TBL - English
5th-10th grade: First session
Task types: what do tasks look like?
• Jigsaw task: put information together - e.g. piece picture, recipe, text together
• Information gap: share information to solve task; e.g. find way on map
• Problem solving: use information to solve problem; e.g. find cheapest phone
or quickest way (everyone has the same text/information)
• Decision making: use shared information to make common decision; e.g.
make a dream holiday, travel brouchure…
• Opinion cleft: use information to establish discussion/dialogue
Make your word – a language task
Words can be changed, using prefixes and suffixes:
• Prefixes: super- (super-human), un- (un-real)….
• Suffixes: -able (control-able), -ly (warm-ly), -ed (interest-ed)….
Try out how many pre- and suffixes you can find! (for help, try words like friend
, interest, play, employ)
Task design: Lynne Cameron
• Cameron’s model of Task design (2002) involves 3 phases (pre- while and
post-task)
• Her model also involves 4 key aspects:
Learning goals
Activities
Demand
Support
Lynne Cameron: Learning goals
• Pre-phase: often centres on core vocabulary necessary for the Task, core
language structures (questions/answers, key sentences, gambits) – and
creating motivation for the Task.
• While-phase: often same language goals as in pre-phase + using strategies
to communicate in the foreign language in a situation
• Post-phase: that learners become aware of the language they have used in the
Task – e.g. checking core vocabulary, language structures and taking time to
reflect on language points that came up. Appreciation of learner
products/output also plays a part here
Lynne Cameron: Demand
• Pre-phase: often involves learning new words and understanding the Task
• While-phase: often the demands here are connected with communication –
obstacles that stop learners from communicating during the core
activity/Task
• Post-phase: demands here often involves meta-language – knowing words to
talk about language; recalling vocabulary and storing information.
Lynne Cameron: Support
‘Support’ includes pictures, handouts, glossaries, model texts, teacher advice –
in short any help that can make learners meet the demands
• Pre-phase: often flashcards, pictures, explaining meaning of words, saying
words out loud, spelling them, providing examples. Activities here should be
fun
• While-phase: dictionaries, model texts, handouts with lines/dialogue, etc.
Whatever helps learners stay active during the core activity/Task
• Post-phase: Learning logs, exercises, crossword puzzles, classroom/pair
reflection time
Task example: Superheroes
• Pre-work:
knowing the genre – knowing the task. Presentation and
brainstorm
• While-work: making the story of the character – presenting to others.
• Post-work: focus on form: on-demand language support. Notes for ”My
language diary” and summation
Pre-work: Superheroes as storytelling
Creating a superhero character involves establishing the genre
• Genre requirements:
- The basic drive is Fairytale/Fantasy – the fight between good and evil
• Character requirements:
- Characters must obey the Magic Code (Nicolajeva 1988): supernatural elements
have a limit; for every spell, there is a counterspell. Even Superman is weak in the
face of kryptonite.
- Superheroes as magic characters are defined by powers, mission and identity
(Coogan, 2006)
Case in point: Batman
• Powers: has no supernatural powers, but instead a lot of
gadgets. His brains, money and physical training together
make up his powers.
• Mission: to fight crime in Gotham City – motivated by the
murder of his parents when he was a boy.
• Identity: Batman/Bruce Wayne. Batman is masked and
cloaked to conceal Bruce Wayne’s identity. Wayne
deliberately cultivates a private identity as a superficial
upperclass playboy far from Batman’s actions in back
alleys.
While-work: create character
• Start out by brainstorming your character: draw, act out - if it helps
• Then make HERO CARD together: key words are OK – as long as you can
remember and re-tell the character’s story later
While-work: present character
• Carrousel feedback: Get feedback from others!
• Feedback Criteria:
- powers, mission and identity: do they make an interesting character?
Post-work: language focus
• Take a moment to reflect with your partners: which langauge issues came up
when making the HERO CARD and when presenting it?
•
•
Issues might involve:
spelling, pronunciation, grammar,
unknown words, words with new meaning, phrases you haven’t heard before
Write down notes on the back of HERO CARD
Issues that came up
Condition: a need for differentiation
• Learners 5th – 10th grade in English have communicative competences in
English that vary over a very wide spectrum.
• Looking at the competence goals (both new FFM and former FM), there is a
clear expectation that learners enter the Fluency Phase during the
intermediate stage (5th-7th grade) and break into the Sophistication Phase
during the advanced stage (8th-10th grade. A relatively small number of
learners do not meet this expectation; most learners do.
• The basic premise for 5th-10th grade English teachers is therefore that a) the
goals are fairly ambitious; b) the learners’ competences vary greatly and c)
expetancy and actual performance are both high
What does that mean for TBL?
• That understanding and negotiation of meaning are often challenged by
uneven relationships
• That intensive training in tasks is often highly modelled at beginner/early
intermediate stages, while there is an increasing focus on spontaneous use of
language throughout late intermediate and advanced stages
• That evaluation and post-task work often needs to be individualized