tasks

Task-based language teaching is considered an effective way to achieve a harmony between grammar and communication. The present study investigates two different ways of teaching modal verbs: task-based versus traditional approaches. To this purpose, an Oxford Placement Test was administered to select 40 homogeneous participants out of a larger population who took this test. The selected participants were randomly divided into experimental and control groups of 20 students each. Those in the experimental group attended an English class six days a week, practicing grammar through tasked-based approach, while the control group did not receive any task-based work. The OPT was administered at the end of the semester again to see which group could do modal verbs better. A final test of modal verb tasks was also administered at the end of the study to see if all the learners have improved in using modal verbs in the same way/at the same amount through task-based language teaching. The results of this study indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control group, meaning that teaching modal verbs through task-based approaches has been more effective than teaching them in traditional ways. It was also revealed that the modal verb can was improved much more, while have to and must were improved less. The results of the study may have a significant implication for teaching modal verbs in particular and language learning in general.

The present study investigated the potential role of tasks in engaging Iranian EFL learners in task-supported language learning, affecting on learner-centered instruction and the correspondence between the objectives and contents in current pre-university English course book (Learning to Read English for Pre-University Students). To do this, 100 Iranian EFL teachers of pre-university grade were invited to participate in this study. They were asked to fill out a 5-point Likert scale checklist (adapted from Lawrence, 2011). The checklist was initially piloted on 20 EFL teachers in order to see to what extent the items were clear and comprehensible to the subjects of the study and to find out the internal consistency or reliability of the items. The results of statistical analyses indicated that teachers tended to agree on the point that tasks have significant capability in engaging learners in communicative language use or task-based language learning. The vast majority of the teachers expressed that using tasks in textbook can improve learner-centered instruction. The evaluation of the textbook showed the contents are corresponded to their objectives.