Applying the task based approach to teaching speaking to first year enghlish majors at binh dinh college a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of teso

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES ********* APPLYING THE TASK-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHING SPEAKING TO FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

*********

APPLYING THE TASK-BASED APPROACH

TO TEACHING SPEAKING

TO FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS

AT BINH DINH COLLEGE

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF TESOL

Submitted by VÕ THỊ NGỌC CHÍNH

Supervisor

NGUYỄN THÁI ÂN, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, February 2014

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled

“APPLYING THE TASK-BASED APPROACH TO TEACHING SPEAKING TO FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT BINH DINH COLLEGE” in terms of the Statements of Requirements for Theses in

Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee

This thesis has not previously been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, February 2014

VÕ THỊ NGỌC CHÍNH

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Võ Thị Ngọc Chính, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, February 2014

VÕ THỊ NGỌC CHÍNH

This M.A thesis was written as a special gift for my students, and especially for

my lovely son – who was born at the time I began to submit the proposal for this M.A thesis with the hope that my students can learn English speaking interestingly and effectively I, therefore, would like to express my sincere appreciation to all of those people who have helped to shape this thesis

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thái Ân, for his insightful discussions, constructive criticisms and great encouragement on my writing Without his help, this M.A thesis would still

be far from finished

I am greatly indebted to all the lecturers of the TESOL graduate program at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their dedication and helpful instruction during the course

I would like to thank the teaching staff of The Foreign Languages Department in Binh Dinh College Without their assistance, this thesis would not have been possible Further, I would like to extend my thanks to my students, who have responded to much of this material and who have taught me much about the problems encountered in the first stage of carrying out my research

Last but not least, my deepest gratitude and special thanks are sent to my family, especially my husband, who cared, encouraged, supported, and motivated me greatly during the time of completing this study

This thesis dealt with the task-based approach towards learning English speaking

at Binh Dinh college The purpose was to investigate the teachers’ perceptions on the theory of the task-based approach Another aim was to find out the effectiveness of the application of the task-based approach in teaching speaking Finally, the motivation of the task-based approach was examined in the study

Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were applied to conduct this study The study employed features of quantitative and qualitative research methods Data for the study were collected from questionnaires to 8 teacher respondents and 126 student respondents Data were also collected from class observations, students’ journals and interviews to inspect the attitudes of the participants towards the task-based approach as well as to confirm the results from a different angle

The findings indicated that the participant teachers generally had highly good understandings of TBA and also had favorable attitudes towards TBA, and the learners also displayed positive attitudes towards this teaching method Furthermore, the teachers articulated a number of constraints that hamper the effective accomplishment

of TBA

The results, although tentative, contribute to an understanding of the theory of TBA and provide suggestions for the concerned bodies to facilitate the process of applying this teaching method in this college The thesis closes by identifying some possible research in relation to this study

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

ABSTRACT iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 General background to the study 5

1.2.1 An overview of Binh Dinh college 5

1.2.2 Description of the speaking courses 6

1.2.3 Students’ profile 6

1.3 Aims of the study 7

1.4 Limitations of the study 7

1.5 Significance of the study 8

1.6 Organization of the study 8

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The nature of speaking 10

2.2 Speaking problems 14

2.3 Prior research on the task-based approach 17

2.4 Rationale for task-based language teaching 21

2.5 Task-based approach 22

2.6 Definition of “task” 25

2.7 Task components to consider for implementing TBA successfully 28

2.8 A typology of language learning tasks 31

2.8.1 Listing 32

2.8.2 Ordering and sorting 33

2.8.3 Comparing 33

2.8.4 Problem solving 33

2.8.5 Sharing personal experiences 33

2.8.6 Creative tasks 33

2.9 Task-based approach and the teaching of speaking 34

2.10 A task-based framework for teaching speaking 35

2.11 Conceptual framework of the study 41

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions of the study 44

3.2 Research setting 44

3.3 Research design 45

3.4 Subjects 46

3.4.1 Student subjects 46

3.4.2 Teacher subjects 47

3.5 Instruments 47

3.5.1 Questionnaire for students 49

3.5.2 Questionnaire for teachers 50

3.5.3 Students’ journals 51

3.5.4 Class observations 52

3.5.5 Interviews 53

3.6 Data collection procedure 54

3.7 Data analysis 54

3.8 Assumptions 54

3.9 Summary of research instruments 55

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 4.1 Data analysis 56

4.2 Data on the teacher subjects 57

4.3 Student subjects 58

4.4 Results 58

4.4.1 Results from teachers’ questionnaire 58

4.4.1.1 Teachers’ perceptions on the theory of TBA 58

4.4.1.2 Teachers’ perceptions on the actual application of TBA 65

4.4.1.3 Teachers’ attitudes towards the application of TBA 68

4.4.2 Results from students’ questionnaire 72

4.4.3 Students’ journals 79

4.4.3.1 Students’ feedbacks on the application of TBA 79

4.4.3.2 The constraints of the application of TBA 81

4.4.4 Results from interviews 83

4.4.5 Classroom observations 90

4.4.5.1 Problems noticed and suggestions for teaching speaking 90

4.4.5.2 Strengths of teaching speaking using TBA 92

4.4.5.3 Results of class observations 93

4.5 Overall summary 94

4.6 Summary of the findings 94

4.7 Discussion of the findings 97

4.7.1 Teachers’ perceptions towards the theory of TBA 97

4.7.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards the application of TBA 97

4.7.3 Students’ attitudes towards the application of TBA 98

4.7.4 Intended outcomes of the teaching speaking using TBA 99

4.7.5 Unintended outcomes 99

4.8 Summary 100

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Answers to the research questions 101

5.2 An evaluation of the overall methodology 102

5.3 Recommendations 104

5.3.1 For teachers 104

5.3.2 For students 106

5.4 Suggestions for further research 106

5.5 Summary 107

REFERENCES 108

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers 118

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students (English version) 123

Appendix 3: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version) 127

Appendix 4: Classroom observation checklist 131

Appendix 5: Interview checklist 135

Appendix 6: Students’ journals 138

LIST OF TABLES

Pages

Table 2.1 Willis’s framework for task-based approach 36

Table 2.2 Ellis’s framework for designing task-based lessons 40

Table 2.3 Conceptual framework of the study 42

Table 4.1 Demographic characteristics of teacher respondents 57

Table 4.2 Demographic characteristics of student respondents 58

Table 4.3 Teachers perceptions on the definitions of TBA 59

Table 4.4 Teachers’ perceptions on the theory of TBA in terms of teacher roles and learner roles 60

Table 4.5 Teachers’ perceptions on the theory of TBA in terms of types of teaching and learning activities and materials 61

Table 4.6 Teachers’ perceptions on the theory of TBA in terms of error correction 62

Table 4.7 Teachers’ perceptions on the theory of TBA in terms of teaching-learning process 64

Table 4.8 Teachers’ perceptions on the actual application of TBA in the classrooms 66

Table 4.9 Teacher responses to the effects of TBA on creating motivation 69

Table 4.10 Teacher responses to the effects of TBA on facilitating the speaking learning process 70

Table 4.11 Teachers’ responses to the effect of TBA on promoting group-work competence 71

Table 4.12 Various strengths realized by the teachers 72

Table 4.13 How the students found the task-based approach 73

Table 4.14 Students’ responses to the effect of TBA on creating motivation 74

Table 4.15 Students’ responses to the effect of TBA on facilitating the speaking learning process 75

Table 4.16 Various strengths realized by the students 76

Table 4.17 Students’ responses to the effect of TBA on promoting group-work competence 77

Table 4.18 The students’ self-evaluation of their improvement 79

Table 4.19 Students’ feedbacks on the speaking lessons 80

Table 4.20 Schedule for the interviews 83

Table 4.21 Teachers’ willing to apply the task-based approach to teaching speaking 88

Table 4.22 Problems noticed and suggestions for improving speaking teaching and learning 92

LIST OF FIGURES

Pages

Figure 4.1 Students’ impression on the task-based approach 73

Figure 4.2 Students’ opinions for the frequency of using TBA 78

Figure 4.3 The learners’ self-evaluation of their improvement 79

Figure 4.4 Students’ feelings on the speaking classes with TBA 81

Figure 4.5 Students’ difficulties in learning speaking with the task-based approach 82 Figure 4.6 Communicative activities used 84

Figure 4.7 Types of materials employed 85

Figure 4.8 Areas of language usually taught with TBA 86

Figure 4.9 How the teachers found the task-based approach 87

Figure 4.10 Practical problems in the process of implementation of TBA 87

Figure 4.11 Reasons why teachers will decide to apply TBA in teaching speaking 89

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TBA Task-based Approach

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ESL English as a Second Language

PPP Presentation – Practice – Production

TBI Task-based Instructions

TBLT Task-based Language Teaching

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

The chapter begins with the rationale of the study, and then briefly states the general background, aims, limitations and significance of the study Last comes the organization of the thesis

1.1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays, with the impressive economic growth, Vietnam has been integrating with the region and the world exemplified by its recent accession to WTO, membership of the UN Security Council, and active participation in various major regional and international activities To sustain the growth and enhance its status in international area in the years to come, more than ever it needs a highly-skilled workforce that can help achieve its stated goals of modernization, industrialization and international integration One of the important skills needed is the mastery of foreign languages, especially English, as claimed by Vietnam’s Prime Minister (as cited in Tran, 2008, par 2) that from now on to 2020, it will be the nuclear point in the foreign language educational policy and in communication

With respect to foreign language teaching and learning, communication is the ultimate goal since the purpose of new language learning is to interact with other people in the target language In other words, for most language learners of English, mastering the art of speaking is of first and foremost significance in learning the language: “A large percentage of the world’s language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking.” (Richards, 2001) Therefore, the need to practice speaking effectively and then communicate directly in English had

increased more than ever, for most Vietnamese learners of English Moreover, this is

especially true for the college students who were most unlikely to have opportunities

to study English speaking skills during their previous schooling time before due to Vietnam’s educational system, but now they urgently need to communicate successfully in English

Therefore, recently, a shift towards more communicative and eclectic approaches of second language teaching in Vietnam has led to a change in instructional styles allotting more classroom time for students to actively communicate with one another This innovative method is known as Task-based approach (TBA) For this reason, many textbooks on teaching English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) have accommodated this approach to language instruction Based upon this method, teachers should adopt various roles (e.g facilitators, independent participants, need analysts, counselors, etc.) and use a wide selection of activities ranging from form-focused tasks to meaning-focused interactions whereby students are endowed with opportunities to interact purposefully and successfully with one another (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) In other words, learners must have the ability to use both forms and functions properly for establishing meaningful communication

Actually, research has shown that there are still drawbacks in the teaching method in Vietnamese context and EFL learners have not received many benefits yet Although TBA has been used for many years, teachers in Vietnam have not widely adopted it yet Rather, they still depend on traditional teaching methods in their classrooms Consequently, teachers stick to the textbooks, lecturing on the finer points of grammar for the purpose of clear communication, involving little communication amongst the students for developing communicative competence Many studies have suggested that teacher-dominated classes instead of learner-centered classes prevent students from practicing oral skills effectively (Edwards, 1987; Pace, 1992) and that the traditional grammar-translation method “failed to develop an adequate level of communicative competence (i.e the ability to use the target language for authentic communication)” (Hu, 2002: 93) In Vietnam’s educational system, although English is a compulsory subject in high schools and at universities, many high school pupils, after years of learning English, find themselves unable to communicate in a natural way or face up with communication breakdown in the target language even in simple situations; university or college students cannot read reference materials in English after graduation Those learners

obviously have fairly good knowledge of linguistic competence, but they find working with English a terribly demanding and challenging task

After several years teaching speaking to English majors at Binh Dinh college, the researcher of the study realizes that these students are very passive in the classroom activities involving interaction, although most of them already have a

sound knowledge of the language

Moreover, there is a fact that not all these students like studying speaking subject, especially speaking in front of people There may be many reasons for this reality First, most of the teachers at Binh Dinh college believe that students do not have enough language knowledge to express their ideas or opinions; therefore, teachers have been using a piece of specially written materials as a vehicle for the presentation of a new grammar or vocabulary item, which is then ‘practiced and learned by heart’ by the students Consequently, students do not have time to take part in communicative activities, to discuss in pairs or groups, thus failing to communicate in real life communication A typical lesson of teaching speaking starts with long grammar explanations, vocabulary presentations or language expressions and ends in exhausting discussions of the topics of speaking, which bore not only the students but also the teachers This teaching method is certainly not beneficial to the EFL learners since, just as indicated above, the grammar-translation method fails to develop learners’ communicative competence Indeed, Ellis (2003) stated that unless learners are given the opportunities to experience samples of meaning-focused language use, they may not succeed in developing the kind of the second language proficiency needed to communicate fluently and effectively, so they must be given chances to try out language for themselves and to make the best use of what they know in a variety of real-life situations Second, as to most of the students at Binh Dinh college, learning of speaking, for a long time, has been considered the most difficult thing to carry out Most of them are shy and inhibited when expressing them freely in front of class because of the fear of being corrected

in front of other students or wrong pronunciation What’s more, students admit that they lack of ideas and clear instructions from the teachers They don’t know how to

begin with the topics provided, so all of them agree that they need providing with something to talk about or the models for speaking

As learners expect to find learning speaking challenging and interesting, it requires teachers at Binh Dinh college to find out new effective ways of teaching

speaking skills However, according to Thornbury (1998), speaking is interactive

and requires the ability to co-operate in the management of speaking turns It also typically takes place in real time, with little time for detailed planning As a result,

in recent years language researchers have shifted their focus on seeking innovative teaching approaches to improve the teaching and learning speaking skills Although

at present, a lot of research, workshops and experiments about using the task-based approach to teach second and foreign language have been carried out, such as a set

of papers started off as one section of the proceedings of the 2006 Asian EFL

Journal Conference held in Pusan, Korea in March, which has rapidly developed

into a collection of full academic papers on Task-based Learning in Asian contexts, and the contributions of the teachers, curriculum developers and researchers’ insights based on extensive experience of task-based learning, few have exploited the task-based approach to ascertain its effects in teaching English speaking

Besides, although issues concerning the teachers’ and learners’ attitudes and perceptions towards TBA have received a great interest from educational researchers, to the best of the researcher’s limited knowledge, there are very few studies which have been devoted to explore this issue in the teaching and learning context of foreign language institutions in Binh Dinh province in general and at Binh Dinh college in particular The task-based approach, which is useful and enjoyable and can create a real purpose for language use and provide a natural context for language study, etc serves as a useful approach (Willis, 1996) Therefore, this study is hopefully to overcome more or less some problems above through the task-based approach which is one of the innovative ones that changes the way in teaching and learning speaking

To sum up, the question about the enhancement of the teaching and learning quality of speaking English at Binh Dinh college with respect to the effective

implementation of TBA in this institution, as a result, captured the researcher’s concerns and generated ideas from which this study came into being

1.2 General background to the study

In this section, the information related to the teaching of speaking skill at Binh Dinh college is presented to provide the background information essential for

an understanding of the issues and to make the problems mentioned in the previous section clear It consists of three parts The first introduces an overview of Binh college (i.e the physical setting, the teaching staff) The second part addresses the English speaking courses at the Department of English language of Binh Dinh college, and the third one gives some useful background of its English majored students at Binh Dinh college

1.2.1 An overview of Binh Dinh college

Binh Dinh college was founded in 1998 and its Department of English language was officially established then, which now has a good teaching staff In addition, all of the teachers in charge of speaking courses have at least five years of experience of teaching speaking Some of them have ever studied abroad to obtain M.A degrees What’s more, the Department often holds some workshops and conferences on ways of teaching English, especially the four skills for the teachers

as well as the students to study; therefore, the teachers have a lot of opportunities to explore, adjust and find out appropriate ways to teach their students In regard to the physical setting at Binh Dinh college, most of English classes have the total of 35-40 students; the others extend from 35 to 55 students All of them are well-equipped with a chalkboard, a cassette for listening, and a projector More importantly, two audio-visual laboratories are also well-equipped with a system of communication which consists of 45 cabins, an overhead projector, a television, cassette, and six computers They are very helpful and convenient for the teachers to carry out their teaching of English

1.2.2 Description of the speaking courses

The Bachelor or Art programme of the Binh Dinh Department of English language consists of 145 credits All subjects are divided into six semesters for three academic years in which speaking skills occupy 15 credits from the first to the fifth semester (three credits for each semester) The objectives of the speaking courses are to develop the students’ ability of oral communication in natural and confident ways, and to train the students to speak with general fluency, structural accuracy, and flexibility in a variety of situations In this thesis, the two speaking courses of the first-year English majors are focused During two semesters, the first-year English majors have to take 90 periods of spoken English in 30 weeks, which means

45 forty-minute periods in 15 weeks of each semester The main course book to teach English speaking for the first-year English-majored classes is The international Express by Liz Taylor, Oxford University Press, 2002 In fact, it is not the book for the real purpose of teaching speaking because it is an integrated book,

in which the four skills listening, speaking, reading, and writing are developed However, it is chosen for teaching speaking to the first-year English majors as the primary goal of the book is to teach communicative competence - the ability to communicate in English Also, many elements in the book (e.g grammar, functions, topics, pronunciation, vocabulary, etc.) provide support for oral communication The whole course book (elementary level) consists of 12 units; each presents one main topic and covers three parts: language focus, wordpower, and focus on communication By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to use knowledge they have learned to communicate and are required to take the midterm and final test to check their progress, basing on some main topics in the Department syllabus for teaching speaking

1.2.3 Students’ profile

All of the students at Binh Dinh college, both genders are Vietnamese, and their ages are from 18 to 25 They come from many parts of Binh Dinh province, and often those who are from rich regions are usually better at English than the students who come from the remote areas in Binh Dinh province Besides, most of

the students have learnt English for seven years at a basic level However, many of them seem to be the beginners of English in speaking and listening because they are only used to grammar structures in reading and writing which they mostly study in their high school and they find it extremely difficult to understand what they listen

to or express their thinking in English They can do written exercises on English grammar but they have difficulties getting themselves involved in maintaining talks

on an everyday communication They are afraid of speaking English and tend to use Vietnamese a lot when studying English

1.3 Aims of the study

Based on the real situation of teaching English speaking at Binh Dinh college

as well as the achievements of previous studies, the experiences of colleagues and the researcher herself in teaching English speaking skills to Vietnamese students of English at Binh Dinh college, this study is, therefore, conducted in an attempt to:

 Identify the teachers’ perceptions towards the theory of the task-based approach at Binh Dinh college;

 Investigate the advantages and disadvantages of the application of the based approach in teaching speaking skill at Binh Dinh college;

task- Explore the students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the use of the task-based approach in learning and teaching speaking to the first-year English majors at Binh Dinh college;

 Give recommendations on how to improve the task-based approach application in teaching speaking to first-year English majors at Binh Dinh college to lessen the difficulties and foster the students’ speaking skills

1.4 Limitations of the study

The thesis has investigated the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the task-based approach and the benefits of the task-based approach in teaching and learning speaking; however, it restricts only to speaking skills without deepening the integration of foreign language learners’ acquisition of at least the four basic language skills, i.e reading, writing, listening, and speaking In other words, due to the limit time, the study does not cover all four main skills of the target language, i.e reading, writing, listening, and speaking, but just focuses on the speaking skills,

through which, as the researcher believes, students can improve their communication ability in reality

1.5 Significance of the study

The teaching and learning of English speaking has been playing an important role in teaching English for a long time With the current development in Vietnam, the need of using English to communicate is very necessary Therefore, this study may be significant to teachers and students at Binh Dinh college as well as to those who would like to teach speaking communicatively and effectively In other words, the study pays its contributions to both theoretical and practical aspects

Practically, the study is hopefully to provide helpful knowledge about the task-based approach and recommend clear guidelines for teachers to use this method

to deal with the teaching of speaking skills to solve some common problems their students often encounter when learning speaking in particular and, thus, to facilitate their teaching of English in general For learners, this study hopefully provides useful instructions so that they can use the task-based approach as an effective self-learning tip in practicing English speaking in real communication to help improve their communicative competence

Theoretically, this study is intended to contribute a little to the growing demand of innovative approaches in teaching and learning speaking for English language learners by providing useful information about characteristics and benefits

of the task-based approach

The study, thus, does have some significance to multiple groups of language practitioners Its findings have implications for a variety of different areas in the field

1.6 Organization of the study

The thesis consists of five chapters Besides Chapter 1 – the introduction to the topic of the study which identifies problems giving rise to the thesis, and which provides the study’s aims as well as states its background, significance, and organization, other chapters are organized as follows

Chapter 2 reviews relevant literature of the task-based approach and teaching speaking which are organized along some main categories: the nature of speaking,

speaking problems, previous studies on the teaching of speaking skills using the task-based approach, an overview of the task-based approach, definitions of tasks, types of tasks, components of tasks, a task-based approach framework for teaching speaking, and a conceptual framework for the study

Chapter 3 justifies the methods and design of the study by including a list of research questions, a brief discussion of how to design this study, and a description

of the setting, the study’s subjects, instruments, procedures, and data analysis procedures

Chapter 4 presents the data analysis and interpretation for the four types of data: journals and questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and class observations

by analyzing the students’ responses to their survey questionnaire, and simultaneously discussing what have accumulated from class observations, students’ journals, and teachers’ interviews Finally provided in this chapter is the general discussion of the findings as an answer to the research questions and as a foundation for some recommendations in the next chapter

Chapter 5 draws conclusion by explicitly answering the research questions,

gives some recommendations for English language practitioners, and proposes topics for further research

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

As presented in the previous chapter, the teaching and learning of speaking have not been very effective in Vietnam due to the limited application of approaches Therefore, an exploration of one of them – the task-based approach – is necessary To know how to apply it into practice effectively to solve the problems of speaking teaching, a theory of this approach needs to be carefully worked out

Thus, this chapter shapes the conceptual framework to support the study with the following main areas centering around two concepts “speaking” and “the task-based approach” by firstly exploring the nature of speaking and their importance in learning English as a foreign language Secondly, it addresses the definitions of the task-based approach, then it classifies its types; however, as all of them will be employed to teach the selected lessons, they are theoretically examined in detail Thirdly, it reviews some empirical research in which the task-based approach is used Fourthly, it considers the roles this approach plays within English as a foreign language (EFL) settings

2.1 The nature of speaking

Speaking has always been a major focus of language teaching; however, both the nature of speaking skills as well as approaches to teaching them have undergone

a major shift in thinking in recent years Speaking in the early 70s usually meant 'repeating after the teacher, reciting a memorized dialogue, or responding to a mechanical drill' (Shrum and Glisan 2000: 26) However, Graham-Mar (2004) claimed that the importance of teaching speaking skills stems from the fact that human beings have been acquiring language through speaking and listening long before they began reading and writing Our brains are well programmed to learn language through sound and speech), reflecting the sentence-based view of proficiency prevailing in the methodologies of Audiolingualism and Situational Language Teaching Besides, the emergence of the constructs of communicative

competence and proficiency in the 1980s led to major shifts in conceptions of

syllabuses and methodology, the effects of which continue to be seen today

Consequently, Fluency became a goal for speaking courses and this could be developed through the use of information gap and other tasks that required learners

to attempt real communication despite limited proficiency in English

In addition, Brown and Yule (1983) believed that many language learners regard speaking skills as the criteria for knowing a language They defined fluency

as the ability to communicate with others much more than the ability to read, write,

or comprehend oral language They regarded speaking as the most important skill students acquire Students assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments in spoken communication

Much in the same way, Ur (2006) claimed that of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important People who know a language are referred to as 'speakers of that language,

as if speaking included all other types of skills, and many, if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns and Joyce, 1997) Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but they also understand when, why and in what ways to produce language (sociolinguistic competence) (Cunningham, 1999)

Moreover, Swain (1985), an important contributor of immersion-based evidence, was led to consider whether other factors beside input might affect language competence In particular she proposed the “comprehensible output hypothesis”, that is, to learn to speak we have actually to speak Swain argued that that one will need to speak makes one more likely to attend to syntax when one is listening Thus, Levelt (1989) identified three autonomous processing stages in speech production: (1) conceptualizing the message, (2) formulating the language representation, and (3) articulating the message Wilson (1997) also claimed that

children who can translate their thoughts and ideas into words are more likely to succeed in school He also pointed out that speaking skills do not need to be taught

as a separate subject These skills can easily be integrated into other subject matter This is because students learn talking, clarify thoughts by talking, comprehend better with discussion of reading, write better after talking during writing conferences, develop confidence by speaking in front of peers, and provide a window to their own thinking through their talk

Also regarding to the nature of speaking, Brown and Yule (1983) began their discussion on the spoken language by distinguishing spoken and written language They pointed out that for most of its history, language teaching has been concerned with the teaching of written language This language is characterized by well - formed sentences which are integrated into highly structured paragraphs Spoken language, on the other hand, consists of short, often fragmentary utterances, in a range of pronunciations There is often a great deal of repetition and overlap between one speaker and another, and speakers frequently use non-specific references Brown and Yule (1983) also pointed out that the loosely organized syntax, the use of non-specific words and phrases, and the use of fillers such as 'well' and 'ahuh' make spoken language feel less conceptually dense than other types

of language such as expository prose

In addition to the spoken language, Brown and Yule (1983) also drew a useful distinction between two basic language functions These are the transactional function, which is primarily concerned with the transfer of information, and the interactional function, in which the primarily purpose of speech is the maintenance

of social relationships

According to Bygate (1996), in particular, learners need to develop skills in the management of interaction as well as in the negotiation of meaning The management of the interaction involves such things as when and how to take the floor, when to introduce a topic or change the subject, how to invite someone else to speak, how to keep a conversation going and so on Negotiation of meaning refers to the skill of making sure the person you are speaking to has correctly understood you and that you have correctly understood them Nunan (1996) added that one can

apply the bottom-up/top-down distinction to speaking The bottom up approach to speaking suggests that speakers start with the smallest unit of language, i.e individual sounds, and move through mastery of words and sentences to discourse The top-down view, on the other hand, suggests that speakers start with the larger chunks of language, which are embedded in meaningful contexts, and use their knowledge of these contexts to comprehend and use correctly the smaller elements

of language

Furthermore, Nunan (1996) claimed that a successful oral communication should involve developing:

- The ability to articulate phonological features of the language comprehensibly;

- Mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns; an acceptable degree of fluency;

- Transactional and interpersonal skills;

- Skills in taking short and long speaking turns;

- Skills in the management of the interaction;

- Skills in negotiating meaning;

- Conversational listening skills (successful conversations require good listeners as well as good speakers);

- Skills in knowing about and negotiating purposes for conversations;

- Using appropriate conversational formulae and fillers

In a word, speaking is one of the major language skills which needs to be developed by non-native teachers of English and is often difficult to improve in EFL situations with limited access to other speakers of English In most of such contexts, either inside or outside the classroom, there are generally many more opportunities

to experience the written language than the oral language (Nunan, 2002) In cases where there is little chance for oral interaction outside the classroom, it is thus imperative to optimize the classroom time available and create opportunities for the development of learners’ speaking skills

The researcher proposed using a procedure based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in language teaching called Task-Based approach (TBA) to enhance the speaking ability of EFL learners TBA puts tasks at the center of the methodological focus It views the learning process as a set of

communicative tasks that are directly linked to the curricular goals they serve (Brown, 2001)

Besides, Richards and Rodgers (2001) emphasized that the role of tasks has received further support from some researchers in second language acquisition who are interested in developing pedagogical application of second language acquisition theory (e.g., Long and Crookes, 1991)

2.2 Speaking problems

The position of speaking in the hierarchy of language skills has evolved over the centuries Rather ignored in the Grammar-Translation Method, it became a primary skill in the Direct Method Audiolingualism brought even more focus on speaking Finally, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) added a more realistic dimension to teaching oral discourse by introducing numerous forms of interaction

to the classroom and practicing the language in natural or probable situations Although the contribution of CLT to developing forms of speaking practice in the language classroom can hardly be overestimated, there is a growing tendency among researchers and practitioners to criticize it for its insufficient recognition of the complexity of speaking and of placing a strong emphasis on information gap criterion as leading to artificial or impractical tasks (Bygate, 2002) Nowadays, in spite of the inevitable criticism of available methods, techniques or resources, speaking is generally perceived as the most fundamental skill to acquire Since the onset of the communicative era it has been treated as the ultimate goal of language training and its proper development has become the focus of attention of both teachers and learners However, it is also a commonly recognized fact that achieving proficiency in foreign language speaking in classroom conditions is not an easy task Even advanced learners often finish a language course with the conviction that they are not sufficiently prepared for speaking beyond the classroom This difficulty results basically from the learners and inadequate frequency of speaking opportunities in the classroom in comparison to the abundance of natural varieties and genres of oral communication In fact, selecting the most appropriate types of spoken discourse for classroom practice in a particular language course is a very hard decision which, unfortunately, hardly ever reflects the natural occurrence and

distribution of communicative situations Additionally, an advanced language course should create optimal conditions for developing learners’ sociocultural knowledge, that is “the culturally embedded rules of social behaviour” (Thornbury, 2007: 31) and their linguistic knowledge, which includes knowledge of the grammar, vocabulary and phonology of the target language These knowledge areas must then

be appropriately activated in order to be made available for use in regular speaking practice in the classroom and beyond Importantly, as far as the stages of mental processing involved in speaking are concerned, there is not much difference between native and target languages Both combine the processes of conceptualizing, formulating, articulating, self-monitoring and negotiating Yet, the skill of speaking is not automatically transferable from the speaker’s first language into the second (Thornbury, 2007) Even extensive knowledge of the target language’s grammar and vocabulary often presented by advanced students of foreign language departments does not guarantee success in oral communication when this knowledge is not properly integrated or accessed Other problems that are commonly observed in the language classroom are related to individual learners’ personalities and attitudes to the learning

Problems and challenges in teaching and learning speaking in particular can

be defined as follows (Ur 1995: 121):

• inhibition – fear of making mistakes, losing face, criticism; shyness;

• nothing to say – learners have problems with finding motives to speak, formulating opinions or relevant comments;

• low or uneven participation – often caused by the tendency of some learners to dominate in the group;

• mother-tongue use – particularly common in less disciplined or less motivated classes, learners find it easier or more natural to express themselves in their native language

As many teachers’ observations indicate, the above situations occur in language classrooms regardless of the level of proficiency or the number of students

in the group Moreover, every learner enters any learning and communicative environment with his or her entire personality additionally shaped by their prior learning and communicative experiences, both positive and negative

Similarly, according to Byrne (1991:75), the problems that face the language learners in production are:

Linguistic: It is sometimes argued that the students do not know enough of

the language to express themselves at ease Free expression therefore will be avoided if we continue to guide what they said All this is in a sense true, but largely irrelevant It has already pointed out that they must be given opportunities to try out language for themselves and to make the best use of what they know in a variety of situations It is an essential part of language learning in the classroom

Psychological: There are two main problems to know here In the first place,

although many students are happy to speak in chorus or under your guidance when doing some kind of drill, they are inhibited when they are asked to express themselves freely in the presence of the whole class This may be because they have never been encouraged sufficiently to have ‘a go’, without worrying about mistakes However, in part this may also be due to the fear of being corrected in front of the other students

Cognitive: here we must consider the question of providing the learners with

something to talk about: a topic, a theme, a problem of some kind The first thing to know is that the stimulus need not be verbal: a picture or a set of pictures may, for example, be far more effective in conveying ideas for the students to talk about Secondly, topics or themes chosen for this purpose should not call for specialized knowledge If information is needed to arouse talk, it can be provided through a text (heard or read) or through a pictorial aid In addition, mother-tongue use is also addressed as one of the problems that lazy, low-motivated learners find it hard to overcome in speaking classes This case is not rare in language classes in Vietnam

Ur (1996:121) assumes that in classes where all, or a number of, the learners share the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it: because it is easier, and it feels unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language Besides, they feel less

‘exposed’ if they are speaking in their mother tongue Additionally, such personality factors as self-esteem, anxiety, inhibition, attitude, motivation, age, gender, and social status are deemed to have an impact on EFL learners’ oral communication (Brown, 1994; Ellis, 1994) Last but not least, socio-cultural factors are also

addressed as essential to the amelioration of students’ speaking competence Consequently, Brown (1994) emphasizes that learners have to learn something of the culture of the speakers and of that language in order to successfully learn a language In other words, to speak a language, one must know not only its rules of usage as when, how, and what to say but also how the language is used in a social context

2.3 Prior research on the task-based approach

Teaching English as a foreign language using task-based learning has been proven effective by researchers at various levels of education Many research projects in the world in general and in Vietnam in particular over the past twenty years have investigated task-based learning A few important cases are described below

Firstly, Carless (2001) explored the implementation of task-based teaching in three primary classrooms in Hong Kong He reviewed six issues (teachers' understanding of tasks, their attitudes, and the classroom time available for task-based teaching, teacher preparation of resources, the influence of textbook and topics, and the language proficiency of students) which were found to impact on how teachers approached the implementation of the communicative tasks in their classroom The subjects of this case study were three female English teachers implementing task-based innovation over a seven month period in their own primary one or primary two classrooms with students aged six to seven The findings in terms of the six issues which emerged from the data indicated that there was a certain amount of interplay between different issues For example, the more positive the teacher attitude towards task-based teaching, the more likely he/she is to take time to prepare supplementary task-based materials or to create classroom time for carrying out activities

Besides, Lopez (2004) conducted an experiment based on task-based instructions instead of presentation-practice-production (PPP) approach for teaching English in two classes in a private school in the south of Brazil He found that students using task-based instructions (TBI) learned English more effectively because they were using the language to do things - to access information, to solve

problems, and to talk about personal experiences The students who were exposed to real language were able to deal with real-life situations when they encountered them outside the classroom He also concluded that teachers who come from a different background, as far as teaching approaches are concerned, should be trained before using TBA in the classroom

Much in the same way, Muller (2005) introduced task-based learning to a small class of weak students at a private English school in Japan, to give them more opportunities to speak The researcher adapted a vocabulary-focused lesson from the Presentation Practice Production (PPP)-based textbook that he was using He adopted Willis's (1996) task structure in his classes as follows: Performing a communicative task, planning a report of the performance, and reporting the task results to the class In order to incorporate tasks with a clear link to each unit of the textbook, Muller listed vocabulary from each textbook unit, assigned topics to the vocabulary lists, listed tasks following Willis's (1996) task-types and decided in which weeks each unit would be covered He concluded that although the task and the subsequent planning and report stages did not fulfill the criteria or features of task-based lessons found in literature, his approach did not show how TBL could be used as a starting point for use with low-level learners who may not be ready for the full version As these students progressed they would gradually be able to tackle tasks, planning, and reporting sessions that are less restricted and more demanding while working with the familiar task- plan- report framework

In addition to calling attention to the characteristics of task-based learning, numerous researchers compare it with other approaches to develop learners’ language competence Moreover, many studies have proved that task-based learning enhances the language proficiency of the learners

Indeed, Lochana and Deb's (2006) project in a school run by the Basaveshwara Education Society in India also revealed evidence in support of a task-based approach to language teaching and learning They developed an experiment in which non-task-based textbook activities were converted into task-based ones in order to test two hypotheses: (1) ' Task-based teaching enhances the language proficiency of the learners' and (2) 'Tasks encourage learners to participate

more in the learning processes' Their findings suggest that TBL is beneficial to learners not only in terms of proficiency enhancement but also in terms of motivation

Joen and Jung (2006) explored EFL teachers' perceptions of TBLT in Korean secondary school context The data for their study were collected through questionnaires from a total of 228 teachers at 38 middle and high schools in Korea The overall findings of their study revealed that despite a higher level of understanding of TBLT concepts, many Korean EFL teachers retain some fear of adopting TBLT as an instructional method because of perceived disciplinary problems related to classroom practice They also concluded that teachers had their own reasons to use or avoid implementing TBLT Based on the overall findings, they gave three important implications for teachers and teacher trainers: First, since teachers' views regarding instructional approach have a great impact on classroom practice, it is necessary for the teacher, as a practical controller and facilitator of learners' activities in the classroom, to have a positive attitude toward TBLT in order for it to be successfully implemented Second, given the research finding that teachers lack practical application knowledge of task-based methods or techniques, teachers should be given the opportunity to acquire knowledge about TBLT related

to planning, implementing, and assessing They suggested that teacher education programs, which aim at in-depth training about language teaching methodologies, should properly deal with both the strengths and weaknesses of TBLT as an instructional method ranging from basic principles to specific techniques Third, when taking into account that one of the major reasons teachers avoid implementing TBLT is deeply related to a lack of confidence, much consideration should be given

to overcoming potential obstacles that teachers may come across in a task-based classroom They also recommended that teachers consider alternative solutions for classroom management such as leveled tasks, peer assessment, and a variety of various task types including two-way information gap activities as well as one-way activities such as simple asking and answering

In addition, Aljarf (2007) investigated the effect of TBLT on 52 female EFL students at the college of language at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The students were in their third semester of college and were enrolled in a two-hour speaking course The students were taught using TBLT principles, instructions, and procedures and were pre and post-tested The results showed that the students could speak fluently using correct grammar and pronunciations, and could easily generate ideas The success of this improvement was due to efficient task-based instructions

Similarly, Birjandi and Ahangari (2008) examined the effects of task repetition and task type on fluency, accuracy, and complexity The researchers assigned 120 students to six groups The results and the analysis of variance indicated that task repetition and task type, as well as the interaction between these variables, resulted in significant differences in subjects’ oral discourse in terms of fluency, accuracy and complexity Reports of research findings suggested that these are likely to encourage teachers to feel comfortable applying TBL to their classrooms It also fulfills fundamental conditions for learning a second language, namely exposure, meaningful use, motivation, and language analyses, as pointed out

by Willis (Willis, 1996)

In her study, Nguyen, Phuong Y Nhi (2007) made an experimental teaching

of grammar with 92 learners at elementary level and a survey with 10 teachers She proved that communicative activities were used in her teaching institution but not so effectively as expected due to objective reasons, such as the grammar-only classes and the textbook In order to make the program more effective, this researcher gave some recommendations, for example, the integration of the grammar points with the four skills would make the grammar lessons become more interesting and easily understood Materials, which were related to students’ own lives, should keep them interested

In a study done by Tran, Thi Thanh Truc (2011) about designing communicative tasks to teach speaking skill for first year students, the findings reflected that although the teachers were fully aware that speaking skills should be taught communicatively based on target tasks, they still found it difficult in modifying, designing and using a speaking task in a communicative way There were some difficulties that teachers might face, for example, difficulties in designing

a good task which was in harmony with the course book content, lack of time to design communicative tasks and learners use of L1

It seems that all the above studies have shared some common points To some extent, they mainly focus upon documenting teachers’ perception and practical application of TBA The writers of these studies might have the same concerns with the author of the current study about how to effectively apply TBA to the actual teaching

Unfortunately, it seems that these studies excluded the investigation into teachers’ and learners’ attitudes towards TBA No attempt has been made either to create a framework to aid in reasonable understanding those attitudes, or to relate them to issues of implementation of TBA However, despite these shortcomings, theoretically, the findings from those studies give out some useful instructions and help to guide the researcher in exploring the application of TBA at Binh Dinh college

In summary, since TBA is central to the contents of the current study, it is necessary for the researcher of the study to clarify this concept before she can go further in her study This fact has generated the idea for the next section

2.4 Rationale for task-based language teaching

Ellis (2003) reports that task-based language teaching is a form of teaching that treats language primarily as a tool for communicating rather than as a subject for study or manipulation It is clear that if learners are to develop the competence they need in order to use a second language easily and effectively in the kinds of situations they meet outside the classroom, they need to experience how language is used as a tool for communication within it 'Task' serves as the most obvious means for organizing teaching along these lines

TBA proposes the use of tasks as a central component in language classroom because it provides better contexts for activating learner acquisition processes and promoting L2 learning (Shehadeh, 2005)

TBA is therefore based on a theory of language learning rather than a theory

of language structure Richards and Rodgers (2001: 228) suggest that because the reason for this is that "tasks are believed to foster processes of negotiation,

modification, rephrasing, and experimentation that are at the heart of second language learning"

Feez (1998: 17) summarizes the following basic assumptions of TBLT:

- The focus of instruction is on process rather than product

- Basic elements are purposeful activities and tasks that emphasize communication and meaning

- Learners learn language by interacting communicatively and purposefully while engaged in meaningful activities and tasks

- Activities and tasks can be either those that learners might need to achieve in real life, or those that have a pedagogical purpose specific to the classroom

- Activities and tasks of a task-based syllabus can be sequenced according to difficulty

- The difficulty of a task depends on a range of factors including the previous experience of the learner, the complexity of the tasks, and the degree of support available (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 224)

These principles do help to provide a deeper understanding of TBA, and will

be discussed in details in the next section More specifically, the following section is set up with the aim of synthesizing the ideas of TBA

2.5 Task-based approach

Task-based approach is a foreign language teaching method which has been used since 1980s It is appropriated and accepted by application linguists and foreign language teachers or it has interested some researchers and curriculum developers in second/foreign language teaching for last three decades (Long 1985; Breen 1987; Prabhu 1987; Nunan 1989), as a result of widespread interest in the functional views

of language and communicative language teaching Since mid-1980s, there has

been a tremendous growth in task-based language learning and teaching (Skehan, 1998a; Willis, 1996; and Bygate, Skehan and Swain, 2000a)

As Willis (2004) points out, a number of crucial research findings changed the course of EFL language teaching pedagogy in the 20th century These can be summarized as follows:

1 language learning, even in a classroom setting, seems to develop independently

of instruction;

2 learners acquire language according to their own inbuilt internal syllabus, regardless of the order in which they are exposed to particular structures and regardless of mother tongue influences;

3 teaching does not and cannot determine the way that the learner’s language will develop (citing Skehan, 1996);

4 learners do not necessarily learn what teachers teach;

5 learners do not first acquire language as a structural system and then learn how to use this system in communication

6 motivation is one of the key issues in language learning and that skills to motivate learners are crucial for language teachers (Dörnyei, 2001: 1);

7 collaboration is more effective than competition as a means of promoting effective learning; and

8 learners learn more in groups than individually, since cooperative social interaction produces new, elaborate, advanced psychological processes that are unavailable to the organism working in isolation (Vygotsky, 1978: 61)

Moreover, the most effective way to teach a language is by engaging learners

in real language use in the classroom This is done by designing tasks – discussions, problems, games, and so on – which require learners to use the language for themselves (Willis & Willis, 2007: 1)

In other words, the task-based approach stems from the general idea that “a

language is best learned through using it, rather than learned and then used” (Thornbury 2007: 119) Consequently, it is believed that accuracy results from fluency, in other words the need to communicate effectively leads to the refinement

of learning and language A task-based syllabus, then, takes the form of a sequence

of integrated tasks which involve speaking and which reflect the situations that learners are likely to meet in real circumstances

However, tasks form the focus of TBA In a task-based course then, the emphasis is on meaningful, holistic language practice, in which learners need to listen, read, speak, or write in order to complete a challenge The rationale for TBLT

as a teaching approach is found in theories of language acquisition that emphasize the central role in language learning of meaningful language use allied with

opportunities to notice ways meanings are created through the target language (e.g., Long, 1996; Skehan, 1998) According to such theories, opportunities for communication and noticing form/meaning/function relationships provide the conditions under which communicative competence in a second language can most effectively be developed (Willis & Willis, 2007)

In a word, task-based language teaching has a number of purposes Willis (1996: 35–6) identifies eight purposes:

1 to give learners confidence in trying out whatever language they know;

2 to give learners experience of spontaneous interaction;

3 to give learners the chance to benefit from noticing how others express similar meanings;

4 to give learners chances for negotiating turns to speak;

5 to engage learners in using language purposefully and cooperatively;

6 to make learners participate in a complete interaction, not just one-off sentences;

7 to give learners chances to try out communication strategies; and

8 to develop learners’ confidence that they can achieve communicative goals Interestingly, seven of Willis’s purposes relate primarily to communicative effectiveness This reflects, perhaps, the general perception among language teachers and educators that task-based teaching is mainly directed at improving

students’ abilities to use the target language (Samuda, 2000)

In other words, TBA is an adaptable approach to language teaching As Ellis notes, ‘there is no single way of doing TBLT’ (2009: 224) A useful definition of TBLT and the one that will be used in this study is provided by Samuda & Bygate, who writes that task-based language teaching refers to ‘contexts where tasks are the central unit of instruction: they “drive” classroom activity, they define curriculum and syllabuses and they determine modes of assessment’ (2008: 58) Some more well-known examples of this conceptualisation of TBLT include Long and Crookes (1992), Skehan (1998) and Willis (1996)

These and other related findings gave rise, in the later half of the 20th century, to Task-Based Language Teaching (TBA), a learner-centered approach, in which (in its strong form) students discover the target language through self-directed, task-based group investigations According to this perspective, language

learning is “a process that requires opportunities for learners to participate in communication, where making meaning is primary.”

2.6 Definition of “Task”

Task-based learning has gone through numerous modifications in recent years and has been recommended as a way forward in communicative language teaching Before assessing the benefits of adopting a task-based approach, it is first necessary to know what a ‘task’ is exactly In other words, in order to construct useful tasks for communicative classrooms, it is first of all necessary to draw a proper definition of ‘task’ with reference to capturing its major features and elements Central to the notion of a communicative task is the exchange of meanings Willis (1996) defined task as an activity where the target language is used

by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an outcome Here the notion of meaning is subsumed in ‘outcome’ Likewise, for Nunan (2006), tasks have a non-linguistic outcome He defines task as a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right with

a beginning, middle and an end

TBA is also discussed from a psycholinguistic perspective From this perspective, “a task is a device that guides learners to engage in certain types of information-processing that are believed to be important for effective language use and/or for language acquisition from some theoretical standpoint” (Ellis, 2000: 197)

It assumes that while performing the tasks, learners engage in certain types of language use and mental processing that are useful for acquisition Ellis (2006: 23) asserts that “tasks reduce the cognitive or linguistic demands placed on the learner”

However, as Samuda & Bygate (2008: 62) point out, while a widely agreed definition of the term is both desirable and necessary arriving at such a definition is not straightforward – a considerable part of the second language task literature has

been concerned with the search for a precise, yet comprehensive definition of a

“task”

One of the most widely quoted definitions for task is offered by Long (1985: 89) He refers to a task as a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely

or for some reward Thus examples of tasks include filling out a form, buying a pair

of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book, taking a driving test, typing a letter, making a hotel reservation, writing a check, finding a street destination and helping someone across the 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

In addition, Prabhu (1987) defines a “task” as an activity that requires learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought and which allows teachers to control and regulate that process Similarly, Lee (2000) defines a task as a classroom activity or exercise that has an objective obtainable only by interaction among participants, a mechanism for structuring and sequencing interaction and a focus on meaning exchange Moreover, a task refers to

a language learning endeavor that requires learners to comprehend, manipulate and produce target language as they perform the set task, involving real-world language (Richards, 1986) Breen (1987) contributes to the definition of tasks in language classrooms, pointing out that a task is a structured plan to provide opportunities for the refinement of knowledge and capabilities entailed in a new language, which are subsequently used during communication

More recently, Skehan (1998, 147) summarizes the parameters for a task activity in the following way:

“(a) meaning is primary, (b) learners are not given other people’s meanings to regurgitate, (c) there is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities, (d) task completion has a priority, and (e), the assessment of tasks are done in terms

of outcome”

Moreover, Ellis (2003: 9-10) attempted to synthesize many of the definitions resulting from this search He gathered together their various strands and rather than

providing another definition, created the following set of essential criteria for language learning tasks:

1 A task is a work plan

2 A task involves a primary focus on meaning

3 A task involves real-world processes of language use

4 A task can involve any of the four language skills

5 A task engages cognitive processes

6 A task has a clearly defined communicative outcome

According to Bygate, Skehan and Swain (2001), a “task” is an activity that requires learners to use language, with emphasis on meaning, to attain an objective While these definitions may vary, they all emphasize the fact that a task is an activity that requires language learners to use language through a communicative purpose to achieve an outcome where meaning is the major focus rather than form

The following provides teachers with a more precise definition of a language learning task Samuda & Bygate (2008: 69) carefully consider the task definition literature before defining a second language pedagogic task as a holistic activity which engages language use in order to achieve some nonlinguistic outcome while meeting a linguistic challenge, with the overall aim of promoting language learning, through process or product or both

By being neither too restrictive nor too broad in terms of its processes and overall aim this definition provides the solid foundation needed to begin developing

an understanding of task-based teaching

Skehan (1998a: 268), reflecting a broad consensus among researchers and educators, suggests four defining criteria:

1 meaning is primary;

2 there is a goal which needs to be worked towards;

3 the activity is outcome-evaluated;

4 there is a real-world relationship

Widdowson (1998a: 328) is critical of such a definition of ‘task’, arguing that the ‘criteria do not in themselves distinguish the linguistic exercise and the communicative task’ Widdowson argues that ‘exercise’ and ‘task’ differ with

regard to the kind of meaning, goal, and outcome they are directed towards An

exercise is premised on the need to develop linguistic skills as a prerequisite for the learning of communicative abilities, while a task is based on the assumption that linguistic abilities are developed through communicative activity Widdowson suggests that what constitutes the primary focus of attention, the goal, the way in which the outcome is evaluated and the relationship to the real-world are all interpreted differently in accordance with this basic difference in orientation

In the introduction part of Cutting Edge Upper-Intermediate (Cunningham &

Moor, 1999), a task is defined as ‘an extended oral activity, in which the primary goal is to achieve a particular outcome or product’, thus limiting the range and variety of task-based activities and hinting that task-based activities are just oral This view is thought to be a result of specific purposes of the book

In the definitions mentioned earlier in this chapter, a task is taken as an activity that is comprised of mainly speaking or communication Yet, the definition

of the term by Willis (1998) shows that it can well be defined without referring to oral applications She simply puts it as “a goal-oriented activity with a clear purpose”

In summary, numerous competing definitions of tasks exist Many of these definitions focus on different aspects of what constitutes a task From these definitions, despite the various interpretations, several common design features can

be identified These features include definitions emphasize the importance of focus

on meaning, and other factors such as goals, activity types, settings, etc These criteria support the notion that conveying an intended meaning is the essence of language use Long (1985) and Skehan’s (1998) definitions emphasize the use of real-world tasks or activities that are comparable to authentic task behavior Performing real-world tasks also necessitates the use of real language to communicate in the real world Thus, in the next section, it is suggested that the

central components of task-based framework include goals, input data, classroom

settings, activity types, and assessment

2.7 Task components to consider for implementing TBA successfully

Goals serve as a guideline in the overall process of task performance and

provide a point of contact between the task and the broader curriculum (Nunan,