Literature review: EFL syllabus design (Continued).
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3.4.4. The process paradigm
3.4.4.1. Introduction
In contrast to Propositional plans, which pre-suppose a syllabus designer who pre-selects and pre-organises teaching and learning content based on personal (usually formal and synthetic) assumptions and beliefs about SLA and the language-learning syllabus, process plans "more directly address the ways in which learners might achieve objectives and how they navigate the route itself" (Breen 1987a:161). They are about how something is done, seeking "to represent knowledge of how correctness, appropriacy, and meaningfulness can be simultaneously achieved during communication within events and situations" (Breen 1987b:160).

The growth of the process approach and the emergence and popularity of the 'language-task' as an important unit of process syllabus design and classroom use can be attributed in part to a dissatisfaction on the part of EFL/ESL teachers with various method-based approaches (e.g. the 'Grammar-translation" method, the "Direct method", the "Reading method", the "Audiolingual method", and the "Audiovisual method" [Stern 1983]), in addition to the problems associated with propositional syllabi (section 3.4.3). Thus Type A syllabi were rejected for their interventionist, authoritarian nature, with their view of teaching as the transmission of pre-selected and pre-digested knowledge, in favour of  "a social and problem-solving orientation, with explicit provision for the expression of individual learning styles and preferences" (Long & Crookes 1993:33).

3.4.4.2. The task-based syllabus (TBS)
3.4.4.2.1.  Introduction
The task-based syllabus reflects an emphasis on 'means' rather than 'product', and has gained considerable popularity since the Bangalore project (1979-84) and Breen's article of 1987, such that the concept of 'language task' has become an important building block within the curriculum (Nunan 1993:66), and "a central pedagogical tool for the language teacher as well as a basic unit for language syllabus design and research" (Williams & Burden 1997:168). Theoretical bases for task-based learning (TBL) can be traced to further development of Hymes' ideas, built on Widdowson's distinctions between language use and usage (Widdowson 1978a:18), and on his identification of the need to be fluent in, and to have a knowledge of, communicative conventions derived from experience of language use. This anticipated the extension of Chomsky's linguistic competence into a complex of interacting competencies (Canale & Swain, 1980), attention being concentrated on the way in which these are actually applied in language, and on how they allow users to be creative with language and with its conventions (Brumfit 1984b). As a result, and in similar fashion to the way in which grammar and structure had come to be seen as inadequate descriptions of language per se, the four macro-skills which had been so important to the functional syllabus, were in turn recognised as constituent parts of an underlying competence in language, and not as the language itself (Widdowson, 1978a;  Breen & Candlin 1980).

Task-based syllabi (TBS) justify the use of an analytic Type B syllabus on: i) its compatibility with research findings on language learning (Hatch 1983; Ellis 1985b; Larsen-Freeman & Long 1991); ii) its approach to content selection based on course design principles made explicit in the 1970s (Mackay & Mountford 1978; Widdowson 1979; Selinker, Tarone & Hanzeli 1981; Swales 1984; 1990; Tickoo 1988); and iii) its attempt to incorporate findings from classroom-centred research when designing materials and methodologies (Chaudron 1988). Long and Crookes thus adopt 'task' as the unit of syllabus analysis in an attempt to provide an "integrated, internally coherent approach to all six phases of programme design" (1993:9): i) needs identification; ii) syllabus design; iii) methodology design; iv) materials writing; v) testing; and vi) programme evaluation. Other commentaries on the use of 'task' in the syllabus and curriculum can be found in Candlin & Murphy (1987), Prabhu (1987), White (1988), Nunan (1989; 1993), Legutke & Thomas (1991), Crookes & Gass (1993a;b), Long & Crookes (1993), Willis (1996), and Willis, J. & Willis, D. (1996).

3.4.4.2.1.1. Task-based syllabi - definitions.
As with the terms "curriculum" and "syllabus", the form and function of the language learning "task" has been interpreted differently by syllabus designers and language teachers in the 1980s and 1990s, to the extent that (as with the "communicative" approach) many would claim to be "task-based", whatever their ideological persuasion, "task" being "anything the learners are given to do (or choose to do) in the language classroom to further the process of language learning" (Williams & Burden, 1997:167). The concept of 'task' thus has a capacity to be "all things to all people", despite specific philosophical approaches inherent in the process paradigm, of which TBLT is one example (cf. Finch 1999:180). Indeed, the number of definitions of "task" in the literature (below) attest to widely differing views on how to use this particular unit of syllabus design in language learning, from the "strong form" in which everything is subsidiary to the task as a "unit of teaching" (cf. Legutke & Thomas 1991), to the "weak form" (cf. Willis 1996), in which tasks are "a vital part of language instruction, but ... are embedded in a more complex pedagogic context" (Skehan 1996a:39).

Kumaravadivelu (1993b) offers evidence of this divergence of intention (if not confusion) in his collection of  "task" definitions which forms the basis of the following list:

... one of a set of differentiated, sequencable, problem-posing activities involving learner and teachers in some joint selection from a range of varied cognitive and communicative procedures applied to existing and new knowledge in the collective exploration and pursuance of foreseen or emergent goals within a social milieu. (Candlin 1987:10)

An activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding language. ... 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 teaching more communicative ... since it provides a purpose for a classroom activity which goes beyond the practice of language for its own sake. (Richards, Platt & Weber 1985:289)

... one of a set of differentiated, sequencable goal-directed activities drawing upon a range of cognitive and communicative procedures relatable to the acquisition of pre-genre and genre skills appropriate to a foreseen or emerging socio-rhetorical situation. (Swales 1990:76)

... a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right. ... When tasks are implemented in the classroom an observer of participants' judgement will determine the degree of completeness as much as the characteristics of the task itself. (Nunan 1993:59)

A language learning task is also about communication and its codes and conventions; its content can offer data on language and information about language. The content of language tasks can, therefore, be metacommunicative because its subject-matter is directly or indirectly about the means of communication and about the workings of language in use. A grammar exercise, a graded reading, or a written dialogue will serve to exemplify the workings of language by using messages to carry and reveal the code. Alternatively, a problem-solving task based upon a sample of target language in use may exploit the code as a means to involve the learner in interpreting and expressing meanings. (Breen 1987a:17)

... any structured language learning endeavor 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 workplans which have the overall purpose 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. (Breen 1987b:23)

... for present purposes a task is taken to be an activity in which: i) meaning is primary; ii) there is some sort of relationship to the real world; iii) task completion has some priority; and iv) the assessment of task performance is in terms of task outcome. (Skehan 1996a:38)

An activity which required learners to arrive at an outcome, from given information through some process of thought, and which allowed teachers to control and regulate the process, was regarded as a "task". (Prabhu 1987:24)

...a piece of work undertaken for oneself or others, freely or for some reward. ... In other words, by 'task' is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between. Tasks are the things people will tell you to do if you ask them and they are not applied linguists. (Long 1985a:89)

...a piece of work or an activity, usually with a specified objective, undertaken as part of an educational course or at work. (Crookes 1986:1)

The defining characteristic of task-based content is that it uses activities that the learners have to do for non-instructional purposes outside of the classroom as opportunities for language learning.  Tasks are distinct from other activities to the degree that they have non-instructional purposes (Krahnke 1987:67).

... a range of workplans which have the overall purpose of facilitating language learning - from the simple and varied exercise type to more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or simulations and decision-making (Breen 1987b:23).

The term 'task' has thus become very broad, and can imply almost any activity in any SL classroom. It is necessary therefore to examine the philosophical and psychological bases that differentiate TBSs from other types of syllabus design. Breen (1987b:164) identifies the roots of task-based theory in 'situational' approaches to language teaching (cf. Corder 1960), along with three other influences:

1.  comprehensive analysis of knowledge and capabilities which learners need in order to achieve certain things (Singleton 1978);
2. classroom use of thematic, project-based or open-ended materials which are not tied to a syllabus (The Humanities Curriculum Project 1970);
3. use of problem-solving as a means of learning a wide range of knowledge and capabilities, where problem-solving is seen as a more holistic account of learning than implied by item 1 (Winitz & Reeds 1975; Adams 1986).

From these roots and from theory and research within language teaching, four reasons for  employing a  task-based syllabus can be derived:

1.  the inherent value of problem-solving tasks in generating learner interaction and, thereby, the negotiation of comprehensible input (Long 1983b; 1985b);
2. the need for pedagogy to focus on the processes of learner participation in discourse (Widdowson 1981; Zamel 1983) and the procedures which they adopt in order to access new knowledge (Bialystok & Sharwood Smith 1985);
3. the possibility that a syllabus can be sequenced on the basis of addressing learner problems as they arise, thereby overcoming sequencing limitations of conventional syllabus design criteria (Schinnerer-Erben 1981);
4. the ability of learners to work upon input and information and materials design, thus reducing the pressure on the teacher to continually search for content material (Breen et al 1979).

Early attempts to implement analytic, Type B Task-based syllabi (Newmark 1964; 1966; Newmark & Reibel 1968; Reibel 1969; Macnamara 1973) had little institutional backing and no accompanying teaching materials from commercial publishers, so classroom implementation was therefore small scale and the result of individual effort and imagination (Newmark 1971; Dakin 1973; Allwright 1976). One larger institutionalized project was reported, in connection with development of the Malaysian Language Syllabus (Kementarian Pelajaran Malysia 1975; Rodgers 1979; 1984; Samah 1984), but no systematic evaluation of the programme was ever carried out, and "for reasons which appear to have been largely institutional, use of the syllabus was discontinued" (Rodgers 1979). It is only recently that some more substantial attempts to use analytic syllabi have appeared. using task as the unit of analysis (cf. Mohamad 1998). These have fallen into three distinct types of TBS: "procedural", "task" and "process". These will be examined in turn in the following pages.  

Continue reading this literature review: "The Procedural Syllabus"