Date post: | 25-May-2015 |
Category: |
Technology |
Upload: | florencia-henshaw |
View: | 207 times |
Download: | 0 times |
Research-based tasks
by the learners, for the learners
Dr. Florencia HenshawDirector of Advanced Spanish
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
What do we want our students
to be able to do?
We want students to perform
communicative tasks
Communicative tasks
• Tasks that promote facilitate acquisition through the interpretation, expression, and negotiation of meaning.
• Tasks that have a tangible, meaningful outcome in mind.
Hearing their voices does not guarantee communication…
The “misunderstood”
cousin of CLT• Task-based language teaching (TBLT)
• The most common comment:– “It’s too much work for the instructor to
create the tasks!”
Task characteristics, according to TBLT
A task involves a primary focus on meaning.
A task has a clearly defined, non-linguistic outcome.
The participants choose the linguistic resources needed to complete the task.
Learner-initiated attention to form
• Attention to language is driven by communicative need.
• Language has a concrete, immediate and meaningful purpose.
• It becomes personally relevant. – It goes beyond what the textbook
prescribes.
Tasks commonly usedin SLA research
Two-way information-gap tasks Spot-the-differences Crossword puzzles
One-way information-gap tasks Picture reconstruction
Decision-making tasks Dictogloss Text/story reconstruction
Meanwhile, in the classroom…
Interview based on a list of questions and summarize Oftentimes following a list of questions
But… is it really communicative?And is it really a task?
The classroom-research gap
Tasks commonly used in SLA research are rarely used in the classroom.If they are, they tend to be either
too structured or too open.
Adapting research-based tasks to the FL classroom
For a more personalized learning experience, tasks must be designed with:Greater learner autonomyGreater focus on meaning
Learner-made picture recreation
task• Step 1: Draw the floor plan of your
house/apartment and its contents.
Learner-made picture recreation
task• Step 2: Describe the whereabouts of the
items in this space to a classmate. They will draw your room as they understand it.
• Step 3: Compare the drawings of your room to verify.
• Step 4: Switch roles. • Step 5: Compare drawings to verify. (Step 6: Write a paragraph comparing your bedrooms)
Spot-the-differences task
• Example 1: Use the apartment floor plans they created for the picture recreation task!
• One group gives their 2 drawings to another group, and they interact to find all differences. – Are there two bedrooms?– Is the bathroom between the two bedrooms?
Learner-made Spot-the-differences
task
• Example 2: Students label the characters/people in a picture – Use pictures in the textbook – Instructors gives them a list of names;
students decide who is who– Good activity for prepositions, present
progressive
Learner-made Spot-the-differences
task
• Example 3: Students label the buildings in a city map.
Learner-made Spot-the-differences
task
Traditional dictogloss
• The instructor reads a short passage.• Students listen and try to remember
as much as possible.• Students work in groups to
reconstruct the text word-for-word.
But… is it meaningful to the students?
Learner-made dictogloss
• At home (or online): Write a 100-word narration.
• Students work in groups of 4. One person reads his/her narration to the group twice.
• The group must later recreate the story word-by-word from memory.
• The “readers” form a new group, share and compare their stories, and select the easiest and the hardest story to remember.
• The “readers” join their groups again. Everyone verifies that the two versions match.
• Follow-up / Conclusion: (1) Which group did best? (on a scale of 1-10: how similar were the 2 versions?)(2) Were the predictions of the readers correct?
Learner-made dictogloss
Learner-made two-way crossword
puzzle• Students create their own puzzles using
online crossword puzzle makers.– Vocabulary words– Verb forms
• They delete half of the words in one puzzle; the other half in the other puzzle.
R
R E G A L A R
C
L
A
A M
L O G O T I P O C A R T E L
M
A
C V A L O R
É E
N S
T
U
A
R
I
O
M E R C A N C í A
• They give it to another group.• They must help each other to complete
the crossword by defining the words.
Learner-made two-way crossword
puzzle
Learner-made story reconstruction
task• At home: In groups of 2 – 3, students
select 5 pictures and write a story based on them. – Group wikis
• In class: They give the pictures to another group (not in order, and not the written story).
• The group collaborates to put the pictures in a logical order and write their version of the story.
• Compare the stories (e.g., scope, sequence, events, details).
Learner-made story reconstruction
task
But what about interviews?
A typical interview activity
Step 1: Ask a classmate about his/her weekend plans. Write down his/her answers.
Step 2: Interview another classmate.
Step 3: Write a paragraph comparing their plans.
A more personalized, meaningful interview
• Frame the activity• STEP 1: Write down predictions (what
someone does over the weekend, what their last summer was like, what they were like in high school, etc.)
• STEP 2: Create questions to gather necessary information to confirm or refute your predictions.
• STEP 3: Interview • STEP 4: How accurate were your
predictions?
My predictions were…a) Entirely correct.b) Partially correct.c) Entirely incorrect.
A more personalized, meaningful interview
What is the role of the instructor?
You design and facilitate the activity sequence.
Students create the
content of the activity.
LET
STUDENTS
TAKE RISKS
When designing tasks, keep your students
–and not the vocab or grammar– in mind
Thank you!henshaw2@illi
nois.eduhttp://www.pinterest.com/drhenshaw/