Why task based learning

In addition to French, I took up Spanish in my junior year and threw in a little Italian for my last year of high school. I was beyond motivated, but as I had previously stated, an eagerness to learn can only get you so far. After a successful run of learning French, Spanish and Italian from elementary school all the way up to my final year in high school, respectively, I decided to continue my language studies throughout university.

However, instead of focusing on the three languages I already had before me, the overachiever in me decided to take on one more: Ancient Greek—a choice that I quickly learned was a bridge too far.

Within days, I dropped the course. Many years later, I realized that no matter how ambitious I was at the time, I felt no affinity for Ancient Greek.

For me, learning a language just for the sake of learning it was unsatisfying and would never sustain me long term. Soon after this realization, I noticed that there were others, like me, who were trying to take on a foreign language and all its complexities without any connection, and they too were experiencing the same feelings of confusion, frustration, and overwhelm.

It became clear to me in that moment that if I wanted to become more effective, both as a language learner and instructor, I would need to shift my focus. However, warm fuzzy feelings aside, language, in its most rudimentary form, is just a vehicle that gets us from A to B.

It is a tool that helps us to accomplish something else. Why do we study foreign languages? To be able to actively interact with another culture. This article was originally published in Jan and was last updated in Nov Who We Are? Why task based learning and teaching? Theory to Practice. Teaching Methods. Facebook Tweet LinkedIn Pinterest. Author: Lusine Stepanyan. Related Articles. Tom Garside. For Teachers. Continue Reading. The task-based teaching approach is one of many modern ESL teaching methods and focuses on setting a goal for students — this could be a report, a video, or a presentation — and then following three main steps to achieve that goal.

During this stage, which can take up a whole lesson if needed, the teacher introduces the task to the students and gets them motivated to solve it. Once everyone is engaged, the teacher should explain what is expected for the task. The teacher can then give further instructions if needed and offer advice on how to approach the task. This is the main stage of task-based learning, where students start working on the task, usually in groups or pairs. This stage is done in the target language so that students feel the need to use the language they want to learn in order to solve the task.

Instead, he or she will monitor the students and offer hints if students really need support. Find out about teaching English online to groups. With Task-based Learning, teachers ask students to complete purposeful tasks that elicit the use of the target language.

Assessment centers around the general outcome of the task, rather than meticulously picking apart each element of speech. In doing this, you celebrate the successful, appropriate completion of a task, which in turn boosts student confidence immensely. Task-based Learning tasks can be categorized by the type of mental processes used in the activity, such as listing, comparing, problem-solving, creative thinking, and sharing personal experiences.

They must focus on meaning and comprehension, rather than repetition and recitation. For example, the task could be to book a transportation ticket over the phone. In this case, the outcome would be to successfully book the ticket. There must be a gap between teacher instruction, student performance, and end analysis.