AN ESSENTIAL GLOSSARY FOR THE TEACHER • AN ESSENTIAL GLOSSARY FOR THE TEACHER
Second generation tasks: A second generation task is more challenging than a first generation task, requiring learners not only to manipulate language, but also to use general cognitive abilities while dealing with information. In Ribé and Vidal’s words (1993: 2), Second generation tasks focus primarily on content, procedure and language. The learner is challenged mentally in these areas and the tasks aim at developing not only language skills, but also general cognitive strategies of handling and organising information... Language becomes a vehicle for doing a “real” piece of work. This implies using not one, but a range of structures, functions and lexical sets. Language is then approached globally, not sequentially. Synthetic syllabus: In synthetic approaches to syllabus design, different parts of the language are taught separately and in a step-by-step fashion. This type of syllabus regards acquisition as a process of gradual accumulation of parts until the whole structure of language has been reconstructed. Task: Nowadays, the most commonly used and widely accepted definition of task is that of language activity in which there is a focus on meaning over form. This type of task is often referred to as a communicative task; it does not include, for example, translation tasks or grammar-based exercises. In spite of the increasing number of publications on TBLT, there is no consensus regarding the definition of task. A task has been defined in many different ways; some of the most common definitions include the following. In the Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (Richards et al., 1986: 289) we can read the following definition: […]an activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding language (i.e. as a response). For example, drawing a map while listening to a tape, listening to an instruction and performing a command may be referred to as tasks. Tasks may or may not involve the production of language. A task usually requires the teacher to specify what will be regarded as successful completion of the task. The use of a variety of different kinds of tasks in language teaching is
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said to make language teaching more communicative […] since it provides a purpose for a classroom activity which goes beyond the practice of language for its own sake. For Nunan (1989: 10), a communicative task is a: piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, 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, a middle and an end. Despite the multiplicity of definitions of task, researchers agree that for a language teaching activity to be acknowledged as a task it must meet the following criteria: 1. There is general consensus that tasks are things people do and that they are goaldirected. 2. A task should facilitate meaningful interaction and offer the learner sufficient opportunity to process meaningful input and produce meaningful output in order to facilitate language acquisition. 3. The primary focus should be on meaning; that is, learners must be mainly concerned with processing the semantic and pragmatic meaning of utterances. 4. Tasks should result in a kind of language use that resembles that in the outside world. 5. There should be some kind of gap, i.e. a need to convey information or to express an opinion. 6. There should be emphasis on learner activity. Learners are asked to work to reach certain goals and to make functional use of language in order to do so. 7. Learners should largely have to rely on their own resources (linguistic and nonlinguistic) in order to complete the task.
GRETA • 2009 • 17/1&2