A task-based approach to second language acquisition
Radhika Chaturvedi
English and Hindi are the two languages that I can read, write and comprehend. The reason being a) I am a native speaker of Hindi and b) English was the language of the school. Thus, these are the only two languages that were available in their entirety in the environment I come from, thereby allowing me to engage with them on a day-to-day basis. However, when in Bangalore, a teacher took a class in Kannada, a language I can hardly comprehend, I saw myself making sense of the lesson. How did that happen? How did comprehension happen in a not-so-familiar language? How did I start making sense? What was that ability that aided me in understanding a lesson in Kannada? These are some of the questions that have been explored in this article.
Comprehension and production
We have always looked at language as having two functions: comprehension and production. This dichotomy was, however, broken down by N.S. Prabhu when he propounded a task-based approach to teaching second language. His claim – “All learners whether they learn any language, learn to comprehend first before production.” Comprehension is therefore the ability to understand and production implies articulating what one has understood.
Prabhu looks at this ability to comprehend in advance of the ability to produce. He clarifies by explaining that we have both ‘passive vocabulary’ (that is available but not in use) and ‘active vocabulary’ (words used in communication). The reason that passive vocabulary is more than active vocabulary is that passive vocabulary has an external stimulus while there is an internal stimulus for active vocabulary. Hence, what one understands is always larger than what one can produce. This can further be explained through the use of an example. Many people say that they can understand Hindi but cannot speak it. But rarely do we find people who can speak a language and not understand it. We often find people in oldage struggling for words. The struggle is not in the understanding of the word as much as producing the word. Sometimes after long disuse also, one finds it difficult to produce language. While production suffers, comprehensibility lasts.
What then is being established is that production cannot happen without comprehension. Here it is important to distinguish between production through understanding and production through rote-memorization that leads to mere vocalization of what is learned. Production through understanding implies that comprehension itself can lead to a state of production. However, it is important to note that one can produce only a part of what one has understood on account of active vocabulary being less than passive vocabulary. Hence, we move towards the realization that comprehension and production should be understood not as two different skills but different aspects of the same skill. Thus, these are not two skills but one wherein comprehension can manifest into production in a different stage.
According to Prabhu, it is this ability to comprehend that leads to language acquisition in both first and second languages.
How does comprehension happen?
Linguists have tried to analyze this problem for centuries now. One among them was Saussure (Swiss linguist and philosopher) who spoke about signs and the sense attached to them. Signs are random allocations but sense denotes a certain association to the word. A child begins by trying to comprehend a sign using a sense of the word the child has at that stage. As a child begins to understand more about associations, an inference is made that can get confirmed or revised. When it gets confirmed, a link is made between that sign and the word. The longer it happens, the more firmly signs are set in the mind, that become stable for production. Then what is production? There is a sense that is linked to a certain piece of information that calls forth relevant signs.
For a language learner, the act of comprehension doesn’t only involve retention of signs but also adds to the knowledge of the word as well as the world view. Comprehension, therefore, is also a process by which the sense of the world expands. Young learners always want to make meaning of the world they are living in. They try hard to make sense of what they are supposed to do. This, as per Prabhu, is mainly true for the first language. There is a greater urgency to understand the world through the first language and therefore one doesn’t learn the signs of a second language in the same way simply because it is not needed to understand the world. Thus, what we see in second language acquisition could also be illusionary production through rote, whereby the learner has no urge to make sense of everything they have said.
The task-based approach to teaching and learning language
N.S. Prabhu proposes to invoke the same environment and same strategies that enable language acquisition in the first language. This is what he terms the task-based approach to language learning and language teaching. He talks about looking at tasks as an ecosystem in which the growth of skills for a foreign language takes place. The purpose of a task-based exercise is to contextualize content for the learner, help the learner process the information without alluding to the first language thereby helping the learner to construct meaning. A task-based approach implies that second language acquisition can take place when the language is presented as a medium.
“The learning of a second language is successful when it is a medium. When it is a medium, you are acquiring new knowledge through comprehending the second language.”
How to use a task-based approach in classrooms?
A) Emphasizing meaning-making rather than targeting grammar learning: The essential aspect of a task-based learning program is that the learners are more concerned about the meaning of the content than the form and therefore language is not explicitly stated. There has always been a hue and cry over grammatical errors in second language acquisition. This according to Prabhu is because grammatical errors in production are glaringly noticeable. Errors in understanding are difficult to locate and therefore not easily visible in comprehension. Prabhu attacks the point that rather than concentrating on teaching grammar explicitly, if a learner is provided with an environment that demands active construction and meaning-making, the learner will automatically comprehend first, leading to a better level of attainment in the second language. For example, rather than having a lesson on teaching grammar separately, a task-based approach focuses on communication and interaction. Tasks such as introducing oneself to the entire class in the targeted language, or creating a list of 20 questions that you would want to know from a class friend, could be an example of this approach.
B) Presenting language as a medium: Prabhu also emphasizes the dependence on texts in second language acquisition. He says, “If a child is taught how to decode a text, his/her grammar will automatically improve. This improvement in syntax implies that there should be an environment that places the same need on the learner. Such a need will arise only when language is presented in that medium.” Hence, his argument is that second language acquisition can be successful only when presented as a medium as it brings the learner closer to the language. For example, asking students to choose a story/text that they like and make a video/presentation/skit, in front of their peers, not only confines language learning to a specific job, rather targets all the elements – reading, writing, comprehension, and communication in the targeted language.
C) Balancing language demands with language support tasks: Prabhu explains that the environment places several demands on learners. There are cognitive-demands on learners which are related to an understanding of the world, language-demands are related to foreign language, and those related to uses of mother tongue in connection with learning the foreign language. There are also interactional-demands on students when working in groups and metalinguistic-demands to know the language to use it coupled with involvement-demands that the child should remain engaged till the time the task gets completed. And physical-demands that call forth a fine-tuning of motor skills. However, there are also support systems available for learning. Task support comes from visuals (that help contextualize the content). Support also comes from group work. The role of the teacher teaching language should be to strike a balance between demands and support such that learning goals always appear attainable. If the task is too demanding then the learners might switch off. Similarly, if it is too supportive, then learners are not stretched enough. He gives an example of the use of the first language in a second language class to facilitate understanding. In that case, the child does not have the same intensity to think about understanding the world because that is already available through the first language. The child only ends up learning a few new words. There should be a balanced Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978) between demands and support. Language learning should therefore be a process of repeated stretching and language goals should be set specifically if language learning is the aim.
D) Evaluation: A task-based approach is student-centric. It evaluates what students already know and hence sets a goal of language learning. Task-based learning is also conducive to group work. Hence, peer interaction and peer evaluation are indomitable to the task-based approach. Asking groups to assess each other in the form of commentary, questions, feedback, report, would help improve confidence in communicating with people. Evaluation exercises such as this could well be used as an assessment exercise for the teacher on the class competence for second language acquisition.
Trying out a task-based approach for second language acquisition in a multilingual country might seem like a daunting task. It might also invoke important socio-political and cultural questions. However, one can start by trying out the approach in different language classes, thus seeking conclusions for the viability and effectiveness of the approach in one’s context.
References
• Prabhu, N. (1987). Second language pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
The author is a Ph.D. scholar at the Department of Teacher Training and Non-Formal Education, Jamia Millia Islamia and her work revolves around teacher training and curriculum design and development. She can be reached at radhika.chaturvedi@apu.edu.in.
