Task-based teaching

Figure 3: Stereotypical classroom processes in traditional form-focussed pedagogy and task- based pedagogy

treated as an object and the students are required to act as ^‘learners^’. The second set reflects the behaviours that characterize a task-based pedagogy, where language is treated as a tool for communicating and the teacher and students function primarily as ^‘language users^’（Ellis 2001）. Thus, which set of behaviours arise is crucially dependent on the participants^’ orientation to the classroom and to their motives for performing an activity.

Two questions arise. The first concerns what the participants in a task need to do to ensure that the interactions they engage in manifest the processes described in column B in Figure 3. Implicit in this question is an acknowledgement of the importance of these processes for task- based instruction. The second question, however, challenges this assumption by asking whether in fact these processes are criterial of task-based pedagogy and whether, minimally, they need to be complemented by processes from column A.
It has often been pointed out（see, for example, Gremmo et al 1978; Kasper 1986; Nunan 1987）that the processes described in column B are a rarity even in classrooms where the teacher claims to be teaching communicatively. The main reason for this lies in the difficulty teachers and students have in achieving the required orientation. As Goffman（1981）has pointed out, classrooms are governed by an ^‘educational imperative^’ which dictates the kind of discourse that arises. It is for this reason that teachers and students find it difficult to consistently orient to language as a tool and to adopt the role of language users when they both know that the ^{raison-d’etre} for their being together is to teach and learn the language. In effect, task-based teaching calls for the classroom participants to forget where they are and why they are there and to act in the belief that they can learn the language indirectly through communicating in it rather than directly through studying it. This is asking a lot of them, especially if the social practices the participants bring to the classroom belong to a pedagogy of transmission rather than of interpretation（Barnes 1976）. It is probably easier to achieve when students are interacting among themselves, without the teacher being present, as the greater symmetry of social roles this affords leads naturally to the kinds of risk-taking behaviour required of a task-based pedagogy（Pica 1987）. This is one reason why pair and group work are seen as central to task- based teaching.
However, even when the participants in a task are oriented to treat language as a tool and to function as language users, the text of the task may disappoint, manifesting few of the characteristics facilitative of acquisition. Seedhouse（1999）has pointed out that the characteristics of task-based interaction do not always match those described in Figure 3. He illustrates how in some tasks the turn-taking system is conspicuously constrained, there is a tendency for students to rely on topic-comment constructions where verbal elements are omitted
（a feature also noted in pidgins）and to produce highly indexicalised utterances. An even greater limitation in task-based interaction, according to Seedhouse, is the minimalization that characterizes some task-based interactions. This is illustrated in the extract below where the students were required to complete and label a geometric figure:
L1: What?
L2: Stop.
L3: Dot?
L4: Dot?
L5: Point?
L6: Dot?
LL: Point, point, yeh.
L1: Point?
L5: Small point.
L3: Dot
（From Lynch 1989, p. 124; cited in Seedhouse 1999）.
Here all the utterances but one consist of a single word. Clearly, such interactions do not help the ^‘stretch^’ learners^’ interlanguages, one of the stated goals of task-based pedagogy（Nunan 1989）. Seedhouse suggests that such limited interactions arise because ^‘learners appear to be so concentrated on completing the task that linguistic forms are treated as a vehicle of minor importance^’（p. 154）. In other words, the very nature of a task（i. e. the fact it is directed at accomplishing a specified outcome）may result in a restricted variety of communication.
It seems to me, though, that Seedhouse overstates this limitation of tasks. First, it is possible to argue that the restricted nature of the talk shown in the extract above is well suited to the students^’ purpose. Second, the nature of the interaction depends crucially on the design characteristics of tasks and procedures for implementing them. Thus, richer varieties of communication characterized by more complex language use, are achievable if, for example, students are asked to perform open tasks with divergent goals and are given the opportunity to plan their performance before hand. Nevertheless, Seedhouse^’s critique needs to be addressed. Clearly, teachers need to monitor their students^’ performance of a task carefully, examining to what extent the processes described in Figure 3 arise and, crucially, whether the interactions manifest the minimalized and pidgin-like uses of language Seedhouse sees as endemic. The information obtained from such monitoring can be used to inform decisions about what tasks and procedures to use in subsequent tasks. In this way, teachers can build up a fund of experience of the task characteristics and methods of implementation that will ensure the kinds of interactions hypothesized to promote acquisition. Thus, the solution to the problem Seedhouse identifies lies not in attempting to manipulate process options directly, which may well be impossible without imperilling the ^‘taskness^’ of the task, but through careful selection from the pre-task options and the performance options described above.
Where Seedhouse questions whether the kinds of behaviours shown in Figure 3 are achievable in task-based teaching, others have challenged whether they constitute appropriate goals for interaction in a classroom. Cullen（1998）, drawing on Breen and Candlin（1980）, has pointed out that the classroom context constitutes a communicative environment in its own right that is distinct from the communicative contexts of the world outside and on these grounds has challenged the basis for assessing the communicativeness of classroom discourse. In effect, then, Cullen disputes the assumption that underlies task-bask pedagogy̶that classrooms need to
replicate the kind of communicative behaviour found outside the classroom. He illustrates how
^‘what appears to be non-communicative teacher talk is not necessarily so in the classroom
context（^’ p. 183）with an extract from an English lesson in Egypt. This interaction is teacher-led,
is full of display questions, includes feedback that is form-focussed and contains a lot of echoing̶all processes associated with a traditional form - focussed pedagogy. However, Cullen argues that in the context of the classroom, the interaction can be considered ^‘communicative^’ in that the entire sequence manifests a focus on message content, the teacher^’s questions are carefully structured, the feedback is clear and the use of echoing serves to ensure that the students^’ attention is not lost. He claims that the discourse is pedagogically effective because the teacher has successfully combined the role of ^‘instructor^’ and ^‘interlocutor^’. Arguably, this is what a task-based pedagogy needs to strive for. How might it be achieved?
One way is by incorporating a focus on form into the performance of the task. Ellis, Basturkmen and Loewen（2001）report this can be achieved in either responding focus-on-form episodes, where one of the participants, usually the teacher, responds to a student utterance containing an error, or in initiating episodes, where either the teacher or a student elects to take time out from the exchange of message content to attend briefly to form, usually by means of a direct query about a specific form. Such attention to form differs from that arising in lessons of the traditional, focus-on-forms kind because, for, as Wilberg（1987）notes, ^‘the content is dictated
by the student, the form only by the teacher^’（p. 27）. It also differs in another way. As Prabhu
（1987）points out, correction during a task is ^‘incidental^’ rather than ^‘systematic^’ in nature. In incidental correction, only ^‘tokens^’ are addressed（i. e. there is no attempt to generalize the type of error）, it is seen by the participants as ^‘a part of getting on with the activity in hand, not as a separate objective^’（p. 63）and, crucially, it is transitory. Prabhu excludes preventive or pre- emptive attention to form but, as Ellis, Basturkmen and Loewen^’s study shows, this too can be ^‘incidental^’.
Figure 4 describes some of the techniques that can be used by the task participants. Evidence from research（Ellis, Basturkmen and Loewen 2001; Lyster and Ranta 1997）indicates that the use of these techniques, even when quite frequent, need not detract from the primary focus on message, which is the defining characteristic of a task. Thus, they serve as important process options for reconciling the roles of ^‘instructor/learner^’ on the one hand and ^‘interlocutor/ language user^’ on the other. Furthermore, they potentially enhance the acquisitional value of a task by inducing noticing of linguistic forms that lie outside or at the edges of students^’ current interlanguages.

Type of Technique	Interactional device	Description
Implicit	Request for clarification Recast	A task participant seeks clarification of something another participant has said, thus providing an opportunity for the first participant to reformulate. A task participant rephrases part or the whole of another participant^’s utterance.
Explicit	Explicit correction Metalingual comment/question Query Advise	A task participant draws explicit attention to another participant^’s deviant use of a linguistic form.（e. g. ^‘Not x but y.^’） A task participant uses metalanguage to draw attention to another participant^’s deviant use of a linguistic form（e. g. ^‘Past tense not present tense.^’） A task participant asks a question about a specific linguistic form that has arisen in performing the task（e. g. ^‘Why is ^‘can^’used here?^’）. A task participant（usually the teacher） advises or warns about the use of a specific linguistic form（e. g. ^‘Remember you need to use past tense^’）.