CLT and the Task-based Syllabus

Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom by David Nunan CUP 1989

Appendix C Page 196 contains graded activities for the four macroskills: listening, speaking & oral interaction, reading & writing (for each of seven levels).

Checklist for evaluating and developing Communicative Tasks Page 135.

Task: a piece of classroom work which involves students in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language (LT) while their attention is mainly on MEANING rather than FORM.

THE COMPONENTS OF A TASK:

1. GOALS
2. INPUT
3. ACTIVITIES
4. TEACHER ROLE
5. LEARNER ROLE
6. SETTINGS

These are amplified in David Nunan's book, which has sold very well according to the Amazon on-line book ratings.

The starting point for task design should be the goals and objectives which are set out in the syllabus or curriculum guidelines which underpin the teaching programme.

The next step is selecting or creating input for Ss to work with. The use of authentic input is a central characteristic of communicative tasks. Where possible, it is desirable to build up a "bank" of data.

Texts, audio or video recordings can be classified and filed under topics or themes (e.g. Work/Jobs; Holidays; Future Plans; The Media), and provide a ready-made resource to be drawn on when designing tasks.

Nunan contends that one should work from the data to the teaching/learning objectives, rather than the other way round - i.e. it is better to derive communicative activities and other exercises such as grammatical manipulation exercises, from input, rather than say, deciding to teach a particular item, and then creating a text to exemplify the target feature or item.

While understanding Nunan's emphasis, I believe we should work both ways round. After all, Nunan concedes that the starting point for task design is the goals and objectives. The latter should guide us in our selection of data.