A Critique Of The Task-based Approach From A Cognitive Linguistic Perspective

The TBA (Task-based Approach) surfaced at an age when the communicative aspect of language came to arouse the interest of foreign language pedagogy researchers. This approach has been receiving attention in recent years simply for the reason that it is a new approach designed to hopefully facilitate the learner's achievement of communicative competence. As its name suggests, the TBA is centered on the prefabricated tasks that can be performed by language learners in the classroom environment. Language, in this case, just serves as an instrument for the learner to accomplish the task. TBA advocates claim that learners can eventually achieve communicative competence by using the target language to participate in meaning-focused activities within a task. Under this approach, what to communicate is viewed as more important than how to communicate in that it is the meaning conveyed, not the means of conveyance that preconditions the accomplishment of the task. The problem is that the meaning cannot be separated from the vehicle via which it is conveyed. Thus meaning is prioritized over form in the learning process of languages under this approach. In other words, the TBA allows for a separation of meaning and form within language. In a nutshell, the TBA advocates take a non-holistic view of language learning or teaching.However, we will have a different conclusion if we approach the linguistic scene from the cognitive linguistic perspective. Cognitive linguists hold that language is holistic in nature, and there is holistic conceptualization behind language, which indicates that meaning and form are inseparable within language. In cognitive linguistic terms, form and meaning structure a figure-ground gestalt or holistic relation within language. Thus there is no sequence available between meaning and form in the learning process of languages. The learner's focus should therefore be oriented onto the integrated whole constituted by form and meaning in the language learning process. In a word, cognitive linguists take a holistic view of language learning or teaching.In this paper I attempt to argue against the workability of the TBA in pedagogical practices from the cognitive linguistic perspective by analyzing some of its core theoretical assumptions. I therefore mean to argue for the holistic view of language learning or teaching underpinned by the cognitive linguistics. Due to space constraint, I attempt to elaborate this holistic perspective on the linguistic scene in terms of the figure-ground gestalt, which is one of the key instantiations of the holistic conceptualization behind language. The conclusion is that the TBA is far from an ideal learning or teaching approach given the holistic nature of language proposed by the cognitive linguistics and that the holistic nature of language is the first element to be taken into account if we want to work out a workable approach that can truly facilitate language learning or teaching.