Rod Ellis: Moving task-based language teaching forward

Marc Jones / / Pedagogy

Regular readers know that I am a big advocate of Task-Based Language Teaching. In this video Dr. Rod Ellis discusses some of the problems/issues/misconceptions in TBLT. One of my favourite parts is task complexity, another is teacher education, though the latter is rushed through much more than it ought to be.
If you like this video, or just don’t have an hour to spend on it (which is a shame), you can have a look at my previous post on how to actually do task-based teaching, which is a rough and dirty guide.

5 Replies to “Rod Ellis: Moving task-based language teaching forward”

  1. Thanks for this video, Marc. It explains a lot and shows a way forward when using TBLT for Czech. I’ve come to believe there must be some explicit instruction when teaching it. Another thing I’m interested in (and it’s not related to this video) is the use of dialogue in TBLT. How can model dialogues be used without being delivered as a product? Hoping you have some answers:-) Thanks.

    1. Hi Kamila,
      Model dialogues are my achilles heel, I’m afraid. I do think that recording learners doing the task, and transcribing can be a good way for learners to process the language consciously and take the best bits or think about changing unsuccessful parts in a repeated task.
      Other than that, it’s a matter of searching YouTube, Vimeo, and then a search on Google and Duck Duck Go. Sometimes there is absolutely nothing and I would love to do something with English where I can produce good, natural model dialogues. The problem with YouTube is that people tend to feel self-conscious on camera. There are also so many stilted, unnatural scripted dialogues.
      Let me know what you think about the model dialogues or if you use recordings of learners.

  2. Hi Marc,
    Thanks so much. I’m glad it isn’t just me. I’ll try the transcribing and let you know. For Czech, I sometimes write the dialogues myself, but it would be nice to have a source. Another issue is “teaching the dialogues”. Well, plenty to think about before school starts. Thanks!

    1. I never ever write model dialogues. I don’t think it’s wrong, but it’s easier to provide a better model based on how and what the learners say, in my opinion. Maybe I am just lazy!

      1. You lazy? No, I think we just have different ways of working. I definitely need to read and study more. But it would make a great blog post if I may suggest 🙂

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