Task-Based Learning refers to an approach to teaching and learning which views the completion of meaningful tasks through authentic communication as an effective way to improve language proficiency.
Task-Based Learning Focus:
  1. The primary focus of classroom activity is the task and language is the instrument which the students use to complete it. The task is an activity in which students use language to achieve a specific outcome.
  2. The activity reflects real life and learners focus on meaning, they are free to use any language they want.
  3. Playing a game, solving a problem or sharing information or experiences, can all be considered as relevant and authentic tasks.
  4. To create a need to learn and use language. If we can take the focus away from form and structures we can develop our students’ ability to do things in English.
Task-Based Learning Characteristics:
  1. Students are encouraged to use language creatively and spontaneously through tasks and problem solving.
  2. Students focus on a relationship that is comparable to real world activities.
  3. The conveyance of some sort of meaning is central to this method.
  4. Assessment is primarily based on task outcome.
  5. Task-Based Learning is student-centered.
Task-Based Learning Stages:
  1. 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.
  2. Task: The students complete a task in pairs or groups using the language resources that they have as the teacher monitors and offers encouragement.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Analysis: The teacher then highlights relevant parts from the text of the recording for the students to analyze. 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.
  6. Practice: The teacher selects language areas to practice 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.
Present Practice Produce (PPP) Paradigm:
  1. Present: 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.
  2. Practice: 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.
  3. Produce: Students 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 learned and is suitable for completing it.
Task-Based Learning Advantages:
  1. 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 practicing one pre-selected item.
  2. A natural context is developed from the students' experiences with the language that is personalized 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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 course book.
  5. It is a strong communicative approach where students spend a lot of time communicating. PPP lessons seem very teacher-cantered by comparison. Just watch how much time the students spend communicating during a task-based lesson.
  6. It is enjoyable and motivating.
Task-Based Learning Concerns:
  1. There is no acquisition of new grammar or vocabulary features.
  2. Everything is left to the teacher.
  3. Not all students are or will be motivated by Task-Based Learning.
  4. Some students need more guidance and will not or cannot `notice´ language forms (grammar) or other elements of accuracy.
  5. Students typically translate and use a lot of their L1 rather than the target language in completing the tasks.
TBL: Team-Based Learning
Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a structured form of small-group learning that emphasizes student preparation out of class and application of knowledge in class. Students are organized strategically into diverse teams of 5-7 students that work together throughout the class.
Team-Based Learning is an evidence-based collaborative learning teaching strategy designed around units of instruction, known as “modules,” that are taught in a three-step cycle: preparation, in-class readiness assurance testing, and application-focused exercise. A class typically includes one module.
Team-Based Learning Purpose:
  1. To change the classroom experience from acquiring course content and concepts in a lecture-based format to applying course content and concepts in a team format.
  2. To support students spend their classroom time applying course materials rather than simply acquiring it.
  3. Teams are formed such that each group contains a variety of students in terms of skills and backgrounds.
  4. Students begin each Task-Based Learning unit by studying assigned class material (readings, website tutorials, video demonstrations, etc.) prior to class.
Team-Based Learning Procedure:
  1. Assign the students to diverse teams of 5-7.
  2. Have a practice reading and Readiness Assessment Test (RAT) session, so students understand the procedure.
  3. Have them decide how their grades will be determined.
  4. Divide the course into 5 or 6 units (2-3 Text Chapters) – each to be initiated with a Readiness Assessment Procedure (RAP).
  5. Prepare out-of-class assignments for the course.
  6. Prepare 5 questions over the reading that assesses the student’s knowledge of what the reading said – this is the readiness assessment test (RAT).
  7. Prepare one or two “critical thinking” questions for each unit, that take the reader into interpreting what it was the content implies – if you can come up with multiple plausible options, so much the better.
  8. At the start of the each unit give the 5 question readiness assessment test – collect the individual papers.
  9. Have teams of three to five students convene and take the readiness test again as a group – hand it in for a group score or use the Immediate Feedback Assessment Test (IFAT).
  10. Let the groups discuss the critical assessment questions until they have a group response, have all the groups explain their responses. Students at this point may challenge items on the test.
  11. Debrief the assignment, giving everyone feedback about their responses, and elaborate on the topic being taught.
Team-Based Learning Principles:
  1. Problem-Based Learning - Use problems encountered in the course of work as the context for learning.
  2. The point of the Wedge - Push responsibility combined with support to the most junior person possible.
  3. Teach, Don't Tell - Use inquiry (Socratic Method) to teach rather than just give the answer or solve the issue.
  4. Owning the Client or Project – Individuals have a heightened sense of accountability and motivation because they have their own client or project with support from more experienced team members.
Team-Based Learning Routines:
  1. Rounds - Meeting where a less-experienced team member presents an issue or challenge and recommends a course of action.
  2. Team Workshops - A team member leads a developmental event for other members focusing on a specific technical or service topic.
  3. Shadowing – Less-experienced team member accompanies a more experienced member to a meeting he or she would not normally attend.
  4. Observation & Feedback - A specific activity is observed, and using the Socratic Method, coaching is given.
  5. Lessons Learned Forums - Thorough review and discussion using mistakes and successes as a situation to learn from. This is similar to an After Action Review.
Team-Based Learning Basis:
  1. The teacher is a guide to facilitate learning.
  2. Learners should encounter inconsistencies between preconceptions and new experiences to provide a basis for the development of new understandings.
  3. A focus on relevant problems accompanied by group interaction promotes learning.
  4. Learning requires reflection.
Team-Based Learning Teacher Roles:
  1. Facilitator: Responsible for getting the group started, keeping it on task, and involving all members.
  2. Recorder: Responsible for keeping a record of what happens in the group meeting.
  3. Spokes Person/Reporter: Responsible for summarizing group decisions for the larger class.
  4. Time Keeper: Responsible for keeping a group on task and on time (particularly with in-class activities).
  5. Reality Checker: Responsible for noting group decisions and whether they are realistic.
  6. Devil’s Advocate: Responsible for pointing out alternate viewpoints and asking tough questions.
  7. Spy: Responsible for getting info from other groups when appropriate.
Team-Based Learning Benefits:
  1. Students Working Together to Learn: Once groups have bonded, the students realize their absence hurts their new friends.
  2. Improved Student Learning: Students go out of their way to phone or write, many times long after graduation, to say that they remembered what they had learned in their team and were using it successfully.
  3. Abundant Rewards: After having been exposed to the team-based learning experience, students form their own ad hoc groups in subsequent semesters.
TBL: Technology-Based Learning
Technology-based learning (TBL) constitutes learning via electronic technology, including the Internet, intranets, satellite broadcasts, audio and video conferencing, bulletin boards, chat rooms, webcasts, and CD-ROM. TBL also encompasses related terms, such as online learning and web-based learning that only include learning that occurs via the Internet and computer-based learning that is restricted to learning through the use of computers. E-learning is synonymous with TBL and has largely replaced it in scholarship and industry as the term of choice.
Technology-Based Learning Benefits:
  1. Accessibility, offering anytime and anywhere delivery
  2. Training that is self-paced and matched to the learners’ needs
  3. Full scalability
  4. Timely dissemination of up-to-date information
  5. Streamlined and effective learning delivery
TBL: Theme-Based Learning
Thematic learning (often synonymous with thematic instruction) is an instructional method of teaching in which emphasis is given on choosing a specific theme for teaching one or many concepts .Thematic Learning takes place when different disciplines are all centered towards one definite concept.
Theme-Based Learning Objectives:
  1. Thematic learning consists of a curriculum that is unified and dwells on a particular topic.
  2. It needs to be a sound combination of various disciplines, subjects with an emphasis on projects.
  3. The sources are not limited to textbooks.
  4. The curriculum needs to emphasize the explicit and implied relationship between different concepts.
  5. The units act as principles of organization, with flexible schedules and flexible groups.
  6. The curriculum should create the opportunity for the active participation of the learners in thinking and problem-solving skills, observation, critical reasoning, and analysis.
  7. It should foster experiential learning.
  8. The curriculum should be reflection based to help the learner think deeply and draw conclusions through various activities.
Theme-Based Learning Outcomes:
  1. The learner sees a continuous relationship between concepts since one plans and experiences thematic inquiry.
  2. The learner understands the relation between topics dealt in the classroom and those one experiences outside, in day-to-day life.
  3. Thematic activities make the learner engage in authentic communication.
  4. The learner shares one's ideas with others in the group.
  5. Interaction within and without the group makes the learner inculcate values of respect and cooperation, thus building peer learning groups.
  6. A learner takes responsibility for one's learning.
  7. The teacher becomes the facilitator, reduces the role of dispenser of learning.
  8. Community for learning develops in the group.
  9. The assessment on the part of the facilitator and the learner oneself becomes continuous.
Theme-Based Learning Basics:
  1. Thematic learning is based on the idea that knowledge acquisition is efficient among students when they learn in the context of a coherent and holistic way and when they can associate whatever they learn to their surrounding and real life examples.
  2. Thematic instruction seeks to put the cognitive skills such as reading, thinking, memorizing, and writing in the context of a real-life situation under the broad aim to allow creative exploration.
Theme-Based Learning Steps:
  1. Deciding a Theme: Theme can be decided by teacher and sometimes by students and it can be a smaller concept (e.g. village, mother, climate etc.) to a large and integrated system (e.g. ecosystem, atmosphere etc.)
  2. Integration of Theme with Existing Curriculum: Next step of thematic learning is designing the theme in integrative ways to existing curricula keeping the skill and content knowledge in mind.
  3. Designing Instructions and Co-Curricular Plans: This step includes organizing other resources and extra-curricular activities for demonstrating the theme (e.g. field trip or the visit to botanical garden).
  4. Group Activities and Discussion: Group activities and discussion enable students to participate and reach on a shared perspective of the theme. This also helps in creative exploration of the subject.
Theme-Based Learning Advantages:
  1. The method connects subjects, topics and themes naturally. Learning opportunity thus is extended beyond one class, to throughout a whole day or week.
  2. Learning becomes a continuing process, which is not limited to books or guidelines prescribed by the curriculum or time bound.
  3. The emphasis is not on the product, but the process of learning.
  4. The contribution of the learners becomes an essential part of the curriculum.
  5. The focus of the group activity is problem-solving, critical and creative thinking.
  6. It marks the beginning of community of learners
  7. Differentiation into units makes assessment accurate and relevant.
  8. The method enhances risk taking factor in the learners, through self-initiated learning activities and first-hand experiences.
  9. The group consists of active learners since there is the investigation of ideas and concepts, which are a reflection of their inquiries.
TBL Resources:
  1. Edmodo: https://spotlight.edmodo.com/product/based-learning-20-tbl-taskteamtechnologytheme-based-learning--391147/
  2. YouTube – Task-Based learning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5b9gHSPiB8
  3. Task-Based Activities in the Foreign Language Classroom:https://spotlight.edmodo.com/product/task-based-activities-in-the-foreign-language-classroom--391107/
  4. Teaching Approaches - Task-Based Learning:https://spotlight.edmodo.com/product/teaching-approachestask-based-learning--391125/
  5. TBLT: Task-Based Language Teaching:https://spotlight.edmodo.com/product/tblt-task-based-language-teaching--391131/
  6. YouTube – Team-Based Learning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxg5FTGZhZs
  7. Edutopia – Technology-Based Learning:http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration