TBL - English
5th-10th grade: First session
Task types: what do tasks look like?
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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)
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Decision making: use shared information to make common decision; e.g. make a dream holiday, travel brouchure…•
Opinion cleft: use information to establish discussion/dialogueMake your word – a language task
Words can be changed, using prefixes and suffixes:
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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
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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
SupportLynne 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
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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 fromcommunicating during the core activity/Task
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Post-phase: demands here often involves meta-language – knowing words to talk about language; recallingvocabulary 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
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Pre-work: knowing the genre – knowing the task.Presentation and brainstorm
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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
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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 laterWhile-work: present character
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Carrousel feedback: Get feedback from others!•
Feedback Criteria:- powers, mission and identity: do they make an interesting character?
Post-work: language focus
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Take a moment to reflect with your partners: whichlangauge issues came up when making the HERO CARD and when presenting it?
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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 CARDIssues 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?
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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 anincreasing focus on spontaneous use of language throughout late intermediate and advanced stages
