Planning Task-based Lessons

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Planning Task-based Lessons

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What are tasks?

• ??????????(meaning is primary)
• ??????????(there is some communication problem
  to solve)
• ??????????(there is some sort of relationship to
  comparable real-world activities)
• ??????????(task completion has some priority)
• ??????????(the assessment of the task is in terms
  of outcome)

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What are not tasks?

• 1???????????(do not give other peoples meaning
  to regurgitate)
• 2???????????(are not concerned with language
  display)
• 3???????????(are not conformity- oriented)
• 4???????????(are not practice- oriented)
• 5?????????????????????? ?(do not embed language
  into materials so that specific structures can be
  focused upon)

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Criteria features of a task (Ellis, 20039)

• A task is a work plan a plan for learner
  activity.
• A task involves a primary focus on meaning.
• A task involves real-world processes of language
  use.
• A task can involve any of the four language
  skills.

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Criteria features of a task (Ellis, 20039)

• A task engages cognitive processes such as
  selecting, classifying, ordering, and evaluating
  information in order to carry out the task.
• A task has a clear defined communicative outcome.

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???????

• A task is an activity that learners engage in
  further the process of learning a language.
• Williams and Burden (1997)

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• 1. Pre-communicative language practice(?????)
  practise language with some attention to Meaning.
• E.g. With your partner, practise asking and
  answering questions about what Richard and Emy
  have to do and what they would like to do.
• Students answer questions about a situation,
  picture or topic.

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• 2. Communicative language practice(?????)
  practise language in a context. E.g. information
  gap activities or personalised questions.
• Guessing-game The students hide an object
  somewhere in a picture. They take turns to find
  out where the subject has been hidden by asking
  questions like Isit under the TV? Is it on the
  bookcase?
• Fill in the chart about your classmates
  preferences.

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• 3. Structured communication(?????) Using
  language to communicate in situations. E.g. in
  structured role-play and simple problem-solving.
• The world tomorrow students are asked to write
  down a list of changes they expect to see in the
  world by a date 50 years in the future.
• Summarise you and your classmates Holiday Plans.

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• 4. Authentic communication(?????) Using language
  to communicate in situations where the meanings
  are unpredictable. E.g. in creative role-play,
  more complex problem-solving and discussion.
• I love music! How do you feel when you
  listen to music? Why do you like music? Discuss
  with your partner and write down five reasons.

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Three principal phases

• Pre-task phase
• During task phase
• Post-task phase

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Pre-task phase

• On general cognitive demands of the task
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• An emphasis on linguistic factors
• ??????

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Pre-task phase

• Supporting learners in performing a task similar
  to the task they will perform in the during-task
  phase of the lesson
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Pre-task phase

• Non-task preparation activities
• --- brain storming ????
• --- mind map ???
• Addressing linguistic demands of a task
• --predicting, i.e. asking learners to brainstorm
  a list of words related to the task title or
  topic

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Pre-task phase

• Providing a model??????
• Asking students to observe a model of how to
  perform the task????????????
• Performing a similar task?????????
• (simply observing others perform a task can help
  reduce the cognitive load on the learner) Skehan

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Language acquisition research

• Lexico-semantic theory
• a net work of associations, a web-like
  structure of interconnected links (Aitchison,
  1987)
• Connect the word with already known words,
  the links is created, the learning takes place
  (Sokmen ) ???????????,??????????,??????????,?????

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Promote a deep level of processing

• --- When students are asked to manipulate words,
  relate them to other words and to their own
  experiences, and then justify their choices,
  these words associations are reinforced.
  (Sokmen)
• What is it? A stirrup is silver. A stirrup is
  strong. A stirrup is made of iron. A stirrup has
  a flat bottom. We can find a stirrup on a horse.
  A stirrup is used to put your foot into when you
  ride a horse. (Nation, 1990)

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Multi-word units--chunks of language , lexical
chunks

• Collocations ????
• Phrasal verbs ????
• Sentence frames ????
• Social formulae ????
• Discourse markers ?????

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Pre-task phase

• Three purposes
• ---to serve to introduce new language that
  learners can use while performing the task
• ---to mobilize existing linguistic resources
• ---to ease processing load, and to push learners
  to interpret tasks in more demanding ways

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During-task phase

• Participatory structure ????
• --individual or interaction ?????
• --language learners or language users
• pair and group work are seen as central
  to task-based teaching
• not all tasks are interactive

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Traditional vs task-based

• Traditional form-focus pedagogy
• --Teacher controls topic development
• -- turn taking is regulated by the teacher

• Task-based pedagogy
• -- students able to control topic development
• -- speakers can self-select

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• questions that the questioner does not know the
  answer to
• Opportunities to negotiate meaning when
  communication problems arise
• Scaffolding directed primarily at enabling
  students to say what they want to say

• questions that questioner already knows the
  answer to
• little need or opportunity to negotiate meaning
• Scaffolding directed primarily at enabling
  students to produce correct sentences

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• Form-focused feedback,i.e.the teacher responds
  to the correctness of students utterances
• The teacher repeats what a student has said for
  the benefit of the whole class

• Content-focused feedback,i.e.the teacher responds
  to the message content of the students utterance
• A student elects to repeat something another
  student or teacher has said as private speech or
  to establish intersubjectivity

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Task types

• 1??????(jigsaw tasks)
• 2???????(information gap tasks)
• 3????????(problem solving tasks)
• 4????????(decision making tasks)
• 5????????(opinion exchange tasks)

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Task types

• 1??(???, Listing)
• 2?????(Ordering and sorting)
• 3??(Comparing)
• 4???? (Problem solving)
• 5????(Sharing personal experiences)
  
• 6?????(Creative tasks)

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The post-task phase

• Three major pedagogical goals
• --?????????(to provide an opportunity for a
  repeat performance of the task)
• --??????????(to encourage reflection on how the
  task was performed)
• --???????(to encourage attention to form)

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Repeat performance

• Carry out second performance publicly (??,??)
• -Complexity increases ??????
• -Express more clearly ??????
• -Become more fluent ??????

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Reflecting on the task

• Present a report on how they did the task and
  what they decided or discovered oral or written
  
• Summary the outcome of the task
• Reflect or evaluate of their own performance
  (fluency, complicity or accuracy)
• Metacognitive strategies ?????(planning,monitoring
  and evaluating)

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Focusing on forms ????

• direct focus on grammar
• -- focus on the features of the forms? ?????
• -- address errors ??????
• -- address gaps in the students knowledge
  ????????

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The post-task phase???????

• Reviewing of learner errors????
• Consciousness-raising tasks????
• Production-practice activities????
• Noticing activities ???????

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Reviewing of learner errors

• Teacher moves from group to group to listen and
  note down the errors
• Address these errors with the whole class
• - can be written on the board
• - students can be invited to correct it
• - listen again and edit their own performance
• - teacher comments on

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Consciousness-raising tasks

• There is an attempt to isolate a specific
  linguistic feature for focused attention??????????
  ?
• The learners are provided with data that
  illustrate the targeted feature or an explicit
  rule describing or explaining the feature
  ?????????????????

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Consciousness-raising tasks

• The learners are expected to utilize intellectual
  effort to understand the targeted features
  ??????????
• Learners may be optionally required to verbalize
  a rule describing the grammatical structure
  ?????????
• To direct students to attend explicitly to a
  specific form they used incorrectly or failed to
  use at all in the main task????

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Production-practice activities

• Repetition ????
• Substitution ????
• Gapped sentences ????
• Jumbled sentences ?????
• Transformation drills ????
• Dialogues ??

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Combinations of skills

• listening with speaking and writing
• reading with speaking and writing
• sometimes all four skills
• speaking always before writing

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Integrating SkillsReading and Writing

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• ??????????????????,??????????????????,????????????
  ????,????????????????????,???????,?????????????

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Writing

• ?? ??, ??, ??, ????????????????????,?????????????
  ????????,?????????????????????
• ??????????
• ????,??????????????.
• ???????????????? ????????????.

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Noticing activities

• Focusing on linguistic form
• Dictation
• Editing
• Writing and teacher comments

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