ALR B3 | Task-based Language Teaching

Question 1

In 1979, the Regional Institute of English in Bangalore, India, under the guidance of N.S. Prabhu, embarked on a five-year project that was to achieve legendary status in the _____ of English language teaching.

Answer 1

history

Question 2

Referred to ever since as ‘_____’, the aim was to teach English to a small number of classes in local primary and secondary schools
using a syllabus that was based – not on a list of ____, as was customary in India at the time – but on a series of _____, where _____ are defined by Willis (1996) as ‘activities where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an
outcome’.

Answer 2

the Bangalore Project, grammatical patterns, tasks, tasks

Question 3

Dissatisfied with the prevailing ‘_____’ methodology, but sceptical about replacing a syllabus of grammar items with a syllabus of functions or notions (as some proponents of
Communicative Language Teaching were advocating – see chapter 15), Prabhu opted instead for a _____ approach, and for ‘the creation of _____ in which learners engage in an effort to cope with
communication’ (1987).

Answer 3

structural-oral-situational, task-based, conditions

Question 4

In this sense, he was following the lead of advocates of a ‘_____’ form of CLT, such as Dick Allwright (1979) who insisted: ‘If the “_____’s” management activities are directed exclusively at involving the learners in solving communication problems in the target language, then language learning will take care of itself’.

Answer 4

strong, language teacher

Question 5

In other words, you learn to _____ simply by _____. And tasks – doing things that
involve real language use – provide the ideal _____ and _____ for communicating.

Answer 5

communicate, communicating, context, motivation

Question 6

Prabhu, like many after him, rejected the view that a _____, whether of grammar items or of functions, and the PPP
methodology associated with it, are the optimal route to _____.

Answer 6

preselected syllabus, proficiency

Question 7

Although supported by a long tradition in progressive education of ‘_____’, initially TBLT lacked a sound empirical basis.

Answer 7

learning by doing

Question 8

Certainly, research into SLA was starting to cast doubt on the _____ of
teaching according to a syllabus of ‘_____’ (i.e. grammatical structures).

Answer 8

wisdom, forms

Question 9

The learner’s ‘_____’ syllabus seemed to be immune to this kind of
_____.

Answer 9

inbuilt, manipulation

Question 10

Moreover, research into the interactions between learners
when performing tasks, including the way that they negotiate and repair _____, suggested that these interactions might be a fertile site for _____.

Answer 10

communication breakdowns, acquisition

Question 11

On the other hand, evidence from other ‘_____’ learning contexts, such as ______ (see chapter 1), indicated that an exclusive focus on communication – without some explicit attention to the
formal features of the language (called ‘_____’) – might result in ‘_____’, i.e. the temporary or permanent ______ of the language system.

Answer 11

deep-end, immersion, focus on form, arrested development, stabilization

Question 12

Accordingly, the Bangalore model of TBLT – which discouraged ‘any
_____ to language itself’ (Prabhu 1987) – was reconfigured by scholars such as Mike Long so as to include a focus on form.

Answer 12

sustained attention

Question 13

But it is a focus on form ‘which is by definition _____, i.e. _____ to the learner’s current stage of development’ (Long 2015). In other words, ‘_____ lead, the _____ follows’.

Answer 13

reactive, responsive, students, teacher

Question 14

Much ink has been shed as to what constitutes a task, but there is general agreement that a task should be directed at achieving some outcome, where
language is the _____ but not the _____. Filling in the _____ in a gap-fill
exercise is not a task.

Answer 14

means, end, verbs

Question 15

Finding the differences in two pictures, by
exchanging _____ with your partner, is.

Answer 15

spoken descriptions

Question 16

As is the collaborative planning and taking of a class photo. Tasks can involve any one of the four skills, _____ or in _____.

Answer 16

together, isolation

Question 17

They are more often done _____, but they can be done _____, and in class or on line.

Answer 17

collaboratively, individually

Question 18

The selection and sequencing of tasks is more problematic, since it is not always clear in what ways one task is more difficult than another, or in what
way tasks may build on one another to form a _____.

Answer 18

coherent learning sequence

Question 19

A series of _____ – or one continuous _____, such as the design and
maintenance of a class website – offer possible ways of structuring a
course.

Answer 19

projects, project

Question 20

Attempts to sequence tasks according to the _____ that they are likely to require have been dismissed as task-supported learning,
and not the real thing.

Answer 20

grammatical forms

Question 21

Jane Willis (1996) reverses this sequence, so that viewing the _____ of the task occurs after learners have attempted it themselves (and reported on the outcomes).

Answer 21

skilled performance

Question 22

At some _____ stage, attention might be devoted to how the task performance could be improved, including an explicit focus on form.

Answer 22

post-task

Question 23

While the (somewhat delayed) evaluation of the Bangalore project was itself inconclusive, there is probably no method that has been more
persuasively championed than TBLT: it comes supported by an evergrowing research base into SLA, especially the school of SLA that subscribes to a _____ view of learning, i.e. one that construes the learner
as a ‘_____’.

Answer 23

cognitive, limited capacity information processor

Question 24

Performing tasks, and getting _____ on them, would seem to optimize this kind of processing.

Answer 24

feedback

Question 25

Laboratory-type studies of specific features of the method, such as different ways of focusing on form, have been encouraging. Evidence that _____ – such as PPP – work any better is scarce.

Answer 25

alternative models of instruction

Question 26

Why isn’t TBLT more widely applied, then? One reason might be the syllabusing issue, mentioned above. There is also the plausible concern that, without a language syllabus, learners will simply recycle their existing (_____) competences.

Answer 26

limited

Question 27

More acute still is the uncertainty, on the part of many teachers and their supervisors, as to how to deal with the
_____ of task outcomes.

Answer 27

unpredictability

Question 28

Not to mention the actual management
challenges of setting up, _____ and providing feedback on pair and group work.

Answer 28

monitoring

Question 29

Where TBLT seems to work best is when experienced teachers
are working with smallish groups of learners, e.g. _____, whose
practical language needs can be accurately predicted, such that the
_____ can be designed to address them.

Answer 29

immigrants, programme

Question 30

The idea that the ‘students lead [and] the teacher follows’ is a powerful one
– implying a fundamental redistribution of _____ in the curriculum.

Answer 30

power

Question 31

Taken to an extreme, it suggests the adoption of what is called a ‘_____’, that is, a syllabus that is in a constant state of _____, as
learners’ needs emerge, their interests fluctuate and their capacities evolve.

Answer 31

process syllabus, negotiation

Question 32

In this sense, ‘tasks are not isolated events but parts of a process whose goals are determined by the interaction between learners and their _____ and _____’ (Legutke & Thomas 1991).

Answer 32

expressed interests, needs

Question 33

Recent developments in some mainstream education systems, e.g. Finland, where
school subjects are no longer taught as _____, but are merged into the collaborative implementation of long-term projects
involving a whole constellation of tasks, might seem to offer a way forward.

Answer 33

independent disciplines