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4.4.4.1
Introduction
4.4.4.2 Teacher's activities in the pre-task stage
4.4.4.3 Optional reading
4.4.4.1
Introduction
The pre-task stage of
a task-based lesson is relatively short - I would suggest ten minutes
of a 60-minute lesson at most (possibly longer if students listen to a
recording) - but it fulfils some important functions. It is also a stage
where the teacher does a lot of the work, unlike the task stage which
follows.
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4.4.4.2
Teacher's activities in the pre-task stage
Here is a summary of Willis, 1996: 42-46
(section 3.2) listing the sorts of thing the teacher might do during this
stage. For each, decide whether you already do this sort of thing when
preparing for and starting a lesson or setting up a communication activity,
or whether they would be new for you.
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New or familiar?
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- Preparation for
the pre-task stage:
- finding suitable
pictures;
- working out vocabulary
building ideas;
- making one- or
two-minute recordings of fluent speakers doing the task.
- Introducing the
topic:
- help learners
define topic area, eg what do we mean by 'family' in the target
language culture (nuclear family or extended family?).
- Identify topic
language:
- help students
recall and activate words and phrases that will be useful
for doing the task, eg via a teacher-led whole-class brainstorming
task with language written up on board;
- introduce a few
vital topic-related words and phrases if students don't know
these (NB not the same as teaching large amounts of new language!),
perhaps selected from the recording or transcript to be used
later for language focus;
- if task is text-based,
pick out words and phrases vital for understanding of main
themes.
- Pre-task language
activities to further explore topic language (a range is given
here - you would probably only do one or two); afterwards, write
up other useful words and phrases produced during the activities
on the board (remember to take notes while students are working):
- Classifying words
and phrases - jumbled list on board (eg from brainstorming
activity or teacher's selection) - students classify these
in different ways, and see how many categories they can think
of in two minutes;
- Odd one out -
teacher writes sets of words / phrases on board with misfit
in each set. Students work in pairs to agree on odd one out
and why;
- match phrases
to pictures - needs a suitable set of pictures and a jumbled
set of phrases or captions;
- memory challenge
- same as picture matching, but pictures are removed after
a minute or two, before showing students the phrases. More
demanding as it requires students to recall and describe the
pictures;
- brainstorming
and mind maps - teacher writes main topic word(s) in centre
of board (eg 'family'), possibly illustrating concept with
a picture. Students call out words and say where they should
go on the mind map;
- think of questions
to ask - eg 'write four questions you might ask if you were
interviewing someone to teach in your college'. Students exchange
/ pool questions and classify them;
- teacher recounts
experience - equivalent to playing a pre-task recording for
a 'sharing personal experience' task.
- Giving task instructions:
- ensure learners
understand what task involves and what outcome is required,
including what each group member should do, how much time
they have and what will happen once finished;
- variations:
- read aloud
or tell students the instructions yourself, preferably
in the target language;
- give students
written instructions to read themselves;
- demonstrate
task with a good student, or get a pair of good students
to do task in front of the class while you talk them through
it;
- play audio
or video recording of fluent speakers doing the task;
- show class
what previous students have achieved (especially written
outcomes).
- Allow preparation
time - students spend a few minutes on their own thinking about
how they will tackle the task and begin to think about how to
express themselves in the target language during the task.
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All this might look a lot for
an introductory stage, but each activity is short, and depending on the
class, not all are required. The important things to remember are that
in order for tasks to work well, students have know the precise how, what
and why of the task, and be confident that they have the words they need
(ie essential vocabulary) to allow them to complete the task successfully
in the target language.
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4.4.4.3
Optional reading
This would be a good point to complete the fourth recommended reading
(see 4.4.9, Reading 4).
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