Matthew Parks

ELT Teacher & Teacher Trainer

Support Language

Support language, or task language, is the additional language students need in order to either complete the
task communicatively in English, or to make a task more communicative. The more students are given task
language the more English is used and students can quickly become more communicative in English.

Task 1: Look at the following popular tasks and think about the additional support language students are likely
to need.

Pair-checks
Students have been told to compare their answers to a True-False listening task.

Task language:

I put (false) because…. What about you?

I agree
I’m not sure - I guess (true)
Actually, I thought it was (true) because….

Whole-class feedback
Students have just asked questions to each other. Now, in feedback, you want them to report back to you
about what they discussed.

Task language:

(Yumi) told me that…

It was interesting to find out that (Florence…)
The most interesting thing that I heard was that (Rin….)

Two truths and a lie

Students have to listen to their partner’s sentences and guess which one is a truth and which one is a lie.

Task language:

So, do you think I’m telling the truth or a lie?

Why do you think that?
I’m pretty sure that you’re (telling the truth) because…
I’m not sure but I think you could be (lying) because…

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Matthew Parks
ELT Teacher & Teacher Trainer

Group work
In groups of 3-4, students have to make arrangements for what to do for the end of course party. You have
just taught them part vocabulary.

Task language:

So, what about (the music)?

It’d be a great idea to (invite other students)
I’d like to (have pizza)
Yes, great idea!
Hmm, I’m not sure about that!

Getting to know you task

You have given students 10 questions to ask each other to find out how similar or different they are to each
other.

Task language:

Wow! Me too!
Same here!
Oh really? (Who’s) your favorite?
Actually, I don’t really like (that type of music).

(an activity you often do with your students)

Task language:

(an activity you often do with your students)

Task language:

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Matthew Parks
ELT Teacher & Teacher Trainer
Task 2: What can we do to encourage students to use the support language? (Think back to the discussion re
setting up tasks}.

Early finishers
Discuss:
● Is it worth providing support language to more advanced students? Why? Why not?
● Imagine doing the above tasks with more advanced learners, what different support language could
you provide?

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