Nancy Cervantes Tinoco

Design a task (Consciousness raising)

Introduction
The importance of how to teach effectively English has increased in in our educational system, English
has been taught for many years, but the productive skills are not always well developed in the student,
considering that speaking and writing are difficult skills developed in language learning in a non-English
speaking country.

Task-based is not a new language learning approach, as it comes from the PPP method but with the
expectation to learn English within a meaningful context to the language learner. Task-base to have
successful results needs from the teacher/facilitator a proper planning, implementation, and monitoring,
which gives learners the opportunity to achieve language proficiency in productive skills.

The following Task-based task intents to show the different task-based learning stages and tasks to be
used with the purpose of developing strategies and activities which aim to engage learners to interact,
manipulate the language, comprehend it and produce it promote the development of speaking and writing
skills, allowing the learners to be the protagonists and creators of their own language learning process.
Classroom context
Escuela Preparatoria Oficial Anexa a la Normal No. 1 de Nezahualcóyotl, is a public high school on the
east of the State of Mexico. The groups for this particular task, are formed by 50 male and female students
between the age of 16 to 18. The students have been through 240 hours of English classes, they are
expected to have an upper-elementary level or a low pre-intermediate level, according to the English in
the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

Task
Students will be able to use since and for correctly with the present perfect to communicate in written
and spoken form about life experiences.

Objective: Student uses orally and in writing life experiences of the past that have an effect in the present
through the present perfect with since and for to distinguish situations in which they are grammatically
appropriate.

Input: Students will be given examples of sentences in which the use of present perfect with since and for
express life experiences then the students will express orally or in writing their own life experiences.

Pre-task

The teacher will have two pre-task activities. The first one will allow the students to review the present
and past tense in English; the second activity, students along with the teacher will question and share
the information gotten from their classmates.

1. Find someone who activity to ask for information about experiences and review the past tense
interrogative form. (15 minutes)
Teacher will give students the worksheet “Find someone who…”. Students will go around the
classroom asking for the information to find a classmate who matches with the
description/question in the worksheet and write their name in the box. The students will be able
to compare their information and see what they have in common.
 2. The teacher writes some prompt questions to get information from the students:
a. Who has a pet? (Expected answer: I do)
b. When did you get your pet? (Expected answer: I got my pet in/on ________)
c. How long have you had your pet? (Expected answer: I have had my pet for/since_____)

a. Do you always pass all your class? (Expected answer: I do/I don’t)
b. When was the last time you failed a class? (Expected answer: I failed a class last
semester.)
c. How long have you not failed a class? (Expected answer: I haven’t failed a class
for/since____)

Letter a and b questions are expected to be answered correctly, however letter c may cause
students trouble to formulate the sentence, as for students is a new structure that they just
learned for 2-3 classes, or the participle of the verbs may be unknown to them.

In case that the idea is not clear, the teacher goes through this process two to three times more
for better understanding from the students.

Task cycle

Task: Students will work in trios. Each team will copy the text (below) in their notebook. The teacher
tells students that they have to read it and find the answers to the questions below (at this point, the
teacher does not mention that they are continuing working with the present perfect or the adverbs that
they will be discussing later). (30 minutes)

1. Students read the text.

2. Students write the answers for the questions.

Hi! My name is Jenna. I am from Mexico, but I live in Columbus. I have lived in
Columbus for three years. I like it here very much because I can improve my English. I
have always loved the English language. I have learned English since I was in
elementary school. Living in the States has been very interesting! I have met so many
nice people. They are from all over the world. It has been a great experience so far.

a) Where is Jenna living now?

b) Does she like it?
c) Jenna is living in the States now. Did she live in another country before?
 d) When did she move to Columbus?
e) Is she still living in Columbus? How many years?
f) Did she learn English when she was in Mexico?
g) Is she still learning English in Columbus?
h) Did she like learning English in the past? Does she like English now?

3. Teacher elicits the answers to the questions (above). Because of the characteristics of the group,
the teacher will interact and guide the students through the questions.

The following is expected to happen:

Teacher: Go back to the text. We know that Jenna is living in Columbus, Ohio, USA now.
But did she live in another country before?
Students: Yes. In Mexico.
Teacher: Correct. She is from Mexico. When did she move to Columbus? Do you know?
Students: (Students may use past tense time expressions and adverb. If not, the teacher
makes sure to guide them toward that answer.)
Teacher: Very good. She has lived in Columbus for 5 years. That means that she moved to
Columbus three years ago (teacher emphasized the expression of time; a
timeline can be drawn on the board to show when Jenna was in Mexico, and for
how long she has been in Columbus.) Is she still living in Columbus?
Students: Yes.
Teacher: How many years?
Students: Three years.
Teacher: Did she learn English when she was in Mexico?
Students: Yes. In elementary school.
Teacher: Is she still learning English in Columbus?
Students: Yes.
Teacher: Did she like learning English in the past? Does she like English now?
Students: Yes.
Teacher: Great. So, in this text, Jenna says that she started some activities in the past and
she is still doing in the present, and to express that she uses a new tense. We
call this tense the present perfect. (Write the name on the board). Let’s see how
we use this tense. Do we use the present perfect for actions that finished in the
 past? Listen: Jenna has lived in Columbus for three years. Does it mean she is
living in Columbus now?
Students: Yes.
Teacher: Correct. So, we use it to talk about actions that started in the past and still
continue in the present (teacher writes the function on the board along with a
timeline to show the connection of the past action in the present time.)

For the teacher to have a better understanding of the comprehension of the text and the structure of
present perfect, teacher asks students to keep working in trios and to look at the text again and see if
students can find all the action verbs that show that Jenna is still living in Columbus, learning English, and
having fun. Students underline the verbs and the time reference.

In case the students have trouble identifying the information, the teacher can gather up their answers and
write them down on the board. Teacher may guide students if they have not found all of the verbs or time
references.

Planning (20 minutes)

1. Students are asked to go back to the worksheet Find someone who…” and they are encouraged
to write sentences using the present perfect to describe actions that their classmates started in
the past and they are still doing in the present including the use of for and since.
2. Students will write the sentences in their notebook.

Language Focus: (30 minutes)

1. When getting information students will use questions such as “When did you start to take
swimming lessons?” “How long have you taken swimming lessons?”
2. Students will write the information using the present perfect with since or for.
3. Students will read 3 to 5 sentences that they consider most interesting about their classmates.
4. In trios, students will check their sentences giving feedback to each other, talking to each other
what they discovered in the use of for and since.
5. The other students give feedback if necessary related to sentence structure and use of since and
for.
6. Teacher asks students to readout loud their sentences, at the end the teacher will give feedback
of the mistakes made by students and make corrections of them.
Teacher’s role:

The teacher also acts as a facilitator, he/she bases the tasks on the student’s interests, needs and abilities
to develop. Teacher is a guide to the students; teacher helps them understand and practice the language
needed for the task. the teacher engages the students with the task that they use the text to come up
with the desired outcomes. In the meantime, the teacher monitors their performance and intervenes when
necessary.

Learner’s role:

Learners have an active role in this task, they act as interviewers, evaluators and they give feedback to
their classroom peers. Students work individually, in trios or teams, and as a group. Learners will practice
speaking, reading, and writing.
Conclusion

Personally, I have not used the Task-based approach. I mostly use the PPP method (Presentation, Practice
and Production) as I consider, because of the context where I work a more viable and practical teaching
method, however I try to make the method to have an approach to more communicative and meaningful
situations or context which the learners can put into practice the language.

While making this Project-based task, at some point it was difficult to identify weather I was following
the task cycle for the task-based approach, or I was falling back into the PPP cycle as they share some
particularities in the stages yet at with different order.

Moreover, I was able to realize that a task-based lesson sometimes may not work completely with large
groups, as some students may do the work and some other would let the others worry to get the task
done, this can be also because students are used to have guidance while doing tasks or because is a
language that they only practice at school, they may have problems noticing forms in a new language or
another elements of the language because of the L1.
References

Universidad IEXPRO. (n.d.). Tasks and a Focus on Form (pp 21-32).

Fatemipour, H., & Hemmati, S. (2015). Impact of consciousness-raising activities on young English
language learners’ grammar performance. English Language
Teaching, 8(9). https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n9p1

Rodríguez-Bonces, Mónica, & Rodríguez-Bonces, Jeisson. (2010). Task-Based Language Learning: Old
Approach, New Style. A New Lesson to Learn. Profile Issues in Teachers` Professional
Development, 12(2), 165-178. Retrieved January 21, 2023, from
http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1657-
07902010000200011&lng=en&tlng=en