Body Materials Advanced

Body Materials Intermediate

Body Materials Beginners

Task-Based Learning (TBL)

Working without a course book.

Teachers find that not all the students have the course book they have chosen. this is especially true nowadays because parents (due to economic reasons) find it difficult to buy all the textbooks that their children needs. If this is the case, it is preferable not to use a course book at all rather than based all the lessons in a book that most of the students will not have. In these cases the TBL framework is a good option when coursebook cannot be used.

Building upr TBL units of work

A unit of work is a series of class hours centered around a theme or interest area, constructed as a coherent sequence of interrelated tasks which lead to a previously defined final task. A task, as we already know, is a especial form of technique or a sequence of techniques where the target language is used for a communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome. The following analysis of the TBL framework will help teachers build up a unit of work.

(Advanced preparation)
Pre- Task Introduction to topci and task
Task Cyvle Task-1 Planning 1 Report
LAnguage Focus Analysis and practice

The pre-task phase is preceded by an advanced preparation on the part of the teacher working alone or with colleagues. This involves a lot of work since the teachers have to decide on a number of things that will serve as the structure for each unit of work, but as they can always use the same structure and materials with different groups, once a unit is prepared it will save time and effort later.

Advanced preparation:

• Theme or interest area
  
• task to be done at the end of the unit
• unit objectives
• contents (thematic aspects/areas and linguistics contents)
• process
• instruments for evaluating process and products.

1. Theme or interest area: all themes offer the oportunity to use and learn language, but the most productive ones are those which are familiar and motivating for students. A possible way of deciding on a topic is through the "Theme Generator" proposed by Estaire and Zanon (1994:24). Themes go from the ones which are closest to students' real lives to those farthest: Ideally, students themselves should be the ones to decide on the topic they want to explore, but most schools already have a syllabus to be followed. Generally speaking, the themes/contents that students are likely to be interested in will correspond to the areas of interest in the theme generator and to the ones established in the school curriculum; the contents of the school curriculum must have surely been established on pedagogical and developmental basis, just as the theme generator has , so teachers will find in the syllabus the starting point for building up units of work. Not all the topics and areas within a theme generator and to the ones established in the school curriculum; the contents of the school curriculum must have surely been established on pedagogical and developmental basis, just as the theme generator has, so teachers will find in the syllabus the starting point for building up units of work. Not all the topics and areas within a theme will be or have to be covered in a year; teachers have to decide on those which will be more productive and the rest can be default with in following years or skipped if they are not suitable for a particular school or group of students. The theme generator provides the "big themes", which have to be broken down in smaller ones to work in class.

Examples of the topics arising from themselves:

1 Student

• Birthdays
  
• eating habits
• the body
• how the body works
• keeping fit
  

2 Homes/Home life/ Families

• Our homes
• pocket money
• house work
• daily habits
• our parents in the past

3 Classmates/ teachers/ school life/ friends

• School rules
  
• responsabilities and rights
  
• exams
  
• end of the year party
  
• our school
  
• a school magazine

4 The world around us/ our community

• Changes in everyday life
  
• technology
• english around us
• ecology
• our city
  
• living habits of people around the world
• our neighbourdhood: past present and futures

5 Fantasy and Imagination

• Dreams
  
• mystery
• legends and folklore
• the future

2. Final task: Once the theme and topic have been established, the next step is to think about the final task. it is important to consider it here as smaller tasks in the unit will aim at developing the skills necessary to produce the final task. The questions teachers have to ask themselves here are: What do people normally do in situations related to this topic? what is the language used for? what task will let students show their ability to do something concrete with a language?
Let´s imagine the topic is "our neirbourhood". A very popular final task is to produce a brochure with information about the place students live in; a dimpler alternative would be to send a letter to an imaginary or real pen-friend describing it; a more complex or sophisticated one would be to produce a kind of documentary using photographs, slides or even video. Final tasks can have a very concrete outcome such as posters, brochures, a magazine, or they may take the form of presentation in front of classmates to exchange information about each students' neighbourhood, in which case the interaction itself is the final product, or they may take the form of a small play to be performed at school. Final tasks may be modified or changed as the units unfolds.

3. Units objectives: The objectives to be determined here are those which spring from the final task; other objectives can be added later. An example of a formula for specifying objectives for the topic "Our neighbourhood" would be adapted.

Global communicative objectives
During the unit, students will develop, with a degree of communicative competence, in accordance with their level, the ability and knowledge necessary to:

• Prepare a questionnarie to collect information about the outstanding characteristics of place.
  
• Conduct a survey in their neirbourhood
  
• process the information
• design a poster brochure.

4. Contents Thematic aspects will determine the linguistic content. The questions teachers must ask themselves at this stage: What funtions and notions, grammar, vocabulary, will they need to learn, recycle or develop? What language will students need to achieve the final task? What procedural language will students need so as not to use their mother tongue in class?
In our example, the linguistic aspects (for beginner group) will cover:

Funtions Grammar Vocabulary Procedural language
notions Related to

*greting people * There is/ there are *buildings * How do you say...?
*apologizing for *Some / any *Size * Can I ...?
interruptions * Prepositions *Colours * Sorry?
*location *Where is/are *Shapes * Can you come here, please?
*Spactial *On the left/ right *Other
relations (recycled)



5. Process the teachers will decide on the best sequence to present the material class by class and how to combine communication tasks focused on meaning comprehension, production and interaction and enabling tasks that will provide students with the necessary linguistic tools to carry out the communicative tasks. There is no fixed order in the process; the characteristics and language level of the group will determine it. Part of a possible process for the topic in our example may be:

First lesson (2 hours)

• The teacher presentation of vocabulary by means of a poster with labels
  
• Students classification of words by categories: houses, shops, traffic signs.
• Memory games to reinforce vocabulary e.g. bingo
• Listening task: students listen to very short dialogues of people in different situations: at home, in the street, at the shops.
• Students perform dialogues.

Scond lesson (1 hour)

• Reading tasks
  
• Form-focus tasks
• Writing tasks

Third lesson (2 hours)

• Group projects

6. Evaluation: The role of evaluation is to give teachers and students feedback for making adjustments, so it is a non-stop process. Evaluation carried out by the teachers will include the data collected from observing students' performance while working in class, interaction, attitudes and abilities developed, responsability in the assigned tasks outside school, etc. students will also carry out a self-evaluation in which they will reflect on and record their participation, level of involvement, progress made, etc.

Once the unit of work is completed, the framework is ready to be implemented in class.