The Effect of Task Based Language Learning ( TBLL ) on Developing Speaking Skills of Secondary School Learners in Pakistan

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of task based language learning on developing speaking skills of secondary level learners. To achieve this objective, a task based instructional programme consisted of four units of textbook of grade IX was developed. The students of IX grade of Islamabad district were the population of the study. Two groups experimental and control were randomly taken in a natural setting from a randomly selected school of Islamabad district. Both groups were pre and post-tested to determine the difference in their mean scores. Both groups were administered a teacher made speaking skill test as pre-test before starting intervention of treatment. The experimental group got treatment, while control group was taught conventionally for 45 days. Same teacher made speaking skill test was administered to both experimental and control groups as post-test after 45 days. Two tailed t-test was applied at 0.05 levels. The results of the present study showed statistically significant differences between mean scores of the experimental group subjects in term of speaking skills as the post-test scores of experimental group were noticeably higher than the scores of control group. The results of the study support the effectiveness of TBLL as a foreign language. The present study recommends that Pakistani teachers should adopt TBLL approach which is pragmatic, instead of struggling with obsolete traditional methods in second language acquisition.


Background
Language is the primary and fundamental trait of human life.Language is a vehicle which is used to present our ideas, opinions, thoughts, feelings and emotions to the world (Chang & Wu, 2002).With the passage of time and expansion of needs, people started interact with other people, and a common lingua franca was needed to make the communication possible for all the people living around the globe.English served the purpose as it was the only common spoken language all over the world and had got the status of worldwide language (Crystal, 2003).Krashen (2003) states that presently it is difficult to consider a person successful without the competency in English as it has become the passport to success and a sign of upward mobility.Ethnologue (2002) claims that Pakistan is a multilingual country with at least sixty nine languages are being spoken in the country.Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, but English status cannot be underestimated and less privileged as it is official language of Pakistan.It is single compulsory language which taught in Pakistani schools as a second language.In Pakistan, all humanities, science and social sciences degrees are awarded after learners pass English language examination and English is the medium of instruction at college and university level (Rahman, 2004).
There are four basic languages skills.Reading and writing are interrelated with each other and are used as tools for achieving an effective written communication, while listening and speaking work simultaneously and integration of these two skills facilitate effective oral communication.Language is considered a tool for communication, and speaking skill is generally known to be most important of all four skills.It is admitted fact that most of language activities are done orally, and for the most people, the ability to speak is synonymous with knowing language.Speaking language often been viewed as the most demanding of four but speaking skill is one of the most complex and difficult skill that learners have face.Language teachers spend most of their time trying to teach the students how to read, to write and even to listen in second language or foreign language (Bueno, Madrid, & McLaren, 2006).There are many daily life situations in which people need to speak.According to the formality of the moment, people spend and interact most of the time with other people and every new situation they need a different register.We speak to exchange information, refer to an action or event in the past, present, or future, the possibility of something happening, and so on (Lindsay & Knight, 2006).

Current Status of English in Pakistan
Pakistan English curriculum badly ignores listening and speaking skills and teachers emphasize on reading and writing skills.They mainly stress on mastery in grammatical rules and principles instead of listening and speaking skills which are synonymous to the language.In Pakistan, after learning English language so many years, secondary level students are unable to express their ideas or feelings in English.They feel shy as they face difficulty in using English as a foreign language.It is assumed that the reason behind this problem is either the curriculum which is in fashion in Pakistani schools, or teaching approach to teach the English.There is no formal way to evaluate the speaking skill in board exams.In such scenario students do not get ample chance to use language in the spoken form.They do not practice or use speaking skill in their classrooms.Curriculum developers, curricula, textbooks and teachers fail to deal with the students' needs in the global context and it is the need of hour to upgrade the curricula, textbooks and learning material, and teaching methodologies (Aftab, 2011).

ELT Problem in Pakistan
According to many researchers, traditional methods are unimpressive and ineffective, while communicative approaches and methods are more effective (Skehan, 1996).The students under the influence of traditional methods like Grammar Translation Method (GTM), Lecture Method and Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP) always tend to more accurate instead of fluent in language.They remain busy in remembering grammatical rules, and seem struggling hard to apply these grammatical rules in speech.Willis (1996) claims that TBLL has more perspective than the traditional methods like GTM and PPP as TBLL provides input and output skills and it looks reasonable and realistic to adopt such innovative and modern methodologies in teaching.It is assumed that Pakistani students can speak English well if the teachers adopt new teaching approach and shift their focus on listening and speaking instead of reading and writing skills.Lynch and Maclean (2000) claim that TBLL approach can be justified on the natural grounds as tasks in TBLL are selected in such a way that actual tasks are reproduced that facilitate the learning and promote the speaking skill in the classrooms.According to Ellis (2003), the use of task based learning in speaking skill has many advantages in overall language development.Students who orally speak and interact achieve better position and grades in academically than those who always keep silent in the class (Khadidja, 2010).In academic setting, English speaking skill is one of the most important skill to be developed and enhanced in language learners (Morozova, 2013).The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the TBLL approach within the context of the study.The study attempted to answer the following question.
Does TBLL have any impact on developing speaking skills of secondary level learners in context of Pakistan?

Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study were to: I. find out the effect of TBLL on developing students' speaking skills of secondary level students II. is there any statistically significant difference between mean scores of the experimental group subjects on post-test

Task Based Language Learning (TBLL)
Task based language learning is also known as activity based learning (ABLL).Teaching methodologies that include tasks as central components in teaching are expressed task based instruction (TBI) or task based learning (TBL) approach.Task based language learning (TBLL) is defined as a learner-centered approach to language teaching (Van den Branden, 2016, p. 164), which aims to develop learners' communicative competence by engaging them in meaning-focused communication through the performance of tasks (Ellis & Shintani, 2014, p. 135).TBLL focuses on students doing meaningful tasks by using the target language and assessment is primarily based on task outcomes rather than accuracy of language form (Frost, 2007).Corbett and Kearns (2003) stress that the educational system is gradually shifting a great focus on learning rather than teaching.The term task is a basic and central concept in TBLL methodology.In everyday life, there are hundreds of tasks people usually do, such as making a phone call, doing a certain job, booking a flight ticket, buying a T-shirt, or writing a letter and so on.

The Term Task and TBLL Framework
Long (2015) defines term task as a piece of work undertaken for oneself or others.It may be done freely or for some kind of reward.Skehan (1996) defines task as meaning focused activity and it related to real world that always has some outcome that can be assessed or evaluated.He suggested that a lesson plan may be divided into three stages or phases pre task, while or during task and post task one and post task two.He argues that the term assignment is an action in which primary purpose is to solve some communicative problem and there will be some kind of relationship between the task activities and real world activities.Willis (1996) explains that tasks are activities, where target language is used by the learners for a communicative purpose to achieve an outcome.
In the present study task based lesson plan model presented by Willis (1996) was adopted.Willis TBLL framework of task mainly consists of pre task, task cycle and language focus, where in pre-task topic and task is introduced.Task cycle is performed in pairs or small groups.Learners make preparation to perform the next stage presentation and tell how they did the task to the whole class and report task and make presentation to the whole class, while teacher evaluate critically every group presentation.Language focus phase is sub-divided into analysis and practice.Table 1.Task based lesson plan model (Willis, 1996, p. 38) PRE TASK Introduction to the topic and tasks Teacher explores the topic with class, highlights useful words and phrases, Learners may be exposed to learners TASK CYCLE Task Planning Report Students do the task in pairs or small groups.Teacher monitors; mistakes do not matter.
Students prepare to report.Accuracy is important, so the teacher stand by and gives advice.

Students exchange or present report. Teacher listens and comments. LANGUAGE FOCUS Students examine then discuss,
Teacher conducts practice of new words.
Swain (2001) explains tasks as activities that require learners to use language, with emphasis on meaning, to attain an objective.Nunan (2004) describes that there are two types of tasks which a learner perform in TBLL programme.First kind of task is target tasks or real world task which are designed to rephrase and practice that may be useful in real world.The second kind of tasks is pedagogical tasks which are designed to engage the beginners in understanding, creating or understanding the tasks in target language.Similarly Ellis (2003) defines the term task as a work plan and mainly focuses on meaning, using real world language listening, speaking where reading and listening is explicit communicative outcome.Ellis (2003) model of TBLL framework considerably differs from Willis's TBLL frame work as Ellis asserted that only during phase is sufficient and other phases pretask and posttask would not really affect the TBLL flow of lesson.Leaver and Willis (2004) define that task has to achieve or arrive on a certain outcome or have some attainable objectives and the task has different things to different people, just like that there are weak and strong form of communicative language teaching.Nunan (2004) definition of the term task gives importance to language learning behaviours and language meaning, whereas Prabhu (1987) definition stresses on the importance of goal and process.Nunan (2004) explains that a pedagogical task may a purposeful activity done by the students in the classroom while learning the language and achieving goals while target language is used.He adds more dimensions and focus on the learner's active participation in the lesson in the form of engagement in understanding, using language, generating and interacting in target language.Nunan (2004) and Willis (1996) state that role of teacher in TBLL is not deniable.Instruction makes possible to draw students' attention towards features or form of target language.Instruction also helps to focus on grammatical form and develop their own hypothesizes regarding the meaning.In TBLL, teacher selects tasks and prepares lessons for these proposed tasks and finally supervises and conducts conscious raising activities.During these activities, students focus and notice form.Although TBLL have many advantages, but it cannot be claimed that it is a perfect way of teaching.Tang, Chiou and Jarsaillon (2015) reveal that TBLL is effective in enhancing fluency, lexical items and syntactic complexity, but at the same time it is ineffective in case of accuracy.

Research Design
A quantitative method approach was used to investigate the problem.A quasi-experimental deign was adopted as one experimental group and one control group in the present study.Creswell (2009) explains that education studies evaluating the impact of treatments to intact groupings of participants, use of a quasi-experimental design is appropriate.

Population of the Study
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan.It is being run as a Federal administrative unit and an independent district also.It represents the all people of the country as people from all over the country came here and become its part and parcel of this city.Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has been divided Islamabad into five sectors i.e., Islamabad City, Bharakau, Nilore, Sihala and Tarnaul.The population of the present study was comprised of 12836 all boys and girls of IX grade of Islamabad district studying in session 2013-2014 under administrative control of FDE, Islamabad.

Sample Selection
One school working under the administrative control of FDE Islamabad was selected randomly to carry out the experiment.Two sections were selected randomly in natural setting from the randomly selected school.
Students of these two sections of the class IX were taken as sample of the study.The sample of the study was comprised of 68 students of class IX of two sections.The experimental group consisted of 33 participants and they received the treatment and they were taught through TBLL approach.While, thirty-five (35) students i.e., one section of the class IX, were participants of the control group and they were taught the same content and material of textbook with GTM.

The Experiment
The current study was interested to investigate the effects of TBLL approach in developing speaking skill of secondary level students.Two groups of students were chosen randomly from IX class sections from one randomly selected school namely Saqib Ghani Shaheed Model School for Boys (VI-X) G-9/1 Islamabad.A TBLL model based on four units of text book was devised on the basis of task based teaching methodology and principles.The TBLL model was consisted of activities of three phases pre task, while task and post task.Pre task phase was consisted of further three stages i.e. brainstorming activities, introduction of topic and introduction of task.While task was the heart and soul of the task which had task itself, planning and report stage.The third phase post task was concluded analysis (language focus), reviews of analysis and practice stage.Visual aids such as video and audio clips, realia, group work activities, authentic materials and stickers to explain vocabulary items were also included to reinforce the students' speaking skills.Similarly, the demonstration of oral stories about the subjects of the topics improved the learners' speaking skill and encouraged them to speak in English.

Participants' and Procedure
The two chosen groups were judgmentally random.Section C i.e., control group consisted of 35 students, while 33 students of section D made up the experimental group of the study.One teacher was randomly selected to teach the control group, while the duty to teach the experimental group was assigned to another teacher of the same school who had similar qualification and teaching experience to teach the secondary classes.Both teachers had ten years teaching experience with BA; B.Ed degree.Experimental group received the treatment and a researcher's made TBLL Model was implemented, while a qualified teacher taught the control group by using the GTM approach.The average age of the taken sample students was thirteen to fourteen (13-14) years and the nature of sample sections were heterogeneous.Twenty-nine (83%) students of control group were those students who recently passed grade VIII exams and joined class ninth, while six (17%) were failed students of class 9th.Twenty-eight (85%) students of experimental group were those students who recently passed grade VIII exams and joined class ninth, while five (15%) were failed students of class 9th.

Pre-test
Prior to the beginning of the study, subjects were administered a speaking skill test as pre-test to both control and experimental group to determine the difference in their mean scores.Scores of pre-test were calculated and compared by applying inferential statistics techniques.

Post-test
After collecting data of pre-test, the intervention process then starts.The subjects in the experimental group were taught English through TBLL model, while the subjects in the control group were taught the same material with GTM.The same instrument speaking skill test was administered at the conclusion of the study as post-test.The teachers of the both groups taught the same text material and contents with different approaches which was based on the Punjab Textbook Board units prescribed textbook for the public institutions working under the administrative control of FDE, Islamabad.The duration of the experiment was forty-five (45) days with a daily period of 45 minutes.

Speaking Skill Test
A researcher made speaking skill test comprised of biographical, guided and opinion based questions (open ended) was jointly administered to the subjects of the study to determine the difference between the control and experimental group speaking skill before allocation them as control and experimental group.The specifications of the test were measured the target students' performance on the national curriculum 2006 which is in practice these days in Pakistan.

Data Collecting Technique
Data of pre-test and post-test were obtained from both experimental and control group by using two instruments.An instrument based on 20 items speaking skill test was used to gather students' speaking skill scores of pre-test and post-test of control and experimental group.

Statistical Analysis
The quantitative data of pre-test and post-test collected through speaking skill test was analyzed by using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) 13.0.For the sake of accuracy, the data were calculated means, standard deviations, and oral scores difference.Oral results obtained from the study were compared to find out the control and experimental group difference by using SPSS 13.0 version and two tailed t-test was applied.To examine the difference between the participants' mean scores of control and experimental group towards English language, inferential statistics such as independent-samples t test, and standard error of the means (SEM) were used.

Findings
The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the TBLL approach within the context of the study.The results of the study are being displayed according to the pose question of the study.The data collected from pre-test and post-test of control and experimental groups by employing instrument speaking skill test were analyzed and interpreted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).The results of the study were used to answer the research question.

Impact of TBLL on Developing Speaking Skill
Research Question: Does TBLL have any impact on developing speaking skills of secondary level learners in context of Pakistan?The Table 3 depicts the results of analysis of control group pre-test and experimental group pre-test.The mean score of students᾽ of control group was 13.43 with a standard deviation of 2.45, while that of experimental group pre-test was 13.52 with standard deviation of 3.06.On speaking skill test, the speaking skill performance means scores of control group pre-test are very close and similar to the scores of the experimental group pre-test.Both the control group pre-test and experimental group pre-test scores are relatively similar on speaking skill test performance before carrying out the experiment.The Table 5 indicated that experimental group pre test scores M=13.52 and experimental group post-test M=17.58 and p-value p=0.000 at the confidence level of α=0.05.The t-test value-3.828>0indicates that there is a significant difference between the mean scores of experimental group pre-test and experimental group post-test.Thus, it was obvious that the experimental group pre-test and experimental group post-test had significant difference.This result provided confirmatory evidence of a noticeable increase in the post-test mean score of speaking skill in favour of TBLL approach which intervened and increased the level of English speaking competence after the experiment.The Table 7 shows post-test mean score of control and experimental groups.A paired sample t-test was run to ensure if there is difference between mean score of control and experimental group on post-test.Thus, it is evident from the above statistics that there is a significant difference in post-test between the control and experimental groups in favour of experimental group with t-value= -3.828, p= .000< 0.05.It was concluded that intervention of TBLL model enhanced the students' speaking skills that increased the students' performance in speaking skill test.

Discussion
This study set out with the aim of investigating to evaluate the effectiveness of the TBLL approach within the context of the study.The findings of the present study reveal positive outcomes in terms of developing speaking skills of secondary level learners.The results of the study revealed that the students of experimental group had overall positive effect on speaking skills of the students (M=17.58,SD=3.61) as compared to control group results (M=13.52,SD=3.063).The findings of the present study are based on formulated research questions which first research question sought to find out whether TBLL have any impact on developing speaking skills of secondary level learners in context of Pakistan.The outcomes of this research indicated that the students who were taught English language through TBLL approach by using authentic material helped in developing students' speaking skills as compared to the students of the control group who were not received treatment.Task based learning helped the learners to enhance their confidence and practice English speaking skill in anxiety free atmosphere, while practicing the speaking skill, errors were considered natural and focus was on the fluency and message conveying.Willis put this point as "This is one of the most valuable things we can give a learner: the confidence and willingness to have a go, even if their language resources are limited (Willis, 2007, p. 2)".Doughty and Long (2015) research supports this point that learning based on hands-on practice enhances students' cognitive engagement in communicative approach.The present study finding that task phases pre task, while task and post task provide exposures which helped the students to handle the task is in line with Willis (1996) who claims that for effective learning, three essential learning conditions for language learning are essential: exposure to the target language, opportunities for real communication, and motivation to engage the learning process (Willis, 2005, p. 19).The performance of the experimental group after being exposed to TBLL model showed a significant difference between the results of the experimental and control groups.Experimental group showed positive scores difference and there was a visible improvement after TBLL model was implemented as instructional programme in speaking classroom.Whereas the performance of the control group which was exposed to GTM method in speaking skill showed no significant difference between the results of the pre-tests and post-tests on speaking skill test.This could be attributed to the fact that GTM method and traditional approaches are teacher-centered in which less opportunities are provided to students to practice English, whereas in TBLL teacher provided more opportunities to practice speaking skill, same was pointed out Van den Branden that teachers are considered mediators and agents of change (Van den Branden, 2016, p. 179).This results of the study also consistent with the results of Ellis (2006) who argues that students try hard in using accurate language because they knew from the beginning of task framework that they had to present the report to the whole class at the end (Ellis, 2006, p. 21).The findings of the present study are consistent with that of the study conducted by Sarıçoban and Karakurt (2016) who found that task-based activities improve learners' speaking skills in EFL classes.The findings of the present study also provide confirmatory evidence in support of the results gained by Farahani and Nejad (2009) who found the positive effects of task-based approach on speaking skill development.The findings of the present study also endorsethe findings of (Farahani& Nejad, 2009;Ghodrati et al., 2014;Hasan, 2014;Tabrizi & Nasiri, 2011) which explained that subjectswho experienced task-based language learning performed surprisingly better in speaking skill than those of the subjects in control group on post-test.The finding results of present study is also consistent with Winnefeld (2012, p. 63), who reports that TBLL can promote oral language production and provide opportunities for meaning-negotiation.Additionally, another study (Thanghun, 2012, p. 39) supports the above claim that proves that task based activities support language learning and speaking skills of the student.The results and findings of the present study are in line with the Richards and Rodgers (2001), Rabbini (2002), Finney (2002), Nunan (2004), andAlmutairi (2014).Overall, it can be sum up that task-based language learning is a useful approach due to its activities which are student-centred, including practices that encourage the learner to actively participate in shaping and controlling the discourse, and resolving social trouble (Ellis, 2006, p. 29).

Conclusion
The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of TBLL on developing learners' speaking skills at secondary level.The results of the study reveal that TBLL framework helped the students to enhance their active participation in classroom activities with more hand-on practice to display their thinking through their actions.
The tasks are central and goal-oriented in TBLL approach, and they are the ultimate reason that moves the student to engage in learning activities and complete the task, and enhances the students' interest as their aim is to convey meanings.TBLL helps the learners to practice English speaking skill in anxiety free atmosphere, while practicing the speaking skill, errors are considered natural and focus is on the fluency and message conveying rather on error correction.The performance score of the experimental group was noticeably high than the control group after being exposed to TBLL methodology which was introduced as instructional programme.It helps the students to enhance their fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, communication skills and speech pattern.Students become more confident and they seemed to have enjoyed their new experiences of TBLL activities.Finally on the basis of the evidence provided by this research, it seems quite reasonable to claim that TBLL approach is effective in developing speaking skills of secondary level learners.

Table 2 .
Sample selection of control and experimental groups of the study

Table 3 .
Control and experimental group pre-test results of speaking skill test

Table 4 .
Controlgroup pre-test and post-test results of speaking skill testThe results of descriptive analysis of control group pre-test and post-test in Table4depicts that the mean score of students᾽ of control group on pre-test was 14.89 with a standard deviation of 2.011, while that of control post-test was 13.43 with standard deviation of 2.453.On speaking skill test, the speaking skill performance means scores of control group pre-test are close and similar to the scores of the control group post-test.Both the control group pre-test and control group post-test scores are relatively similar on speaking skill test with respect to performance.

Table 5 .
Experimental group pre-test and post-test results of speaking skill test

Table 6 .
Control group pre-test and experimental group pre-test results of speaking skill testThe Table6depicted the results of analysis of control group pre-test and experimental group post-test.The mean score of students᾽ of control group was 13.43 with a standard deviation of 2.45, while that of experimental group pre-test was 13.52 with standard deviation of 3.06.On speaking skill test, the speaking skill performance means scores of control group pre-test were very close and similar to the scores of the experimental group pre-test.Both the control group pre-test and experimental group pre-test scores were relatively similar on speaking skill test performance before carrying out the experiment.