A Review on Rod Ellis’ Seminar

A Review on Rod Ellis’ Seminar about Language Teaching and Learning

On November 3rd Wednesday morning I had a chance to attend the seminar of Dr. Rod Ellis under the sudden change in the syllabus of the writing class. It turned out that I got more than I originally thought I would.

That day’s topic is “Designing a Task-based Syllabus,” focusing on a more practical facet among this series of seminars about task-based language learning and teaching. I heard from the professor that the core idea behind this teaching and teaching system is that learning and communication are combined. To put it more clearly, this system is based on the belief that information negotiation is the base of language acquisition.
That was the first time I had a chance to see how I’ve been taught through out my life.

This seminar’s goal is to teach us how to design a task-based syllabus for teaching language. First we have to decide what the goals of the course are. Since the pedagogic focus (general or specific purpose) is more widely covered in school, we chose this one for discussion. The steps to construct a syllabus are:
a. Determine the course goals in terms of pedagogic focus. (as we just choose it)
b. Specify the task types to be used in terms of input, conditions, processes and outcomes. (will be further explained)
c. Specify the task topics. (for example food, movie…etc)
d. Sequence the tasks in accordance for grading criteria.

The four underlined terms above are the important designing features of a general framework:
1. Input (the nature of the input provided)
2. Conditions (the way in which the information is presented and to be used)
3. Process (the nature of the discourse the task requires)
4. Outcomes (the nature of the product that results from performing)
These four features are also essential criteria for grading tasks.

So now, we’re going to determine how difficult and complex the task would be. First, it’s the choice of the topic. The contents learners are more familiar with would be easier. For example, learners know more about themselves and their families than their societies. So the information required in the task should be carefully selected. From this choice of contents, I realized the evolution of those English courses I took in the past.

There are other factors that can influence a task’s difficulty—the ways of presenting the four criteria mentioned above. For example, pictorial information input is more difficult than written one and written one than oral one. Vocabulary and sentence structure are also the factors. This is most obvious one because we can see beginners’ textbooks are full of pictures. Another example like the discourse modes: dialogic ones are easier than monologic ones.

This seminar leads me to examine more closely how I’ve been educated. It also provides me with other information of teaching system so that I will not just be stuck in the mud of the old-style teaching and also I can discover why some new teaching styles may fail. However I’m not sure if it is a good idea to employ this task-based method totally. I think some traditional methods must be employed in a certain proportion. But further experiments and experiences (like the interesting ones Dr. Ellis did) are required.