Willis' Pedagogic Classification of Learning Tasks

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Willis (1996) provided a pedagogic classification of tasks which is different from Gardner and Miller’s. Willis made the classification based on a careful examination of different tasks which are frequently found in textbooks. In this classification, the actions which learners are needed to perform in fulfilling tasks are sorted as: 1. Listing: where the completed outcome of a task is a list. 2. Ordering and sorting: tasks that involve sequencing, ranking, categorizing or classifying items. 3. Comparing: tasks that involve finding differences and similarities in information. 4. Problem-solving: tasks that demand intellectual activity as in puzzles or logic problems. 5. Sharing personal experiences: tasks that allow learners to talk freely …show more content…

Creative tasks: projects, often involving several stages that can incorporate the various types of tasks above can include the need to carry out some research. Wills (1996) stated that this classification was not thorough and complete but claimed that it would help to create a variety of pedagogic tasks. Nunan (2004) claimed that, pedagogical task refers to any piece of activity in which the learners’ focus is on the use of their grammatical knowledge to express a specific meaning and in which the focus is on conveying meaning rather than manipulating form. According to what Nunan (2004) defined the appropriate use of language for specific purpose in order to provide a meaningful interaction is a matter of concern in fulfilling the pedagogical tasks. With the emergence of CLT and TBLT in the language teaching field, the importance of both task and task design have increased. It seems that L2 teachers should be able to design appropriate tasks to promote learners’ achievement. It is one of teachers’ duties to offer the lesson to the learners in an appropriate sequence. A lesson consists of different tasks and activities and “the basic building block of a lesson is the activity or task” (Scrivener, 2011, p.37) 2.5. Task …show more content…

The following nine questions are proposed by Deckert: 1- What is the task that you are asking learners to do? 2- What meaning do you think language users will be focusing on as they work through this task? 3- What communicative problems are language users asked to solve? 4- How is this task related to real world activities? 5- From the language users’ perspective, what is the outcome of the task? From the task creator’s perspective, what is the outcome of the task? 6- What language forms do you want your learners to focus on? 7- How do you think your task directs learners to those particular linguistic properties of the task? 8- From your perspective, what is the product of the task? From the learners’ perspective, what is the end product of the task? 9- How will the end product be

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