CORE Unit 3 Teaching with Text and Tasks

Section 1 : Using a Text

Introduction

Using a Text

What is a text?

We use the word ‘text’ to cover both written texts and spoken texts. That is, anything that
students can read (a story, an article, a synopsis, an e-mail, a letter, etc) as well as, perhaps
surprisingly, anything that students can listen to (usually an audio or video clip of: a
conversation, an interview, an anecdote, etc.).

At an elementary level we will often use texts that range from 4-line dialogues or 4-sentence
paragraphs to 90-second conversations and 3/4-paragraph short stories.  At intermediate level
and above texts are often much longer. Typically, 1 or 2 sentences or utterances don’t really
count as texts, although there might be some interesting real-life exceptions (e.g. street signs,
advertisements, slogans, official forms, etc.) that can be used by teachers to help students
develop their skills use or language awareness.

What are texts for?

The first thing teachers often think texts are for is highlighting and studying new words and
grammar. This is true, and is a great way to introduce new language or review old language in
a meaningful and contextualised way.

A very important thing is often overlooked though: developing reading and listening skills.
The ability to read and listen isn’t just dependent on how many words we know and what
grammar we recognise - they’re skills that need practice in their own right, like driving a car,
playing the piano, or knitting. On top of this, however, we actually use a variety of sub-skills
depending on why we are reading or listening. For example, when trying to work out how to
use a new computerised washing machine we might read the manual very slowly and
carefully, line by line, ensuring we understand each step. On the other hand, when reading for
pleasure we tend to skim over a lot only stopping to read more carefully when we find the
interesting bits.  The different sub-skills also need practice in their own right.

Another great thing about texts is that they can be used as springboards for productive tasks.
A controversial text can lead to an interesting discussion, a mystery story to predictions, an
anecdote by the teacher to anecdotes by the students, a conversation between two people
making a business deal to a situational role-play, etc. Letters can lead to writing other letters
using the original as a model or to responses to the original. Resumes can lead to resume
writing or situational discussions - which candidates should we invite for interviews?  

Texts are, pretty much, for everything!

Where do we get texts from?

Most course books come with a cassette or CD full of spoken texts, and every chapter or unit
has at least 1 or 2 written texts.  Student Workbooks and Teacher Resource books often come
with additional written texts, and some come with additional audio.

You can also supplement a course with texts from many other places too: the Internet; your
own personal anecdotes, experiences, and jokes; books, magazines, CDs, newspapers, and
DVDs that you own; brochures and flyers; bank account/passport/immigration forms; photos
of shop signs, etc. Even bottles of shampoo, cereal boxes, packets of potato chips, etc., can
have interesting information written on them that can be brought to class.

Before students Read/Listen

Whenever we read or listen to something in real life, there are two things we already have,
and one thing we do, that can make reading and listening much easier for students if they have
and do the same:

 We have an aim.
 We have background knowledge.
 We make predictions about what will come next.

Before students read or listen to anything, then, teachers need to:

Activate Background Knowledge

The more students know about the context, the setting, the characters, the speaker/writer’s
aims, the genre, general topic, etc., the more prepared they will be when reading or listening.

You can’t always give away too much, or students might not even need to read/listen to what
you have prepared, but brief information, based around some prompts (visuals, the title of the
article, key words, etc.) and a little prediction can really help.  For example, if they are going
to listen to a short dialogue between a hotel receptionist and a customer checking in, you
could have the students talk first about hotels, then about procedures for checking in.  That
way, when they listen, they can use their background knowledge about checking into a hotel
to better understand the conversation.

Set a Task

“Listen to/read this, and then I’ll ask you some questions” is not a useful approach. The
students need to know why they are listening/reading.  Each time they listen/read set a task
first, for example, in a listening activity:

 “A hotel receptionist and a customer are having a conversation. What does the
customer want?  a) to book a room  b) to check in  c) to order a wake-up call.  Listen,
and check.”

Ideally, you will set a simple, global question for the first time they listen. This will provide
more context and background knowledge and works best if it is also about the setting,
characters, genre, general topic, etc.  Following the first listening, you can then set other kinds
of tasks that require more careful listening and have them listen again. We will look at these
different kinds of tasks a bit later.
Encourage Prediction

Much of this can be done when ‘activating background knowledge’. For example, for a short
story you could introduce the topic and the title of the story, then invite the students to make
predictions about the basic plot or the main characters.

In real life we are constantly making predictions, checking and confirming them, then making
more predictions as we read or listen, so it can also help to encourage prediction between
steps. For example, you could ask students to make some predictions before listening to an
interview, then stop after the first exchange between interviewer and interviewee and have the
students make further predictions.

One thing to be careful of is to practise checking and confirming those predictions.

Predictions and background knowledge are often a great help, but sometimes they mislead
students. If they don’t practise confirming their predictions they might get into a habit of
relying too much on the background knowledge and not enough on the actual information in
the text.

Overall, this approach to making predictions can be a useful technique to use from time to
time either in addition to, or instead of, other skills-based tasks.

Skills Development - Reading

Depending on our aims, there are three important sub-skills we use when reading that are
particularly useful to help students develop their overall reading skills and abilities, which
include:

Skimming 

Skimming involves glancing over the text to get the overall gist, a ‘general idea’ of what it is
about. The focus here is on very general information such as understanding what the topic is
about or what the situation is in that particular text. Alternatively, skimming may serve to find
out what type of text is being dealt with (is it an article, an informal letter or a film review, for
example). We can see here that the purpose of skimming is not to get a very detailed
understanding of the text, but rather to get a general understanding of it. This is an important
skill for students to develop as it is not always important for them to understand the detail in a
text. They need to learn how to get a general idea of a text without getting frustrated about not
being able to understand every word. If they focus too much on detail, they may lose the
wood for the trees, so to speak. Of course, difficult vocabulary can be dealt with at a later
stage, but if we are aiming to develop reading skills, then skimming for gist has a very
valuable place in the classroom and will give students confidence when faced with authentic
written texts (i.e. not graded for learners). Classroom activities that aim to develop the skill of
skimming include matching activities. For example, students are given 1 text and 3 possible
titles/heading of that text. In order to select the appropriate title/heading, students will need to
have only a general idea of the text. They will not need to understand the detail, in this case.
Other skimming tasks include asking students to identify the genre of the text - whether it is a
review, an article, an essay etc.

Scanning
Scanning involves ‘picking out’ specific information, such as names, dates, numbers, etc.,
while ignoring, or filterning through, everything else. Scanning is also an important skill, and
one which learners will probably have in their L1 (first language). Here is an example or how
we scan: If for example, we have a newspaper and we want to find the time of a movie, we
certainly won't need to skim (as above) the whole newspaper to get the gist of the newspaper.
Instead, we will gloss over other information/sections, without really taking anything in, until
we find the time of the movie. Thus, when scanning, we are not reading for gist, but we are
essentially just 'looking for' information. 

Detailed reading

This relates to slower, more careful reading to get a deeper understanding of the text. Often
this will involve reading some sections more carefully than others, interpreting the details, and
making inferences (i.e. understanding when something is implied but isn’t stated explicitly).
Tasks that aim to develop reading for detail usually follow a gist task. Classroom activities
that aim to develop detailed reading skills often include true/false questions or detailed
comprehension questions based on the text.

Moving on to Listening

The section will now move on to looking at using listening material as a basis for new
language, and skills development. The skills involved in listening and reading are similar in
many ways. Consider the following:

 Listening for Gist 

Similar to skim reading, a lightly attentive listening to get a ‘rough idea’ of what it is
about.
 Listening for Specific Information
Similar to scanning, listening in order to pick out names, dates, numbers, etc.
 Detailed Listening
As with detailed reading - careful and attentive listening for deeper understanding.

As such, the type of lesson staging for a lesson focusing on listening skills development will
usually be the same as with reading, and many of the tasks will be similar.

There are important differences, however, and these can affect our approach to the lesson in
different ways. Let us now consider the use of listening in class. We will consider the use of
audio clips and how these can be very different to engaging in a real conversation. In this
discussion, we will also think about some of the differences between using reading and using
listening materials. 

Audio Clips vs. Real-life Listening

When thinking about basing language input on listening material, we need to consider how
real-life listening differs from that of typical classroom listening. That is to say that what
students listen to in class is often very different to what they listen to in the real world in
terms of level, speed of delivery and so on. 
 

Audio clips (CD or video) are a common feature of the English language classroom. In most
cases, they may accompany a text book and are usually graded according to the level of the
students. This is important so that students feel adequately challenged but not overwhelmed.
If learners are listening to, or reading, something that is too difficult, they may feel frustrated,
demotivated or even anxious. While you can usually re-write a text to make it a bit simpler,
you have less flexibility doing this with audio.  Occasionally you might adapt an audio clip
and read it aloud yourself, but this is generally only suitable for monologues.  On top of that,
learners need exposure to different accents, different voices, different speeds of delivery, etc.,
and audio clips are essential aids here. What learners don’t usually get from audio clips in
class is a sense of the two-way flow of information that is characteristic of a real-life
conversation.

Listening to, and engaging in, a real-life conversation in English is can be very challenging
for the learner. In this case, information can arrive with pauses, hesitations and often with
grammar that is not 100% correct (as it usually is in a written form). With reading, a learner
can read the same text again and again in his/her own time but with participating in a real-life
conversation, this is not usually possible. However, it is possible for the learner to ask for
clarification and repetition when participating in a conversation, which is comforting.

When exposed to listening that is not of a conversational nature, learners face a number of
difficulties. Consider, for example, the safety instructions on an aeroplane, or an
announcement on public transport, or a speaker talking to an audience. In these situations,
which happen in real time, the speaker doesn’t usually consider the level of English of his/her
‘audience’.

As teachers, we want to find a balance between ensuring our learners are getting exposure to
listening material which is as natural as possible and listening material which is not going to
be so difficult that it frustrates our learners. Here are some things that teachers can do to help
to offer this balance:

 Make use of the stop, pause, and re-wind buttons when using audio clips to allow
opportunities for clarification and repetition. Don’t overuse it, but it can be a useful
tool now and again.
 Ensure that audio clips are not the only listening practice that students get. Provide
opportunities to listen to the teacher, in which seeking clarification and asking for
repetition is encouraged.
 Provide a lot of opportunities for pair and small group work in which real interaction
is essential.
 Occasionally, very occasionally, make use of the audio script (i.e. having listened
several times, students can then have the opportunity to read what they heard).

With both reading and listening, where texts are on cultural topics or are specialist in their
focus, students won’t be able to fully understand them regardless of their language ability. For
example, a short tabloid article about the royal family requires understanding of two things
that people from outside Europe are unlikely to know: a) about the life and roles of the royal
family; b) about ‘tabloids’ (e.g. that they are considered ‘gossipy’ or ‘trashy’ - in many
countries all newspapers are considered as factual and professional). The teacher will usually
need to use the pre-teach and lead-in steps to prepare students and add to their background
knowledge.

Having looked at various skills that are needed for reading, let us now consider the typical
stages of a lesson that aims to develop these skills. As with most lessons, a lead in is a good
way to start in order to get students involved. We will go through the various stages and finish
with a production stage to wrap everything up. Consider these stages and then do the task
below:

The lead in has a combination of three aims:

 To warm students up to using English again after a break (e.g. often the last time they
used English was in the previous lesson with you).
 To engage the students in the topic and to motivate them.
 To activate a bit of background knowledge, better preparing them for the reading.

The pre-teach stage (clarifying vocabulary that will be essential in order to understand

the main idea of the text) is optional, and when the aim of your lesson is to develop their
reading skills, you don’t want to put too much emphasis on language teaching.  You will do
vocabulary lessons and grammar lessons as well, so during a skills lesson avoid being tempted
to clarify a lot of vocabulary or grammar, and do focus on skills development. The aim of the
pre-teach is:

 To ensure students are able to complete the reading tasks.

So don’t  teach words they’re already familiar with, words that aren’t important to
understanding the text or completing the tasks or words that can easily be guessed from
context. Also remember to  keep it limited; a standard recommendation is 0-5 words for a 45-
minute lesson and no more than 7 words for a longer lesson.

The gist reading stage has three aims:

 To engage the students in the text.

 To better prepare them for the more detailed reading task(s).
 To practise and develop the skill of skimming for gist. (This will help them outside the
classroom to not get bogged down with trying to understand every word in a text,
which can be frustrating and demoralising.) 

Before setting the gist task, engage them in the text - a brief overview introducing key
characters, text type (e.g. blog, news article, short story), title, pictures, etc., and encourage
some prediction.

Then set a task that can be completed with just a 1-minute skim focusing on very general
information. Now, hand out the text and let them skim.  At first they might feel 1 minute isn’t
enough, especially if they haven’t practised skimming very often, but the aim is not to
complete the comprehension task, the aim is to practise this skill or reading quickly for a
general understanding.  If you stick to your time limits, after several lessons the students will
get a good handle on this skill and will actually be able to complete a lot of skimming tasks in
10-30 seconds.

The scanning stage is often optional, as whether you want to use it or not largely depends on
the type of text or the type of information in the text.  We typically scan for things like:

 figures and amounts of money

 times and dates (e.g. date of birth, the year something was invented, the time a movie
starts, etc.)
 people and place names
 names of objects, goods, items (e.g. the exact items someone bought, sold, or traded)
 key words or phrases related to preferences to help us decide between options

If the text doesn’t have any of this kind of information, it is unlikely to really help the students
develop their scanning skills.  If it does, then give them 2-3 minutes to scan through and pick
out 5-8 items of this kind.  Again, the aim isn’t to complete the comprehension task and it
isn’t to teach them vocabulary or grammar, it is simply to practise and develop the skill of
scanning to find specific information, much like scanning a travel brochure to find the cost of
a particular trip. Incidentally, this is a skill that learners should be reasonably good at in their
own language. 

Detailed reading tasks should be designed to guide students to a deeper understanding of the

texts as well as to help them develop the skill of reading carefully.  If the task can be
completed simply by circling or underlining words or sentences in the text, then the task
probably isn’t very effective.  If it requires rephrasing information in the text, making
inferences, and/or recognising how elements in one sentence or paragraph are connected to
elements elsewhere in the text, then it is probably a very effective task. 

Give students as much time as they need for this.  15 minutes is fine if the task and length and
complexity of the text require it - you can monitor and observe, but give them space to
practise their reading.  Again, remember the aim is development, not testing - ensure the task
guides them to understanding.

Productive tasks can follow to integrate skills (often the reading of a letter is followed by
writing a reply and the reading of a newspaper article is followed by discussing it with a
colleague or friend), to personalise the lesson (relate the text and topic to their own lives), and
to keep them engaged.

Task

A typical lesson designed to help students to develop these three sub-skills (skimming for
general understanding, scanning for finding specific information, and detailed reading for
comprehension of detail) will typically include the following stages and steps.  

Teaching Language in Context: From skills to language points

We have looked at how to use reading texts and listening material to practise reading and
listening skills. Let us now look at how to use reading and listening to present new language
points such as grammar and vocabulary. As with a lesson which focuses on skills
development, a lesson which focuses on language points should also start with a lead-in stage
and end with the students producing the newly learnt language, in a natural, free way.
Consider this outline of a lesson that uses a text:

The lead in stage has the same purpose as in a reading or listening lesson, which is to engage
the learners in the topic of the written text/listening material that will be used.

The gist stage still aims to engage the students and to get them to practise gist
reading/listening skills, but these are secondary aims. The main aim is:

 To provide a context for the new vocabulary/grammar.

Overall, the approach will be the same as with reading or listening practice, but the text itself
needs to be carefully chosen. Often the course-book will have been chosen for you, but if you
bring in your own written or audio texts, choose ones that have multiple examples of the new
language.

The second reading/listening stage is often optional and depends on how difficult the text is.
A second reading/listening task is only really necessary if you don’t think the context will be
clear without it. The aim should be to further familiarise the students with the text, and you
could do either:

 a scanning / picking out specific information task

 a light comprehension task

If the reading/listening tasks take too long, you won’t have enough time for students to see,
understand, and practise using the new vocabulary/grammar.

Post-teach tasks should be designed to do the following:

 highlight the language in the text

 use the text to make the meaning and/or use of the new language clear
 use the text to make the form (e.g. spelling, word order) of the new language clear
 either use the audio text to make the pronunciation clear, or clarify the pronunciation
yourself

The first step is always to have the students find the new language (the new vocabulary or
grammar) in the text. With an audio clip this can (sometimes) involve handing out the audio
script.  Some examples:

 To highlight Present Continuous: Underline all the verbs ending in ‘-ing’.

 To highlight and clarify the meaning/use of new vocabulary: Here a 7 phrases.  Find a
synonym for each one in the text.
 To highlight Comparative Adjectives: Listen and circle the phrases you hear.  1-a) is
big than  b) is bigger than  c) is more big than   2-a) is beautiful than  b) is beautifuller
than  c) is more beautiful than, etc.
The next step is to use carefully designed hand-outs to make the students think about and
discover the meaning, form and pronunciation themselves, referring back to the text for
support.  Alternatively, you can do a quick clarification yourself (often pronunciation can only
be done this way).  If you do, though, make sure your clarification isn’t too wordy.  This can
be quicker but is also less memorable. 

The practice tasks are essential, as communicating is less about ‘conscious knowledge’ and

more about ‘ability’ - like any skill, people need to practise actual communication to really be
able to do it. Knowing the grammar rules can be helpful, but having a conversation with
someone and using the grammar (whether aware of it or not) appropriately in that
conversation is the main way people develop.

Controlled practice tasks  can be less realistic, and are often sentence-based (or involve just
pairs of sentences), and most importantly they require use of the new language.  Tasks need
to be developed with this in mind, and often a reminder, like ‘use these words’ or ‘use the
Present Continuous’ for example, is helpful.  The aim here is partially reinforcement through
repetition, partially a focus on accuracy (with explicit error correction), and partially to
develop confidence before the freer practice. 

Freer practice tasks should be reflective of real-world language use and could include
conversations, discussions, writing in paragraphs, stories, etc. It is important that the
context/situation in the task encourages use of the new vocabulary/grammar, but that it is not
a requirement. Students should use whatever words or structures they feel best reflect their
intended meaning, and will ideally incorporate the new language with language they already
know.  The aim here is on reinforcement through realistic, communicative use that is relevant
to the individual leaners, with a focus on fluency and interaction. It is suggested that there be
little error correction here as we do not want to interrupt our students. Some may disagree
with this, however, and one way to ensure that students are communicating freely without
being interrupted is for the teacher to jot down some common errors and go through these at
the end of the free practice task.

Meaning Form and Pronunciation

We have considered the use of texts (reading and listening material) for skills development
and language input. Now we will look at language input in more detail.  

Using texts to introduce language is a common practice in the classroom. When teaching any
language point (whether using a text or not), we need to ensure that the meaning/use, form
and pronunciation of the particular language point are clear. 

Meaning refers, of course, to meaning/use. Thus, if our language point is the present perfect
to talk about unfinished states/actions (e.g. I have known Sue for three years), the student will
need to know 2 things. Firstly, this sentence expresses that I met Sue three years ago and
secondly, the fact that I still know her now. Students are often not  able to differentiate
between 'I knew her' and 'I have known her'. Thus, clarifying exact meaning is essential. In
terms of vocabulary, meaning refers to the meaning of the word. This may seem obvious, but
we need to consider subtle differences in meaning. For example, consider the difference in
meaning between the words notorious and famous. Both relate to the same idea of being well-
known, yet notorious has a negative connotation. Vocabulary (lexis) will be addressed in
more detail in subsequent sections. 
Form refers to the actual construction of a grammatical structure (or the spelling of a word, in
the case of vocabulary). Thus, in our example of the present perfect, we need to ensure that
students know the form of the present perfect which is:   subj + have/has (not) + past
participle. They will also need to know the negative form and the question form. 

Pronunciation refers to how words and structures are pronounced naturally. In the case of
our example, students will need practice in pronouncing the structure (present perfect, in this
case) as naturally as possible. Thus, for our sentence (I have known her for three years),
students will need to practise how the word have is pronounced in natural speech (it may be
contracted to ve). Consider how we pronounce the question, 'How long have you lived here?'
In natural speech we tend to 'swallow'' auxiliary verbs. Consequently, the question would
sound something more like 'How long've ye ben living here?' This can be enormously difficult
for students and they really need help with this. This is not to say that they should speak in
this way, but it is important that they are able to identify with such pronunciation to help them
with their listening. Considering vocabulary, consider the difference in the spelling and the
pronunciation of the words stuff, rough, through and threw. Thus, when teaching a new word
we need to be sure students are able to pronounce it correctly. A more detailed unit on
pronunciation is covered further on in the course. 

Section 2 : Using a Task

Introduction

Using a Task: Moving from Teaching with Texts to Teaching with Tasks

The previous section looked at using existing texts (written texts and listening material) to
teach. In this approach teachers use this text as a basis for teaching; in other words, the text
contains the target language (grammar or vocabulary) for the lesson. Typically, in this
approach, the teacher will use the text to exploit language (grammar or vocabulary) and then
get students to practice this language by doing various consolidating tasks. An alternative
approach involves using an actual  ‘task’ to teach. Here, learners are given a task to do before
focusing on language. This task is usually a spoken task, but can also be a written task.

Teaching with tasks means that we are using the task itself to generate teaching opportunities.
We are not using the task to consolidate what has already been taught. This approach to
teaching is based on the idea that getting students to communicate will show the teacher what
the student lacks and in this way, the teacher will be able to teach according to these direct
needs of the students. This approach is therefore reactive in nature. Thus, it is very important
that tasks are set up in such a way that they generate as much communication (usually verbal,
but sometimes written) as possible, allowing the teacher to react to what the students are
lacking.

In order to get a decent amount of communication out of students when administering a

speaking task, it is not simply enough to ask them to talk about something. They need more
support than this. This support comes in the form of building up a speaking task in stages so
that each stage includes, or prepares for, a speaking opportunity (it may be that one of the
stages in the speaking task is a silent one where students are given time to prepare what they
are going to say next). This staging is often called scaffolding as it creates a structured
framework in which to generate communication. 

What is a task?

We often use the word task to talk about any task, activity or exercise that students do in
class. In this section, when we use the word ‘task’ by itself we will be referring to writing and
speaking activities that have a clear communicative focus and require a certain amount of
production that will give the teacher a good enough sample of students’ needs. Some
examples include: personal conversations and anecdotes, role plays, discussions, problem
solving, case studies, letters, e-mails, short stories, interviews, and even “write 5 sentences
about yourself using Past Simple” tasks.    

When we use the word ‘task’ for exercises like guided discovery or tests, we will clarify them
as ‘checking  tasks’ or ‘discovery  tasks’, or will simply call them exercises. Examples of these
include: gap-fills, re-order the sentence, correct the mistake, fill in the table/chart with the
grammar rules, etc. These have a place in the language learning classroom, and are important
for clarifying or consolidating new language learnt. However, giving students a realistic and
communicative task, such as a role-play situation in a bank,  is equally valuable (some would
argue moreso), so we will focus on those kinds of tasks here.

What are tasks for?

The first thing ‘teachers’ often think of is: for practising and consolidating new words and
grammar. This is true, and is a great way to help learners familiarise themselves with the new
language and become more comfortable in recalling it for natural use. It can also be an
opportunity for the teacher to listen to how students use the language and to be able to provide
feedback - confirming when something is accurate and providing guidance when there are
mistakes. 

As with the use of texts, though, people often forget the most obvious use: developing
speaking and writing skills, and the ability to interact and communicate. Again, the ability to
speak and write isn’t just dependent on how many words we know and what grammar we
recognise - they’re skills that need practice in their own right, like driving a car, playing the
piano, or knitting. 

For example, when speaking, we need to be able to:

 recall language (words, phrases, expressions and grammar) instantaneously

 listen to and respond to whoever we are talking to
 be aware of changes in topic
 recognise and understand other information: intonation, body language, gesture, etc.
 be aware of whether it is our turn to speak or not

 recall the right language, that which:

o best expresses our intended meaning
o most accurately conveys our personality (e.g. polite and respectful, creative
and poetic, young and trendy, laid back and carefree)
o is appropriate to that particular situation
  and more…

Knowledge about language is just not enough - we need to practise and develop the ability to

use it.

Where do we get tasks?

Most course books include a few simple tasks and also come with ‘resource packs’ that have
collections of games and activities.  The course book tasks rarely have enough prompts or
guidance, though, and the resource packs tend to be a mixture of good communicative
activities and motivating games.  So a teacher needs to choose tasks carefully and to be ready
to adapt and add extra prompts and guidance as necessary. A quick tip regarding prompts and
guidance: remember that “restriction breeds creativity”.

Task Set Up & Preparation

Read the description of a well-known discussion task used in language classrooms. After you
have had a look, we will look at 4 different approaches to administering this task. 

Task:  The Balloon Debate

Step 1

The students (a group of 8) are in a hot-air balloon above the ocean. The gas is running out
and the balloon is starting to plummet. There is a deserted island off in the distance, but they
are clearly not going to make it because 8 people are just too heavy. 5 people would probably
make it safely.  It comes down to a decision:  5 survive, or none of them do.

Step 2

The students have role cards (these could be ‘job’ cards, or ‘personality trait’ cards, of more
detailed character cards). They each make an argument for their character to stay on the
balloon.

Step 3

A final vote is made deciding which 5 people get to stay on the balloon (they can’t vote for
themselves).

Skills Development - Speaking

A good task can be used as the basis for a pure ‘spoken fluency’ lesson. The aim of the lesson
would be to develop fluency (quick and natural responses), interaction (ability to understand
and respond appropriately to others), and communicative ability (getting across the intended
message). In these types of lessons we don’t want to put too much emphasis on learning new
vocabulary or grammar, and should do little or no error correction during the task, as we want
to create an atmosphere where students are speaking without interruption from the teacher. Of
course, the teacher needs to constantly be monitoring. 
Here is an outline of a typical Speaking lesson which aims to develop speaking skills (in other
words, not to practise a grammar point, for example).

In order to get students motivated and interested before doing the task, a general overview of
the topic of the task is needed. This will ensure that students are thinking about the topic and
(perhaps subconsciously) activating vocabulary that they may already have.  This stage could
include showing pictures, or asking questions about the topic.

Once students are engaged, it is a good time to pre-teach any vocabulary that students may
need to participate in the task. For example, if the task is to organise a camping trip for a
family, it is important that students have the necessary minimum vocabulary to participate in
the task. This will be decided by the teacher but may, in this case for example, include words
such as ‘tent, gas cooker, sleeping bag and matches. Following this, students should
brainstorm various ideas together as a class. This not only generates a variety of ideas but it
also gives students a chance to share vocabulary and learn from each other.  

After this brainstorming session, students should get together in small groups to put together
their own ideas which will lead into the stage of discussing, in this case, the camping trip
plans for the family and justifying their ideas and commenting on each other’s ideas.

Once the actual speaking task is done, the teacher will give feedback. This feedback could
include comments on the task choices and comparing different groups’ choices, but it should
also contain a language element where the teacher praises good language used and addresses
language which was used incorrectly. Praising good use of language not only builds
confidence in those who used the language well, but also serves to expose other learners to
this language and engenders an environment where there is constant learning, not only from
the teacher, but also from classmates. 

Here are a couple more ideas for tasks that are great for developing spoken fluency in that
type of lesson. Can you think of any others?

Task One:  ‘The Best Deal’ Role-plays

1. Half the students are customers and the other half are sales staff (other variations are
possible, of course). Each customer has a role-card with information about their
personality and the product(s) that they need and/or want. Each sales person has a
role-card with the goods they have, recommended retail prices, and profit related
information to help with decisions about discounts. Not all sales staff have all
products, but they have most. 
2. Customers work as a group to brainstorm different expressions they might need and to
discuss how best to get low prices.  Shopkeepers work as a group to brainstorm
expressions they might need and to discuss how to convince customers that their
products are the best.
 3. Students mingle, with customers going to every shop at least once - trying to get ‘the
best deal’, and shopkeepers trying to make a decent profit.

Task Two:  Problem Solving Case Study

1. The whole class is given a problem situation.  Often the best problems will be about
business troubles (e.g. dealing with publicity issues after toxic chemicals have been
discovered in one batch of a product from your company)  or environmental problems
(e.g. a small island community that relies on fishing to survive have to deal with an oil
spill).  The more background information and context setting the better.    
2. Groups brainstorm follow-on consequences, potential solutions, advantages and
disadvantages of different solutions.
3. Students are given role-cards (e.g. marketing manager, production manager, chief
accountant, etc., each with different values and intentions) within each group.  Each
group also has a chairperson and they hold a mock meeting to discuss how to solve the
situation.  The aim is to come to an agreed solution.

Task Three:  Spot the Difference

1. You have two variations of a picture of a single scene (a typical spot-the-difference

activity - Picture A and Picture B).  Introduce the context and scene, and have students
comment on a few things they can see in one of the pictures.     
2. Divide the class into two groups (Group A and Group B). Each group works together
to discuss and practise describing their picture in detail (i.e. Group A discusses Picture
A).
3. They re-group into pairs - an A and a B together. Each pair sits back to back so they
can’t see their partner’s picture. The try to find the differences by describing each
picture out loud to each other - circling the appropriate area when they describe part of
the picture differently.

Skills Development - Writing

There are two common approaches to developing writing skills. In a ‘model text’ approach
the students first read a model text and then study some vocabulary or grammar from the text,
as well as the layout. Following this, they write their own version using the text they’ve read
as a model. Typically this approach is used to mostly to develop accuracy in relation to the
vocabulary, grammar and layout.

When we want to develop communicative ability in writing, and to help students develop
brainstorming, information organising, and drafting skills we can use a ‘process’ approach.
This type of lesson is about the process of starting out with ideas, then planning how and
when to introduce each idea, drafting, editing and re-drafting, etc. The final product is seen as
just one aim of the lesson - the process is seen as equally, or more, important.

What staging would you expect in a process lesson? Here is an idea.

A typical writing lesson should start with a lead in (before stating the actual writing task of
the lesson), so as to get students engaged in the topic of the writing task to follow. If the task
requires that students write an essay on whether school uniforms are a good idea or not, the
lead in might include questions such as ‘Do/did you wear a uniform to school?’ Or ‘Is this a
common practice in your country?’ Etc. The idea here is to get students thinking about the
topic.
 
Once students are engaged, present the question of the writing task and brainstorm ideas with
the class. In the case of the essay about uniforms, it may be a good idea for you to have two
columns on the board and in one column write ‘Points in favour of uniforms’ and in the other,
‘Points against uniforms’. Spend a few minutes generating ideas here. Following this whole-
class stage, ask students to spend some time individually working on their own ideas about
what they want to include in their essays and thinking about their own points of view on the
matter.
 
When students have a rough idea of the points/ideas that they want to include in their essay,
they should then think about how to present this information. This important planning stage
allows students to organise their ideas into paragraphs to create good structure that will be
accessible to the reader.
 
By now the students should have a rough plan and are ready to write their first draft. Once
they have written their first draft, they will need to edit it. It is likely that students will want to
edit their own draft with the help of the teacher, who will be constantly monitoring and giving
input. However, there is a lot to be said for peer editing where students exchange their rough
drafts with those of their classmates. Following this editing process, students will write
another draft and then edit this one.
Finally, when there has been sufficient drafting and editing, students will be ready to write
their final copy. This final copy can then be handed in to the teacher or read aloud in class or
posted on classroom walls for others to read.  

Writing tasks can often be based on speaking tasks (e.g. they write a short story based on a
role-play or a report after a meeting scenario, etc.), and are great after reading tasks (e.g.
students reply to a letter from a friend or they write magazine ‘Agony Aunt’ responses to ‘I
have a problem’ letters, etc.). 

Here are a couple of other ideas for writing tasks that can be used in a ‘process’ lesson.  Can
you think of any others?

Task One:  Auto-Biography

1. Set the scene (more realistic: preparing a blog page on a personal web-site; more
creative: you are now 65 years old and famous, a magazine wants to publish your
biography).  The aim is for students to include a combination of ‘personal
information’ (e.g. full name, date of birth, nationality, etc.), life events (e.g.
graduation, career moves, marriage/family details) and information about interests and
personality. 
 2. Students go through all the steps in the process writing - first brainstorming the kinds
of details that might be included, as a class; then moving onto personal rough notes,
etc.  But, students don’t put their name or anything too obvious that gives them away.
3. Each final copy is collected, shuffled, then pinned up around the room.  Students get
up and wander around in pairs or threes discussing who they think wrote each auto-
biography.

Task Two:  A Letter of Complaint

1. Use pictures and questions to set the scene:  You’ve just been on a holiday abroad. 
You bought a package tour through a well-known travel agent - and in the brochures
and descriptions it looked fantastic.  In truth it was an absolute disaster.  Write to the
travel agent to complain and request some form of compensation.   
2. Process writing as above with: brainstorming other problems and appropriate
compensation; rough notes; drafting etc.
3. Feedback on final copies can be done in one of two ways:  (a) They exchange letters
with a partner  and read them taking on the role of Manager of the travel agency.  This
is followed up with two role-plays (once with each person in the pair acting as
Manager) based on the letters.  (b) They each pass their letter to the person on their
right.  They take on the role of Manager of the travel agency, and write a letter in
response.  Response letters are then passed back, and students find out whether the
Manager has given them an appropriate apology and compensation.

Task Three:  Creative Writing with Musical Emotion

1. Prepare 4 to 6 pieces of classical music in a way that you can easily play 30 seconds of
each piece with little hesitation between them.  Choose very different styles/moods
(e.g. one piece can be light and dainty, another dark and mysterious, another
triumphant, etc.).  Set a scene that’s likely to prompt creative writing (e.g. a haunted
house setting, a detective mystery, etc.).  Take a minute or two to get them into the
context.    
2. The brainstorming and rough notes step is combined - students have to extend the
story by making notes about what happens next, but… the notes have to reflect the
mood of each piece of music.  Once the music has finished, they then write quietly for
a while and flesh out the story.
3. They re-group into small groups and share their stories (a combination of reading
aloud and rephrasing, etc.).

Practising New Language

Another important use of tasks is to provide spoken or written practice of a particular

language point (grammar or vocabulary) after studying it in a language lesson.  These types of
tasks are great for the Freer Practice stage mentioned in “Teaching Language in Context” in
the section on teaching using a text.     

A great example is the Spot the Difference Task that we introduced earlier.  When describing
a beach scene to each other to spot the differences, for example, students are very likely to
produce language like:

 Two girls are swimming near the tree.

  Some people are playing volleyball.
 A young boy is buying an ice-cream.

Each of these sentences uses Present Continuous.  So this would be a great task to use as the
main practice activity in a lesson teaching the students about Present Continuous. 

In a skills lesson (e.g. a lesson to develop reading skills or a lesson to develop speaking skills)
the aim of a productive task is to develop fluency.  As such, when choosing a task we focus
more on choosing one with a suitable topic or situation.

In a language lesson (e.g. a grammar lesson to clarify and practise using the Present Simple to
talk about timetabled events) the aim of a practice task is to provide an opportunity to practise
using the new language in a realistic context.  In this case, when choosing a task we focus
more on choosing one that is likely to encourage use of the new language.

So what kinds of speaking (or writing) tasks are likely to encourage use of Present Simple to
talk about timetabled events?

 A role-play: A person who is new to the city, and needs to find a bus route to get to
several job interviews he/she is preparing for, calls the transportation help line for
advice.  The transportation representative has several bus routes and timetables (likely
to use mostly Present Simple).
 A problem solving scenario: A politician is visiting your city.  The mayor has hired a
team of Events Managers to co-ordinate the event.  The group has a sheet with various
aspects, such as the travel route, security details, timing for different stages of the
event such as the opening ceremony, etc., that they need to prepare (less likely to use
Present Simple) and then present (likely to use a combination of Present Simple and
other structures).

Note that a discussion based around ‘your plans next week’ would be unlikely to require
Present Simple, because it is most common with more official schedules and we tend to use
other tenses to talk about more personal future arrangements.   Teachers need to choose
carefully.

The idea of this approach is to be more reactive to the students. By having the students do the
task first, the teacher can monitor and listen in, noting what the students can/can’t do already.
The teacher can still choose certain items of grammar and/or vocabulary to focus on in
advance, and this will affect his/her decision as to what task to use, but once you are familiar
with this approach you can change the grammar/vocabulary focus based on what the students
actually did or didn’t use successfully.  Basically, it means the lesson is about the students
actual needs rather than what the teacher predicts they need.

The aims of the lead in are no different to usual (warm up, engage, and activate background
knowledge).

The task comes next, but is divided into three separate stages:

 Preparation through brainstorming, note-taking, planning, etc.

To ensure students are ready for the task and that communication will last.
  Communication - students actually do the task, with a focus on fluency and
communication.
To provide practise using the language with a focus on fluency and communication.
To assess what vocabulary/grammar the students can/can’t use accurately and
appropriately.
 Presentation - each group has one student report back to the whole class summarising
their task or the results of their task; this time a more formal type of speaking with
increased focus on accuracy (they prepare a bit as a group before the actual
presentation)
To provide practise using the language with a focus on accuracy and appropriate use.
To further assess their vocabulary/grammar use.

The reading/listening follow up is optional, but involves seeing or hearing an effective and
accurate speaker (for example, a group of native English speakers) completing the same task,
and comparing the language they used, as well as the ideas, with their own:

 To provide a good model for comparison.

 To lead in to the language focus.

The language focus comes almost last. It is only after the students have tried, and the teacher
has had a chance to monitor and think about what language the students really need that the
new vocabulary or grammar is introduced (or already familiar vocabulary or grammar is
clarified further because students aren’t using it enough or aren’t using it appropriately).
Depending on what the students need, the teacher will clarify some or all of:

 the meaning and use

 the spelling and sentence structure
 accurate and natural pronunciation

And the teacher may focus on the language he/she planned in advance, or other language that
came up as the students were doing the task - for example language they used inaccurately or
inappropriately, or language they clearly needed but didn’t use.

Controlled practice is used mostly for consolidation and reinforcement and can also be a
more engaging finish to the lesson than finishing on the language focus would be. It does aim
to provide practise with a focus on both meaning and accuracy, though.

In a nutshell, other language lessons go from teaching to natural practice, and this type of
lesson goes from natural practice to teaching.  If you provide a good balance of skills-only
lessons, language teaching from a text with practice following lessons, and language teaching
following a task, the students will be sure to get a bit of everything.

Preparation for task below

On page 10 in section 1 of this unit, we looked at how some activities focus on the
meaning/use of new language, others on form and others on pronuncition. Here also, the
questions below relate either to meaning/use, form or to pronuncition.  However, as we are
focusing now on teaching with tasks, we can assume that these activities or teaching
techniques may be a result of what is generated from a classroom task.

G.   For each actvity or teaching technique, decide whether the focus is on meaning/use,
form or pronunciation.
    Pronunciation Meaning Form
1 .  Choose the best rules - The students look at 5
example sentences from the text, then decide which
rules reflect that item of grammar:

“The Holden is the fastest.  It is also the biggest, and it

is the ugliest.  The Toyota is the most attractive, and
the VW looks the most comfortable.”

1. Use ‘the ____-est’ with short adjectives.

2. Use ‘the ____-est’ with long adjectives.
3. Use ‘the most ______’ with short adjectives.
4. Use ‘the most ______’ with long adjectives.
5. Use ‘the _____-iest’ with long adjectives.
6. Use ‘the _____-iest’ with adjectives ending in
‘y’.

2 . Gap-fill Copying  - Complete the sentences taken from

the text: 

1. I ____ driv__ on the highway when my wife

called.
2. Susan and Linda ___ gossip___ about the boss
without realising he could hear them.
3. What ____ you do___ when the siren went off?

3 . b)    Clap to the beat - The teacher starts clapping at an

even and steady pace.  With each clap, the teacher says
a noun or verb from an example sentence or two.  The
students join in.  Then the teacher adds in all the other
words, still clapping only on the nouns or verbs - this
way all the words in-between have to be spoken quickly
and naturally.

“Andy… cat… lives… Sydney… Andy… cat… lives…

Sydney… etc.”
“Andy has-a cat and’e lives in Sydney.  Andy has-a cat
and’e lives in Sydney.  etc.”
4 . b)    Match the tense to the function - Using examples
from the text the students match the tenses (1 - 4) with
the description of the function (a - e):
 
1. ‘Be going to’ Future

2. ‘Will’ Future
3. Present Continuous
4. Present Simple
b. To talk about fixed arrangements
c. To make decisions about future plans
d. To talk about future plans/decisions

a. To talk about timetabled events