Teachers' reinterpretations of a task-based thematic syllabus Rosely Perez Xavier, PhD [email protected] Federal University of Santa Catarina Florianópolis,

Teachers' reinterpretations of a Teachers' reinterpretations of a task-based thematic syllabustask-based thematic syllabus

Rosely Perez Xavier, [email protected]

Federal University of Santa CatarinaFlorianópolis, Brazil

The scope of the researchThe scope of the research

Goal of the major project: To describe, interpret and assess the learning process on the basis of:

the students’ performance in listening and reading comprehension tasks as well as in oral production tasks.

the students' verbal and non-verbal manifestations during interaction, which were classified as positive and negative indicators of learning, such as initiatives to ask questions, make comments, and give feedback (positive indicators), and lack of attention, resistance to speak English, anxiety (negative indicators).

the students' attitudes towards the classes and the task-based material.

the changes the teachers made in the planned syllabus.

Research questions:Research questions:

What changes do secondary teachers make in a task-based syllabus?

What motivates the teachers to make their changes?

The Task-Based Thematic Syllabus The Task-Based Thematic Syllabus (TBTS)(TBTS)

Reasons for its design:

to promote process-oriented learning as opposed to an itemized learning, which has been traditionally developed in the teaching of English at Brazilian secondary schools, resulting in product-oriented syllabuses. The pre-determined items are generally sets of linguistic structures and/or communicative functions to be taught and learned.

to develop communicative competence in the English language through meaning-focused activities, and engage students in syllabus negotiation so as to make them co-responsible for the pedagogic decision making process.

The Task-Based Thematic Syllabus The Task-Based Thematic Syllabus (TBTS)(TBTS)

Learning goals:

To develop comprehension through listening and

reading tasks, as well as through English as a

medium of instruction, which means that input and

conversational adjustments (Long, 1983) were

extensively used by the teachers to facilitate

students’ listening comprehension in the foreign

language.

To develop oral production skills through tasks requiring minimal length turns (one or two words in length), phrase length turns (adverbial phrases, nominal phrases or verb phrases), clause length turns (one clause), and sustained in length turns (longer than a clause turn). (Swain, 1991)

GRAMMAR

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN BRAZIL STUDYING A FOREIGN

LANGUAGE

LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD

LANGUAGE AND MEANING

SPEECH

BODY LANGUAGE

The TBTS frameworkThe TBTS framework

THE ENVIROMENTTHE ENVIROMENT

PLANTSPLANTS

ANIMALSANIMALS

ADOLESCENCEADOLESCENCE

electrical energy

water

weather

grammar

rainforests

traffic

family relationships/ social relations

garbage

the solar energy

fruit

vegetables flowers

grammar

food chain

the importance of plants to people

helpful and harmful animalsnatural covering

oviparous animals

locomotion

grammarhabitats

emotions and feelings sex and pregnancy

sports

interests

you and yourself

drugs

grammar

AIDS



Each theme and interrelated topic, including grammar, corresponded to a teaching unit that consisted of three tasks and a set of extra tasks that was assigned as homework.

Theme: Body language

Task 1 Understanding the meaning of some gestures shown in pictures.

Task 2 a) Expressing how the students feel in certain situations.

b) Interacting with a classmate to guess how s/he feels from her/his facial expression

Task 3 Listening to some conversations to identify how people are feeling.

Extra tasks – homeworkTask 4 Interpreting sign language shown in pictures. Task 5 Interpreting postures or attitudes shown in pictures.

Notion of taskNotion of task

Task is a piece of classroom work which

involves learners in comprehending,

manipulating, producing or interacting in

the target language while their attention is

principally focused on meaning rather than

form. (Nunan, 1989:10)

A place for grammatical activitiesA place for grammatical activities

Islands for attentional focus on form

through consciousness-raising tasks

(Fotos & Ellis,1991) and interpretation

tasks (Ellis,1993,1995).

Approach to task constructionApproach to task construction

Criteria for task design: (Widdowson, 1979)

Rational appeal (i.e. Does the task stimulate students’ logical reasoning in the same way as it is conceived of in their native language?);

Integration (i.e. Does the task integrate the language skills in a pragmatic sense?);

Control (i.e. Is the task communicatively relevant and adequate to the students’ linguistic level?).

Criteria for task sequencing:Criteria for task sequencing:

1. A sensitive presentation of the theme /topic for the external sequencing of tasks.

2. The task dependency principle (Johnson, 1981), which requires the student to utilize information of a prior task to carry out the succeeding ones for the internal sequencing of a task.

Research MethodologyResearch Methodology

Type: descriptive and interpretative study

Subjects: two certified secondary teachers of English (T1 and T2)

the researcher (T3)

Context of research: 5th level of Basic Education, which offers English as a compulsory subject, two classes a week of 50 minutes each.The students were adolescents ranging from 11 to 14 years of age.


T1 implemented the syllabus in a private school.

T3 implemented it in a public school.

T2 participant observer

Period of implementation: From March to mid July of 1997 (first term) and from August to early December (second term), comprising a total of 54 hours for T1 and 68 hours for T2.


Materials:

T1 was provided with the task-based thematic teaching units and the procedures for each task implementation, which were designed by the researcher (T3). The task procedures suggested ways to introduce the task and approach the input data.


Procedures:

- weekly exchanged diaries (T1 - T3, T3 - T2).

- video- and audio-taped set of lessons.

T1 8 video- and 10 audio-taped lessons

T3 6 video- and 10 audio-taped lessons


Data analysis:

The video- and audio- recorded lessons were transcribed and submitted to a qualitative analysis as well as the data collected from the diaries.

task insertion

adjustments to task procedures

changes in task sequence

SYLLABUS IN ACTION

1. remedial tasks

2. Investigative tasks

3. extension tasks

4. story comprehension tasks

5. entertaining tasks

PLANNED SYLLABUS

Modifications in the TBTS during its implementationModifications in the TBTS during its implementation

Adjustments to the task proceduresAdjustments to the task procedures

Objective:

To facilitate theme and language comprehension as well as students’ task performance.

Complete the instructions according to the picture below.

TAPE RECORDER

1. Press the _____________________________________ to insert the tape.2. Press the ______________________________________ to start playing.3. Press the ____________________________ to stop playing temporarily.4. Press the ______________________________________ to stop playing.5. Press the _____________________________________ to move forward. 6. Press the ____________________________________ to move backward. 7. Press the ____________________________________ to start recording.8. Press the ___________________________________ to remove the tape.9. Press the ___________________________________ to turn the tape off.

Down Up

▼ ▲

Eject Stop >>Fast Pause <<Rewind Play Record Power Volume Forward

Adjustments to task proceduresAdjustments to task procedures

T1’s diary, lesson 13

Before introducing Task 3 I wrote SOUND SYSTEM on the board and asked: Do you have a sound system? They immediately answered YES. I wrote TAPE RECORDER, CD PLAYER, and RADIO next to the word ‘Sound System’, and asked: Is that correct? Most students answered YES! Then I drew the buttons on the board and wrote TAPE RECORDER above them, as shown in the activity. With a cassette in my hands I simulated I was going to listen to a song. I asked: I want to listen to this cassette, what button do I press?

A few students answered play. I immediately wrote PLAY below one of the buttons. The class seemed to be motivated and comfortable to answer the other questions from this moment on. I then asked: Now, suppose I’ve finished listening to music 5 and I want to listen to music 1 now. What button do I press? They answered – revi. I modeled their pronunciation and wrote REWIND below one of the buttons. I continued asking: Now I want to listen to music 5 again. What do I do? After some seconds, S1 answered FF (efe-efe). The students knew the button I was referring to, but they didn’t know how to pronounce the word. I made a positive gesture to S1, wrote “fast forward” on the board below one of the buttons, and pronounced the word.

I then continued asking: And to stop the music? What button do I press? Almost all students answered promptly: “stop” and S5 added: “pause”. I made a positive gesture again and went on asking: Now I want to record this class. What button or buttons do I press? Most of them answered RECORD. Then I said: Just one button? S16 answered: PLAY. I enthusiastically confirmed her answer saying: Yes! Record and play together. Then I said: Go to Task 3 in pairs.

1. remedial tasks

2. investigative tasks

3. extension tasks

4. story comprehension tasks

5. entertaining tasks

task insertiontask insertion

TASK INSERTIONTASK INSERTION

Remedial tasks

Objective: to deal with the students’ difficulties in:

(1) mapping form-meaning connections.

Group the words below in names of countries and names of languages.

Spain France

French Haitian

Germany Russia

Spanish German

Italy Russian

Japanese French Guiana


Remedial tasksRemedial tasks

(2) understanding the informational content that had been studied.

Write TRUE or FALSE.

a) Portuguese is the majority language spoken in Brazil ________________

b) Spanish is spoken in the USA. ____________________

c) In one country people speak one language. __________

d) In one country many languages are spoken. _________

e) English is the minority language in the United Kingdom. ________________

f) In France the majority of the population speak German. _______________

Associate the columns.

1. majority language ( ) English-Italian dictionary

( ) dictionary involving 1

2. bilingual dictionary language.

( ) dominant language

3. monolingual dictionary ( ) German dictionary

( ) dictionary involving 2 languages



(3) carrying out tasks under certain formats.

filling-the-gap task

decision-making task based on criteria

Complete the texts using the words below. Germany France

French Italy German Italian

____________________ , _____________________ and ______________________ are located in Europe. ______________________ is spoken in Germany. ______________________ is the official language in Italy and ______________________ is spoken in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and other countries.

Paulo e Sandra querem ir a um restaurante. Paulo gosta de comida chinesa e Sandra gosta de comida italiana. Quais dos restaurantes abaixo Paulo e Sandra poderiam ir, de acordo com as suas preferências? Escreva Paulo ou Sandra no espaço fornecido, ou coloque um traço (--), caso o restaurante não atenda nenhuma das preferências de Paulo e Sandra.

ASTORIA EMPIRE ___________________________It is an elegant and spacious restaurant in Astoria Hotel. It serves Hungarian food.

BELCANTO ___________________________The first Italian restaurant in China.

GREAT WALL ___________________________It offers traditional Chinese food with a folklore dancing show.

BECKETT’S ___________________________ It is a sophisticated restaurant located in the centre of Rome. It serves excellent Frenchfood.

TAVERNA __________________________It doesn’t serve Italian food. It serves only Chinese and Japanese food.



(4) using their comprehension skills efficiently. Because of that, reading and listening tasks of the same format previously given to the students were introduced (by both teachers) to practice the use of skimming, scanning, and inference strategies.

Listening tasks

Task 1. Listening to 8 monologues to understand what each speaker is talking about.

Task 2.Listening to 6 requests to identify the buttons that will have to be pressed.

Task 3. Listening to 6 dialogues to understand the gist and specific information.

Reading tasks

Task 1.

Reading a list of what people do in everyday life to infer the linguistic skills involved in each action.

Task 2.

Reading an ad to understand specific information.

Task 3.

Unscrambling pieces of information following an explanation provided.

Task 4 – Identifying the most appropriate title for each text.



(5) recognizing and understanding certain

structures in the input.

noun syntagma: “adjective(s) + noun”

EXAMPLES:

1. The Penguin Book of Exotic Words A fascinating anthology of words with curious and interesting origins. * The fascination of the words... (lesson 20).

2. The History of a Language

It contains interesting information about the people and the language

spoken in France.

* the interest in the information … (lesson 21)

3. Practical Guide to Language Exercises

This book offers practical exercises for French students of Portuguese.

* práticas atividades (lesson 16)

Read the information below.

MENINA BONITA BONITA MENINA noun adjective adjective noun

In Portuguese, the adjective comes after the noun.The adjective comes beforethe noun.

BEAUTIFUL GIRL

adjective noun In English, the adjective always comes before a noun.

Now, underline the noun and the adjective in the sentences below. Then, give the meaning of the expression. 1. It is an elegant and spacious restaurant in Astoria Hotel. It serves Hungarianfood.2. The first Italian restaurant in China.3. It offers traditional Chinese food with a folklore dancing show.



CONCLUSION:

The use of remedial tasks minimized the students’ problems, but did not eliminate them. Such tasks enabled the students to solve their doubts, test their hypotheses, reflect on and redefine their learning strategies, focus their attention to important English features, and familiarize themselves with certain task formats. Along the syllabus implementation, it was possible to observe that some students tended to correct their classmates and self-correct based on the knowledge they had gained through the remedial tasks. This is what T3 says in her diary:


For the correction of Situation 7 [i.e. ‘I repeat silently the correct pronunciation’], I asked the class: ‘how often do you repeat silently the correct pronunciation?’. Some students asked for the confirmation of the meaning of the situation posed: ‘você repete a correção da pronúncia?’ I passed on the floor to S9 who wanted to confirm. She said: ‘Eu repito silenciosamente a correção da pronúncia’ [I repeat the correction of the pronunciation silently], but S5 rephrased her by saying: ‘a pronúncia correta’ [the correct pronunciation], making a gesture of inversion ‘noun-adjective’ with his hands.


Investigative tasks

Objective: to speculate on input processing for form, in particular whether the students had acquired the forms IS and ARE of the verb to be.

Investigative task

Read the following text and complete the gaps with a verb.

Portuguese _____ the official language in Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, but other languages _____ also spoken. In Brazil, for example, Guarani and Yanomami _____ minority languages.

French _____ spoken in France, Canada, Belgium and other countries. In Canada, French and English _____ the dominant languages of the country.

Crystal, D. 1992 An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages


After having read the instructions of the task, S6 highlighted that the students did not know about verbs in English.

[T1 - What did you say to her?]

[T3 - I said that they had learned verbs without being

aware of.]

Many students asked if they would be graded by the task and I said "no". I was just interested in investigating what they knew. During their performance, some students said that the task was very difficult. S24 was the first one to hand it in. He got everything right!


The teacher handed out a task in which the students were required to complete a text with some verbs. Some students said they did not know any verb in English (S3, S6 and S8). They had five minutes to perform it and hand it in to the teacher.

Results of the investigative taskResults of the investigative task

SITUATION 1. Most students were not able to establish any connection between the target forms IS and ARE and their corresponding meanings. They did not seem to be aware of these forms.

1.Portuguese é the official language in Brazil (S1)

2. But other languages é also spoken. (S2)

3. French é spoken in France …. (S1, S2).


4. Use of function words to complete all the gaps of the text:

IT (S3)

AND (S4, S19)

OF (S20, S22)

5. Portuguese is spoken the official language in Brazil… . French is spoken in France, Canada…. In Canada, French and English is spoken the dominant languages of the country. (S6)


6. Use of English and Portuguese words to make sense of the text. Examples:

a) In Brazil, for example, Guarani and Yanomami latim minority languages. (S2)

b) In Brazil, for example, Guarani and Yanomami languages minority languages. (S14)

c) French Guiana spoken in France, Canada, Belgium and other countries. (S12 and S16)


SITUATION 2. Some students were able to process the verb form IS, but they over- generalized its use to contexts where the form ARE should be used.


SITUATION 3. Only one student was able to process the forms IS and ARE correctly in the text.

Possible explanations:

1) By the time the syllabus was implemented, S24 was attending a private English course, twice a week, at a well-known school franchise, whose methodology was focused on grammar instruction.

1) S24 was a highly motivated student and very attentive to the lessons.


Extension and story comprehension tasks

Objective: to enhance the students’ learning outcomes.

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2. THE OXFORD PAPERBACK BILINGUAL DICTIONARYoffers 40-50,000 words and phrases and 45-70,000 translations. It is a practical guide to the Spanish language.R$8,00 Paperback 512pp.

3. THE OXFORD ILLUSTRATED JUNIOR DICTIONARYA large-format dictionary, containing colour illustrations, simple definitions, and example sentences.R$11,00 Paperback 1.224pp.

Answer the questions below and give reasons.

Example: Is dictionary 1 good for you? Possible answers:

No, because it is a monolingual dictionary.

No, because it offers definitions.

a) Is dictionary 2 good for you?

b) Is dictionary 3 good for you?

c) Is dictionary 4 good for you?

d) Is dictionary 5 good for you?

e) Is dictionary 6 good for you?

Story comprehension tasks

TASK 1.

Unscrambling sentences to form the correct sequence of the story read.

TASK 2.

Selecting the personality traits for each character of the story and illustrating one part of the story in which these traits have been shown or suggested.


Entertaining tasks

Objective: to handle with unplanned situations, such as when few minutes were left to the end of the class or when a few students were present.

Type of task: word hunt taken out from English textbooks.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONSGENERAL CONCLUSIONS

A task-based syllabus requires flexibility to incorporate other tasks with different purposes.

Teachers make changes in a syllabus to meet the students’ learning needs (e.g. remedial tasks, adjustments in task procedures) and the teachers’ purposes (e.g. use of investigative tasks), to enhance learning outcomes (e.g. story comprehension tasks, extension tasks), and to deal with unexpected circumstances (e.g. entertaining tasks).

Students’ lack of attention to certain linguistic features is one of the causes of their poor performance in tasks. Form-focused activities may help them notice and understand the problematic structures, and facilitate their performance in new tasks.

Documents

Teachers' reinterpretations of a task-based thematic syllabus Rosely Perez Xavier, PhD [email protected] Federal University of Santa Catarina Florianópolis,