Short description:

Winner - British Council Innovation in English Language Teaching Award 2006

This book was written for language teachers by language teachers, with a view to encouraging readers to use more tasks in their lessons, and to explore for themselves various aspects of task-based teaching and learning. It gives insights into ways in which tasks can be designed, adapted and implemented in a range of teaching contexts and illustrates ways in which tasks and task-based learning can be investigated as a research activity. Practising language teachers and student professionals on MA TESOL/Applied Linguistics courses will find this a rich resource of varied experience in the classroom and a stimulus to their own qualitative studies.

Long description:

Winner - British Council Innovation in English Language Teaching Award 2006 This book was written for language teachers by language teachers, with a view to encouraging readers to use more tasks in their lessons, and to explore for themselves various aspects of task-based teaching and learning. It gives insights into ways in which tasks can be designed, adapted and implemented in a range of teaching contexts and illustrates ways in which tasks and task-based learning can be investigated as a research activity. Practising language teachers and student professionals on MA TESOL/Applied Linguistics courses will find this a rich resource of varied experience in the classroom and a stimulus to their own qualitative studies.

'...High quality,extremely readable and accessible.. I anticipate that the volume will be extremely popular with classroom teachers. I found it refreshing, and even exciting, to read accounts of professional practice by people who have not hitherto been widely published. The volume will be useful, not only on MA courses but also on a wide range of in-service courses...an exciting and innovative project.'- Professor David Nunan,The English Centre, Hong Kong

'A rich collection of tasks, used successfully by the chapter authors, that EFL teachers anywhere can use to increase their own repertoire - or to implement task-based learning for the first time in their own classrooms. ESL teachers in the United States and other English-speaking countries likewise can make effective use of every chapter in the book.' - Professor Betty Lou Leaver, Dean New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan

'Classroom teaching and learning ordinarily center on specific language tasks. Instruction becomes more effective when teachers understand the role of language tasks, recognize their students' needs, and apply both types of information in a sound, creative way. With better task-based instruction as a goal, current and future teachers will benefit from the enlightening explorations in this book. In addition, researchers will find that this book can inform and enrich many classroom investigations.' - Professor Rebecca Oxford, Department of Education, University of Maryland,USA

'Classroom teaching and learning ordinarily centre on specific language tasks. Instruction becomes more effective when teachers understand the role of language tasks, recognize their students' needs, and apply both types of information in a sound, creative way. With better task-based instruction as a goal, current and future teachers will benefit from the enlightening explorations in this book. In addition, researchers will find that this book can inform and enrich many classroom investigations.' - Professor Rebecca Oxford, Department of Education, University of Maryland, USA

'A rich collection of tasks, used successfully by the chapter authors, that EFL teachers anywhere can use to increase their own repertoire - or to implement task-based learning for the first time in their own classrooms. ESL teachers in the United States and other English-speaking countries likewise can make effective use of every chapter in the book.' - Professor Betty Lou Leaer, Dean, New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan

'Classroom teaching and learning ordinarily centre on specific language tasks. Instruction becomes more effective when teachers understand the role of language tasks, recognize their students' needs, and apply both types of information in a sound, creative way. With better task-based instruction as a goal, current and future teachers will benefit from the enlightening, explorations in this book. In addition, researchers will find that this book can inform and enrich many classroom investigations.' - Professor Rebecca Oxford, Department of Education, University of Maryland, USA

'The book fills a serious gap that existed in the literature on task based teaching, by providing case studies of how teachers implement task-based teaching in their classrooms. The range of situations represented is impressive, with contributors from many parts of the world teaching at different levels. The papers are all accessible and focussed, and provide an excellent springboard for classroomdiscussion and follow up work by teachers.' - Jack C Richards, Adjunct Professor, Regional Language Centre, Singapore and Maquarrie University, Australia

'This book is a great example of using small-scale projects to investigate certain aspects of the class you are teaching and demonstrates how the teachers in the trenches can give back to the academic community. I would recommend reading it to any teacher of English as a foreign language starting out or looking for a cure to feeling burnt out.' - Kevin Laurence Landry, Linguist List

'Promises to be useful reading especially for anyone struggling to see how language learning happens in TBL in practice.' - The Teacher Trainer

Table of Contents:

About the Contributors List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION; Aims and Explorations into Tasks and Task-based Teaching; J.Willis Task-based Language Learning and Teaching: Theories and Applications; A.Shehadeh PART 1: IMPLEMENTING TASK-BASED LEARNING: CONTEXTS AND PURPOSES Developing from PPP to TBL: A Focused Grammar Task; L.Loumpourdi Integrating Task-based Learning Into a Business English Programme; P.Pullin-Stark Language as Topic: Learner-teacher Investigation of Concordances; R.Sheehan Storytelling with Low Level Learners: Developing Narrative Tasks; P.Kiernan Adding Tasks to Textbooks for Beginner Learners; T.Muller Using Language-focused Learning Journals on a Task-based Course; J.Moser PART 2: EXPLORING TASK INTERACTION: HELPING LEARNERS DO BETTER Exam-oriented Tasks: Transcripts, Turn-Taking and Backchanelling; M.Leedham Training Young Learners in Meaning Negotiation Skills: Does it Help?; S-M. Lee Task Repetition with 10-year-old Children; A.Pinter Collaborative Tasks for Cross-cultural Communication; D.Coulson PART 3: EXPLORING TASK LANGUAGE: LEXICAL PHRASES AND PATTERNS Interactive Lexical Phrases in Pair Interview Tasks; J.Hobbs Multi-word Chunks in Oral Tasks; M.Baigent Can We Predict Language Items for Open Tasks?; D.Cox PART 4: INVESTIGATING VARIABLES: TASK CONDITIONS AND TASK TYPES Fighting Fossilization: Language at the Task Versus Report Stages; C.Johnston Story-telling: Effects of Planning, Repetition and Context; W.Essig The Effect of Pre-task Planning Time on Task-based Performance; A.Djapoura Balancing Fluency, Accuracy and Complexity Through Task Characteristics; G.Birch Quality Interaction and Types of Negotiation in Problem-solving and Jigsaw Tasks; G.Poupore EPILOGUE: Teachers Exploring Research; C.Edwards References Index