Tasks Based on Spoken
and Written Texts
TBLT Workshop
Davis, California
August 2011
Reading/Listening as a
Communicative Process
Provide:
• a context for reading/listening. We normally
process language with background knowledge
and/or expectations.
• a reason for reading/listening. We are looking
for an outcome: information, arguments,
solutions …
Prediction Tasks
Here is the headline for a newspaper article:
£180,000 violin
left on train
Work in groups. Think of five questions which will
probably be answered in the article. Try to think
of one question no other group will have thought
of.
Cues for prediction tasks:
1 Questions to be answered
2 Arguments to be listed
3 Headline/title + key sentences/phrases
4 Selected words or phrases
Quizzes/ Student as Question Master
Here are eight statements about sharks. Say whether each one
is true or false.
1 There are nearly two hundred different species of sharks.
2 The smallest sharks are about 20 centimetres in length.
3 Most sharks are less than a metre in length.
4 The biggest sharks are around 6 metres in length and weigh
up to 2000 kilograms.
5 The biggest sharks are the most dangerous of all.
6 Sharks are found in rivers as well as in the seas and oceans.
7 Only about two hundred people are killed by sharks each
year.
8 More people are killed by dogs than by sharks.
Jigsaw Tasks
Jim Burney, aged 24 – all alone in New York
over Christmas – jump off the Empire State
building – 85th floor – a television station –
decided to give up the idea – poured myself a
stiff drink
decided to kill himself – the top floor, the 86th –
over 1,000 feet below – found himself on a
narrow ledge – Mike Wilson was on duty at the
time – had a great Christmas
Discussion Tasks
1 Teacher introduction
2 Questionnaire
3 Related texts
How strict were your parents?
Work in groups. Talk about your
childhood. Whose parents were the
strictest? Whose parents were the most
easy-going?
(With thanks to Tim Marchand, Smith’s
School of English, Kyoto, Japan)
1.Were your parents were strict or easygoing?
2.Did they allow you to stay out late at night?
3.Did they let you go on holiday on your own?
4.Did they make you help about the house?
5.Did you have to wash the car?
6.What other jobs did they make you do?
7.When you went out did you always have to tell
them where you were going?
8.Did you always have to do your homework
before supper?
My Dad is a quiet man really, so he didn't really
make me do much at home. He sometimes asked
me to wash his car or cut the grass, but I was
never forced to do it, and I could usually get some
pocket money for it as well. I think my Mum was
also pretty easy-going; she let me stay out late
with my friends. As long as she knew where I
was, she wouldn't mind so much what I did.
My father was definitely stricter than my Mum.
If I had been in trouble at school, it was always
left up to him to tell me off. But I wouldn't say
that my Mum was easy-going exactly. She would
sit me down sometimes and make me do my
homework in front of her, or force me to eat my
greens, things like that. I guess I was just more
scared of my father.
Recycling texts
• Corrupted text (blanks or re-ordering)
• Quizzes/Student as Question Master
• Group dictation
• Spot the mistakes
• Communal memory
• Summaries
The Tension Between
Communication and Learning:
Reading/listening is largely a lexical process.
Efficient processing ignores grammatical
minutiae.
Efficient learning requires attention to
grammatical signals.
An effective teaching strategy must allow for
both processes.