# data[].attributes.body
http://www.lenguasvivas.org/campus/files/0_48/teachinggrammarincontext.pdf

# data[].attributes.headline
How To Plan A Task Based Grammar Lesson6 Easy Steps

# data[].attributes.subject
How To Plan A Task Based Grammar Lesson6 Easy Steps

# data[].attributes.body
http://busyteacher.org/20395-task-based-grammar-lesson-6-simple-steps.html

# data[].attributes.body
http://busyteacher.org/uploads/posts/2014-08/1408805800_task-based-lesson.jpg

# data[].attributes.body
http://willis-elt.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/EmpireStateBuildingfinal.pdf

# data[].attributes.body
http://willis-elt.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/1StrictParents.pdf

# data[].attributes.headline
Teaching Grammar within a Task-based Approach: A Broader View of Grammar and Learning Processess

# data[].attributes.subject
Teaching Grammar within a Task-based Approach: A Broader View of Grammar and Learning Processess

# data[].attributes.body
https://youtu.be/eDpZTlltH3s

# data[].attributes.headline
Prof. Ellis on task-based pedagogy: the what, why and how

# data[].attributes.subject
Prof. Ellis on task-based pedagogy: the what, why and how

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdRibzXW2TI

# data[].attributes.headline
Teaching Speaking with Task-Based Learning

# data[].attributes.subject
Teaching Speaking with Task-Based Learning

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QirhNeIwQ0w&t=308s

# data[].attributes.headline
Rod Ellis: Moving task-based language teaching forward 

# data[].attributes.subject
Rod Ellis: Moving task-based language teaching forward 

# data[].attributes.body
Ellis, Nunan, and Bailey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euv1a7mePB0

# data[].attributes.headline
Workplace Writing: A Handbook for CommonWorkplace Genres and Professional Writing

# data[].attributes.subject
Workplace Writing: A Handbook for CommonWorkplace Genres and Professional Writing

# data[].attributes.body
http://newprairiepress.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=ebooks

# data[].attributes.body
https://youtu.be/Euv1a7mePB0

# data[].attributes.headline
Task-Based Language Learning: Old Approach, New Style. A New Lesson to Learn

# data[].attributes.subject
Task-Based Language Learning: Old Approach, New Style. A New Lesson to Learn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Task-Based Language Learning: Old Approach, New Style. A New Lesson to Learn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Students are autonomous and teachers monitor and facilitate learning or language acquisition. Learners are given clear guidelines and make decisions on roles and how to present the final result. After the task completion, language should be analyzed. This analysis is done by using examples from the tasks performed.

# data[].attributes.headline
Doing task-based teaching by Dave Willis « IH Journal

# data[].attributes.subject
Doing task-based teaching by Dave Willis « IH Journal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Doing task-based teaching
By Dave Willis
1 Introduction
Ideas change and develop. When Jane wrote A Framework for Task-based Learning (J. Willis 1996), the rationale was set out in an earlier paper, Willis and Willis (1987). Both the paper and the book were the products of research, classroom experience and contact with colleagues, notably N.S Prabhu whose work (Prabhu 1987) has inspired so many of us. Between 1996 and 2006 we had thought a lot more about the role of language study in TBL (see D. Willis 2003) and about what TBL has to offer in classrooms in different parts of the world (see Edwards and Willis 2005). Jane's 1996 book was built around the basic task à planning à report cycle (see below, section 4), but we felt that we needed to elaborate this. Many lessons or units are built on a series of tasks which lead on from one to the other, so we began to talk about the notion of a task sequence. Most of all we wanted teachers to be able to apply TBL in their own classroom. This is why our latest book, published by OUP in 2007 is called Doing Task-based Teaching, and it was this consideration which dictated the contents and layout of the book.
2 Teachers' questions and ideas
We kept getting questions from teachers which obliged us to be clear about our approach. What exactly is a task? Can you use TBL with beginners? What about the grammar? How can I use tasks with my textbook? These are just four of the frequently asked questions about TBL which we have been getting at conferences and talks and via email. Engaging with these questions helps us to understand what is happening in classrooms, how teachers are engaging with TBL and what difficulties they perceive. It is also very important to recognise that there are a lot of misunderstandings about TBL in the ELT literature, in particular the belief that TBL does not concern itself with the teaching of grammar and vocabulary.

But we don't only get questions. We had an email recently from Joshua Cohen, a teacher at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan, which began:

Many of my Japanese EFL university students believe the key to communicating successfully in English lies in mastering grammar rules and memorizing vocabulary words. Therefore, they spend huge amounts of time studying syntax and concentrating on hundred-dollar words. Although I greatly admire their pluck, I feel they are not making progress proportional to their efforts.

To help even the 'linguistic' score and to give my students a chance to engage in more meaningful language exchange I have introduced a series of tasks into my classroom. Following Willis' (1996) framework, the tasks have the ultimate goal of collaborative and meaningful communication, however students are free to use any grammar or lexis they choose to achieve that goal.

Joshua's TBLT programme is built around a series of 'student generated mini-surveys' or SGMS. After a teacher-led introduction to the idea of a survey followed by a worked example, learners work in groups to choose their own survey topics. Joshua gave us the example of a group who decided to find out about their classmates' eating habits. They began by designing a questionnaire with items like:
1. Do you buy a school lunch or bring a lunch box? 2. What is your favorite menu in lunchroom? (Why?) 3. What is your don't like menu in lunchroom? (Why?) 4. How much money do you spend your lunch a day? 5. About size, is it okay for you?
The work is divided out among members of the group. They carry out the survey and then get together to summarise the results and prepare a report to be given to the class, sometimes orally sometimes in writing. Here is a sample:
Many people (24) answered "curry" as their favorite food said its reason is that they like that taste on dish. Also is big size, cheap price, delicious taste. And many people did answer a Chinese noodles too. Reasons are cheap price, big size and taste. These points must be important for the staffs of a lunchroom. As for fish, many people (17) answered it as don't like...
After the report it is time to look in detail at some of the language involved:

I play recordings of native speakers asking and answering survey questions. I ask learners to listen and match questions with answers or to write out questions for the answers they hear. This type of intensive listening practice exposes them to authentic language (Nunan, 2004), and provides a good segue into the final phase of the task, where we focus on linguistic elements.

There are so many good things about the way Joshua is doing task-based teaching. Learners have a lot of freedom to decide on the topic they want to research and how they want to go about it. This autonomy means that they are likely to engage with the task. They work in groups using whatever language they can to achieve their aims. There will be a lot of language work going on in the groups as they discuss how best to draw up their questionnaires and present their findings. Probably they will check things out using grammar books and dictionaries, and sometimes they will ask their teacher to help out. But all of this language work is prompted by their wish to achieve a communicative purpose. The focus throughout is on a meaningful outcome. Finally, when there is a focus on linguistic elements, (commonly called Focus on Form) learners are well primed for it. There is no need to provide an artificial context to demonstrate the meaning or function of language. Learners already have a precise context. In Joshua's food survey, for example, learners have been looking for ways of expressing reasons. They are very ready to take on board phrases like The main reason is ...; Other reasons are... and so on.
3 Why we wrote 'Doing task-based teaching'
So there were basically three reasons why we wrote Doing Task-based Teaching:

We had researched and thought more about TBL and felt we had more to offer.

We were prompted by questions from teachers. It was clear that many teachers faced similar problems and had similar concerns and aspirations.

We were inspired by examples of good practice like Joshua's.

When we began to plan the book we had a good idea of what we wanted to say. This was based partly on feedback gathered from teachers we met and talked to in countries around the world. Where possible these informal discussions were supplemented by asking teachers to complete a short questionnaire listing the successes they achieved and the problems they encountered working with TBLT, and the questions they would like answered. We also gained many insights into TB classrooms worldwide through teachers who were following our Masters in TESOL programmes at Birmingham and Aston Universities and who researched aspects of TBL for their assignments (see Edwards and Willis 2005). In addition to this we sent out a request to teachers all over the world asking them to send us a description of tasks which had worked well for them, together with outline lesson plans of how they had used those tasks. We also asked them what advice they would give to colleagues hoping to work with TBL, and to report difficulties and problems, both those they had experienced themselves, and those they had discussed with colleagues. Thirty three teachers responded and we wove in to our chapters many of their sample tasks and pieces of advice, as well as including sample lessons plans in an appendix.
4 A lesson plan
Here is a brief outline of just one of the lesson plans which we received. This was from Tim Marchand, a teacher at Smith's School of English, Kyoto, Japan. It is a good illustration of what we mean by a task sequence, with both the questionnaire and the discussion going through the task à planning à report cycle:
Talking about families-how strict are/were your parents?[1]
1 Introductory questionnaire:

When you were a child:a) Do you think your parents were strict or easy-going?b) Did they allow you to stay out late at night?c) Did they let you go on holiday on your own?d) When you went out did you always have to tell them where you were going?

e) Did you always have to do your homework before supper?

f) Did your parents make you help about the house?

g) What jobs did they make you do?

h) Did you have to wash the car?

PREPARATION: Teacher makes sure that learners understand the questionnaire.

TASK: Learners work in groups to answer the questions.

PLANNING: Teacher tells learners that a spokesperson from each group will be asked to report the results of their discussion to the class as a whole. Learners are given time to help the spokesperson plan the report.

REPORT: Spokespersons for two or three of the groups deliver their reports. The other groups listen and make notes comparing the report with their own results. Teacher leads a round-up discussion which will include contributions from groups which did not report.

2 Discussion: Whose parents were the strictest?

TASK: Learners work in groups to decide which of them had the strictest parents.

PLANNING: Teacher tells learners that a spokesperson from each group will be asked to report the results of their discussion to the class as a whole. Learners are given time to help the spokesperson plan the report.

REPORT: Spokespersons for two or three of the groups deliver their reports. The other groups listen and decide which parents were the strictest. Teacher leads a round-up discussion which will include contributions from groups which did not report. THIS IS VERY REPETITIVE OF LAST REPORT PARA.

3 Listening: Tim made recordings of some of his friends talking about how strict their parents were. For example:
My Dad is a quiet man really, so he didn't really make me do much at home. He sometimes asked me to wash his car or cut the grass, but I was never forced to do it, and I could usually get some pocket money for it as well. I think my Mum was also pretty easy-going; she let me stay out late with my friends. As long as she knew where I was, she wouldn't mind so much what I did. 4 Language practice:
For the form-focused work, the final stage in a task-based cycle, Tim devised activities to focus on expressions of permission and compulsion.

In the book, we wanted to encourage the kind of creativity displayed by teachers like Tim and Joshua so we tried to provide clear guidelines for devising a range of different types of tasks, planning task sequences and building them into workable lesson plans.
5 Bringing it all together
As you can see from these examples we have tried in the book to provide readers with procedures they can try out in the classroom, so that they can get a feel for TBL and how it works. We also used the information gleaned from our panel of teachers to help us anticipate and answer the questions teachers might have about TBL - questions like those listed in my second paragraph above. We have included a chapter on teaching grammar and vocabulary in a task-based approach, which draws a distinction between a focus on language, when learners work on grammar and vocabulary for themselves, and the more traditional teacher led focus on form. We have tried to make it easier for teachers to introduce TBT into their classrooms by showing how they can integrate TBT with their course book. There are guidelines on task design, including a chapter on tasks based on written and spoken texts. And for course designers there is a chapter on syllabus design showing how the can-do statements central to the Common European Framework can be fleshed out within a task-based framework. This chapter looks in detail at the notion of a pedagogic corpus which argues that learners learn from processing and analysing text, not from de-contextualised sentences designed to illustrate the grammar of the language.

We are still learning about task-based teaching, and we continue to hear from and interact with teachers all over the world. We would love to hear from you. You can contact us through our website www.willis-elt.co.uk where you can find lots more about TBL.

REFERENCES

Edwards C. and J. Willis 2005 (eds.) Teachers Exploring Tasks in ELT. Oxford: Palgrave Macmillan

Prabhu N.S 1987 Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Nunan D. 2004 Task-based language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Willis D. 2003 Rules, Patterns and Words: Grammar and Lexis in English Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Willis D. and J. Willis 1987 'Varied activities for variable language.' ELT Journal 41/1: 12-18

Willis D. and J. Willis 2007 Doing Task-based Teaching. Oxford: Oxford

University Press

Willis J. 1996 A Framework for Task-based Learning. Harlow: Longman Pearson Education

[1]You can find a more detailed description of this lesson in Doing Task-based Teaching and on our website at:

www.willis-elt.co.uk/taskbased.html

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Doing task-based teaching by Dave Willis " IH Journal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Doing task-based teaching By Dave Willis 1 Introduction Ideas change and develop. When Jane wrote A Framework for Task-based Learning (J. Willis 1996), the rationale was set out in an earlier paper, Willis and Willis (1987).

# data[].attributes.headline
Activate Games for Learning American English: Board Games | American English

# data[].attributes.subject
Activate Games for Learning American English: Board Games | American English

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Activate Games for Learning American English: Board Games

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The board games are part of the Activate - Games for Learning American English collection. Each game shows the path that the players must follow and the English phrases that the players must produce orally. Each board game has a theme that requires the students to produce certain types of expressions, so they practice a variety of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and functional meanings.

# data[].attributes.headline
The language syllabus: building language study into a task-based approach by Dave Willis « IH Journal

# data[].attributes.subject
The language syllabus: building language study into a task-based approach by Dave Willis « IH Journal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In my last article in Issue 29 (The language syllabus: why not start with lexis?), I demonstrated the importance of the most frequent words and phrases in the language and suggested that these words and phrases should form the basis of the language syllabus. But I also identified three problems:

The most frequent words of the language, words like the, of and is, have a complex grammar. They cannot be fully covered in an elementary course. How do we go on to develop learners' familiarity with the words and phrases associated with them?

How do we provide coverage of basic grammar - things like tenses and articles?

Although 700 words account for 70% of all the words we regularly use and encounter, we need 3000 words to provide a basic competence in the language. How do we ensure coverage of this wider vocabulary?

I will begin this article with a task-based lesson plan. I will then go on to show how this plan suggests answers to the questions set out above.

The lesson involves travel plans, a topic frequently covered at the early intermediate level. You might like to do this task yourself before you read on.

Janet's friend begins a conversation by saying: Janet, I hear you're planning a trip to Africa. Work in groups and think of four questions you might ask Janet to find out more about her holiday. Try to think of one question which none of the other groups will ask.

Learners might be asked to prepare this task for homework, or it may be introduced in class. As they work in groups they will try to formulate questions focusing on future plans and intentions. Their language will work all right, but it will probably not be entirely accurate. They will say things like How you will travel? You going in plane? and so on. They will not be too concerned with formal accuracy at this stage, they will be working at getting their ideas together in a small informal group. The last part of the task is designed to stretch them in terms of both their language and their imagination. In the past we have had suggestions like Will you take your cat? and Is your grandmother going with you?

At the next stage, the planning phase, the teacher asks learners to work in groups to prepare a spokesperson who will represent the group in the final (report) phase of the task cycle and present their questions to the class. They have already prepared their ideas and they are preparing to present them in a more formal setting speaking to the class as a whole. They will recycle their questions with a greater focus on accuracy. Of course this does not mean that they will be 100% accurate, but they will be focusing on accuracy within a meaningful context.

As each spokesperson offers one or two questions, the teacher comments on these questions and makes a list of different questions on the board. Inevitably there is some correction, but this is part of the discussion. So the teacher says things like You going in the plane. Yes that's a good question: Are you going by plane? Are you going by plane? ' treating the question as a useful contribution to the discourse rather than as a sample of English to be corrected.

Once the class has given a list of questions the teacher might encourage more discussion

Which questions are most likely to be answered in the conversation?

List the five most likely questions in order.

This provides an opportunity for repetition in a natural context. It also gives learners a reason to listen at the next stage when they listen to the conversation to see how many of their predicted questions have been answered. Here is a transcript:

B: Janet, I hear you're planning a trip to Africa.

J: Yes it's very exciting. Going in September to see my son who's doing volunteer work in Zambia. So I'm going to fly to Lusaka and he'll meet me there and we'll do a bit of travelling round. I think we're going to be staying most of the time in Monze, where he's working. It's about a hundred miles south of Lusaka. But we're planning all sorts of exciting things. We're going to go on safari...

B: How long are you actually going for?

J: Oh, six weeks. Quite a long time so we can do quite a lot. I think we're going to one of the big game parks - Luangwa - a game park - for a few days.

B: Right.

J: Probably going on down to see the Victoria Falls. And we're actually going to Zimbabwe as well.

B: Matter of interest. What airline are you planning to fly by?

J: Sorry? Er, Air Zambia.

B: Air Zambia.

J: I've had to do it as cheaply as I could and I looked online and got this flight. I mean it's a regular flight. It's not a charter or anything.

B: Yes, yes.

J: But it's er ... I think it'll be okay... I don't know.

The text is now familiar to learners. They have listened to it and understood it and are ready to use it for language study.

The text is incredibly rich. Look at it for yourself and identify:

phrases containing part of the verb GO

phrases containing the word TO

phrases with words ending in -ing

ways of referring to the future

expressions of time

expressions of place

You could ask learners to identify any one or two of these and use that as a way into the grammar exemplified in the text. In some cases there are a large number of phrases so you might split the text and ask different groups to work with different parts. Once they have made a list of phrases you can work with them to show how these phrases exemplify features of the grammar.

You might take a detailed look at the text by gapping it and asking learners to recreate it from memory. You might, for example, remove all the determiners, including of course the definite and indefinite article, and pronouns:

B: Janet, I hear you're planning *** trip to Africa.

J: Yes ***'s very exciting. Going in September to see *** son ***'s doing volunteer work in Zambia. So ***'m going to fly to Lusaka and ***'ll meet me there and ***'ll do a bit of travelling round. *** think ***'re going to be staying most of *** time in Monze, where ***'s working. ***'s about *** hundred miles south of Lusaka. But ***'re planning all sorts of exciting things. ***'re going to go on safari...

Etc.

The sequence of activities we have outlined answers the first two of the three questions we mentioned at the beginning of this article. As learners experience text we can draw their attention to phrases containing the most frequent words in the language - determiners, prepositions, pronouns and so on - and so begin to tease out their grammar. The text above provides a number of useful insights into the word to. These can be enlarged and recycled as learners experience the same word in future texts.Other texts will exemplify the use of other frequent words. Over a series of texts we can help learners to build up a picture of the verb BE, prepositions like of or any other complex frequent word.

We have also shown how to draw attention to the basic grammar. The function of articles and pronouns is to provide cohesion in a text. We can draw attention to this by blanking them out. The text also provides insights into ways of expressing the future in English. Other texts will help to fill out this picture and yet other texts will provide insights into other tense forms.

If we make sure that the texts we select for learners to study provide coverage of the most frequent words in the language they will inevitably provide detailed coverage of prepositions, pronouns, determiners and so on. And they will certainly offer coverage of the tense system of the language. It is then simply a matter of designing activities to highlight these items.

How do we provide satisfactory coverage of a range of lexis, particularly of the most frequent 3000 words? Nation (2006: 387) (and others) recommend that for optimum learning, words should be encountered in meaning-focused contexts in normal language use. So the materials writer needs to identify relevant topics and select suitable texts, both spoken and written, based on those topics, which learners will process as part of their language course. Many of the 3000 target words will occur in texts associated with these topics and more words will occur naturally as part of the classroom discussion of the texts. Willis (2003) refers to a collection of texts of this kind as a pedagogic corpus. Grammarians and lexicographers assemble a research corpus to enable them to identify and illustrate insights into the language, both grammar and lexis. In the same way we can assemble a corpus which provides learners with appropriate insights into the language. We can then go on to find ways like those shown above to highlight useful items and make them available for study.

The lesson we have used to illustrate these arguments uses a task-based methodology. One of the criticisms of a task-based methodology is that it cannot provide systematic insights into the grammar of the language (see, for example, Swan, 2005). But the assembly of a pedagogic corpus enables us to highlight systematically for learners the basic words, phrases, patterns and grammar of the language. Indeed the notion of a pedagogic corpus enables us to offer a much more principled and systematic treatment of words and phrases than anything proposed by grammar-based approaches to syllabus design. (See Willis and Willis (2007: 177-198) for a detailed analysis of syllabus design based on a pedagogic corpus).

How can you begin to apply the principles I have outlined in this paper?

Perhaps the first thing to notice is that this kind of lesson is familiar to you as what is often called a skills lesson. There is a lot of speaking and listening as learners work out their questions. Some of the discussion is in groups and some of it is teacher led. Learners then go on to listen to a conversation or read a transcript to check whether or not their questions have been answered. This is followed by another teacher led discussion.

Secondly there is a systematic focus on language. I have offered a number of possible language items. You would probably choose no more than two of these for a given lesson.

Language focus requires learners to focus on the text for themselves. You can enable them to do this by asking them to identify phrases built round a particular word (TO; GO), part of a word (-ing) or a concept (the future; time; place).

Once phrases have been identified this leads into a discussion or explanation of the grammar involved. This could be followed by a look at the grammar book to provide a summary of what has been covered.

One of the basic principles of a task-based approach is that the task phase, or skills work if you like, comes before language study. There are two very good reasons for this:

If you begin by presenting the grammar and then go on to a task, learners will be concerned primarily with producing the language that has been highlighted rather than using all the language they can. If this lesson were to be about the going to future, for example, it would begin with a very sharp focus on going to, probably with lots of controlled repetition. When the class moved on to identify questions to do with the future they would not be thinking about meaning, about doing things with language, they would simply be trying to produce samples of a particular form.

A lesson which focuses sharply on mastery of a particular form is probably doomed to failure. We know from experience that learners do not move smoothly from controlled practice and grammatical explanation to spontaneous mastery of a given form. Language development is much more gradual and unpredictable. If learners are led to believe that we are aiming at the ability to produce something spontaneously and accurately they will constantly be conscious of failure. If, however, they believe that we are aiming at more general language development, awareness of a range of phrases, the ability to get things done through the medium of English, they are much more likely to experience success and the positive motivation that goes with it.

So a task-based lesson can and should focus on specific language forms, but that focus should come at the end of a teaching cycle. And a series of task-based lessons can and should provide systematic exposure to the language, both grammar and lexis. But meaning always comes before form in sequencing activities.

Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Swan, M. (2005) Legislation by Hypothesis: The Case of Task-Based Instruction Applied Linguistics 26/3: 376-401 Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Willis, D. (2003). Rules, patterns and words: Grammar and lexis in English language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Willis, D. and J. Willis (2007) Doing Task-based Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The language syllabus: building language study into a task-based approach by Dave Willis " IH Journal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In my last article in Issue 29 (The language syllabus: why not start with lexis?), I demonstrated the importance of the most frequent words and phrases in the language and suggested that these words and phrases should form the basis of the language syllabus.