After the task, then what?

From meaning to form in TBLT

Jane Willis

STOP!!! BEFORE you sit down,

please find 2 or 3 other people working in a
similar educational context, and sit with them.
 After the task, then what?
From meaning to form in TBLT...

Jane Willis
www.willis-elt.co.uk
Honorary Visiting Fellow, Aston University, Birmingham
Outline

Why TBL? and what counts as a task?

Overview of a framework for task-based learning

What kind of feed-back and when?

Post-task activities: meaning focussed

Post-task: focussing on grammar and lexis

Language Learning - optimum conditions:
the goal of TBLT is to generate these...
Essential
Exposure

Use

Motivation & Engagement

Beneficial
Focus on Form
Some examples of tasks & task sequences

Memory challenge – objects on a tray (teacher led>pairs)

Write three ways to improve your school timetable

Predict stories from News headlines (eg Cat’s Feat)

Describe in detail how to make your favourite food; classify

dishes, then compare recipes

Explore and debate the pros and cons of driverless cars

A teacher you remember well: share memories, then shape

into advice for new teachers (two or three things.)
 Characteristics of effective tasks: ask…

Would the activity engage learners’ interest?

Is there a primary focus on meaning? Are learners

free to use whatever language they can recall?

Does the task have a clear outcome for learners to

achieve?

Is success judged in terms of outcome? Is

completion a priority?

Will it relate to language use in the real world?

Seven types of task –three or four would make
a task sequence (with a relevant text and/or recording)

Listing Ordering & Sorting Matching

Comparing Problem solving / Predicting

TOPIC
(e.g. Cats)

Sharing personal experiences, story telling

Projects and creative tasks

 Text-based task? Give learners a purpose for
reading or listening - within a task sequence
Controversial topic?
(eg Driverless cars) Plan a discussion task: for or
against, or opinion survey;
Narrative?
(eg Cat’s Feat) Prediction task – based on title and /
or clues from text, or ‘jigsaw’ / split information
General knowledge topic?
(eg North Pole/South Pole) Quiz or True / False statements
by teacher OR learners (who research topic first)
 YOUR ideas for ‘after the task’... 3 mins

Think of a task-like activity your students have done in

class, or choose a task from the previous list
Tell your partner/group briefly 2 or 3 things you / your
class could do straight after that task, & why. 3 mins
Choose 2 things to tell us all about: outline the task and
what could follow it. Report back.
If you prefer not to report orally to the whole group, write
2 things on a slip of paper & pass it to me.
Some examples of tasks & task sequences

Memory challenge – objects on a tray (teacher led>pairs)

Write three ways to improve your school timetable

Predict stories from News headlines (eg Cat’s Feat)

Describe in detail how to make your favourite food; classify

dishes, then compare recipes

Explore and debate the pros and cons of driverless cars

A teacher you remember well: share memories, then shape

into advice for new teachers (two or three things.)
 From Meaning to Form

Tasks are most effective when used flexibly within a

coherent Framework which offers opportunities
for exposure, use of language and engagement:
Priming & Preparation
(exploring topic, useful words & phrases)
Task Cycles
Task(s) >> Planning >> Report of outcome
+ reading or listening tasks
Form focus
Analysis of familiar texts and practice of forms
Evaluation
Why the ‘Report to class’?

Tasks on their own are not sufficient for

all round language development.
Skehan:
Learners may gain
‘fluency at the expense of accuracy’;
Their research underlined the need for
‘pushed output’ and a focus on form;
hence the task cycle within a wider framework:
 After this text-based task – what next? How
to maximise learners USE of language?
News in brief Cat’s feat
Task: what could this story be?
What do you think the cat did?
Learners share their stories – how?
Then they read the news item and...?
A sixteen-week-old kitten named Mor
jumped 200 feet from a balcony of
her 22nd floor apartment in British
Columbia to the street and walked
away ______ _ _______.
Reporting the outcome of the task – how?
How to ‘engage’ the rest of the class?
 During the Report stage -
set a purpose for class to ‘engage’...
• Take notes of the results for a survey.
• Judge the most interesting three.
• Compare – the one most like yours.
• Plan a quiz on the findings for other groups.
• Write a question to ask each group.
• Guess whose ideas will be the closest to the
text/recording they will read/hear next.
• Other ideas?
 Feedback– MEANING FOCUSSED

Initial T. feed-back on content and ideas, how?

Feedback on what they have presented - comments on
content after each one (positive, what in common?)
Evaluative feed-back on content? Goal achieved?
Compare with other groups’ outcomes; evaluate
outcomes. E.g. Whose was the most interesting /
exciting/ unusual? (Groups could discuss and vote)
If text-based; how well did they predict? Any surprises?
(Teacher led > group discussion and feed-back)
 Feed-back – FORM FOCUSSED

Tip: From learners’ data at planning stages, note

down good phrases and get class to repeat...

1. How and when would you correct, and why?

2. How can you make learners aware of their own
language errors? 3 mins
NB Correction – amount will depend on the level
of confidence of the learners and their stage of
development. (Do they need a confidence
boost or a challenge?)
 LEARNERS self correcting

Learners record themselves reporting back, then play

back and transcribe a 1 minute section..
(Turkey experiment – ‘can I correct my transcript?’ )
Phrases which need attention – write up with spaces
instead of the error; get sts to suggest wordings
Save complex points to cover in later lessons.
Learners need to understand the difference between private
talk (spontaneous) and public language (fluent and accurate)
AND the conventions of private personal writing and more
formal writing – different audiences.
 Form Focus? Text plus recorded transcripts

Cat’s feat
A sixteen-week-old kitten named Mor
jumped 200 feet from a balcony of
her 22nd floor apartment in British
Columbia to the street and walked
away without a scratch.
What language features could you
focus on here, to get sts. to practise,
personalise and extend...?
Form Focus: Analysis and Practice
Cat’s feat
A sixteen-week-old kitten named Mor jumped 200 feet
from a balcony of her 22nd floor apartment in British
Columbia to the street and walked away without a
scratch. (30 words)
Practise:
Noun groups (personalise them)
Complex sentence structure (unpack!)
Phrases with without (dictionary use)
 Extracts from spontaneous task recordings

1 I reckon it probably jumped out the window

2 Oh actually I think I read this somewhere…
3 But certainly it’s fairly common.
4 That’s funny actually because the other day…
5 Because I recently heard of a similar story

Form Focus
Where might you find these? Beginning or end?
Words ending in –ly and their typical phrases,
Intonation practice and ‘disappearing text’.

2
Can you read these examples out loud?

1 I reckon it ******** jumped out the window

2 Oh ******** I think I read this somewhere…

3 But ******** it’s ****** common.

4 That’s funny ******** because the other day…

5 Because I ******** heard of a similar story

Can you still read these examples out loud?

1 I reckon it ******** jumped *** *** ******.

2 Oh ******** I think I read this *********…

3 But ********* it’s ****** common.

4 That’s funny ******** because *** ***** ***…

5 Because I ******** heard of * ******* *****

And these?

1 I ****** it ******** ****** *** *** ******.

2 Oh ******** I think * ***** **** *********…

3 But ********* it’s ****** ******.

4 That’s ***** ******** because *** ***** ***…

5 *******I ******** ***** of * ******* *****

And who can remember these?

1 * ****** ** ******** ****** *** *** ******.

2 ** ******** * ***** * ***** **** *********…

3 *** ********* **’* ****** ******.

4 ****’* ***** ******** ******* *** ***** ***…

5 ******* * ******** ***** ** * ******* *****

Over to you! www.willis-elt.co.uk

Which is colder – the North

Pole or the South Pole? …

Free TBL lesson plans,

articles and useful links on
www.willis-elt.co.uk
break
 Advice from teachers on TBLT

‘Collaborate with your colleagues – it saves

time – and it makes teaching much more
rewarding…’

‘Collaboration is the key’

‘Don’t give up - it really works!’

www.willis-elt.co.uk