Module Introduction

In this first week, we will read several articles that provide a nice overview of task-based language teaching. As such, this first week will serve as the theoretical foundation for the course. After reading the articles, you will take a short 10 item quiz to assess your knowledge of task-based language teaching. You will then have a chance to reflect on general activities and more specific task-based activities for the language classroom.

Module Tasks

1. Read A Task-based approach by Richard Frost (~5 minutes)

2. Read Criteria for identifying tasks for TBL by Jane Willis (~6 minutes)

3. Read Six types of tasks for TBL by Jane Willis (~5 minutes)

4. Read the Wikipedia entry for Task-based language learning (~10 minutes)

5. (Optional) Read Tinkering with tasks knows no bounds: ESL Teachers’ Adaptations of Task-Based Language-Teaching

by John L. Plews and Kangxian Zhao (59 pages)

6. Take the Week 1.2 Quiz - Task-Basked Language Teaching

7. Post in the Week 1.3 Discussion - Language Dependency

8. Post in the Week 1.4 Discussion - My Task-Based Activities

Module objectives

Learn about the task-based approach
Identify the six stages of the task-based approach
Identify the six questions (criteria) that can be used to evaluate whether or not an activity is a task
Discuss real-word activities
Discuss task-based activities