Tasks in the Action-oriented Approach

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What is a task? 🧠

Tasks are a feature of everyday life in the personal, public, educational, and occupational domains. Task accomplishment by an individual involves the strategic activation of specific competences in order to carry out a set of purposeful actions in a particular domain with a clearly defined goal and a specific outcome.

Tasks can be very simple to very complex, based on the needs and proficiency levels of your group of learners. There is no one-size-fits-all task. Even though some tasks could perhaps be done at all levels of proficiency, this may not make sense. For example, ordering food at a restaurant would not be a priority at an advanced level, where designing a restaurant might be more appropriate. Often, though, a task can be used at several levels. The difference is in the quality of language used throughout the task, which can make it easier or harder for your learners. When adapting any task to your classroom, it will be necessary for you to decide on the appropriate quality of language that students will use and develop so that learning is effective for your specific group of learners.

Tasks in the AoA 💡⚙️

In the action-oriented approach, learning happens when students complete tasks, as they mobilise and extend their competences. The task is seen as an activity that allows learners to recreate the social actions of everyday life. It is not just a simple decontextualized language exercise. For example, a task could be organizing a birthday party, which would require the appropriate language skills to do various activities such as preparing food, gifts, and invitations.

Learners will engage in purposeful action through tasks. In most cases, there will be various smaller subtasks that lead to a final culminating task. This is to help students focus on developing and using certain competencies so that they are readily equipped to complete the culminating task. By dividing a scenario into subtasks leading to the culminating task, it is easier for students to be aware of the different steps involved and for them to make their own sets of specific, organized, and connected choices to complete each subtask and the culminating task.

Key elements of a task in the AoA 🔑

  1. Strategic Activation of Competences: The learner/social agent activates both general and communicative language competences to accomplish the task.
  2. Clearly Defined Goal and Outcome: Tasks are designed with a specific goal and measurable outcome.
  3. Purposeful Actions: Tasks involve concrete steps that contribute toward achieving the goal.
  4. Relevance: Tasks reflect relevant real-life actions rather than artificial exercises.
  5. Complexity and Variety: Tasks can be simple or complex, involving different levels of language use and problem-solving.
  6. Social Dimension: Tasks at some stage require interaction with others, leading to co-construction, thus reinforcing the idea of the learner as a social agent.

Tasks may involve various forms of communication and action, and they require varying degrees of language use (depending also on whether you accomplish a task on your own or with someone else). 

Examples of tasks can be: Planning a course of action, Writing a story, Taking part in a debate, Giving a presentation, Repairing an object, Solving a problem, Loading a car.

Tasks and activities

  • A task is not the same as an activity
  • An activity has two meanings:
    • A language activity, e.g., a game, a role-play, a jigsaw or info-gap activity
    • An exercise focusing on practicing language structures.
  • A task is action-based and goal-driven, where communication serves as a means to an end rather than the end itself.

Pedagogical tasks

A pedagogical task is designed for learning purposes within the classroom setting.

  • Its primary goal is to develop specific language skills and competences.
  • Pedagogical tasks are simplified, controlled, or scaffolded to match the learner’s level and instructional objectives.
  • While they simulate real-life situations, they are adapted to the educational context to provide a safe and supportive environment for learning.
  • The focus is on building knowledge, accuracy, and competence rather than achieving a real-life outcome.

Examples: Practicing how to order food at a restaurant using a scripted dialogue in pairs. Writing a postcard to a friend based on a template provided by the teacher.

Real-world tasks

A real-world task is a task that reflects an authentic, real-life activity outside the classroom.

  • The goal is to perform the task in a natural context rather than just practicing language skills.
  • Learners must use strategic thinking, problem-solving, and social interaction to succeed.
  • The task is typically more complex and involves unpredictable elements since it occurs in a real social and communicative setting.
  • Success is measured by whether the task achieves its real-life goal rather than just linguistic accuracy.

Examples of a Real-World Task: Actually ordering food at a restaurant in the target language, Writing and sending an email to a company to request information.

Subtasks

  • A subtask is a smaller component or step that contributes toward completing the larger task.
  • Subtasks help to break down a complex task into manageable parts.
  • Completing subtasks builds the competences needed to perform the overall task successfully.
  • Subtasks can involve different types of language use (e.g., reading, listening, writing) or non-language-related actions.

Example of subtasks for the task of “planning and presenting a trip to a tourist destination”:

  • Research and gather information about the destination (reading/listening).
  • Create a list of places to visit (writing).
  • Develop an itinerary based on a budget (problem-solving) and present it to the class (speaking).

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