Tasks in SLA and language pedagogy.pdf

1 Tasks in SLA and language pedagogy

Introduction

Second language acquisition (SLA) researchers and language teachers both

seek to elicit samples of language use from learners. In the case of

researchers these samples are needed to investigate how second language

(L2) learning takes place. In the case of teachers, these samples serve as the

means by which learners can be helped to learn and as evidence that

successful learning is taking place. Furthermore, both researchers and

teachers recognize that the samples they elicit can vary according to the

extent to which learners focus on using language correctly as opposed to

simply communicating a message. For example, samples elicited by means

of blank-ﬁlling exercises are likely to reﬂect the learners’ attention to ac-

curacy whereas samples elicited by means of some kind of communicative

activity are more likely to reﬂect how learners use the L2 for message

conveyance.

Increasingly, both researchers and teachers acknowledge the need to

elicit samples of language use that are representative of how learners

perform when they are not attending to accuracy. Such samples, it is

believed, provide evidence of learners’ ability to use their L2 knowledge in

real-time communication. SLA researchers recognize the importance of

such samples for documenting how learners structure and restructure their

interlanguages over time. Teachers recognize that unless learners are given

the opportunity to experience such samples they may not succeed in devel-

oping the kind of L2 proﬁciency needed to communicate ﬂuently and

effectively. The question arises, then, as to how these samples of meaning-

focused language use can be elicited. The means that both have employed

are ‘tasks’.

Tasks, then, hold a central place in current SLA research and also in

language pedagogy. This is evident in the large number of recent publications

relating to task-based learning and teaching (for example, Willis 1996; Skehan

1998; Lee 2000; Language Teaching Research Vol. 4.3, 2000; Bygate et al.

2001). These publications raise many issues. What exactly is a task? Can

tasks be designed in such a way that they predetermine language use? How

does L2 learning take place as a product of performing tasks? What is task-

based language pedagogy? How can language courses be constructed

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE AND LEARNING

2 Task-based Language Learning and Teaching

around tasks? How can tasks be used to assess what learners can do in the

L2? These are the questions this book seeks to address. It will examine the

theories of language acquisition and use that have informed research into

tasks. It will also discuss the principles and practice of task-based language

pedagogy, and the extent to which these are underwritten by research.

This chapter will begin by examining a number of deﬁnitions of a ‘task’,

and discuss the important distinction between ‘unfocused’ and ‘focused’

tasks. A framework for describing tasks is developed and applied to the

description of actual tasks. The second half of the chapter examines tasks

from the perspective of SLA research and of language pedagogy, providing

an overview of the key issues.

Deﬁning a ‘task’

What exactly is a ‘task’? How does a ‘task’ differ from other devices used

to elicit learner language, for example, an ‘activity’, or an ‘exercise’, or

‘drill’. It should be acknowledged from the start that in neither research nor

language pedagogy is there complete agreement as to what constitutes a

task, making deﬁnition problematic (Crookes 1986: 1), nor is there consis-

tency in the terms employed to describe the different devices for eliciting

learner language. Figure 1.1 provides a number of deﬁnitions of task,

drawn from both the research and pedagogic literatures. These deﬁnitions

address a number of dimensions: (1) the scope of a task, (2) the perspective

from which a task is viewed, (3) the authenticity of a task, (4) the linguis-

tic skills required to perform a task, (5) the psychological processes

involved in task performance, and (6) the outcome of a task.

Scope

A broad deﬁnition, such as that provided by Long (1985), includes tasks

that require language, for example, making an airline reservation, and

tasks that can be performed without using language, for example, painting

a fence. However, more narrow deﬁnitions, such as those of Richards,

Platt, and Weber (1985) and Nunan (1989) deﬁne task as an activity that

necessarily involves language. Given that the overall goal of tasks, in both

research and teaching, is to elicit language use, as suggested by Crookes’

(1986) deﬁnition, there seems little sense in extending the term to include

language-free activities. Therefore, in this book, we will be concerned only

with tasks whose successful completion involves language.

Differences regarding scope involve another important distinction,

which is more central to the role tasks have played in research and teach-

ing. Should the term ‘task’ be restricted to activities where the learners’

attention is primarily focused on message conveyance or should it include

any kind of language activity including those designed to get learners to

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE AND LEARNING

Tasks in SLA and language pedagogy 3

display their knowledge of what is correct usage? Long (1985), Richards,

Platt, and Weber (1985), Nunan (1989), and Skehan (1996a) clearly wish

to restrict the use of term to activities where meaning is primary. Breen

(1989), however, adopts a broader deﬁnition that incorporates any kind of

language activity, including ‘exercises’. His deﬁnition seems synonymous

with the term ‘activity’. Given the importance that is currently attached to

meaning-focused communication both in theories of L2 acquisition and of

language pedagogy, there is a clear need for a term to label devices that

elicit this type of language use. I will adopt the narrower deﬁnition, then.

‘Tasks’ are activities that call for primarily meaning-focused language use.

In contrast, ‘exercises’ are activities that call for primarily form-focused

language use. However, we need to recognize that the overall purpose of

tasks is the same as exercises—learning a language—the difference lying in

the means by which this purpose is to be achieved.

It might be objected that this distinction is somewhat simplistic. As

Widdowson (1998) has pointed out, learners will need to pay attention to

both meaning and form in both tasks and exercises. For example, learners

involved in ‘making an airline reservation’ will need to ﬁnd the linguistic

forms to explain where they want to ﬂy to, what day and time they want

to ﬂy, what kind of ticket they want, etc. Also, learners completing a blank

ﬁlling exercise designed to practise the use of the past simple and present

perfect tenses in English will need to pay attention to the meanings of

sentences to determine which tense to use. Widdowson argues that what

distinguishes a task from an exercise is not ‘form’ as opposed to ‘meaning’,

but rather the kind of meaning involved. Whereas a task is concerned with

‘pragmatic meaning’, i.e. the use of language in context, an exercise is

concerned with ‘semantic meaning’, i.e. the systemic meanings that speciﬁc

forms can convey irrespective of context. However, it is precisely this

distinction that the terms ‘form-focused’ and ‘meaning-focused’ are

intended to capture, so Widdowson’s objection is more one of terminology

than substance.

The distinction between meaning-focused and form-focused is also

intended to capture another key difference between an exercise and a task

relating to the role of the participants. Thus, a ‘task’ requires the partici-

pants to function primarily as ‘language users’ in the sense that they must

employ the same kinds of communicative processes as those involved in

real-world activities. Thus, any learning that takes place is incidental. In

contrast, an ‘exercise’ requires the participants to function primarily as

‘learners’; here learning is intentional. In short, as Widdowson (1998)

notes, there is a fundamental difference between ‘task’ and ‘exercise’

according to whether linguistic skills are viewed as developing through

communicative activity or as a prerequisite for engaging in it. However,

when learners engage in tasks they do not always focus on meaning and act

as language users. Nor indeed is this the intention of tasks. While a task

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE AND LEARNING

4 Task-based Language Learning and Teaching

1 Breen (1989)

A task is ‘a structured plan for the provision of opportunities for the reﬁnement of

knowledge and capabilities entailed in a new language and its use during

communication’. Breen speciﬁcally states that a ‘task’ can be ‘a brief practice exercise’

or ‘a more complex workplan that requires spontaneous communication of meaning’.

2 Long (1985)

A task is ‘a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some

reward. Thus, examples of tasks include painting a fence, dressing a child, ﬁlling out a

form, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book,

taking a driving test, typing a letter, weighing a patient, sorting letters, taking a hotel

reservation, writing a cheque, ﬁnding a street destination, and helping someone across

a road. In other words, by “task” is meant the hundred and one things people do in

everyday life, at work, at play, and in between. “Tasks” are the things people will tell

you they do if you ask them and they are not applied linguists’.

3 Richards, Platt, and Weber (1985)

A task is ‘an activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or

understanding language, i.e. as a response. For example, drawing a map while

listening to a tape, and listening to an instruction and performing a command, may be

referred to as tasks. Tasks may or may not involve the production of language. A task

usually requires the teacher to specify what will be regarded as successful completion

of the task. The use of a variety of different kinds of tasks in language teaching is said

to make teaching more communicative … since it provides a purpose for classroom

activity which goes beyond practice of language for its own sake’.

4 Crookes (1986)

A task is ‘a piece of work or an activity, usually with a speciﬁed objective, undertaken

as part of an educational course, at work, or used to elicit data for research’.

5 Prabhu (1987)

A task is ‘an activity which required learners to arrive at an outcome from given

information through some process of thought, and which allowed teachers to control

and regulate that process’.

6 Nunan (1989)

A communicative task is ‘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 form. The task should also

have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its

own right’.

7 Skehan (1996a)

A task is ‘an activity in which: meaning is primary; there is some sort of relationship to

the real world; task completion has some priority; and the assessment of task

performance is in terms of task outcome’.

8 Lee (2000)

A task is ‘(1) a classroom activity or exercise that has: (a) an objective obtainable only

by the interaction among participants, (b) a mechanism for structuring and sequencing

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE AND LEARNING

Tasks in SLA and language pedagogy 5

interaction, and (c) a focus on meaning exchange; (2) a language learning endeavor

that requires learners to comprehend, manipulate, and/or produce the target language

as they perform some set of workplans’.

9 Bygate, Skehan, and Swain (2001)

‘A task is an activity which requires learners to use language, with emphasis on

meaning, to attain an objective.’

Figure 1.1: Examples of deﬁnitions of a ‘task’

requires a learner to act primarily as a language user and give focal atten-

tion to message conveyance, it allows for peripheral attention to be paid to

deciding what forms to use. Also, when performing a task, learners’ focal

attention may switch momentarily to form as they temporarily adopt the

role of language learners. Thus, the extent to which a learner acts as

language user or language learner and attends to message or code when

undertaking tasks and exercises is best seen as variable and probabilistic

rather than categorical.

Perspective

Perspective refers to whether a task is seen from the task designer’s or the

participants’ point of view. This is relevant to the distinction between

meaning-focused and form-focused. A task may have been designed to

encourage a focus-on-meaning but, when performed by a particular group

of learners, it may result in display rather than communicative language

use. As Hosenfeld (1976) has pointed out, learners are adroit at redeﬁning

activities to suit their own purposes. Thus the ‘task-as-workplan’ may or

may not match the ‘task-as-process’ (Breen 1989). Do we decide whether

an activity is a ‘task’ by examining the intention of the task designer, i.e.

the task-as-workplan, or the learners’ actual performance of the task, i.e.

the task-as-process? Most of the deﬁnitions in Figure 1.1 (Richards, Platt,

and Weber 1985; Prabhu 1987; Breen 1989; Nunan 1989; Lee 2000) adopt

the task-designer’s perspective and I will do likewise: a task is, to use

Breen’s (1989) term, a ‘workplan’ that is intended to engage the learner in

meaning-focused language use. 1 Of course, a task can be successful, i.e. it

actually results in meaning-focused communication; or unsuccessful, i.e. it

results in learners displaying their knowledge of language; or, as is often the

case, it can be more or less successful/unsuccessful. One of the goals of

task-based research is to establish whether the predictions made by design-

ers are actually borne out.

The instructions, or what Bachman and Palmer (1996) call ‘rubric’, are

an essential part of the task workplan. They specify what the purpose of

the task is, i.e. its outcome, and what the participants need to do to reach

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE AND LEARNING

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