CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

1. LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Task-Based Language Teaching and Learning

English teaching and learning is carried out using various methods.

The methods develop according to the era. Some main methods have been

used in many countries. The method changes due to the trend of the decade.

The famous main methods are: the Grammar Translation Method, the Direct

Method, the Audio-lingual Method, and the Communicative Method.

The Communicative Method has been recently used in many

countries including Indonesia. It is also called as the Communicative

Language Teaching method. An offshoot of Communicative Language

Teaching is Task-Based Teaching. It has an edge over other traditional

methods of teaching. According to Nunan (2004:216), task-based language

teaching (TBLT) is an approach to language teaching organized around tasks

rather than language structures. Gail K. Oura, in his journal, also gives an

opinion about task-based language learning that it is an overall approach to

language learning that views the tasks that learners do as central to the

learning process. The words task based itself, based on Tomlinson (1998),

refers to materials or courses which are designed around a series of authentic

tasks which give the learners experience of using the language in ways in

which it is used in the ‘real world’ outside the classroom. They have no pre-

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determined language syllabus and the aim is for learners to learn from the

tasks the language that they need to participate successfully in them. It can be

seen that task-based language teaching-learning sees tasks as an important

element in language teaching and learning process to enhance the language

proficiency of learners.

Task-based language learning (TBLL) was popularized by N. Prabhu

while working in Bangalore, India. Prabhu (1987) in Harmer (2001:86)

speculated that students were just as likely to learn language if they were

thinking about a non-linguistic problem as when they were concentrating on

particular language forms. In other words, the focus of the lesson is not the

structure but rather they are focused in the task itself. Harmer (2001:87) also

says that in task-based learning, students are given a task to perform and only

when the task has been completed does the teacher discuss the language that

was used, making correction and adjustment which the students’ performance

of the task has shown to be desirable.

Jane Willis (1996:52) in Harmer (2001:87) suggests three basic

stages in the task-based learning framework. They are the Pre-task, the Task

cycle, and Language focus.

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 Pre-task
Introduction to
topic and task

Task cycle
Task
Planning
Report

Language focus
Analysis
Practice

Figure 2: The Willis TBL framework

She explains that in the Pre-task the teacher explores the topic with

the class and may highlight useful words and phrases, helping students to

understand the task instruction. Students get exposure at the pre task stage,

and an opportunity to recall things they know. They may hear a recording of

other people doing the same task. Then, during the task cycle, the students

perform the task in pairs or small groups while the teacher monitors from a

distance. The students plan how they will tell the rest of the class what they

did and how it went, and they then report on the task either orally or in

writing, and/or compare notes on what has happened. The last stage is the

Language focus, in this stage the students examine and discuss specific

features of any listening or reading text which they have looked at for the task

and/or the teacher may conduct some form of practice of specific language

features which the task has provoked.

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 In this approach, the learning process is seen as a set of

communicative tasks that are directly linked to curricular goals. Learners are

given a problem or objective to accomplish but are left with some freedom in

approaching this problem or objective.

Nunan (2004:1) suggests that pedagogically, task-based language

teaching has strengthened the following principles and practices:

1. A need-based approach to content selection.

2. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the

target language.

3. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.

4. The provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on

language but also on the learning process itself.

5. An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as

important contributing elements to classroom learning.

6. The linking of classroom language learning with language use outside

the classroom.

Task-based language teaching and learning concentrates on the use

of authentic language and on asking students to do meaningful tasks using the

target language. It is a teaching method where teachers teach a language to

their students by performing tasks that bring the real world into the classroom.

Such tasks can include visiting a doctor, conducting an interview, or calling

customer service for help.

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 Brown (2001: 243) points out that in the task-based language

teaching and learning, the priority is not the bits and pieces of language, but

rather the functional purposes for which language must be used. It focuses on

a whole set of real-world tasks. Input for tasks can come from a variety of

authentic sources:

 Speeches  directions  photos

 conversations  invitations  diaries

 narratives  textbooks  songs

 public announcements  interviews  telephone directories

 cartoon strips  oral descriptions  menus

 letters  media extracts  labels

 poems games and puzzles

He also emphasizes that task-based curricula differ from other

methods, such as content-based, theme-based, and experimental instruction in

that the course objectives are somewhat more language-based. While there is

an ultimate focus on communication and purpose and meaning, the goals are

linguistic in nature. They are not linguistic in the traditional sense of just

focusing in grammar or phonology; but by maintaining the centrality of

functions like greeting people, expressing opinions, requesting information,

etc., the course goals center on learners’ pragmatic language competence.

From the theories above, it can be concluded that Task-based

Language teaching and learning is one of ways that can be implemented to

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 make the teaching and learning process becomes an interactive process

between teacher and students and each of the student by performing real world

tasks as the main activity in the classroom where the teacher’s role are as

source, facilitator, and much as monitor. From the activity in the class, the

students as a learner can change their behavior through experience.

B. Communicative Language Teaching

Task-based language teaching cannot be apart from communicative

approach – or Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). It is because task-

based language teaching views the learning process as a set of communicative

tasks that are directly linked to the curricular goals (Brown, 2001:50). It can

also be seen in the second principle of task-based language teaching that there

is an emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target

language. In other words, the tasks in the task-based language teaching should

be communicative tasks because the goal of it is to provide the students with

the skill to communicate in the target language. It means that this method uses

the communicative approach as the basic principle to achieve the goals. Nunan

(2004:10) also has a notion about the relationship between communicative

language teaching (CLT) and task-based language teaching. He says that CLT

is a broad, philosophical approach to the language curriculum that draws on

theory and research on linguistics, anthropology, psychology, and sociology,

whereas task-based language teaching represents a realization of this

philosophy at the levels of syllabus design and methodology.

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 In addition, Nunan (2004:212) defines communicative language

teaching as a philosophical approach to language teaching covering a range of

methodological approaches which share a focus on helping learners

communicate meaningfully in the target language. He sees that the basic

insight of language is it can be thought of as a tool for communication rather

than as sets of phonological, grammatical and lexical items to be memorized.

Brown (2001:43) has his own way to describe what the

communicative language teaching is. For the sake of simplicity and directness,

he offers six interconnected characteristics as a description of CLT as follows:

1. Classroom goals are focused on all of the components (grammatical,

discourse, functional, sociolinguistic, and strategic) of communicative

competence. Goals therefore must intertwine the organizational aspects of

language with the pragmatic.

2. Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic,

authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes.

Organizational language forms are not the central focus, but rather aspects

of language that enable the learners to accomplish those purposes.

3. Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying

communicative techniques. At times fluency may have to take on more

importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged

in language use.

4. Students in a communicative class ultimately have to use the language,

productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts outside the

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 classroom. Classroom tasks must therefore equip students with the skill

necessary for communication in those contexts.

5. Students are given opportunities to focus on their own learning process

through an understanding of their own styles of learning and through the

development of appropriate strategies for autonomous learning.

6. The role of the teacher is that of facilitator and guide, not an all-knowing

bestower of knowledge. Students are therefore encouraged to construct

meaning through genuine linguistic interaction with others.

In CLT less attention is given to the overt presentation and discussion

on grammatical rules but much more on the content. Chambers (1997) in

Brown (2001:43) says that in attempting to build fluency, a great deal of use of

authentic language is implied in CLT. Brown adds that it is important to note,

however, that fluency should never be encouraged at the expense of clear

direct, unambiguous, communication. In communicative classrooms, much

more spontaneity is present: students are encouraged to deal with unrehearsed

situations under the guidance, but not control, of the teacher.

Based on Harmer (2001:84-85), there are two aspects of

communicative language teaching, the first aspect is ‘what to teach’ and the

other is ‘how to teach’ aspect. The ‘what to teach’ aspect of the

Communication approach stressed the significance of the language functions

rather than focusing solely on grammar and vocabulary. The principle is to

train the students to use the language forms appropriately in any context and

purposes. While, the ‘how to teach’ aspect of the Communication approach is

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closely related to the idea that ‘language learning will take care of itself’, and

plentiful exposure to language in use and plenty of opportunities to use it are

vitally important for a student’s development of knowledge and skill. In the

activities of CLT, the students are engaged specifically in real or realistic

communication, where the successful achievement of the communicative task

they are performing is more important than the accuracy of language use.

Harmer (2001) also figures a continuum in order to differentiate the

communicative activities with non-communicative activities as bellows:

Non-communicative activities Communicative activities

no communicative desire a desire to communicate

no communicative purpose a communicative purpose
form not content content not form
one language item only variety of language
teacher intervention no teacher intervention
materials control no materials control

Figure 3: The communication continuum

From the explanations above, it can be concluded that

communicative language teaching is an approach to the teaching of second

and foreign languages that emphasizes the interaction in the target language as

the main activity in the classroom in order to enhance the communicative

competence of the students.

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C. Teaching English in Junior High School

The difference age of the learners influences a teacher in determining

the appropriate way that she/he should take to teach them. Which ages of our

students are belongs to is a crucial factor in choosing a learning approach.

This factor is important for the teachers to decide what and how to teach their

students. Harmer (2001:37) says that people of different ages have different

needs, competences, and cognitive skills.

The object of the research is the first grade students of junior high

school. Their ages are about 12-13 years old. It means that they are included

adolescents or teenagers. Generally, teenagers seem too less lively and

humorous than adults. They so much less motivated, they asked, and they

present outright discipline problems (Puchta and Schratz ,1993:1 in Harmer,

2001:38). They are in the year of searching individual identity where the

attention from friends is more important than from teacher. Sometimes, they

may be disruptive in class, make the teaching-learning process does not work

properly. In relation with this, Brown (2001:92) states that the “terrible teens”

are an age of transition, confusion, self-consciousness, growing, and changing

bodies and minds.

However, the issue of disruptive behaviour should not become a

burden or a problem that will always be talked. In another side of teenagers’

behaviour, it can be seen that they have a great capacity to learn, a great

potential for creativity, and a passionate commitment to things which interest

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them, if they are engaged. Therefore, teacher’s job must be to provoke student

engagement with material which is relevant and involved (Harmer, 2001:39).

Based on Brown (2001:92), there are some thoughts that must be

considered or as reminders for teachers when teaching teenagers:

1. Intellectual capacity adds abstract operational thought around the age of

twelve. Therefore, some sophisticated intellectual processing is

increasingly possible. Complex problems can be solved with logical

thinking. This means that linguistic metalanguage can now, theoretically,

have some impact. But the success of any intellectual endeavor will be a

factor of the attention a learner places on the task; therefore, if a learner is

attending to self, to appearance, to being accepted, to sexual thoughts, to

weekend party, or whatever, the intellectual task at hand may suffer.

2. Attention spans are lengthening as a result of intellectual maturation, but

once again, with many diversions present in a teenager’s life, those

potential attention span can easily be shortened.

3. Varieties of sensory input are still important, but, again, increasing

capacities for abstraction lessen the essential nature of appealing to all five

senses.

4. Factors surrounding ego, self-image, and self-esteem are at the principle.

Teens are ultrasensitive to how others perceive their changing physical and

emotional selves along with their mental capabilities. One of the most

important concerns of the secondary school teacher is to keep self-esteem

high by

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  avoiding embarrassment of students at all costs,

 affirming each person’s talents and strengths,

 allowing mistakes and other errors to be accepted,

 de-emphasizing competition between classmates, and

 encouraging small-group work where risk can be taken more easily

by a teen.

5. Secondary school students are of course becoming increasingly adultlike

in their ability to make those occasional diversions from the “here and

now” nature of immediate communicative contexts to dwell on a grammar

point or vocabulary item. But as in teaching adults, care must be taken not

to insult them with stilted language or to bore them with overanalysis.

D. Designing Learning Materials

1. Learning Materials

Tomlinson (1998:2) states that ‘language-learning materials’ refer to

anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of a

language. They could be cassettes, videos, CD-Roms, dictionaries, grammar

books, readers, workbook or photocopied exercises. Newspapers, food

packages, photographs (although, these not designed for instructional use),

live talks by invited native speakers, instruction given by a teacher, tasks

written on cards or discussions between learners could also be learning

materials. In other words, materials are anything which can improve the

students’ knowledge.

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 According to Nunan (1991: 208-209), there are two kinds of

instructional materials, namely commercially produced materials and teacher-

developed materials. Commercial materials refer to textbooks, course books,

and such materials that do not mean for any particular type of students, but for

all. These materials often can not fulfill the needs of the students. Therefore, in

using the commercial materials, it is important for the teacher to select the

materials, then match them with the goals and objectives of the programme

and adapt to student’s needs at particular time and situation. In other words, a

teacher should pay attention to what students really need in the learning

process.

In addition, according to Nunan (1988: 73), the materials developed

should be suitable to the existing curriculum and consist of the four skills:

listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It means that the good materials

should consider the rules in the existing curriculum. And the tasks which are

involved in the materials should involve the four skills: listening, speaking,

writing, and reading. The involvement of the four skills itself can be integrated

or separated. They are applied in some learning activities, which can be done

individually, in pairs, or in-group.

Cunningsworth (1995: 7) in Richard (2001: 251) summarizes the role

of materials in language teaching as:

 a resource for presentation materials (spoken and written)

 a source of activities for learners practice and communicative interaction

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  a reference source for learners on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation,

and so on

 a source of stimulation and ideas for classroom activities

 a syllabus (where they reflect learning objectives that have already been

determined)

 a support for less experiences teachers who have yet to gain in

confidence

Learning materials are a key component in most language programs.

Most of teachers use them as their primary teaching resource. Richard (2001:

252) says that the materials provide the basis or the content of lessons, the

balance of skills taught, and the kinds of language practice students take part

in. For learners, materials may provide the major source of contact they have

with the language apart from the teacher. Therefore, the role and uses of

materials in a language program are a significant aspect of language

curriculum development.

2. Learning Material Design

a. Material Development

As what have been written before, material is the important

element in the teaching and learning process. In order to make the materials

function optimally, teachers should develop the materials. Tomlinson (1998:2)

says that materials development refers to anything which is done by writers,

teachers or learners to provide sources of language input and to exploit those

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sources in ways which is maximized the likelihood of intake: in other words

the supplying of information about and/or experience of the language in ways

designed to promote language learning.

In addition, according to Tomlinson, materials developers might

write textbooks, tell stories, bring advertisements into the classroom, express

an opinion, provide samples of language use or read a poem aloud, or

whatever they do to provide input they do so in principled ways related to

what they know about how languages can be effectively learned. However,

Dudley-Evans and St. John (1998: 173) in Richard (2001: 262) observe that

“only a small proportion of good teachers are also good designers of course

materials.” Richard (2001: 262) says that preparing effective teaching

materials is similar to the processes involved in planning and teaching a

lesson. The goal is to create materials that can serve as resources for effective

learning. The developer stars with a learning goal in mind and then seeks to

create a set of activities that enable that goal to be reached.

Shulman (1987: 15) in Richard sees the processes of materials

development as a process of transformation of:

”The key to understanding the knowledge base of teaching lies at

the intersection of content and pedagogy, in the capacity of a

teacher to transform the content knowledge he or she possesses

into forms that are pedagogically powerful and yet adaptive to the

variations in ability and background presented by students.”

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He, then, goes on to describe the transformation phase of this process as

consisting of:

 preparation: critical interpretation and analysis of texts, structuring and

segmentation, development of curricular repertoire, and clarification of

purposes

 representation: use of representational repertoire that include analogies,

metaphors, examples, demonstrations, explanations, and so forth

 selection: choice from among an instructional repertoire that includes modes

of teaching, organizing, managing, and arranging

 adapting and tailoring to students characteristics: consideration of

conceptions, preconceptions, misconceptions, and difficulties; language,

culture, and motivations; and social class, gender, age, ability, aptitude,

interests, self-concepts, attention

Shulman suggests that in both materials development and

classroom teaching the goal is to develop a sequence of activities that leads

teachers and learners through a learning route that is at an appropriate level of

difficulty, is engaging, that provides both motivating and useful practice.

b. The Principles of Good Materials

Good materials do many of the things that a teacher would

normally do as his or her teaching. They should:

 arouse the learners’ interest

 remind them of earlier learning

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  tell them what they will be learning next

 explain new learning content to them

 relate these ideas to learners’ previous learning

 get learners to think about new content

 help them get feedback on their learning

 encourage them to practice

 make sure they know what they are supposed to be doing

 enable them to check their progress

 help them to do better

(Rowntree 197: 92) in Richard (2001: 263)

In addition, good materials should have some criteria that

differentiate them from others. Tomlinson (1998, p. 7- 21) suggests some

criteria of good English material as stated below.

1) Materials should achieve impact; through novelty, variety,

attractive presentation, appealing content.

2) Materials should help learners to feel at ease.

3) Materials should help learners to develop confidence.

4) What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant

and useful.

5) Materials should require and facilitate learner self-investment.

6) Learners must be ready to require the points being taught

7) Materials should expose the learners’ to language in authentic use.

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 8) The learners’ attention should be drawn to linguistics features of

the input.

9) Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the

target language to achieve communicative purposes.

10) Materials should take into account that the positive effects of

instruction are usually delayed.

11) Materials should take into account that learners differ in learning

styles.

12) Materials should take into account that learners differ in affective

attitudes.

13) Materials should permit a silent period at the beginning of

instruction.

14) Materials should maximize learning potential by encouraging

intellectual, aesthetic and emotional involvement which stimulates

both right and left brain activities.

15) Materials should not rely too much on controlled practice.

16) Materials should provide opportunities for outcomes feedback.

3. Learning Task

a. Tasks Defined

The term of task has been defined in a variety of ways. There are

many experts from many field of study defined the term of task using their

own opinion. According to Jane Willis (1996), a task is a goal-oriented activity

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with a clear purpose. Brown (2001: 129) defines task as a specialized form of

technique or series of techniques closely related with communicative

curricula, and as such must minimally have communicative goals. The focus

of this definition is on the authentic use of language for meaningful purposes

beyond the language classroom. Breen (1987) in Tomlinson (1998: 198) also

gives his contribution in defining task. He says that task is activity within the

materials that invite the learners to do some action, which has the direct aim of

bringing about the learning of the foreign language.

Tomlinson (198: 198) identify three key aspects of tasks:

1. a process through which learners and teachers are to go

2. classroom participation concerning with whom (if anyone) the learners are

to work

3. content that the learners are focus on

From the three key aspects above, Tomlinson formulates some

‘questions’ that can be put to each task. The first question is about the process.

There are three sub-sections concerning process which focus in detail on what

precisely learners are expected to do. The first sub-section is ‘Turn-take’

which relates to the role in classroom discourse that the learners are expected

to take. Are they responding to the direct questions, using language largely

supplied by the materials (e.g. comprehension questions, or drills), are they

asked to ‘initiate’, using language not supplied (e.g. ‘free writing’, or asking

their own questions), or are they not required to take any direct role at all (for

example, only to take of grammar explanation)? The second sub-section is

19
about the focus of the learners. ‘Focus’ refers to whether the learners are asked

to focus on the meaning of the language, its form or both. The last sub-section

is ‘operation’, refers to the mental process required – for example, repetition

deducing language rules, and so on.

Second, the question asks about classroom participation: ‘With

whom?’ – are the learners to work alone, in pairs/groups, or with the whole

class? Then, the last question asks about the content of the task. Is it written or

spoken? Is it individual words/sentences or extended discourse? Where does it

come from – the materials, the teacher or the learners themselves? And what is

its nature – is it, for example, grammar explanations, personal information,

fiction, general knowledge and so on?

Nunan (2004: 1-2) divides task into two kinds. He calls the first

type as real-world or target tasks, and the second as pedagogical tasks. He

explains briefly that target tasks refer to uses of language in the world beyond

the classroom, while pedagogical tasks are those that occur in the classroom.

Long (1985: 89) in Nunan, argues that a target task is:

“a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for

some reward. Thus examples of tasks include painting a fence,

dressing a child, filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes, making

an airline observation, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline

reservation, borrowing a library book, taking a driving test, typing

a letter, weighing a patient, sorting letters, making a hotel

reservation, writing a cheque, finding a street destination and

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 helping someone across a road. In other word, by ‘task’ is meant

the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at

play and in between”.

From Long’s theory above, it can be seen that he wants to

emphasize that tasks given to learners should be beneficial tasks in their life.

When the tasks are transformed from the real-world to the classroom, they

become pedagogical in nature. Ellis ((2003: 16) in Nunan (2004: 3) defines a

pedagogical task as a workplan that requires learners to pragmatically process

language in order to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated to convey the

appropriate proportional content. It also requires them to give primary

attention to the meaning and to use their own linguistic resources. A task is

intended to result language that is used in the real world. Like other language

activities, a task can engage productive or receptive, and oral or written skills

and also various cognitive processes. Related to this, Nunan has his own

definition about pedagogical task. He says that it is a piece of classroom work

that involve learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or

interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing

their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning and in which the

intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form.

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 From the theories above, it can be concluded that tasks are some

meaningful actions within the materials that the learners should do in the

classroom that is not separated from the outside world and have certain

proposes to be reached. In other words, tasks can be some actions that bring

the real world into the classroom.

b. Task components

Tasks, specifically, can be analyzed according to the goals, the

input data, the activities derived from the input, the settings and roles implied

for teacher and learners. Nunan (1989: 48) figures a way to analyze the

various elements of tasks as below:

Goals Teacher
role

Input TASKS Learner role

Activities Settings

Figure 4: A framework for analyzing communicative tasks

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1. Goals

Goals refer to the general intentions for the learning task. They

provide a link between the task and the broader curriculum. Goals can also

relate to a range of general outcomes (communicative, affective or cognitive)

or can directly describe the behavior of the teacher or learner. Another

consideration that should be noted is that goals are not always explicitly

stated, although they can usually be inferred from an examination of a task.

Additionally, it is not easy to find a simple one-to-one relationship between

goals and tasks. In some cases, a complex task involving a range of activities

might be simultaneously moving learners towards several goals.

ALL (Australian Language Level) tries to make the classification

of goals and illustrates how goals can be sociocultural, process-oriented or

cultural, as well as communicative.

Table 1

Goal Type Example

Communicative establish and maintain interpersonal relations and

through this to exchange information, ideas, opinions,

attitudes and feelings and to get things done

Sociocultural have some understanding of the everyday life

patterns of their contemporary age group in the target

language speech community; this will cover their life

at home, at school and at leisure

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Learning-how-to-learn To negotiate and plan their work over a certain time

span, and learn how to set themselves realistic

objectives and how to devise the means to attain them

Language and cultural To have some understanding of the systematic nature

awareness of language and the way it works

(Adapted from Clark 1987: 227-32) in Nunan (1989: 49)

It is important to remember that the goals are not necessarily

mutually exclusive, and that there may be tasks which cover more than one

goal. For example, when a small group discuss about sociocultural theme, it

might relate to both communicative and sociocultural goals.

Since the ALL project is concerned with communicative outcomes,

communicative goals are classified into three areas as presented below:

a. Establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationship, and

through this exchange information, ideas, opinions, attitudes

and feeling, and to get things done.

b. Acquiring information from more or less ‘public’ sources in the

target language (e.g. books, magazines, newspapers, brochures,

documents, signs, notices, films, television, slides, tape, radio,

public announcements, lectures or written reports etc.) and

using this information in some way.

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 c. Listening to, reading, enjoying and responding to creative and

imaginative uses of the target language (e.g. stories, poems,

songs, rhyme, drama) and, for certain learners, creating them

themselves.

(Clark 1987: 226 in Nunan (1989: 50)

2. Input

According to Nunan (1989: 53-54), input refers to the data that

form the point of departure for the task. In fact, input for communicative tasks

can be derived from a wide range of sources. The data can be provided by a

teacher, a textbook, or even by the learners themselves. Nunan believes that

authentic materials are valuable input. He defines that authentic material is

any material which has not been specifically produced for the purposes of

language teaching. Further, he says that the argument for using authentic

materials is derived from the notion that the most effective way to develop a

particular skill is to rehearse that skill in class.

Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 108-109) argue that input may be a

text, dialogue, video-recording, diagram or any piece of communication data

depending on the needs which have been defined in the need analysis. The

input provides a number of things: (a) stimulus material for activities; (b) new

language items; (c) correct models of language use; (d) a topic for

communication; (e) opportunities for learners to use their information

processing skills; (f) opportunities for learners to use their existing knowledge

both of the language and the subject matter. The good input is those which can

25
help the learners and the teacher to attain the learning purposes and all at once

fulfill the need of the learners.

3. Activities

Activities specify what learners will actually perform with the

input. Nunan (1989; 59) proposes three generals ways of characterizing

activities, which include rehearsal for the real world; skills use; and

fluency/accuracy. He also presents some specific examples of activity types

proposed by some experts.

In the Bangalore Project, Prabhu (in Nunan, 1989: 66) used three

principal activity types. They are information gap, reasoning gap, and opinion

gap that are explained as follows:

a. Information-gap activity, which involve a transfer of given information

from one person to another – or from one form to another, or from one

place to another – generally calling for the decoding or encoding of

information from or into language. One example is pair work in which

each member of the pair has a part of the total information (for example an

incomplete picture) and attempt to convey it verbally to the other. Another

example is completing a tabular representation with information available

in a given piece of text. The activity often involves selection relevant

information as well, and learners may have to meet criteria of

completeness and correctness in making the transfer.

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b. Reasoning-gap activity, which involves deriving some new information

from given information through processes of inference, deduction,

practical reasoning, or a perception of relationships or patterns. One

example is working out a teacher’s timetable on the basis of given class

timetable. Another is deciding what course of action is best (for example

cheapest or quickest) for a given purposes and within given constraints.

The activity necessarily involves comprehending and conveying

information, as in information-gap activity, but the information to be

conveyed is not identical with that initially comprehended. There is a piece

of reasoning which connects the two.

c. Opinion-gap activity, which involves identifying and articulating a

personal reference, feeling, or attitude in response to a given situation. One

example is story completion; another is taking part in the discussion of a

social issue. The activity may involve using factual information and

formulating arguments to justify one’s opinion, but there is objective

procedure for demonstrating outcomes as right or wrong, and no reason to

expect the same outcome from different individuals or on different

occasions.

In addition, Clark (in Nunan, 1989: 67) proposes seven broad

communicative activity types. He suggests that language programs should

enable learners to:

a. solve problems through social interaction with others, for example,

participate in conversation related to the pursuit of a common activity with

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 others, obtain goods and services and necessary information through

conversation or correspondence, make arrangements and come to

decisions with others (convergent tasks);

b. establish and maintain relationships and discuss topic of interest through

the exchange of information, ideas, opinions, attitudes, feelings,

experiences and plans (divergent task);

c. search for specific information for some given purpose, process it, and use

it some way (for example, find out the cheapest way to go from A to B);

d. listen to or read information, process it, and use it some way (for example,

read a news item and discuss it with someone, read an article and

summarize it, listen to a lecture and write notes on it);

e. give information in spoken or written form on the basis of personal

experience (for example, give a talk, write a report, write a diary, record a

set of instructions on how to do something, or fill in a form);

f. listen to, read or view a story, poem, feature etc. and perhaps respond to it

personally in some way (for example, read a story and discuss it);

g. create an imaginative text (for some learners only).

Pattison (1987) in Nunan (1989: 68) also proposes seven activity

types, they are: (a) question and answer, (b) dialogues and role play, (c)

matching activities, (d) communication strategies, (e) pictures and picture

stories, (f) puzzles and problems, (g) discussions and decisions.

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 The typologies which are proposed by Clark and Pattison in Nunan

(1989: 67-68) are quite different. Clark focuses on the sorts of uses to which

we put language in the real world, while Pattison has a pedagogic focus.

4. Teacher Role

Generally, the role of the teacher and the learner can be described

as the part that learners and teachers are expected to play in carrying out

learning tasks as well as the social and interpersonal relationships between the

participants (Nunan, 2004: 64). Teachers can play many roles in the course of

teaching. They can be a controller, organizer, assessor, prompter, participant,

resource, tutor, or observer (Harmer, 2001: 58-62). Rebbeca Oxford et al.

(1998) in Brown (2001: 166-167) point out that teacher roles are often best

described in the form of metaphor: the teacher as manufacture, the teacher as

doctor, the teacher as judge, the teacher as gardener, and others.

According to Richards and Rodgers in Nunan (1989: 84), teacher

roles are related to the following issues:

(a) the types of the functions teachers are expected to fulfill, e.g. whether that

of practice director, counselor or model

(b) the degree of control the teacher has over how learning takes place

(c) the degree of which the teacher is responsible for content

(d) the interactional patterns that develop between teachers and learners

In the other hand, the teacher can take role as selector/sequencer of

tasks, developer of tasks, strategy-instructor, facilitator, and provider of

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assistance in the second language tasks. Nunan (1989) also states that

traditionally the role of the teacher is to provide correct models to set tasks

and to provide corrective feedback. In other words, the teacher should know

how to place him self and know which role he should take in the teaching and

learning process.

5. Learner Role

There are also some roles that should be taken by the learners in

order to make the language teaching and learning process run well. Richards

and Rodgers (1986), in their comprehensive analysis of approaches and

methods in language teaching, point out that a method (and, in our case, a

task) will reflect assumptions about the contributions that learners can make to

the learning process. The following table figures out the analysis carried out

by Richards and Rodgers in Nunan, 1989: 80:

Table 2

Approach Roles

Oral/Situational learner listens to teacher and repeats; no control

over content or methods

Audiolingual learners has little control; reacts to teacher

direction; passive, reactive role

Communicative learners has an active, negotiative role; should

contribute as well as receive

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Total Physical Response learner is a listener and performer; little influence

over content and none over methodology

The Silent Way learners learn through systematic analysis; must

become independent and autonomous

Community Language learners are members of a social group or

Learning community; move from dependence to autonomy as

learning progresses

The Natural Approach learners play an active role and have relatively high

degree of control over content language production

Suggestopedia learners are passive, have little control over content

or methods

This analysis shows the wide variety of learner roles which are

possible in the language class. These include:

(a) the learner is the passive recipient of outside stimuli;

(b) the learner is an interactor and negotiator who is capable of giving as well

as taking;

(c) the learner is a listener and performer who has little control over the

content of learning;

(d) the learner is involved in a process of personal growth;

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(e) the learner is involved in a social activity, and the social and interpersonal

roles of the learner cannot be divorced from psychological learning

process;

(f) learners must take responsibility for their own learning, developing

autonomy and skills in learning-how-to-learn.

Richards and Rodgers; and Scarcella as quoted by Oxford (2006)

as quoted by Nuki (2008) identify possible task roles for learners, such as

group participant, monitor, risk-taker or innovator, strategy user, goal-setter,

self-evaluator, and others. However, a particularly important learner role in a

task situation is that of task-analyzer where the learners should analyze task

requirements and find suitable strategies to match them. They can take control

of the task and be responsible for his or her performance on the task by

considering the task requirements and employing learning strategies to

accomplish the task more efficiently and more effectively.

6. Settings

According to Nunan (1989: 90), settings refers to the classroom

arrangements specified or implied in the task, and it also requires

consideration of whether the task is to be carried out wholly or partly outside

the classroom. Further, he distinguishes between two different aspects of the

learning situation. They are ‘mode’ and ‘environment’. Learning mode refers

to whether the learner is operating on an individual or group basis.

Meanwhile, environment refers to where the learning actually takes place.

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 Nunan believes that the specification of all these components is

needed when selecting, adapting, modifying, and creating communicative

task. It can also be concluded from the figure 4 above that a task can be

viewed as a piece of meaning focused work, involving learners in

comprehending, producing and/or interacting in the target language. And that

the tasks are analyzed or categorized according to their goals input data,

activities, settings and roles.

4. Material Design

Every language teacher today should realize the importance and the

relevance of the materials within the curriculum and they are the most

concrete and visible aspect of the curriculum. Therefore, it is very important to

match the materials used in the classroom with the goals and the objectives

that has been set up by the curriculum. In other hand, if the teaching-learning

materials are readily available, the teacher’s job is easier. But, if they are not

available, the teacher should develop them to meet the learning needs of the

students.

In relation to designing materials, Masuhara (in Tomlinson, 1998:

247) proposes the sequence of course design recommended by experts which

can be summarized as the linear Model X as follows:

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 Needs analysis

Goals and objectives

Syllabus design

Methodology/ materials

Testing and evaluation

Figure 5: Model X – course design

procedures

From figure 5 above, it can be seen that materials can not be

separated from syllabus design, and the goals and objectives. In other words, it

is crucial to see how the relationship between them. The material developer

can create any task based on the learners’ needs.

Furthermore, Nunan (1991: 216) suggests that in designing

materials, there is one of the procedures which can be readily adapted by

teachers with access to authentic sources of data. It is in creating materials the

teacher and textbook writer can probably juggle topic, text, and task elements.

Then they can create activities which reflect the communicative needs of the

learners in relation to the topic. Based on topic, text, and task, Nunan also

proposes a set of draft in developing materials as follow:

Step 1. Select the topic

Step 2. Collect data

Step 3. Determine what learners will need to do in relation to the texts

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 Step 4. Create pedagogical activities/procedures

Step 5. Analyze texts and activities to determine the language elements

Step 6. Create activities focusing on language elements

Step 7. Create activities focusing on learning skills/strategies

Step 8. Create application tasks

Meanwhile, Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 108-109) present a

material design model consists of four elements namely: input, content focus,

language focus, and task. They argue that the primary focus of the unit is the

task. The material design model that they propose can be seen as in figure 6:

INPUT

CONTENT LANGUAGE

TASK

Figure 6: A material design model proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 108)

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5. Task Evaluation

Candlin (1987) in Nunan (2004: 173) suggests that the task

evaluation should cover three broads areas. These are ‘problematicity’,

‘implementability’, and ‘combinability’. ‘Problematicity’ refers to the extent

to which a given task reveals variations in learners’ abilities and knowledge,

the extent to which it is diagnostic or explanatory, whether it provides

monitoring and feedback, and whether it can be used as a basis for future

action. ‘Implementability’ involves a consideration of the resources required,

the organizational and management complexity, and the adaptability of the

task. Then, the last is ‘combinability’ requires us to consider the extent to

which the task can be sequenced and integrated with other tasks.

According to Breen as quoted by Ellis (in Tomllinson 1998: 227),

tasks can be viewed from three different perspectives i.e. (1) tasks as

workplans (2) tasks in process and (3) tasks as outcomes. When the tasks are

viewed as workplans, these are concerned with the actions and learning that

the task is designed to bring about. Then, if the tasks are viewed in process, it

needs to be examined what actually takes place as a task is used with a

particular group of learners. On the other hand, when the tasks are viewed as

outcomes, it needs to be considered what actions and learning are actually

accomplished as a result of performing the task.

In addition, Ellis (in Tomlinson 1998) suggests five steps for

conducting an evaluation of a task as follows:

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 Description of the task:
content (input, procedures, language activity)
STEP 1
objective(s)

STEP 2 Planning the evaluation

STEP 3 Collecting information

Analysis of the information collected

STEP 4

Conclusions and recommendations

STEP 5

Figure 7: Steps in conducting an evaluation of a task

The brief description of each of the step is as follows:

Step 1. Describing the task can be achieved by specifying the content of the

task and the objective(s). The content itself consist of input,

procedure, and language activities. The first is input, it refers to

information that the learners are supplied with. It can be in the form

of verbal and non-verbal. Second is the procedure. Procedure is a

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 series of activities that has to be done by the students to complete the

task. The last is language activities which consist of the activity of

listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Meanwhile, the objective is

the goal of each task that should be accomplish by the students.

Step 2. In conducting an evaluation of a task, it is impossible to achieve a

systematic and principled evaluation without prior planning. The

early act of carrying out the planning of a task evaluation may have a

beneficial impact n the choice and design of a task.

Step 3. In evaluating a task, it needs to be considered to collect three types of

information: (1) information about how the task performed, (2)

information about what learning took place as a result of performing

the task and (3) information regarding the teacher’s and the learner’s

opinions about the task. These information can be collected (1)

before the task is used, (2) while the task is being used and (3) on

completion of the task.

Step 4. After the information needed are collected, the next step is analysis

that information. There are two ways in analyzing data: quantitative

analysis and qualitative analysis. A quantitative analysis involves the

use of numbers while a qualitative analysis involves a more holistic

and, perhaps, impressionistic approach.

Step 5. The last step is to make ‘conclusions’ and also ‘recommendations’.

Conclusions relate to what has been discovered as a result of the

analysis. Meanwhile, recommendations concern proposals for future

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 teaching. Each recommendation should be supported by reference to

relevant conclusion.

2. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Based on the literature review, in this research, a task is defined as

activities involving learners in comprehending, performing, and interacting in

the target language with a clear purpose. The focus is mainly on the meaning

rather than on language form. Related to the current curriculum that requires

the school and the teachers to develop their own curriculum based on the

learners’ needs and characteristics, the researcher would try to help the

English teacher of SMP N 2 Wonosari in developing materials, especially in

the form of task which are more interesting and challenging for the students,

especially for the first grade students of SMP 2 Wonosari.

Furthermore, a task is considered effective when it is feasible to be

done by the students, using the appropriate language level, and enhancing the

students’ motivation to communicate in the target language. In the other hand,

the task should give the opportunity for the occurrence of the interactions of

the students using the target language, in this case is English, for the purpose

of communication.

In developing task, the researcher modifies a procedure of course

design proposed by Masuhara (in Tomlinson, 1998) which is recommended by

some experts. In the other hand, for the process of evaluating the designed

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task, the researcher refers to the step of evaluation of a task proposed by Ellis

(in Tomlinson, 1998). The procedure of the task development is presented in

the following chart.

Conducting need analysis

Writing the course grid

Developing the tasks

Conducting try out and evaluation

Revising and writing the final draft of the tasks

Figure 8: The procedure of task development

The next chapter presents the research method used by the

researcher in conducting her study. This chapter will consist of descriptions

about type of the study, sample of the research, instrument of the research,

data collection techniques, data analysis techniques, research procedure, also

validity and reliability of the data.

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