Task-Based Language Teaching

According to Ellis (2003), Nunan (2005) and Richards & Rodgers (2001) Task-Based

Language Teaching is a teaching method that offers a framework in which students improve

their language competence by doing meaningful tasks. To this respect, Willis and Willis

(2000) and Izadpanah (2010) suggest TBLT consists of an integrated set of processes that

involves designing a task that includes decision- making about what tasks, what the learners

will do and then the order in which they will perform the tasks. To support this view point,

Cordoba (2016), Sarani, Behtash and Nezhad (2014) say that TBLT increased the mastering

of any language skill and creates a real-life language practice and use and provides a natural

context for language study. In sum, TBLT is a teaching and learning methodology that offers

students the opportunity to be engaged in meaningful, goal-oriented tasks that are designed

enhance fluency and accuracy at the same time. In accordance with Ellis (2005) fluency is

the capacity to communicate in real time and accuracy is the “ability to use the target

language according to its norms.

Referring to task, Nunan (2004) a 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.” (p. 4). Sánchez (2004), Nasirian (2012), and Sarıçoban and Karakurt (2016) point out

that tasks are real-life activities that promotes meaningful language learning experiences to

the learners. Other important fact in TBLT are the meaningful or real-life tasks, Nunan

(2006) states that “meaningful tasks provide opportunities for learners to experiment with

and explore the language through learning activities which are designed to engage students

in the authentic, practical and functional use of language for meaningful purposes” (p.10).
To the same respect, Ganta (2015) explains that meaningful tasks aim at “meaning-focused

language use” so they give the participants the chance to be “language users” rather than

“language learners” (p. 2716).

Based on the principle that TBLT provides rehearsal opportunities and enough time

for the students to think, create, and reflect about their learning language process by

conducting assignments in which they to collect, compare, analyze and interpret the

information to perform daily-life activities to learn a language. Ellis (2002) explains that a

lesson based on this methodology consisted of three states, “Pre-task” “during task” and “post

task”. The first step, the Pre-task is about planning how the task will be developed by the

students. The second stage, the during task emphases on the development of the assignments.

The last stage, the post task deals with recommendations or follow- up assignments based on

the performance of the students. In this action study, the research has decided to following

this model because it offers a clear cycle in which the students can have the opportunity to

practice listening meaningfully.

Listening skill and listening tasks

Listening is a skill that allows the understanding and interpretation of oral messages

and increases communicative competence in ESL or EFL education. In this regard, Richards

(2008) expresses that listening had a noticeable place in language teaching and learning. He

manifests that this ability facilitated the acquisition of the input that the students need to

incorporate to learn the structures, the phonology, the vocabulary and the correct

pronunciation of the language. Many research studies (Chang & Millett, 2013; Matsuo, 2016;

Stephens, 2015; UcáYin, 2013; Renandya & Farrell, 2010; Renandya, Waring, 2010; and

Nation (as cited in Onoda, 2012) have showed the importance of this to facilitate general
listening comprehension. Brito (2015) affirms that this ability serves as a trampoline to

promote the understanding and the acquisition of other language skills. In this sense,

Richards (2005), Motallebi and Pourgharib (2013), Robb and Susser (1989), and Andrade

(2006) explain that listening contributed to have better language performance and is an

effective way to enhance pronunciation, speaking and intonation proficiency. Rost (1991)

agrees that listening was a decisive competence to promote the acquisition of sounds and

patterns that provides learners with capabilities such as becoming better listeners, improving

oral interaction and creating opportunities to be more analytical, synthetic and keen on what

other people say. To this respect, Iwanaka (2014) sustains that promoting this skill

encouraged students to acquire not only the language but also the opportunity to expand their

thoughts, culture and communicative competences.

Taking into account that the theoretical construct of this research study is based on

TBLT, listening tasks are seen in this papers as all the assignments that designed to practice

listening as an integral element of EFL education that needs pre, while and post task stages

to be developed. In this orders of ideas, Renukadevi (2014) recognizes that “listening tasks

improved language competence in a EFL langauge” (p.1). By the same token, Hyslop &Tone

(1988), Kim & Kang (2015), Sevik (2012), Kim & Kang (2015), Wilson (2003) and Phuong

(2013) argue that listening assignments allowed the students to expand their expertise in the

language. Sharma (2011) explains that in listening tasks, there are basically three processes

teachers should focus when they work with listening in the EFL classroom: comprehending,

retaining, and responding.

Harmer (2008) says that to promote listening tasks within TBLT framework, the

students had to be expose to a different variety of listening exercises to finalize a task. He

believed that “learners first need to recognize paralinguistic clues such as intonation in order

to understand mood and meaning. They also need to be able to listen for specific information

(such as times, platform numbers, etc), and more general understanding” (p. 135). Some of

the steps he proposes to develop listening are: 1) encourage students to listen as often and as

much as possible, 2) help students prepare to listen, 3) encourage students to respond to the

content of a listening, not just to the language, 4) applying different listening stages demand

different listening tasks, and 5) exploit listening texts to the full.

Lampert (1985) states that one way to promote listening task is to use different

techniques, anticipating content, inferring, guessing, and recognizing and encouraging

meaningful oral interaction. These strategies help to overcome specific listening problems

and lead student to be fluent listeners.

Avoiding Listening Tasks That Require Memorization

Steps

Techniques

Methodology

Procedures

Motivating factor
Meaningful listening tasks.
Meaningful listening tasks refer to those activities that the teachers design to enhance

real-life listening practice that go beyond pedagogical or instructional class activities. These

tasks are done to integrate language learning with one or more abilities of the language and

are directly related to the students’ interests, levels, and ages and cultures. Day & Bamford

(1999) explain that this practices meaningful listening tasks enriched EFL learning process.

According to Gilakjani & Ahmadi (as cited in Kim& Maneg, 2011), “teaching this

ability in EFL contexts creates listening habits which could enhance the ability to apprehend Commented [A1]: ??? Do you mean skill?
Commented [A2]: Which ones are those? Say them.
what is being said in audio material” (p.12). Listening practices include playing attention to

what other are saying, avoiding distraction, listening attentively to what is being saying,

showing respect to the speakers, waiting for communication time, and participating of the

conversation. Hellenes and Brown (2007), and Waring (as cited in Yin, 2013) state that EFL

students could be able to achieve fluent abilities in their understanding of the aural part of

the target language, if they develop good listening habits. Additionally,

Types of authentic meaningful tasks

Criteria for selecting listening tasks

EFL Journal, 7(3). Richards, J. & Rodgers, T.. 2001. Approaches and methods in language

teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

European, C. (2009). Task-based Learning. Retrieved from www.languages.dk

Ganta, T. G. (2015). The strengths and weaknesses of task-based learning (TBL). Scholarly

Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies, 3(16), 2760-2771.

Nunan, D. (2006). Task-based language teaching in the Asia context: Defining ‘task'. Asian
EFL journal, 8(3).
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Richards, J. C., & Renandya, W. A.(2002). Methodology in language teaching: An

Izadpanah, S. (2010). A study on task-based language teaching: From theory to

Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Teaching and Learning. Oxford, OUP

Sharma, N. (2011). Strategies for Developing Listening Skills. ELT Voices, 6, 12-18.

Willis, D., & Willis, J. (2001). Task-based language learning. In R. Carter, & D. Nunan, The

Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages (pp. 173-179).

Sharma, N. (2011). Strategies for Developing Listening Skills. ELT Voices, 6, 12-18.

Harmer, J. (2008). How to teach English. Edinburgh: Pearson Education

Lampert, M. (1985). How do teachers manage to teach? Perspectives on problems in practice.

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