CANCELED: Task-Based Language Teaching

Description: This event has been canceled.

Anaheim University TESOL Chair Dr. Rod Ellis will be presenting a seminar on "Task Based Language Teaching" May 29th at the Anaheim University Akio Morita Learning Center Minami Aoyama, Tokyo. Also presenting will be Marcos Benevides, assistant professor at Kansai Gaidai University. He has taught EFL in Japan for ten years, at almost every level from elementary school to a graduate course on pedagogy. The seminar looks to be extremely interesting and also a rare chance to hear and meet Dr Ellis, the "Father of Second Language Acquisition" here in Japan. Attendance is free to participants however places are limited so please email info@anaheim.edu as soon as possible to guarantee your seat.

This talk will outline the methodology of task-based lessons by describing options for the three phases of such a lesson. The first phase is 'pre-task' and concerns the various activities that teachers and students can undertake before they start the task, such as whether students are given time to plan the performance of the task.

The second phase, the 'during task' phase, centres around the task itself and affords various instructional options, including whether students are required to operate under time-pressure or not. The final phase is 'post-task' and involves procedures for following up on the task performance.

Only the 'during task' phase is obligatory in task-based teaching. Thus, minimally, a task-based lesson consists of the students just performing a task. Options selected from the 'pre-task ' or 'post-task ' phases are non-obligatory but, as we will see, can serve a crucial role in ensuring that the task performance is maximally effective for language. Examples of tasks and how they can be used in a task-based lesson will be provided.

About Rod Ellis, Ph.D. Chair, Graduate School of Education. Prof. Ellis, who is Chair of AU's Graduate School of Education, teaches the courses "Second Language Acquisition" and "Grammar for Language Teachers" online, as well as the part of the "Research Methods in Language Learning" course during the face-to-face residential sessions for AU's MA in TESOL degree program. In addition, Prof. Ellis co-teaches "Second Language Classroom Research" with the Dean of Anaheim University's Graduate School of Education, Dr. David Nunan. Professor Ellis, a renowned linguist, received his Doctorate from the University of London and his Master of Education from the University of Bristol. A former professor at Temple University both in Japan and the US, Prof. Ellis has served as the Director of the Institute of Language Teaching and Learning at the University of Auckland and has taught in numerous positions in England, Japan, the US, Zambia and New Zealand. Dr. Ellis, who is known as an expert in Second Language Acquisition, is author of the Oxford University Press Duke of Edinburgh Award-Winning Classic "The Study of Second Language Acquisition ", as well as numerous student and teacher-training textbooks for Prentice Hall and Oxford University Press, Prof. Ellis 's textbooks on Second Language Acquisition and Grammar are core textbooks in TESOL and Linguistics programs around the world.

Marcos Benevides, Task-Based Learning for EFL in Japan
This presentation will show how Task-Based Learning can boost motivation through clear, quantifiable, authentic goals that allows students to gauge their strengths and weaknesses in meaningful ways.

About Marcos Benevides Assistant professor at Kansai Gaidai University. He has taught EFL in Japan for ten years, at almost every level from elementary school to a graduate course on pedagogy.

Air travel to Japan for Dr. Rod Ellis sponsored by Temple University Japan