TBL - English 5th-10th grade: First session

Task design: Lynne Cameron • Cameron’s model of Task design (2002) involves 3 phases (pre- while and post-task)

• Her model also involves 4 key aspects: Learning goals Activities Demand Support

Lynne Cameron: Learning goals • Pre-phase: often centres on core vocabulary necessary for the Task, core language structures (questions/answers, key sentences, gambits) – and creating motivation for the Task.

• While-phase: often same language goals as in pre-phase + using strategies to communicate in the foreign language in a situation

• Post-phase: that learners become aware of the language they have used in the Task – e.g. checking core vocabulary, language structures and taking time to reflect on language points that came up. Appreciation of learner products/output also plays a part here

Lynne Cameron: Demand • Pre-phase: often involves learning new words and understanding the Task • While-phase: often the demands here are connected with communication – obstacles that stop learners from communicating during the core activity/Task

• Post-phase: demands here often involves meta-language – knowing words to talk about language; recalling vocabulary and storing information.

Lynne Cameron: Support ‘Support’ includes pictures, handouts, glossaries, model texts, teacher advice – in short any help that can make learners meet the demands

• Pre-phase: often flashcards, pictures, explaining meaning of words, saying

words out loud, spelling them, providing examples. Activities here should be fun

• While-phase: dictionaries, model texts, handouts with lines/dialogue, etc. Whatever helps learners stay active during the core activity/Task

• Post-phase: Learning logs, exercises, crossword puzzles, classroom/pair reflection time

Task example: Superheroes • Pre-work:

brainstorm

knowing the genre – knowing the task. Presentation and

• While-work: making the story of the character – presenting to others. • Post-work: focus on form: on-demand language support. Notes for ”My language diary” and summation

Pre-work: Superheroes as storytelling Creating a superhero character involves establishing the genre • Genre requirements: - The basic drive is Fairytale/Fantasy – the fight between good and evil • Character requirements: - Characters must obey the Magic Code (Nicolajeva 1988): supernatural elements have a limit; for every spell, there is a counterspell. Even Superman is weak in the face of kryptonite. - Superheroes as magic characters are defined by powers, mission and identity (Coogan, 2006)

Case in point: Batman • Powers: has no supernatural powers, but instead a James Bond-like array of gadgets. His brains, money and physical training together make up his powers.

• Mission: to fight crime in Gotham City – motivated by the murder of his parents when he was a boy.

• Identity: Batman/Bruce Wayne. Batman is masked and cloaked to conceal Bruce Wayne’s identity. Wayne deliberately cultivates a private identity as a superficial upperclass bachelor far from Batman’s actions in back alleys.

While-work: create character • Start out by brainstorming your character: draw, act out - if it helps • Then make HERO CARD together: key words are OK – as long as you can remember and re-tell the character’s story later

While-work: present character • Carrousel feedback: Get feedback from others! • Feedback Criteria: - powers, mission and identity: do they make a whole character?

Post-work: language focus • Take a moment to reflect with your partners: which langauge issues came up when making the HERO CARD and when presenting it?

• •

Issues might involve: spelling, pronunciation, grammar, unknown words, words with new meaning, phrases you haven’t heard before Write down notes on the back of HERO CARD

Issues that came up • • • • •

Enhance – spelling ‘sammensatte ord’ – compound words

Disguise – spelling ? Word (arch nemesis) Name for unicorn horn? – spiralling horn

Condition: a need for differentiation • Learners 5th – 10th grade in English have communicative competences in English that vary over a very wide spectrum.

• Looking at the competence goals (both new FFM and former FM), there is a clear expectation that learners enter the Fluency Phase during the intermediate stage (5th-7th grade) and break into the Sophistication Phase during the advanced stage (8th-10th grade. A relatively small number of learners do not meet this expectation; most learners do.

• The basic premise for 5th-10th grade English teachers is therefore that a) the goals are fairly ambitious; b) the learners’ competences vary greatly and c) expetancy and actual performance are both high

What does that mean for TBL? • That understanding and negotiation of meaning are often challenged by uneven relationships

• That intensive training in tasks is often highly modelled at beginner/early

intermediate stages, while there is an increasing focus on spontaneous use of language throughout late intermediate and advanced stages

• That evaluation and post-task work often needs to be individualized