LALS public lecture: Task-based language teaching curriculum models

Description

Professor Rod Ellis draws on the education literature to describe four educational curriculum models, which serve as a basis for presenting four Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) curricula based on the proposals of Prabhu (1987), Willis (1996), Long (1985; 2015a; 2015b) and himself (Ellis, 2003 and 2019)—all of which have figured in the development of TBLT.

Professor Ellis proposes a set of questions that can be used to evaluate these models. He then turns to examine the curriculum design process, identifying options in TBLT curricula that are available at each stage of the process. He points to a tension that exists between what SLA theory indicates is needed and what environmental constraints make feasible and conclude with a plea for flexibility by weighing up which options are appropriate in different teaching situations. He also summarises how he sees TBLT benefitting from adopting a broad education perspective that includes critical language pedagogy.