Task-based language teaching applied to intermediate students of Asucion high school to motivate english language production

Abstract

One of the reasons for the limited knowledge and poor performance in English of the high school students is related to the use of traditional teaching strategies. Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has become a significant issue in the field of second language acquisition in terms of promoting process-focused programs and developing communicative tasks to enhance learners’ real language. Throughout this research project, task-based activities are applied in English classes to a group of intermediate high school learners between the ages of seventeen and eighteen in a private institute in Cuenca. The purpose of this research project is to motivate intermediate high school students to improve their English language output by using TBLT and to determine the improvement in students’ language output as a result of using TBLT in the classroom. The data and results are evaluated using quantitative and qualitative analysis. Statistics as well interpretative analysis are used to examine the data collected. With respect to students’ motivation, the findings revealed that, TBLT had a considerable impact on students’ motivation. Qualitative results show that, most of the time, students accomplished the outcomes and had positive remarks about the different tasks used in TBLT lessons. However, researchers concerned with second language acquisition should continue conducting further studies in order to determine the effectiveness of TBLT.