The Task-based approach is originally introduced by David Nunan(1988) which emphasised on learning in communicative tasks that do not carry specific focus or form ,the teacher does not pre-determine what the outcome should be, and the students have to discover the answers themselves, the lesson is based on the completion of a central task and the outcome is determined by what happens when the students complete it. And at the end, the students have to discuss how they accomplished the task.

 

Since Hong Kong primary school students’ first language is mostly Cantonese, and English being their second language, it is crucial for them to learn passive voice thoroughly, from its background to its rules and methods to the siturations/circumstances that it is used.

 

We have modified the approach to our context of teaching passive voice to Hong Kong primary school students , for example, instead of telling the students straight out what passive voice is, students have to discover the anwer themselves, the teacher could ask the students to be divided into groups to participate in a group project, each group has to find out what passive voice is and has to give a speech on different aspects of passive voice by using only passive voice sentence structures. After the students had given their speeches, the teacher could correct students and give extra guidance. At the end, students have to do a reflection on how they completed the task.

 

                      Strengths                                      Weaknesses

• Retain students’ attention                                                 --> The answers student discovered

• Motivate students to learn by                                                might not be accurate and 

       finishing a task                                                                          and would require teacher's

• Help student to learn passive voice throughly                    help

       from back to back                                                              --> extra workload for teachers

• Students might gain extra knowledge                           --> The task might be challenging for

                                                                                                           students at such a young age

 

 

The major difference between the Task-based Approach and the Deductive Approach can be seen from the following two aspects: ‘applicable to real life situation’ and ‘student-centred’. Performing a task encourags students to use language creatively and spontaneously through tasks and problem solving, which can be applied to everyday life.

 

 

Here is an example of the task-based approach exercise that could be used to teach in a primary classroom.