Task Based Learning

I'll admit, as I started to read the article, I was surprised that they didn't define a task more towards the beginning. However, after reading both the article and the chapter, I feel as though I have a better understanding of what exactly a task is, and whether or not it can be applicable in my classroom someday.

I'm still wary about the notion of task based learning.It's defined in the article as "an activity which requires learners to use language, with emphasis on meaning, to attain an objective." Later on, it continues to describe measuring performance on these tasks. First, I had to stop and think, well what is a task -- vocabulary exercises, reading aloud, role playing, conversation activities with specific prompts, etc. The article continues to explain measuring the performance on the tasks. You're to check for fluidity, accuracy, complexity, and the ability to use clarification and confirmation, and negotiate meaning. I understand that you can check a certain items on this list, but how do you check for fluidity? Do you make a scale that says, "Oh, this student is a 2 out of 10 on the fluidity scale." No, you don't. The article explains that, in order to measure it, you break it down into the following: silence, reformulation, replacement, false starts, and repetition, speech rate, and automatisation. I like the approach that approach because of it's specificness, but still there's something about measuring fluency that rubs me the wrong way.

Speaking in terms of accuracy, where does error correction play in all of this? It was never really mentioned at all, so I was just curious as to what their stance was.

Overall, very interesting chapter and article. Like I mentioned, the biggest point that stood out to me was the fluency! It just kinda bugs me that we feel the need to measure..