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vexed
Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Location: Daegu
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 Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 11:07 am Post subject: Present Practice Produce or Task Based Learning? |
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I came across this article on the British Council website and wanted to see what people thought about it. It provides an argument for the task-based learning approach to a lesson as apposed to the present, practice, produce style.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/task_based.shtml
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Task-based approach
Richard Frost, British Council, Turkey
In recent years a debate has developed over which approaches to structuring and planning and implementing lessons are more effective. This article presents and overview of a task-based learning approach (TBL) and highlights its advantages over the more traditional Present, Practice, Produce (PPP) approach.
Present Practice Produce (PPP)
During an initial teacher training course, most teachers become familiar with the PPP paradigm. A PPP lesson would proceed in the following manner.
First, the teacher presents an item of language in a clear context to get across its meaning. This could be done in a variety of ways: through a text, a situation build, a dialogue etc.
Students are then asked to complete a controlled practice stage, where they may have to repeat target items through choral and individual drilling, fill gaps or match halves of sentences. All of this practice demands that the student uses the language correctly and helps them to become more comfortable with it.
Finally, they move on to the production stage, sometimes called the 'free practice' stage. Students are given a communication task such as a role play and are expected to produce the target language and use any other language that has already been learnt and is suitable for completing it.
The problems with PPP
It all sounds quite logical but teachers who use this method will soon identify problems with it:
Students can give the impression that they are comfortable with the new language as they are producing it accurately in the class. Often though a few lessons later, students will either not be able to produce the language correctly or even won't produce it at all.
Students will often produce the language but overuse the target structure so that it sounds completely unnatural.
Students may not produce the target language during the free practice stage because they find they are able to use existing language resources to complete the task.
A Task-based approach
Task -based Learning offers an alternative for language teachers. In a task-based lesson the teacher doesn't pre-determine what language will be studied, the lesson is based around the completion of a central task and the language studied is determined by what happens as the students complete it. The lesson follows certain stages.
Pre-task
The teacher introduces the topic and gives the students clear instructions on what they will have to do at the task stage and might help the students to recall some language that may be useful for the task. The pre-task stage can also often include playing a recording of people doing the task. This gives the students a clear model of what will be expected of them. The students can take notes and spend time preparing for the task.
Task
The students complete a task in pairs or groups using the language resources that they have as the teacher monitors and offers encouragement.
Planning
Students prepare a short oral or written report to tell the class what happened during their task. They then practice what they are going to say in their groups. Meanwhile the teacher is available for the students to ask for advice to clear up any language questions they may have.
Report
Students then report back to the class orally or read the written report. The teacher chooses the order of when students will present their reports and may give the students some quick feedback on the content. At this stage the teacher may also play a recording of others doing the same task for the students to compare.
Analysis
The teacher then highlights relevant parts from the text of the recording for the students to analyse. They may ask students to notice interesting features within this text. The teacher can also highlight the language that the students used during the report phase for analysis.
Practice
Finally, the teacher selects language areas to practise based upon the needs of the students and what emerged from the task and report phases. The students then do practice activities to increase their confidence and make a note of useful language.
The advantages of TBL
Task-based learning has some clear advantages
Unlike a PPP approach, the students are free of language control. In all three stages they must use all their language resources rather than just practising one pre-selected item.
A natural context is developed from the students' experiences with the language that is personalised and relevant to them. With PPP it is necessary to create contexts in which to present the language and sometimes they can be very unnatural.
The students will have a much more varied exposure to language with TBL. They will be exposed to a whole range of lexical phrases, collocations and patterns as well as language forms.
The language explored arises from the students' needs. This need dictates what will be covered in the lesson rather than a decision made by the teacher or the coursebook.
It is a strong communicative approach where students spend a lot of time communicating. PPP lessons seem very teacher-centred by comparison. Just watch how much time the students spend communicating during a task-based lesson.
It is enjoyable and motivating.
Conclusion
PPP offers a very simplified approach to language learning. It is based upon the idea that you can present language in neat little blocks, adding from one lesson to the next. However, research shows us that we cannot predict or guarantee what the students will learn and that ultimately a wide exposure to language is the best way of ensuring that students will acquire it effectively. Restricting their experience to single pieces of target language is unnatural.
This article published: 26th April, 2004 |
Admittedly, the article is biased towards TBL (seeing as it provides only negative aspects for PPP and only positive aspects for PPP). But personally, I think the TBL approach sounds like a decent idea. Has anyone actually tried it? How successful was it?
Any thoughts/comments welcomed  |
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gang ah jee
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper
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| Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 3:15 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Admittedly, the article is biased towards TBL (seeing as it provides only negative aspects for PPP and only positive aspects for PPP). But personally, I think the TBL approach sounds like a decent idea. Has anyone actually tried it? How successful was it? |
The article is 'biased' towards TBL because current SLA research suggests that TBL is more effective than PPP. This isn't really news - Rod Ellis has been publishing on this for almost 20 years.
Effective implementation of a task-based approach requires a more creative, heuristic approach to planning and practice though, which at least partially accounts for why PPP is still in vogue outside of more academically informed teaching environments. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:01 am Post subject: |
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| gang ah jee wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Admittedly, the article is biased towards TBL (seeing as it provides only negative aspects for PPP and only positive aspects for PPP). But personally, I think the TBL approach sounds like a decent idea. Has anyone actually tried it? How successful was it? |
The article is 'biased' towards TBL because current SLA research suggests that TBL is more effective than PPP. This isn't really news - Rod Ellis has been publishing on this for almost 20 years.
Effective implementation of a task-based approach requires a more creative, heuristic approach to planning and practice though, which at least partially accounts for why PPP is still in vogue outside of more academically informed teaching environments. |
Don't forget David Nunan, a strong supporter of PBL (check out his excellent coursebooks that follow a task-based and student-centered approach to teaching) and classroom research. Classroom research seeks to identify the students's needs. It also allows teachers to observe their teaching methods, thus providing teachers with useful insights in the manner to meet their students's needs. But, just as PBL, it's rather labour intensive. To make matters worse, its findings often point towards implementing changes that involve far more planning than PPP. As a result, most teachers revert to their old habits. |
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PRagic
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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Revert back to their old habits? Most teachers here didn't have any habits when they got here where teaching is concerned, and the ones with habits picked them up in hakwons where they were overworked.
I can see people worrying about this stuff if they have a proper course load and the desire to stay in the field over the long run. Otherwise, waste of time. |
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gang ah jee
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper
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| Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:23 pm Post subject: |
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| PRagic wrote: |
Revert back to their old habits? Most teachers here didn't have any habits when they got here where teaching is concerned, and the ones with habits picked them up in hakwons where they were overworked.
I can see people worrying about this stuff if they have a proper course load and the desire to stay in the field over the long run. Otherwise, waste of time. |
quoted for truth |
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RobinH
Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Location: Mid-bulk transport, standard radeon accelerator core, class code 03-K64--Firefly.
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| Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 11:38 pm Post subject: |
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I taught TBL for four years at my last uni. I rarely spoke to the whole class for more than 5 minutes. Rather, I spent equal time with each group. Easiest, most enjoyable teaching I have ever done. Of course, we had decent textbooks, It's Up to You, by Dr. Andrew Finch, and Beyond the Horizon, by Keven Asher and Brad Tipka. Hardly any prep at all once you knew the program.
I found the students gained more in confidence than in actual competence, but that's what they really need anyway. And, in 25 hours/semester, you can't do much more than that.
If anyone is interested, Dr. Finch's website has more info: www.finchpark.com
At my current uni, I'm stuck back in the PPP stoneage again. I can really see the difference. My students are bored to tears, but I'm not allowed to change the program too much. The textbook was written by several Korean professors here--'nuff said. |
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Hotpants
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:34 pm Post subject: |
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| As with any band of theories, a mix of more than one is usually preferable. I use the 'traditional' teaching approach by presenting ideas from our text book and structuring language points and questions from the book. Then, I throw in some lessons which have no connection to the text book. Such lessons, I take ideas from popular culture and TV shows, for example, I stage a mini Apprentice project, a Pop Idol project, and a TV commercial design project. The project classes are much more fun imo., but on the other hand, they are not necessarily 'teaching' new English structures, but just a practice outlet which is more simulative of real life conditions than the text book has to offer. So a combination of TPL and PPP is my prefered approach. |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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Different learning styles and different teaching styles mean that both have their place.
From my own learning and teaching style I favor task-based, but my class is a mix of both. |
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tomato
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:11 pm Post subject: |
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With all due respect to the OP, I don't see how TBA is feasible in elementary school.
Wouldn't it entail teaching the kids everything immediately?
I would like to eventually debate religion and politics in Korean.
In turn, I would for my students to eventually debate religion and politics in English.
But Rome was not built in one day.
As a matter of fact, I feel as if my present job demands that I teach the kids everything immediately.
For reasons unknown to me, my boss belongs to a chain.
That means that we get a shipment of diddly-twink picture book every two weeks.
These picture books have absolutely no pattern.
Rather, they hit the reader with a completely different grammatical point on every page and give the reader no time to soak in any of it.
That's a lot of pages, but you can multiply any quantity by zero and get zero.
Yesterday, the older kids were given a list of words used in the book.
I wanted them to write a sentence using each of those words.
That was all new to the kids.
In all the time that they have been studying English, they have never been asked to coin original sentences.
For each word, then, they quoted the appropriate sentence in the picture book.
I had to fight, fight, fight to get them to stop that.
When they DID come up with an original sentence, I had to correct the mistakes.
Each time, though, it was a different kind of mistake based on a different grammatical point.
Consequently, we did not have time for any of those grammatical points to soak in.
That's a lot of sentences, but you can multiply any quantity by zero and get zero.
If I had my way, I would tell my director to save her money on those stupid books.
A teacher without a book is like a fish without a bicycle.
I would teach only one grammatical point at a time, and at the students' pace.
I would do this by asking them to tell me about themselves here and now, and not what someone in a sappy picture book does.
I would ask them to look around the room and tell me what they see.
This one topic would be plenty enough to last the whole hour.
"Sara sees a window."
"Sara and Tina see a piano."
"Ben doesn't see a bulldozer."
Just because the subject matter is limited doesn't mean it's boring.
You can take those sentences and make all kinds of activities out of them:
--manipulating spelling blocks
--making rhythm exercises involving clapping and knee-slapping
--setting the sentences to music
--repeating in a loud and soft voice, in a high and low voice, and several different humorous ways
--converting the sentences to Braille and sign language
--converting the sentences to card games
--reading pattern picture books which center around that one word
That may teach them only one word a day, but one is greater than zero.
Last edited by tomato on Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:44 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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gang ah jee
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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| tomato wrote: |
| With all due respect to the OP, I don't see how TBA is feasible in elementary school. |
I'm not going to go into it here, but TBL is definitely feasible for young learners, even if on a limited basis. I know that you're excellent at web-based research, so why not try looking around for some more resources and information?
Probably the key thing to remember is that language use should be incidental to the overall goal of any activity - you probably already include a lot of tasks like this in your classes.
Last edited by gang ah jee on Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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| gang ah jee wrote: |
| tomato wrote: |
| With all due respect to the OP, I don't see how TBA is feasible in elementary school. |
I'm not going to go into here, but TBL is definitely feasible for young learners, even if on a limited basis. I know that you're excellent at web-based research, so why not try looking around for some more resources and information?
Probably the key thing to remember is that language use should be incidental to the overall goal of any activity - you probably already include a lot of tasks like this in your classes. |
Hell yeah. A task-based activity can be something as simple as a game. The task is to win. Task-based learning is as good for kids as anybody and like in most cases, the only difficult part is choosing an appropriate task. |
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Zark
Joined: 12 May 2003
Location: Phuket, Thailand: Look into my eyes . . .
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| Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 11:27 pm Post subject: |
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TBL is what we used to call "Functions" - or the reason for using the language.
No big deal. I teach a TEFL Cert program that requires PPP - but I still encourage the trainees to use functions rather than a grammar based lesson. |
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vexed
Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 7:36 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks for all the replies... some very interesting points in there. |
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gang ah jee
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: city of paper
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| Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 1:50 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe it's not possible in your current situation Tomato, but giving your students the responsibility of producing the 'we spoke english to other students' posters on, say, a weekly basis would be highly motivating, would involve enourmous amounts of language and all four skills, and would also promote autonomy and peer- and self-feedback. (I wouldn't reward them for insulting each other though) |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Does anyone know of any other textbooks - preferably ones available in bookshops in Korea - with recordings of people actually performing a task, as the article recommends? All too often all you get is wooden, artificial dialogues that have been constructed around whatever grammar point the chapter is focusing on so it's no wonder students can't relate it to real life situations. So the teacher ends up having to record a lot of stuff themself and basically write their own book, which, as someone pointed out, isn't going to happen a lot of the time. So recommendations anyone? |
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