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Six types of task for TBL

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This is the second in a series of four articles which will

explore how to integrate a task-based approach into a
typical textbook to maximise learning opportunities for
your learners and to save teacher preparation time.

Criteria for identifying tasks for TBL (/think/articles/criteria-

identifying-tasks-tbl)
Six types of task for TBL (/think/articles/six-types-task-tbl)
From priming tasks and target tasks to language focus and
grammar (/think/articles/priming-tasks-target-tasks-
language-focus-grammar)
Making time for tasks and still covering the syllabus (/think
/articles/making-time-tasks-still-covering-syllabus)

In this article we look at different types of task, and see which kinds
are most often used in textbooks. I also suggest ways of adjusting
them so that they stimulate more opportunities for meaning-focused

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interaction, and encourage learners to give longer responses.

Finally I show how a graded set of tasks can be developed on a
theme.

Identifying task-like activities

In my first article Criteria for identifying tasks for TBL (/think
/articles/criteria-identifying-tasks-tbl), we looked at six
questions that gave us criteria to help us identify tasks and
upgrade' potential task-like activities into tasks. So now we can
identify activities in a textbook unit that could become tasks and
form the basis of a task cycle with;

Pre-task activities,
Task - Planning - Report cycle,
Post-task activities as illustrated in the activity Planning a class
night out (/try/activities/task-based-speaking).

However, tasks tend to come in various disguises. Some textbooks

contain quite a few task-like activities, but very few use the word
task to describe them. They often come under section headings
like: Speak out! Listening challenge; Think then compare ideas;
Reach a decision; With a partner In groups Its your turn
Questions and answers... Discuss ... Tell your partner Writing
Reading or even under Grammar or Vocabulary

For example, in Total English, a text-book for beginners, the activity:

Who is your favourite 20th Century icon? Tell your partner about
the person. comes at the end of a Grammar section on was / were
which follows a reading activity.

There are several ways to turn this into a more rewarding task as
illustrated in Criteria for identifying tasks for TBL (/think/articles
/criteria-identifying-tasks-tbl) and you can also build up a
graded set of tasks around this theme - as illustrated below.

Three types of task

Activities like the following generally have the potential to become
effective tasks:

Listing and/or brainstorming

You can list people, places, things, actions, reasons, everyday
problems, things to do in various circumstances etc.

Examples:

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(1) In pairs, agree on a list of four or five people who were famous
in the 20th century and give at least one reason for including
each person; Can you remember your partners busiest day?
(2) On your own, make a list of all the things he/she did. Then
check with your partner. Were there any things you forgot?

Ordering and sorting

This can be sequencing, ranking, or classifying.

Examples:

(3) In pairs, look at your list of famous people. Which people are
most likely to remain popular and become 20th century icons?
Rank them from most popular to least popular, and be prepared
to justify your order to another pair.
(4) Look at the four pictures. They are mixed up. Work in pairs. Put
the four pictures in a sequence so that they tell a story. Prepare to
tell your story to another pair.

Matching
You can match captions / texts / recorded extracts to pictures;
short notes or headlines to longer texts, e.g. news items.

Examples:

(5) Read the texts each is about a famous person but the person
is not named - and look at the photos. Match each text to a photo.
Then talk to your partner, and say how you were able to match
them. Prepare to tell the class how you did it.
(6) Read the four headlines A to D. Match two pieces of
information (given in 1-8 below) to each headline. Explain to your
partner how you did this. What clues did you find? Did you both
use the same clues?

Do you have any tasks like these in your textbooks? Sometimes

textbooks use Listing, Ordering and Matching activities at the
beginnings of units, to introduce or revise useful words and phrases
to prepare for the main topics. The outcomes are usually clear (e.g.
a completed list, a set of matched information). But although they
give valuable exposure to relevant topic-based language in the form
of reading texts or recordings, they rarely stimulate much learner
interaction as they stand.

Stimulating more interaction

All the examples I have given above are based on activities from real

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text books, but in each case I have added a further step or two to
stimulate additional meaning-focused language use.

In 1 and 3 learners are asked to give reasons for or justify their

decision
In 2, 5 and 6 they do the tasks individually then explain to their
partner how they did them
In 3, 4 and 5 they are asked to prepare to explain how they did
the task or tell their story to another pair or to the whole class.

Three more type tasks

Comparing: finding similarities and differences

Comparison tasks can be based on two quite similar texts or
pictures (a classic example is Spot the Differences) or places or
events etc that learners have experience of. Learners can also
compare their own work with that of another learner or another pair
or group.

Examples:

Compare your list of possible 20th century icons with your

partners list. Did you have any people in common? Tell each
other why you chose them. How many reasons did you both think
of? Finally, combine your two lists, but keep it to five people.
Tell your picture story to another pair and listen to theirs.
Compare stories make a list of the main similarities and
differences.

You will by now have noticed that many of these tasks carry on the
same themes as in previous tasks. It is possible to build up a set of
tasks on the same theme, each one arising out of the previous one.
This is an excellent way to build learners confidence once they
are familiar with the basic vocabulary for the topic, they can then do
a range of activities recycling the topic language and using it for
different purposes in a set of tasks.

Problem-solving
Text-books often contain activities based on common problems
pollution, relationships, noisy neighbours and so on. But sometimes
problem-solving tasks are over too quickly learners agree on the
first solution that comes to mind, using minimal language, e.g. Noisy
neighbours? OK so call police. The instructions for the town
centre traffic problem in the example below incorporate six or
seven ways of generating richer interaction. Which of these ways

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might you use with your classes?

Example:

Think of a town centre where there is too much traffic. In twos,

think of three alternative solutions to this problem. List the
advantages and disadvantages of each alternative. Then decide
which alternative would be the cheapest one, the most innovative
one, the most environmentally friendly one. Report your decisions
to another pair / group / the class, and discuss with them which
solution would be the best one to put forward to the local
government.

More complex tasks like comparing and problem solving sometimes

involve processes found in simpler tasks, like listing see previous
examples. The task above problem-solving - involves listing and
quite a lot of comparing and evaluating.

Sharing personal experiences and story telling

Activities where learners are asked to recount their personal
experiences and tell stories are valuable because they give learners
a chance to speak for longer and in a more sustained way. And it is
something we often do in real-life. However, as we saw from the
Grandparents activity in Criteria for identifying tasks for TBL
(/think/articles/criteria-identifying-tasks-tbl), the instructions
for activities where learners are encouraged to relate things from
their personal lives are often rather vague and open-ended. In order
to encourage richer interaction, we usually need to add a clear goal,
make instructions more precise, and give clear completion points.
See Criteria for identifying tasks for TBL (/think/articles/criteria-
identifying-tasks-tbl) which gives several ways to adjust activities
like these.

Summary
So far we have identified and commented on six types of task that
sometimes appear in textbooks or that can be adapted from task-
like activities. We have seen that a set of tasks can be built up
around one topic. We have looked at ways of stimulating richer
learner interaction and giving more opportunities for genuine
meaning-focused language use and maximising learner responses.

Other activities like quizzes, questionnaires and projects can also

generate rich interaction if set up in such a way as to maximise
learner participation. Tasks can also be based on reading and
listening texts. For three examples of task-based lessons such as

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these you can download see http://www.willis-elt.co.uk

/taskbased.html (http://www.willis-elt.co.uk/taskbased.html)

In my next article, I will show how we can exploit text-book material

to help structure a task sequence, incorporating Pre-task activities,
a task-cycle, leading on to language focus and form focused work.

References
The tasks in this article are based on activities from:

Face2face Pre-intermediate by Chris Redstone & Gillie

Cunningham (Cambridge University Press 2005)
Total English Starter by Jonathan Bygrave (Pearson Longman
2007)

Further Reading
For more on task types, see Chapters 4 and 5 of Doing Task-based
Teaching Dave Willis & Jane Willis (Oxford University Press 2006)

Written by Jane Willis (/users/jane-willis), Consultant, Writer, UK

Next article > From priming tasks and target tasks to language focus
and grammar (/think/articles/priming-tasks-target-tasks-
language-focus-grammar)

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