Skip to main content

A task-based lesson plan

This is for an intermediate class (Y9-11 in England and Wales) and is closely based on an idea in Bill VanPatten's book While We're on the Topic, which I recently reviewed. It's far from original in concept but is a nice low preparation activity which would take about 25 minutes and which features many repetitions of perfect tense verbs.



Quelles activités avez-vous faites hier? Lisez et cochez les choses que vous avez faites.

1. J’ai lu.
2. J’ai travaillé à l’ordinateur.
3. J’ai fait de l’exercice.
4. J’ai fait du vélo.
5. J’ai marché au moins dix minutes.
6. J’ai voyagé en voiture.
7. J’ai regardé la télé.
8. J’ai joué aux jeux vidéo.
9. J’ai rangé ma chambre.
10. J’ai préparé quelque chose à manger.

B.  Interviewez quelqu’un pour trouver s’il/elle a fait ces activités. Notez les réponses. Voici les questions qu’il vous faut.

1. Tu as lu quelque chose?
2. Tu as travaillé à l’ordinateur?
3. Tu as fait de l’exercice?
4. Tu as fait du vélo?
5. Tu as marché au moins dix minutes?
6. Tu as voyagé en voiture?
7. Tu as regardé la télé?
8. Tu as joué aux jeux vidéo?
9. Tu as rangé ta chambre?
10. Tu as préparé quelque chose à manger?

C. Now rate yourself and your partner on the following scale, based on the information you obtained in Steps A and B.

Très actif                                                             Très sédentaire

5                        4                     3                          2                               1

D.   Ecoutez la prof qui va vous demander vos réponses.

[Ask the students for their rankings and put them on the board. The class calculates the group average. Just how active/sedentary is this group of students? And the teacher? Share your answers, and the class assigns a ranking for you.]

Version B: Sédentaire ou actif?

A. Faites une liste de DIC choses que vous avez faites hier. (par exemple J’au lu, J’ai fait du sport)).

B. Interviewez un partenaire. Demandez s’ils ont fait les choses sur votre liste. Notez les réponses.
Exemple: Tu as fait du sport?

C. Now rate yourself and your partner on the following scale based on the information you obtained in Steps 1 and 2.

D.  

As above


This is an example of task-based learning. Version B is more demanding of pupils since they need to supply more input and output.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is the natural order hypothesis?

The natural order hypothesis states that all learners acquire the grammatical structures of a language in roughly the same order. This applies to both first and second language acquisition. This order is not dependent on the ease with which a particular language feature can be taught; in English, some features, such as third-person "-s" ("he runs") are easy to teach in a classroom setting, but are not typically fully acquired until the later stages of language acquisition. The hypothesis was based on morpheme studies by Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt, which found that certain morphemes were predictably learned before others during the course of second language acquisition. The hypothesis was picked up by Stephen Krashen who incorporated it in his very well known input model of second language learning. Furthermore, according to the natural order hypothesis, the order of acquisition remains the same regardless of the teacher's explicit instruction; in other words,

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought.  ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).

12 principles of second language teaching

This is a short, adapted extract from our book The Language Teacher Toolkit . "We could not possibly recommend a single overall method for second language teaching, but the growing body of research we now have points to certain provisional broad principles which might guide teachers. Canadian professors Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada (2013), after reviewing a number of studies over the years to see whether it is better to just use meaning-based approaches or to include elements of explicit grammar teaching and practice, conclude: Classroom data from a number of studies offer support for the view that form-focused instruction and corrective feedback provided within the context of communicative and content-based programmes are more effective in promoting second language learning than programmes that are limited to a virtually exclusive emphasis on comprehension. As teachers Gianfranco and I would go along with that general view and would like to suggest our own set of g