Tasks in a Pedagogical Context: Integrating Theory and Practice

This book is centrally concerned with the concept of task, particularly as it has developed in the contexts of curriculum and syllabus design. The chapters deal with the ways in which tasks are used in second language classrooms and the ways in which syllabus design and materials development are affected by a task-oriented perspective. 'Tasks' are seen as a productive analytic unit for looking at classrooms and for the construction of syllabi and materials. The reader will find discussions about the elements that make up or are closely associated with the classroom task. Such discussions are particularly useful to those who wish to design principled classroom materials that reflect what is currently known about second language acquisition. Chapters also explore the language which is produced as a function of tasks differing on certain task design features. Long-term implications include the development of a materials design programme which is empirically based and directly linked with general second language acquisition research and suggestions for ways in which task types can be matched to different student needs. There is also a consideration of how teachers and students see the classroom and how teachers and students together make use of the analytic term 'task'. The discussions in this volume have the goal of bringing syllabus design considerations into closer touch with real-life investigations of how teachers and learners actually operate. What is presented here as well as in the companion volume (Tasks and Language Learning) is useful and applicable to the learning and teaching of all second/foreign languages.