FP011 – TASKS AND PROJECTS

PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
GENERAL INFORMATION:

The practice activities consist on four questions you must answer following the
instructions. Your submission must fulfil the following conditions:

 Length: 4 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if there are any-).
 Font type: Arial or Times New Roman.
 Font size: 11.
 Spacing: 1.5.
 Alignment: Justified.

The activities have to be included in this Word document: keep the activities’
statements/questions and answer below them. In order to make the correction process
easier, please, do not write the answers in bold, so it will then be easier to distinguish
between questions and answers. Remember that the document must still fulfil the rules
of presentation and edition, and follow the rubric for quoting and making bibliographical
references as detailed in the Study Guide.

Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the “Subject

Evaluation” document. You must not send it to the teacher’s e-mail.

Do not forget to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the document
“Subject Evaluation”.

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Name and surname(s): Jessica Patricia Zapata Alzate
Guillermo Antonio Agüero Paulino
Eider Robiro Lara Yela

Group: 2020-10

Date: February 27th/2022

Practice Activities

Read the materials and watch the video “Prof. Ellis on task-based pedagogy: the what,
why and how”, available on campus.

Task 1.

Does the following proposal fit the definition of “tasks” according to Ellis? Justify your
answer.

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Retrieved from Counihan, G. (1998). The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IV, No. 11,
November 1998. http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Counihan-Activities/Rejoinders.html

The task retrieved from Counihan, G. can be considered a task according to Ellis
(Tesolacademic,2014) criteria on task based learning for the following factors

1. It is a language activity focused on meaning recalling natural conversations

students could have in a normal day outside the classroom with regular people
and not only classmates. It also encourages learners to socialize by sharing
messages using the target language; enabling them to easily participate in
communicative acts where getting the message across is the main factor.
2. The activity also fulfills the second criterion about gap: in this case students will
share information or more especifically opinions. This may lead to the point
where they try to agree on some comments, or in the development of the
conversation they might just express their point of view and respect and listen
to the others´. As the questions are presented to be recreated in a natural
setting (cafeteria, meeting, school, hospital) informal exchanges can occur and
these are part of the construction of implicit knowledge.
3. Students have to manage their own resources: everything they need to
communicate with the others will have to be performed by themselves. The
body language, the gestures and the linguistic elements they require to create
the message is a fact of testing. There are no limits in amount of words, no
limits for any type of discourse nor even for the grammatical elements to be
used. Therefore, there is no restriction for especific habilities; some students
will feel confidente enough to give a quick oral response while others might
want to write down some ideas before saying anything aloud and all of them
count as part of the process.
4. There is communicative outcome expected in the activity: students will take part
of an interchange of ideas, provide their own points of view and give
sugesstions and opinions about everyday situations. The cases included in the
task can be attractive for the learners since they are not strictly attach to
linguistic forms, but it does not mean teachers cannot play an active role and
provide quick corrections when needed.

The activity does not require students to work in pairs nor in groups, but it does not
exclude the idea of cooperative work. It is the teacher who has to create the conditions
for language and communication to happen. The instructions of the task are general

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and open, so they give the tutor the opportunity to play the role his/her students need
depending on the stage of development.

Finally, as Rod Ellis (Tesolacademic, 2014) implies it, almost any activity could be
shaped to fit a TBL approach, for any type of students and any type of classes; it all
depends on the conditions stablished from the teacher.

Task 2.

Define “implicit” and “explicit” knowledge and provide an example (Robinson’s article in
the library might complement Ellis’ video).

There exist different ways in which humans obtain knowledge which refer to the
personal reading of the reality; sometimes this process can be guided and follow a
stipulated procedure (explicit knowledge), but there are other many times where people
can read the context and learn from it in a non- reflective way (implicit knowledge).

Explicit knowledge corresponds to the direct instruction given by the teacher

with specific rules and ways of working the theory; therefore, the idea with this model is
students learning consciously. According to Robinson (2011) this type of knowledge
can be characterized for: the knowledge is composed by directions and abstract
representations; students learn from rules and steps that can be described and
classified. This type of knowledge explains how the language works and how it can be
used for communicative purposes.

Explicit knowledge allows the teachers to monitor, control and manipulate the
outcome expected from the students. Limits can be established and mistakes can be
predicted. In this type of knowledge learners are involved in direct contact with
instructions: the teacher first explain the topic, then some activities are proposed for
practicing , and they are exemplified before solving them to save time and try to avoid
some mistakes.

On the other hand, implicit knowledge is acquired by students without them

knowing what exactly it is to be learned. Students use intuition to recognize ways of
constructing knowledge. It does not require reflection since it is a natural way of
reading reality and learning from it. A clear example of this is are the listening tasks
where students are exposed to authentic material and they can pick up expressions,
vocabulary and structures not previously announced by teachers.

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 Both types of knowledge can find a place in the language teaching process,
both have their advantages and not so strong qualities, it all depends on the purpose
and methodology implemented by teachers.

Task 3.

What are the main wrong assumptions done about task-based learning? Can you
provide examples that support Ellis complaints, i.e. that show task-based activities that
do not fit the prototypical assumptions?

Task 4.

Can an online course be fully task-based? What inconveniences might it encounter?

You might want to read Lee 2016 before answering.

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 References

Robinson, P. (2011). Task-Based Language Learning: A Review of Issues. Language

Learning, 61, 1–36. [Online:] https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00641.x

[ search: 22/2/22]

Tesolacademic. (2014, July 28). Prof. Ellis on task-based pedagogy: the what, why and

how [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=zdRibzXW2TI&t=1s