Task-Based Learning

The Task-Feedback

chain Model

Hands on the how to proceed teaching reading and listening (also: video watching)
Guidelines:a- Grade the task rather than the material. i.e. try to upgrade or downgrade your tasks in terms of difficulty to suit your students’ levels of proficiency. Do not try to act physically on the material itself eg. By cutting it short or making it lengthy.
b- Task fisrt- then text or tape. i.e. it should ( must!) be succinctly made clear to your students what they are supposed to perform. Thus, the task-first strategy spares them from the wandering and wondering for elongated times. Be clear, succinct to save time, energy and progress forward.
c- Process rather than product: what is of most import is not the listening/ reading or whatever per se, it is rather the things rekindled in the process of the listening/ reading…I mean the discussions, opinion exchange… all that is triggered in the process of achieving a task, let alone the task in itself.

Link-1-
Lead-in: pre-listening, introduction to topic, discussion of themes, looking at pictures, etc.

Link-2-
Pre-task work (optional): looking through worksheet, work on vocabulary, prediction, etc.

Link-3-
Set a clear task: activities to develop reading/ listening for gist or specific details...

Link-4-
Play the tape or students read text: Ss are not supposed to understand every little tiny tiny word in the tape or text, they should get only what they need to achieve that especial task.

Link-5-
Feedback on task [( St to St) or (St to T) or …]: don’t ask unfair questions ( they could be retroactive in effect)- you set a clear task- have they done it? Don’t throw an extra pile of question now!

Link-6-
Could they do the task? Yes or No?1- If No, you go back to link-4- i.e. play the tape or students read the text again to close up the gaps left in their work. Ss try to work out things they didn’t get at first place. You do that as many times as needed.
2- If Yes, you have to move to…

Link-7-
Conclude: tie up loose ends, lead to follow on activities, review what has been gotten, etc.

N.B: links-3, 4, 5, 6, 7 are recurrent in the sense that they could be used more that once in a single lesson of listening/ reading (also, watching a video). That depends on how many tasks you set for your students.
Reference:
Jim SCRIVENER.2005.Learning Teaching. Thailand: MacMillan Heinemann.

Coursebooks

Choosing a coursebook

Choosing a coursebook is one of the most important selections which teachers can make. Teachers cannot influence their working lives in many ways. You cannot choose your teaching hours, your holiday periods, the classes you teach, and the learners who are in
those classes, or the classrooms you use, but you can choose your coursebook.
You select a coursebook for your learners and for yourself, so you first need to analyze your learners’ needs and your own needs.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM A COURSEBOOK?
Teachers want different things from their coursebooks and they use them in different ways. Some teachers want a coursebook to provide everything. They want the teacher’s book to tell us what to do, in which sequence to do each activity and how to assess the progress which our learners have made. However, some teachers do not want the coursebook to control their lives. They want to be able to plan their own lessons or even
their own syllabus. They want the coursebook to be a library of materials from which they can choose to be used in the ways they choose.

WHAT CAN A GOOD COURSEBOOK GIVE THE TEACHER?A good coursebook can help a teacher by providing:
1- a clearly thought out program which is appropriately sequenced and structured to include progressive revision;
2- a wide range of materials that an individual teacher may not be
able to collect;
3- security;
4- economy of preparation time;
5- a source of practical ideas;
6- work that the learners can do on their own so that the teacher does not need to be centre stage all the time;
7- a basis for homework if this is required;
8- a basis for discussion and comparison with other teachers.

WHAT DO YOUR LEARNERS NEED FROM A COURSEBOOK?Children want a coursebook to be colorful and interesting. They hope the coursebook will contain exciting games and activities. They hope the cassettes will contain exciting stories, amusing dialogues and entertaining songs and rhymes. But what do the children need? We all know that children have short memories. They find it difficult to retain ideas and language from one lesson to the next. So the children need a coursebook which
becomes an accessible and understandable record of their work.
A good coursebook gives the children:
1- A sense of progress, progression and purpose;
2- A sense of security;
3- Scope for independent and autonomous learning;
4- A reference for checking and revising.

THE PERFECT COURSEBOOKThe Perfect Coursebook for every teacher and every class does not exist. When selecting a coursebook you always need to make a compromise. There will be things which you don’t like about any coursebook. How important are those things? Can you create materials to substitute those aspects? Has the coursebook got something missing? Can you find or create materials to fill that gap? Remember that you work in partnership with your coursebook.
Never expect the coursebook to do everything for you. You will always need to personalize your teaching with your own personality.

WHAT CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THE COURSEBOOK?As a teacher you have a collection of skills. There are some things which you may be very good at doing. Are you a great artist who can draw all the pictures you need? Are you a musician who can play and sing any songs you need? Do you know hundreds of simple games for your learners to play? Do you have a good competence in English? It may not be enough to be a native speaker, you also need to be able to analyse and grade the language which you teach your learners.

FIND OUT MORE:
To get a checklist on choosing a coursebook click on the following link:

http://www.box.net/shared/xo2sglpj5j


Edited by: Nouamane ERRIFKI