Task-based language teaching concept in materials for teaching Polish as a foreign language

Abstract

At the end of the last century, as part of the communicative methodology, there arose the need to adapt foreign language teaching system to the requirements of the changing reality. The Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001) presented a new vision of communication and a new approach to the competence of language users: communication is an activity. Thence, the concept of an action-oriented approach originated. This approach proposes a specific way of developing communication skills which involves performing tasks embedded in environmental and situational contexts. The principles of task-based teaching and learning have been penetrating the didactics of Polish as a foreign language for several years. Unfortunately, despite the rather well-developed theoretical base of the activity-oriented and task-based approach, there is still a lack of comprehensive practical materials and textbooks that propagate the assumptions of European language policy in Polish language glottodidactics. This article shows how to apply a task-based approach in teaching practice. The concept of task-based textbooks created at the Jagiellonian University’s Centre for Polish Language and Culture in the World, which is part of the latest trends in contemporary glottodidactics, is presented. The idea behind the textbooks corresponds to the need to teach a living, authentic language, which is primarily a tool for performing various social tasks.