【原】英语教学法选读54：任务型教学法之“任务”的定义

导读：本篇是英语教学法泰斗David Nunan 2004年的著作《任务型语言教学（Task-Based Language Teaching）》第一章“何为任务型语言教学”第二节《定义“任务》。为促进原文阅读，这里仅对努南本人对任务的定义进行了对照翻译，其他部分仅提供英文原文。

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Defining ‘task’

Before doing anything else, I need to define the central concept behind this book. In doing so, I will draw a basic distinction between what I will call real-world or target tasks, and pedagogical tasks: target tasks, as the name implies, refer to uses of language in the world beyond the classroom; pedagogical tasks are those that occur inthe classroom.

Long (1985: 89) frames his approach to task-based language teaching in terms of target tasks, arguing 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 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 helping someone across a road. In other words, by‘task’ is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play and in between.

The first thing to notice about this definition is that it is non-technical and non-linguistic. It describes the sorts of things that the person in the street would say if asked what they were doing. (In the same way as learners, if asked why they are attending a Spanish course, are more likely to say, ‘So I can make hotel reservations and buy food when I’m in Mexico,’ than ‘So I can master the subjunctive.’) Related to this is the notion that, in contrast with most classroom language exercises, tasks have a non-linguistic outcome. Non-linguistic outcomes from Long’s list above might include a painted fence, possession – however temporary – of a book, a driver’s licence, a room in a hotel, etc. Another thing to notice is that some of the examples provided may not involve language use at all (it is possible to paint a fence without talking). Finally, individual tasks may be part of a larger sequence of tasks; for example the task of weighing a patient may be a sub-component of the task ‘giving a medical examination’.

When they are transformed from the real world to the classroom, tasks become pedagogical in nature. Here is a definition of a pedagogical task:

. . . an activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding language (i.e. as a response). For example, drawing a map while listening to a tape, listening to an instruction and performing a command may be referred to as tasks. Tasks may or may not involve the production of language. A task usually requires the teacher to specify what will be regarded as successful completion of the task. The use of a variety of different kinds of tasks in language teaching is said to make language teachingmore communicative . . . since it provides a purpose for a classroom activity which goes beyond the practice of language for its own sake.

(Richards, etal. 1986: 289)

In this definition, we can see that the authors take a pedagogical perspective. Tasks are defined in terms of what the learners will do in class rather than in the world outside the classroom.They also emphasize the importance of having a non-linguistic outcome.

Breen (1987: 23) offers another definition of a pedagogical task:

. . . any structured language learning endeavour which has a particular objective, appropriate content, a specified working procedure, and a range of outcomes for those who undertake the task. ‘Task’ is therefore assumed to refer to a range of work plans which have the overall purposes of facilitating language learning – from the simple and brief exercise type, to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or simulations and decision-making.

This definition is very broad, implying as it does that just about anything the learner does in the classroom qualifies as a task. It could, in fact, be used to justify any procedure at all as‘task-based’ and, as such, is not particularly helpful. More circumscribed is the following from Willis (1996) , cited in Willis and Willis (2001): a classroom undertaking ‘. . . where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve an outcome’. Here the notion of meaning is subsumed in ‘outcome’. Language in a communicative task is seen as bringing about an outcome through the exchange of meanings. (p. 173).

Skehan (1998), drawing on a number of other writers, puts forward five key characteristics of a task:

• meaning is primary

• learners are not given other people’s meaning to regurgitate

• there is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities

• task completion has some priority

• the assessment of the task is in terms of outcome.

  ( See also Bygate, Skehan and Swain 2001,who argue that the way we define a task will depend to a certain extent on the purposes to which the task is used.)

  Finally, Ellis (2003:16) defines a pedagogical task in the following way:

  A task is a work plan that requires learners to process language pragmatically in order to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated in terms of whether the correct or appropriate propositional content has been conveyed. To this end, it requires them to give primary attention to meaning and to make use of their own linguistic resources, although the design of the task may predispose them to choose particular forms. A task is intended to result in language use that bears a resemblance, direct or indirect, to the way language is used inthe real world. Like other language activities, a task can engage productive or receptive, and oral or written skills and also various cognitive processes.

  My own definition is that a pedagogical task is a piece of classroomwork that involves 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. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right with a beginning, a middle and an end.

• 教学任务是一项在教室里进行的事件，要求学习者理解、利用、生成目标语言，进行互动，充分动用他们的语法知识，把注意力的焦点放在意义的表达上，意图是传达意义而非掌握（语言）形式。（教学）任务也应当具备（可）完整性，能够独立成为一种交际行为，要有开头、主体和结尾。
  

While these definitions vary somewhat, they all emphasize the fact that pedagogical tasks involve communicative language use in which the user's attention is focused on meaning rather than grammatical form. This does not mean that form is not important. My own definition refers to the deployment of grammatical knowledge to express meaning, highlighting the fact that meaning and form are highly interrelated, and that grammar exists to enable the language user to express different communicative meanings. However, as Willis and Willis (2001) point out, tasks differ from grammatical exercises in that learners are free to use a range of language structures to achieve task outcomes – the forms are not specified in advance.

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