Implications of Task-Based Language Teaching for Second Language Acquisition in Nigerian Classrooms

This paper has been able to explore the usefulness of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) in the learning of second language prosodic aspects with special attention being given to emphatic stress in English. The study was precipitated by the long-standing presence of the traditional rule-based instruction in Nigerian classrooms where instruction tends to focus on explicit rules rather than communicative competence and learners are largely unprepared to deal with the more intricate suprasegmental elements of speech. The design was quasiexperimental, which included 60 students in secondary schools that were selected in Nigeria. The participants were split into two groups: experimental and the control group was taught a standard way of traditional rule-based instruction. The duration of instruction was six weeks and in the process of the six weeks, the two groups underwent pre-tests and post-tests meant to measure their comprehension and practice of emphatic stress. The test-score analysis showed that the experimental group showed much higher gains as compared to the control group. This result indicates that the TBLT can be the effective means of developing the skills of the learners to apply the emphatic stress in the context of communication inappropriately. The findings indicate that TBLT focuses on authentic tasks, interaction and contextualized learning that provide more positive environment in which prosodic features are acquired than in traditional rule-based methods. The implications are of significant pedagogical use to English language education in Nigeria. They emphasize the imperative to incorporate the communicative, learner-focused strategies like TBLT in the curriculum to produce not only grammatical but also fluency, accuracy, and pragmatic competence. The research also highlights the necessity of teacher professional development, because effective practice of TBLT involves proper training and facilitation. Although the study shows that TBLT has potential in enhancing the prosodic competence of learners, research in the future should aim at determining the effectiveness of TBLT in improving language features and educational settings with a wider scale and its long-term effects on communicative performance of learners