real-life communication per se.
Background of task-based language teaching Based on the constructivist theory of learning and communicative language teaching methodology, the task-based viewpoint of language teaching has emerged in response to some constraints of the traditional PPP approach, denoted by the process of presentation, practice, and performance (Ellis, 2003; Long & Crookes, 1991). Hence, it has the significant meaning that language learning is a developmental process enhancing communication and social interaction rather than a product internalized by practicing language items, and that learners master the target language more powerfully when being exposed to meaningful task-based activities in a natural way. It was in the eighties that this viewpoint of language learning gave rise to the flourishment of various task-based approaches (Breen, 1987; Candlin & Murphy, 1987; Nunan, 1989; Prabhu, 1987). Moreover, during the nineties, it developed into a comprehensive structure for the communicative classroom where learners did task-based activities via cycles of pre-task preparation, task performance, and post-task feedback via language focus (Skehan, 1996; Willis, 1996). Obviously, as Ellis (2003) states, task-based language teaching has been re-investigated recently from a variety of perspectives covering oral performance, writing performance, and performance assessment.
Task-based approach in second language teaching was first performed by Prabhu, who published the Bangolore research report in 1982 and advanced the concept of task-based approach (Wei, 2004). Researchers involved in taskbased approach have internalized experience from language research, the research of language learning and the research of foreign language acquisition, and it is getting more and more mature together with them. Its functions and value in constructing learner-centered classrooms and language learning contexts, giving learners the chance to communicate and interact and enhancing learners’ ability to deploy the target language and sort out communicative problems were highly appreciated and recognized by researchers in the area of language teaching (Lin, 2009).
Task-based approach has attracted more and more attention in the foreign language teaching field since the 1980s. Being a learner-centered approach, it views language as a communicative tool. Task-based approach aims at presenting opportunities for learners to master language both in speaking and writing via learning activities designed to engage learners in the natural, practical and functional use of language for meaningful purpose (Lin, 2009).
In spite of the widespread employment of tasks in language pedagogy, some prominent challenges behind devising proper task-based syllabi and designing natural task-based materials, both of which have been regarded as key factors to detecting the powerfulness of TBLT in communicative classrooms, still remain unresolved. Many SLA researchers, in response to these challenges, are presently shifting their focus from conceptualizing tasks to arranging and performing tasks relying on observation of the practical efficacy of TBLT methodology in classroom practice (Jeon and Hahn, 2005).
2.2.2 Benefits and challenges of task-based language teaching
Task-based language teaching provides many benefits to aid foreign language learning. Ellis (2009) lists these benefits as follows:
• TBLT provides the opportunity for ‘natural’ learning within the classroom context.
• It stresses meaning over form; however, it can also emphasize learning form.
• It offers learners a fertile input of target language.
• It is intrinsically motivating.
• It is consistent with a learner-focused educational philosophy but also gives permission for teacher input and guidance.
• It contributes to the improvement of communicative fluency while not disregarding accuracy.
• It can be deployed together with a more traditional approach.
Although task-based approach presents many benefits to aid foreign language learning, it is not without some obstacles and challenges. According to Hatip (2005), some challenges of task-based approach are as follows:
• The drawbacks of task-based learning rely not so much on the potential powerfulness of this type of instructional content but on problems of conducting the instruction.
• Task-based learning involves a high level of creativity and dynamism on the part of the teacher. If the teachers are restricted to more traditional roles or do not possess time and resources to provide task-based teaching; this type of teaching may be impracticable.
• Task-based learning necessitates resources beyond the textbooks and related materials generally available in foreign language classrooms.
• Students may, at first, refuse or object to task-based language learning in that this type of instruction is not what many students expect and want from a language class.
• Some learners employ the mother tongue when they face with a difficulty or if the group feels intolerant.
• Some individuals enhance superior communication strategies, e.g. miming and employing gestures, but get by employing just uncommon words and phrases and let others provide the more challenging language they need. This may give rise to the fossilization of those individuals prior to improving very far in the syntax of the target language.
• Some learners are inclined to get caught up in making an effort to find the appropriate word, and do not worry about how it is placed into the discourse.
• There is a danger for learners to attain fluency at the expense of accuracy.
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2.2.3 Related approaches to TBLT
Problem Based Learning is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject in the context of complex, multifaceted, and realistic problems.
Content-based instruction incorporates authentic materials and tasks to drive language instruction.
Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is an approach for learning content through an additional language (foreign or second), thus teaching both the subject and the language. The idea of its proponents was to create an "umbrella term" which encompasses different forms of using language as medium of instruction.
Definition of a task
The term task has been defined by many researchers. Long (1985:89) defines task as “a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some reward”. Breen (1987:23) comprehends task as “a range of work plans”.
Nunan (1989:10) states that task is “a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form”. Willis, J. (1996: 53) stresses that task is “a goal-oriented activity in which learners use language to achieve a real outcome”.
Skehan (1998:95) lists features of “task” as: (1) meaning is primary; (2) there is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities; (3) task completion has some priority; (4) the assessment of tasks is in terms of outcome.
According to Rod Ellis, a task has four main characteristics:
I. A task involves a primary focus on (pragmatic) meaning.
II. A task has some kind of ‘gap’ (Prabhu identified the three main types as information gap, reasoning gap, and opinion gap).
III. The participants choose the linguistic resources needed to complete the task.
IV. A task has a clearly defined, non-linguistic outcome.
Ellis (2003) gives the meaning of task as a “work plan” that requires learners’ cognitive processes via the inclusion of Skehan’s four criteria. Despite being various by nature, these definitions of task have some common points. A classroom task is an activity having a particular goal and it contains communicative language use in the process. Because task has a certain relationship with the extralinguistic world, it goes beyond the common classroom exercise. The type of discourse emerging from task is aimed to be similar to the one that emerges naturally in the real world (Ellis, 2000).
The core of the lesson or project is, as the name suggests, the task. Teachers and curriculum developers should bear in mind that any attention to form, i.e., grammar or vocabulary, increases the likelihood that learners may be distracted from the task itself and become preoccupied with detecting and correcting errors and/or looking up language in dictionaries and grammar references. Although there may be several effective frameworks for creating a task-based learning lesson, here is a basic outline:
Pre-task
In the pre-task, the teacher will present what will be expected of the students in the task phase. Additionally, in the "weak" form of TBLT, the teacher may prime the students with key vocabulary or grammatical constructs, although this can mean that the activity is, in effect, more similar to the more traditional present-practice-produce (PPP) paradigm. In "strong" task-based learning lessons, learners are responsible for selecting the appropriate language for any given context themselves. The instructors may also present a model of the task by either doing it themselves or by presenting picture, audio, or video demonstrating the task.
Task
During the task phase, the students perform the task, typically in small groups, although this depends on the type of activity. Unless the teacher plays a particular role in the task, the teacher's role is typically limited to one of an observer or counselor—thereby making it a more student-centered methodology.
Review
If learners have created tangible linguistic products, e.g. text, montage, presentation, audio or video recording, learners can review each other's work and offer constructive feedback. If a task is set to extend over longer periods of time, e.g. weeks, and includes iterative cycles of constructive activity followed by review, TBLL can be seen as analogous to Project-based learning.
2.2.4 Types of task
According to N. S. Prabhu, there are three main categories of task: information-gap, reasoning-gap, and opinion-gap
Information-gap activity, which involves a transfer of given information from one person to another – or from one form to another, or from one place to another – generally calling for the decoding or encoding of information from or into language. One example is pair work in which each member of the pair has a part of the total information (for example an incomplete picture) and attempts to convey it verbally to the other. Another example is completing a tabular representation with information available in a given piece of text. The activity often involves selection of relevant information as well, and learners may have to meet criteria of completeness and correctness in making the transfer.
Reasoning-gap activity, which involves deriving some new information from given information through processes of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception of relationships or patterns. One example is working out a teacher's timetable on the basis of given class timetables. Another is deciding what course of action is best (for example cheapest or quickest) for a given purpose and within given constraints. The activity necessarily involves comprehending and conveying information, as in information-gap activity, but the information to be conveyed is not identical with that initially comprehended. There is a piece of reasoning which connects the two.
Opinion-gap activity, which involves identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling, or attitude in response to a given situation. One example is story completion; another is taking part in the discussion of a social issue. The activity may involve using factual information and formulating arguments to justify one's opinion, but there is no objective procedure for demonstrating outcomes as right or wrong, and no reason to expect the same outcome from different individuals or on different occasions.