DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED LANGUAGE STUDIES AND LINGUISTICS

LANGTCHG 306: USING TASKS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

ASSIGNMENT #2

Developing a Task-based lesson

Gabriela Galindo A.

June, 2015

Word count: 1411

(no appendices included)
Lesson plan: Travel

Class: 7th grade English Level: Intermediate Time: 115 minutes

Class Description
A multicultural class, from different countries, of 18 students between the ages of 12 -14
years old. They have English three times a week, for one hour each lesson at an English
spoken country. Most of them have been studying English for 5 years. Overall, they are an
active class, engaged in participate during the different activities within the lesson.
However, they need to work on group skills and gain more confidence on speaking without
detailed input.

Main Aim
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to gain confidence speaking when using
superlatives and phrases of possibility and descriptions, in relation to travelling and world’s
destinations.

Subsidiary Aim(s)
1. To improve oral expression to give descriptions of different places.
2. To practice pronunciation and fluency.
3. To revise past tense phrases when narrating personal experiences.

Personal aims
I will provide more limited input for the students when working in groups, for them to help
each other to develop ideas, and avoiding the class to be teacher-centred.

Timetable fit

In the past lessons, students have reviewed the past tense in relation to their life
experiences, practice giving description and requesting information of places they have
visited.

Materials
1. Board and markers
2. 12 images of different destination in the world
3. Students notebooks and pen/pencil

Anticipated Problems Possible solutions

1. Some groups may not be familiar to
the destination they have to describe.
2. Some students will have difficulties
selecting aspects to talk about.
1. Teacher will have a handout in
relation to each destination, and a
short – objective description. ( no
more than 80 words)
2. Teacher will provide a break during
the discussion stage, for students
propose features through
brainstorming.
Procedures
Stage aim Description Interact Material Time
Pre task:  Students will observe 6 photos of iconic destinations Board
Students will when travelling. They will identify the name of each S Pictures
active their place as a class.
schemata in  They must rank the places individually, from their Paper and 10
relation to travel favourite destination (n°1) to their least preferred S -S pen mins
destinations, by destination (n°6)
describing their  Later on, students will discuss, as a class, on their
reasons for reasons for the ranking.
preferences
Facilitating task:  Based on the students’ preferences, they will form
Students will form groups of 3 students, one group for destination. New
groups and  Each group receives a new destination in the same pictures
describe a new area as the original, but is an unusual tourist place. T –S 5
unconventional (They cannot see others’ group new place) Each mins
tourist destination. group has to come up with an attractive way to
Teacher provides promote their destination.
instruction and  To facilitate the planning process, each group will 10
brainstorming have 10 mins. To discuss the aspects they would like SS- SS mins
pause (if to highlight, and how the presentation should be.
necessary).  In case some groups are struggling on defining the
aspects, the teacher will provide a brainstorming SS- SS Board 5
moment (in the middle of discussion time) for (T) Markers mins.
students help each other, providing key concepts,
which they can focus on.

Task:  Students are given final 5 minutes to define their Paper 5-8
Students have to presentation, allowing a secretary, who can take Pen mins
define their oral bullet notes.
presentation as a  When the time is up, each group has to present their SS – SS
group. destination to the class in an attractive and creative Picture 15
way in no more than 2 mins. It is expected that each Board mins
member of the group collaborates during the Markers
presentation. Student-
resource
Post task:  After all the groups had presented, the same
Students choose class must decide again which should be ranking SS-SS 5-8
the best new for the new destinations, based on the mins
destination, and presentations.
talk about personal  Students will write about a personal experience
experiences about (using past tense) in which their travel Paper 5
bad destinations. destination was not as they expected, explaining S Pen/pencil mins
briefly the reason. They will share the story with
their group, and some students with the entire
class.
Reflection:  To finalize, students will identify the expression
Students identify that were most frequent during the presentations T- S Board 5
the main structures and in the structure in their life experience story. Markers mins
used
Research- based justification

In the book doing Task-based teaching by Willis and Willis (2007) chapters four and five
discussed a wide variety of tasks that teacher could apply in their classrooms in order to
promote TBA. Even though it provides examples for a great number of tasks, it
recommended not using all types in one lesson, but instead, two create a meaningful
sequence by means of three or four of them only. (Willis and Willis, 2007; Erlam, 2007)

In the task sequence observed above, the types of tasks used were:
Ranking or listing, depending on the difficulty degree that is applied, it can involve a
linguistic challenge for the learners as it engage them in a more complex cognitive process
rather than simple ordering. However, in this particular case, students must, firstly, make a
personal ranking concerning only their own preference, providing space and time for the
students to engage in a personal level, and if necessary, to plan how they would like to
express their own ideas (Willis and Willis, 2007) Eventually, learners will share their ranks
in order to define a class’ rank, promoting oral expression and it elevates the engagement in
the cognitive sense. In this task, students are stimulated to use the language by exchanging
their reasons in a familiar topic. Moreover in the post task, students are involved in a new
ranking process, in which the criteria have been modified. In this occasion, students will be
already familiarize with the system and as the task involved discussion time; the learners
will be more prepared to justify their preferences.

During the task the process of group discussion is highlighted. The first aspect pointed out
by the authors is the fact that group discussion allows all the participants to express their
personal views while enhancing the interest on the task itself. (Willis and Willis 2007)
Moreover, as it was already mentioned, it enhance the cognitive processes for each
students, even more in a group, as they can fill each other gaps it terms of understanding
and comprehension. At the same time that group discussion takes place, it forms part of a
bigger task, the creation of a creative promotion of an unusual tourist destination.
According to the type of task provided in Doing Task-based teaching, this is under the
concept of “projects and creative tasks” (Willis and Willis, 2007, p.99) The most important
aspect about projects within a task sequence is the fact that students will have an end-
product clearly defined that, “can be shown to others, displayed, or made public in some
way” (Willis and Willis, 2007, p.99) In this particular task sequence, the project do not
involves large period of production as some of the examples presented on the book,
nonetheless, it involves a similar level of engagement, and ideally, amusement for the
learners. It provides an opportunity, for the learners, to express themselves in a creative
way and develop group-work skills.

Finally in the post task, a short but very meaningful task takes place, sharing personal
experiences. Firstly, because it is an everyday social task, people tell how their day went,
how certain experience was like, and the list goes on. In terms of task sequence it provides
a continuity as it is a more personal level task about telling a story whose main aim is to
capture audience attention, the same objective in the main task of the sequence. Although,
when using a second or foreign language to communicate can create anxious or pressure
feelings, but when focusing the task into a familiar topic, or in this case, a personal
experience, learners will feel more confident when expressing orally ((Willis and Willis,
2007)

Finally, the task fulfils the first advice discussed in this section, the use of no more than 4
types of task in a lesson, in order to not overload the learners with different objectives and
different aspects of the language to focus on.
References
1. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford
university press.

2. Harmer, J. (2012). In J. Harmer, Essential teacher knowledge: Core concepts in

English language teaching (pp. 253-256). UK: Pearson Education Limited.

3. Nunan, D. (2004). A framework for task-based language teaching. In D. Nunan,

Task-based language teaching (pp. 19-39). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

4. Willis, D., & Willis, J. (2007). Adapting and refining tasks: seven parameters. In D.
Willis, & J. Willis, Doing task-based teaching (pp. 153-175). Oxford: Oxford
University press.
Appendices
1. Task –based approach
2. Materials

Task Based Approach

Ellis (2003) identified four criteria in order to identify a task as such. The first criterion
explained how the task should be focus on meaning, making stress on the fact that learners
should be focusing on encoding the information rather than concentrate on grammatical or
linguistic forms only. The second criterion identified the necessity for a gap, or in other
words, the necessity to convey information through the task. The third criterion explained
the importance of allowing students to work with their own resources. Even though the
teacher may provide certain input in order to establish a base for further learning, learners
should have the opportunity to communicate and practice the language within their own
terms, in order to make it as similar to a real world use of the target language. And the
fourth criterion pointed out the relevance of having a clear and defined outcome for each
task, an outcome different than the use of the language itself or its practice.

According to these four criteria, the tasks presented above fulfil these requirements, as the
chart below demonstrates:

Focus on meaning Gap Own Resources Clear outcome

Pre Students’ reasons Identify the class Students’ personal The ranking
task for ranking preferences motives for selection
Fac. Group discussion Aspects to present Each group creates Brainstorm of
task about destination their presentation key concepts
Task Students talk about Other groups’ Each group presents Final
a new place to class destination their own presentation
Post Students describe New class Vocabulary related ranking/
Task personal preferences/ to their personal Personal
experiences classmates’ stories story experience

Additionally, Nunan (2004) proposed a framework that defines key elements for the
creation of a task- sequence. Firstly, it explained that, “task-based language teaching is real-
world or target tasks” (Nunan, p. 19) Therefore, each task should follow one of the three
macro functions (Exchange of services/good, socialize and enjoyment). In the case of the
task sequence presented, most of the tasks represent an exchange of services/goods, except
for the post task, where students will exchange personal experience for enjoyment. The
second level the author observed was the presence of a micro functions, which refers to the
function that the target language allows the learner to perform, always following the
context of real- world. Lastly, the writer identifies the final aspect of a task-based language
as grammar. By pointing this, it does not refer to focus the task sequence on form, but as
the teacher to identify which structures learners should focus on, and if provided the space,
able to identify the structures at the end of the lesson. In the following chart, the display of
micro functions and grammar points among the task is represented.

Micro functions Grammar

Pre task Making comparison Modal verbs (would, prefer)
Ranking options Present simple
Facilitating task Exchanging opinions Adverbs of possibility
Opinion phrases – present simple
Task Giving descriptions Superlatives
Adjectives
Adverbs of possibility
Post task Ranking options Past tense
Exchanging personal adjectives
experiences

Moreover, four parameters were proposed by another expert on Task-based instruction, J.

Willis (2004) each of these parameters includes two features on which a task can be cline
to, however they can vary within the same task sequence, therefore is important to analyze
them as a continuum. The first parameter can be whether open, referring to the product of
the task can vary depending mostly on the learner’s perspective, or can be close which
refers to a task that has a specific solution/answer. While the second parameter offered the
options of one way or two ways, referring to the modality and conditions in which the task
is performed. The third parameter explained if the task is focused or unfocused, referring to
the fact that the task can or not have a predetermined linguistic focus. The final parameter
explains whether the task is one that can be done in a real world context or was created for
pedagogical purposes.

Parameter 1 Parameter 2 Parameter 3 Parameter 4

Pre task Closed One way to two Unfocused Real world

Facilitating Open Two ways Unfocused Real world

task
Task Closed One way (group) focused Pedagogic

Post task Closed One way to two focused Real world

Materials

Ideal destination 1 - Brazil

Unusual destination 1 – Favelas in Brazil

Ideal destination 2 – London

Unusual destination 2 – Inveraray Jail, Scotland

Ideal destination 3 – Great Wall, China

Unusual destination 3 – Xuankong Si, China

Ideal Destination 4 – New York

Unusual destination 4 – Brooklyn

Ideal Destination 5 – Leaning tower of Pisa, Italy

Unusual destination 5 – Colletto Fava, Italy

Ideal Destination 6 – The great pyramid Giza, Egypt

Unusual Destination 6 – Socrota, Yemen