Is Task-Based Instruction Approach Apt for Journalism Education?

Shafaat Hussain,Sadaquat Hussain

doi:10.12944/crjssh.1.2.03

Abstract

The university teaching and learning of Journalism and Communication in Ethiopia offers many challenges equally both for the teachers and students. One of the challenges is that the undergraduates usually face language difficulties in an English-medium setting. Task based instruction (TBI) as a panacea refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in the teaching learning process. This article critically reviews the fuzzy concept of ‘task’ and how it is different from ‘activities’; the evolution of TBI as an approach; how the objectives are formulated in task based approach; how sequencing and grading of syllabus content is organized in the task format; what is the modus operandi of teachers and learners in task based instruction; which varieties of instructional materials are required to run the show of task-based classroom; and how the learners’ performance and syllabus itself will pass through the process of evaluation. At the end, the article attempts to propose advantages, disadvantages and challenges of TBI for the curriculum/syllabus developers.

Highlights

Ethiopian University undergraduates lack in English language skills and content competence is a usual discussion among instructors, educationists and industrialists.[1,2,3,4] This issue which is an issue of Ethiopia, has been attempted to address in different multilingual parts of the world through different approaches of teaching and learning
This study presents obvious rationale why Task based instruction (TBI) should be adopted as an approach at Journalism and Communication undergraduate pedagogy in Ethiopian context
The teaching of journalism in Ethiopia is unique in the sense that both teachers and students are struggling with this serious problem as the former has to teach content with learner’s poor EFL skills and competences and the latter has to struggle for academic achievement with their poor EFL skills and subject competence.[2]

Summary

Introduction

Ethiopian University undergraduates lack in English language skills and content competence is a usual discussion among instructors, educationists and industrialists.[1,2,3,4] This issue which is an issue of Ethiopia, has been attempted to address in different multilingual parts of the world through different approaches of teaching and learning. This study presents obvious rationale why TBI should be adopted as an approach at Journalism and Communication undergraduate pedagogy in Ethiopian context. Emphasis over language skill development through TBI would make their learning better, easier and faster. Procedural activities, tasks and assessments in the classroom through TBI can bring change (in fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation) because learning is maximum if learners use language with the content involvement. The teaching of journalism in Ethiopia is unique in the sense that both teachers and students are struggling with this serious problem as the former has to teach content with learner’s poor EFL skills and competences and the latter has to struggle for academic achievement with their poor EFL skills and subject competence.[2]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion