Jane Willis
www.willis-elt.co.uk
Honorary Visiting Fellow, Aston University , UK Task leading to task: priming and
preparation for TBL
Task leading to task: priming and preparation for TBL
Jane Willis
www.willis-elt.co.uk
Honorary Visiting Fellow, Aston University,
UK
Possible topics and target tasks
Families: family trees - more boys/girls?
Family life: reach a concensus on family values School canteen: survey & recommendations
Class trip: plan a day away (+ aims & budget) Parking at X: problems and solutions
Daily journeys: the shortest/longest/worst?
Volcanoes and volcanic eruptions: negative and
positive outcomes (with case studies)
Using tasks to promote language development
Tasks are most effective when used flexibly within a coherent Framework:
Priming & Preparation
(exploring topic, useful words & phrases) Task Cycle
Task(s) >> Planning >> Report of outcome Form focus
Analysis of familiar texts and practice of forms
Priming
Aims:
To facilitate participation in main / target tasks To activate prior knowledge and engage learners
PRIMING activities are usually teacher-led:
- exploring topic, assembling useful words and phrases
- explaining / demonstrating target task and
clarifying outcomes and goals
Preparation
Aims:
To let learners think of their own ideas / strategies
To help learners prepare the language they may need.
PREPARATION activities are mainly learner led and often involve texts (chosen by teacher)
- Reading a short text or set of statements to complete a mini-task, e.g. agree / disagree
- Using a given web-site to research an aspect of a topic and prepare a list of key facts or a quiz
- List useful words, phrases and expressions
Priming tasks
1 Listing - brainstorming – fact-finding
How many family words do you know in English?
Three things you remember about your school canteen (‘I remember…’ )
Four things to consider when planning a class trip/ day away Good and bad places to park near X
What do you know about volcanoes? 2 minutes
Teacher chats, collects class ideas, discusses, extends 2 classifying, ranking, mind-mapping
Good or not so good? agree / disagree? True / false?
Teacher talk is important - share your experiences…
3 Comparing the contributions of the class so far with:
- each others’ ideas - visuals
- recordings of fluent speakers doing same task - texts
e.g. Which picture is most like your canteen?
Differences?
Whose journey was the worst – yours or theirs? Why?
Characteristics of effective tasks: ask…
Would the activity engage learners’ interest?
Is there a primary focus on meaning? Are learners free to use whatever language they can recall?
Does the task have a clear outcome for learners to achieve?
Is success judged in terms of outcome? Is completion a priority?
Does it relate to language use in the real world?
Language Learning: optimum conditions
Essential
Exposure Use
Motivation & Engagement Beneficial
Focus on Form
Why task-based language teaching?
To learn a language, learners need
opportunities to communicate, engaging in lots of meaning-focused interaction – using whatever language they have at their disposal. ‘Use it to learn it’.
Effective tasks will generate meaning- focused language use and help to
motivate learners.
Can you catch?
Some examples of tasks & task sequences
Memory challenge – objects on a tray (teacher led>pairs) Guess what I’ve got in my bag today! (teacher led)
Draw up your ideal school timetable (11-12 year olds)
Plan a class party for the end of term (mind map > group) Describe in detail how to make your favourite food;
classify dishes, then compare recipes
Earthquake safety – design a leaflet for overseas visitors
What a task is NOT…
Learners acting out a dialogue or a strip cartoon
A ‘free’ production activity to ‘personalise’ a pre-taught structure
e.g. After a presentation of ‘going to’ future: Ask your partner what they are going to do this week-end.
Role-play activities with role cards (i.e. where learners are acting, not meaning what they say.)
All these are perfectly viable practice activities,
but would not count as ‘tasks’.
Things on a tray (1) – memory challenge!
The teacher starts by collecting objects and talking about them (useful teacher talk: EXPOSURE to useful words and phrases) Memory challenge – test your teacher’s memory:
What things? And where? Answer yes or no.
---
Now – you will have 30 seconds to look at a picture of things on a tray and try to remember what things were where… Ready?
Things on a tray (2) Tray task
How many things can you remember?
Work in twos, make a list.
Say where they are…
Possible task sequence for beginners:
Memory challenge, True / False games, Make your own game
1 How many objects can you remember? In pairs – quietly - tell each other, and draw or write a list in English.
2. Where are they? Can you remember?
2.a Listen to your teacher – is she/he right? Yes or No?
2 b Read the sentences and look at the picture - True or False?
The banana is on the right
The keys are between the money and the banana There is an address book on the left of the tray…
3 Draw your own tray, then make your own true/false game with 5 or 6 sentences. Play your game with other groups in class.
2b Tray task - how many did you get?
Evaluation of task – how effective…?
Did the activity engage your interest?
Was there a primary focus on meaning? Were you free to use whatever language you wanted?
Did it have a clear outcome for you to achieve?
Was success judged in terms of outcome? Was completion a priority?
How far did it relate to real world language use?
How far did the task fulfil these conditions?
Essential
Exposure Use
Motivation & Engagement Beneficial
Focus on Form
Listening task: listen and see how many things they remembered… Listening text: transcript of a recording of a fluent speaker reporting the Tray task.
DL: Okay. Let’s think. Er, the banana ... top left-hand corner of the tray, and on the right, as we look at it, some keys, then some coins on the right of the keys. Below the banana ...
was ... erm - well right at the bottom, bottom left hand corner was a n… - was a notebook. And there was something
above that, but I can’t remember. Erm, there was a glass of water on the right hand side of the tray, and er, a ten pound note sort of in the middle really. Erm … I think that’s about it.
> FORM FOCUS – what language features could you pick out?
Focus on Form
Underline five phrases expressing location
Circle words / phrases typical of spontaneous spoken language DL: Okay. Let’s think. Er, the banana ... top left-hand corner of
the tray, and on the right, as we look at it, some keys, then some coins on the right of the keys. Below the banana ...
was ... erm - well right at the bottom, bottom left hand corner was a n… - was a notebook. And there was something
above that, but I can’t remember. Erm, there was a glass of
water on the right hand side of the tray, and er, a ten pound
note sort of in the middle really. Erm … I think that’s about it.
Why the ‘Report to class’?
Tasks on their own are not sufficient for all round language development.
Skehan:
Learners may gain
‘fluency at the expense of accuracy’;
Their research underlined the need for
‘pushed output’ and a focus on form;
hence the task cycle within a wider framework:
Using tasks to promote language development
Tasks are most effective when used flexibly within a coherent Framework:
Priming & Preparation
(exploring topic, useful words & phrases) Task Cycle
Task(s) >> Planning >> Report of outcome Form focus
Analysis of familiar texts and Practice of forms
Designing and adapting tasks
A quick overview of the process…
Designing tasks
Use your text book and adapt activities to make them more
task-like by
adding an outcome, being more specific, adjusting parameters…
Or select a topic your learners like,
find a text or recording and
generate a task sequence.
Tip: work with
a colleague or two
From topic and / or text to task
You can choose any topic
(e.g. cell phones, parties, cats, transport, eating out ) or a text (written or spoken) - could be a CLIL text…
and design a sequence of tasks
using three or four different types of task
from this ‘task generator’:
Seven types of task:
use this to generate a set of three or four tasks
Listing Ordering & Sorting
Matching Comparing Problem solving TOPIC
(e.g. Eating out in Spain)
Sharing personal experiences
Projects and creative tasks
Possible tasks for a teaching sequence 1:
Listing, matching, comparing, problem solving
*List 3 reasons / occasions why people in Spain might eat out.
Think of 4 different types of places where you can eat out in your country;
rank them according to price range and think how to explain to a visitor…
What are the most important qualities of a good eating place? Brainstorm then write a list in order of priority. Time limit: 3 minutes.
World food: match the pictures of eating places to the brief descriptions.
*Compare the cultures of eating out in two different countries.
What problems sometimes occur when eating out? Choose three problems and decide together on what you should do in each case.
Possible tasks for a teaching sequence 2:
Sharing experiences, Projects and creative tasks
Describe your ideal eating place for a special occasion.
Design a poster for a new eating place in a town that you know.
A meal to remember? Think for a moment and tell your partner about it.
What has been your best / worst eating out experience? Share stories.
Find three restaurant reviews then decide together which would be the most interesting / best value for money for you on a special day out.
Design and carry out a survey of eating habits amongst students in different schools.
Listening text: Comer Fuera (comparing task)
Marina—¡Hola! Y bienvenidos a Notes in Spanish Intermediate. Estoy aquí con Ben Curtis y soy Marina Díez. ¡Hola, Ben!
Ben—Hola Marina. ¿cómo estás?
Marina—Yo muy bien...
Ben—Hoy vamos a hablar de la comida en el mundo y diferencias que hay en distintas partes del mundo. Marina, tú y yo comemos y
cenamos fuera mucho.
Marina—Depende, normalmente unas dos o a veces tres veces a la semana, en verano quizá algo más.
Ben—Vale, y cuando digo “comer fuera” me refiero a ir a un restaurante o a un bar. Sí, ummm... ¿y tú crees que eso es típico en España?
Marina—Bueno, hay gente que trabaja en oficinas y come fuera todos los días, come un menú del día.
Comer Fuera – Form focus: collect and classify
Starting point: main themes
>> Find six words or phrases to do with eating…
What other verbs do you know in Spanish for eating?
>> Find phrases denoting time (time expressions) and classify them.
Starting point: word
>> How many phrases with each of these words can you find?
Que, lo, vez / veces, gente
>> Find phrases with en and classify them according to their use How many categories? Then check in your dictionary and…
Spoken transcript for analysis: Comer Fuera
Marina—¡Hola! Y bienvenidos a Notes in Spanish Intermediate. Estoy aquí con Ben Curtis y soy Marina Díez. ¡Hola, Ben!
Ben—Hola Marina. ¿cómo estás?
Marina—Yo muy bien...
Ben—Hoy vamos a hablar de la comida en el mundo y diferencias que hay en distintas partes del mundo. Marina, tú y yo comemos y
cenamos fuera mucho.
Marina—Depende, normalmente unas dos o a veces tres veces a la semana, en verano quizá algo más.
Ben—Vale, y cuando digo “comer fuera” me refiero a ir a un restaurante o a un bar. Sí, ummm... ¿y tú crees que eso es típico en España?
Marina—Bueno, hay gente que trabaja en oficinas y come fuera todos los días, come un menú del día.
So why task-based language teaching?
List three reasons…
Read your handout and compare
At home!
Another task to do after this conference:
Which is colder – the North Pole or the South Pole? Discuss with colleagues and give a
reason why…
To find out, visit www.willis-elt.co.uk
- free lesson plans, articles and useful links And finally, remember
for learners, it’s not only Enjoying to learn,
but also…. Learning to enjoy…
www.willis-elt.co.uk
References
Edwards C. and J. Willis (eds) 2005. Teachers Exploring Tasks in ELT. Palgrave MacMillan. British Council ELT Innovations Award 2006
Leaver B. and J. R. Willis 2004 Task-based Instruction in FLE: practices and programs Georgetown University Press
Liria, P. (ed) 2009 L'approche actionnelle dans l'enseignement des langues SBL Willis D. 2003. Rules, Patterns and Words: Grammar and Lexis in English
Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press
Willis D. and J. Willis, 2007 Doing Task-based Teaching Oxford University Press
Useful websites:
An excellent introductory article on TBL by Richard Frost:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/a-task-based-approach Four articles on TBL by Jane Willis can be found at:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/criteria-identifying-tasks-tbl Free sample task-based lesson plans at http
://www.willis-elt.co.uk/taskbased.html
Extra slides follow
Why TBLT?
Willingness to ‘have a go’ in lessons (Japan)
Learners develop a feel for language and for what sounds right Increased confidence in speaking outside class (Hungary)
‘Students come to life during the task cycle’ (Japan) Increased motivation among students (everywhere)
More autonomous learners who are likely to go on learning after their language course.
So why Task-based Learning?
TBL provides learners with natural exposure (input), chances to use language to express what they want to mean (output), to focus on improving their own language and to analyse and practise forms.
TBL is more likely to keep learners motivated since it builds on whatever language they know in a positive way. Learners are actively engaged throughout the task cycle, and get chances to think for themselves and express themselves in the security of their group.
Learners become more independent and feel empowered, gaining satisfaction from successfully achieving things through the FL.