4.4.5.1 Why have planning and report stages?
4.4.5.2 Planned language for fluency and accuracy
4.4.5.3 Language instruction in the planning stage
4.4.5.4 Setting up the planning stage
4.4.5.5 Purpose of the report
4.4.5.6 How to act as language adviser during the planning stage
4.4.5.7 The report stage as a motivator
4.4.5.8 The nature of reports
4.4.5.9 Chairing the report stage
4.4.5.10 Giving feedback on students' reports
4.4.5.11 Optional reading

4.4.5.1 Why have planning and report stages?
You may be wondering at this point what the purpose of the planning and report stages is. After all, the students have just finished the task, and you have presumably brought the stage to a close with a few positive, summing up comments. Surely it is better to get on with the language focus work and not spend time going back over work already completed? Willis (1996: 54) points out that tasks alone are not enough. Doing tasks helps students to develop fluency and confidence, but they may do this at the expense of accuracy, and become good at getting by through the use of good communication strategies without really improving their level of language. In other words, their output is not necessarily pushed, and while new words and phrases may be learned, grammar may not be developed. The planning and report stages together help the students to focus on accuracy and interlanguage development in a way that the task stage alone cannot do.

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4.4.5.2 Planned language for fluency and accuracy
By asking students to make a public performance, even just a very short report of their task findings, in front of their classmates, you are placing learners in a position where they will want to make a good impression in terms of both fluency and accuracy. To achieve this quality of performance, their language needs to be planned. By this stage they have a pretty good idea of what they will want to say (although one purpose of the planning stage is to agree on the content of the report as well as the form), but they will need to consider how to do this effectively, in terms of organizing ideas, selecting appropriate language and phrasing this accurately. They will be working towards a polished draft which may be presented orally, recorded on audio or video tape for later playback, or written up for display (eg on a poster or a class website) or circulation round the class. To quote Willis (1996: 55-56):

The report stage [...] gives students a natural stimulus to upgrade and improve their language. It presents a very real linguistic challenge - to communicate clearly and in accurate language appropriate to the circumstances. Students cannot get by just tacking words and phrases together in an improvised fashion, as they could when they were speaking in real time. In planning their report, they have time to create anew, experiment with language and compose with the support of their group, teacher, dictionaries and grammar books. And it is this process that is likely to drive their development forward and give them new insights into language use.

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4.4.5.3 Language instruction in the planning stage
The planning stage thus fulfils a vital role. It is the main opportunity during the lesson to provide instruction, in the form of ad hoc input, usually on request from the students - in all probability the type of input that is most likely to result in intake since students receive it when they need and want it (not when the syllabus or programme outline dictates they should learn it!). There is a focus on increased accuracy, not in the sense that the teacher should point out and correct every error, but serious errors that would impede communication can be discussed and requests from students for you to check accuracy can be followed up.

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4.4.5.4 Setting up the planning stage
Just as for the task, the planning stage needs to be carefully and clearly set up if it is to be successful. This means explaining that someone from each group will have to report their findings to the class (you may do this in the pre-task stage, to motivate learners to take the task seriously), being clear about the purpose of the report, and the form it will take, say what resources the students can use while planning (dictionaries, grammars, ask the teacher, etc), how long the presentation should be, what should be included in it and how long they have to prepare. If you want to be sure that over a number of lessons everyone gets a turn at being reporter, give specific roles to each group member: reporter, dictionary consultant, timekeeper, etc.

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4.4.5.5 Purpose of the report
The purpose of the report will depend to some extent on the type of task. Suggestions (adapted from Willis 1996: 57) are:

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4.4.5.6 How to act as language adviser during the planning stage
Once the students are clear about what they are planning and why, they will be working in their groups again, but compared with the task stage, the teacher is likely to intervene more in their role as language adviser. Willis (1996: 57) suggests waiting until students ask for advice so you know you are responding to their needs rather than your perception of these, but the first few times you use a task-based approach you may like to offer help rather more proactively, until the learners get used to the new procedures.

Since you will have no way of predicting what students will want to say you cannot prepare for specific structures to be covered - a prospect that may seem a little scary at first! But don't worry - you are not meant to function as a walking grammar book or dictionary. Rather, try to see yourself as a proficient user of the language who can say to students, 'Well, I think I'd say it like this ..., or 'You've got a good list of ideas there. Had you thought about adding some linking words like 'next' and 'after that' to tie it all together?' In fact, much of the time you need not even do that, but instead encourage students to work things out for themselves (perhaps with some help and prompting), encourage use of reference books to look things up (maybe doing this with the students if you are not sure of a rule yourself), comment on good use of language, encourage experimentation, selectively correct errors so that meaning is clear (but don't expect 100% accuracy), and encourage students to help each other (edit drafts of each other's work, or listen to each other rehearsing).

Remember also that you are organizing the activity, so as you circulate, check that everyone really is clear about what they are doing and who will act as spokesperson, and keep an eye on the time. Warn students when they have, say, five and then two minutes left, and stop the planning stage when most groups are ready.

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4.4.5.7 The report stage as a motivator
This is the final part of the task cycle and is the activity which has provided the impetus for the task completion and planning activities. Although in itself it probably provides less opportunity for language acquisition than any of the other stages, without it, the planning stage would have no purpose, and immediate motivation would diminish.

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4.4.5.8 The nature of reports
The nature and duration of reports depend on the level of the class and the nature of the task, but they are usually quite short (one or two minutes per group for spoken reports) so there is usually time to ask several of the groups to report. There is no need for everyone to give a spoken report, however, and it is better to ask only three or four groups to report each lesson and maintain motivation than to plough through them all and allow students to become bored. Clearly, you would need to make a mental note of who had not had a turn at reporting so they could be selected to do so next lesson.

With written reports, you will need to organize how these are circulated round the class, or if in the form of posters or wall displays, how students will circulate to read each other's work and, having done so, whether you will have a short question and answer session so they can discuss each other's contributions.

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4.4.5.9 Chairing the report stage
During the report stage the teacher's main role is that of chairperson, and to fulfil this role you may find yourself introducing the stage and each presentation, nominating groups to make reports, timekeeping, and summing up when everyone has finished.

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4.4.5.10 Giving feedback on students' reports
Making a special note of successes and improvements and being generally encouraging are important at this stage, since the focus has shifted back to making a fluent performance, albeit with improved accuracy. Students normally expect feedback on the quality of their language performance, so make a point of reacting to both the content and the language performance in general terms. Some students may expect traditional style error correction here. My feeling is that this should be avoided, given the purpose of the report stage, although you may wish to remind students that a language focus stage will follow, and you could note some of the errors made and write them up (anonymously) for analysis and comparison with the task transcripts of fluent speakers later on.

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4.4.5.11 Optional reading
The next selection of reading (see 4.4.9, Reading 5) is on the planning and report stages, so now would be a suitable time to do this.

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