2.

Lesson Plan
Time 60 mins

Level: Upper-intermediate

Profile of learners:

There are eight students in the class. All of them are attending a General English course (20
hoursper week Monday-Friday) at Language Learning International, Dublin, Ireland. Two of them
take additional group lessons in the afternoons as part of an intensive English programme.

They come from different back grounds and countries.There are three Italians, one Spaniard, one
Brazilian, one Japanese and one Korean. Most of the students are in their 20s, but the Youngest
is17 and the oldest is 35.

They are highly motivated learners. All of them want to improve their job prospects by improving
every in aspect of English.They are particularly keen to increase their vocabulary and improve
their spoken English. All of them are confident speakers. They enjoy pairand group work,
classroom discussions and debates.

Accuracy is poor for some and in two cases, pronunciation is weak

Learners’needs:

The learners need to be able to communicate fluently and Accurately outside the classroom.They
need to understand the languageas it is spoken. Their classes provide them with the skills and
confidence to use theirlanguage in everyday interactions.

Aims:

By the end of thelesson, learners will have had the opportunity to complete the task of
reading,discussing and summarising a Newspaper article. They will have listened to a fluent
speaker do a similar task. Having focused on and analysed his language,

They will have been given the opportunity to practise the language in the Willis sense, and then
go back into the task cycle and do a similar task.

Main focus: Discourse

Supporting skill: Reading

Time table Fit:

I have been using Cutting Edge Upper Intermediate with this group. Having completed Unit11, I
have decided to adapt a portion ofUnit 12 in the light of my reading on task based learning. I
propose to continue with a closer analys is of the language of reporting and summarising what
people say in the media.

LanguageAnalysis:

The newspaper articles from Cutting Edge Unit 12 (pp 143, 144, 145) give the students
opportunities to report and summarise. When reporting what some one said, the verb form usually
moves one tense into the past. When summarising what

People said, there is a large number of verbs and a variety of constructions

Assumptions:

I am assuming that the language in the articles will present few problems to the students

Anticipate problems P:students will not find the task interesting

and solutions S:stimulate interest duringthe pre-task stage

P:students will gets tuck during the first phase of the task

S:tell the min advance that I’m not goingto help them then

P:the students won’t have enough time

S:be realistic about timing in the lesson plan

Materials/Resources Cutting Edge Upper Intermediate (Cunninghamand Moor,

1999, Longman)

Personal aims

class

students the time to complete the task without interference from me as this would be a
new departure for me

if Ican cope with unpredicted questions on form

understanding of how to teach a task based lesson

Detailed Plan

Stage Aims Procedure Interaction

Time
Pre-task To introduce Ask students to look at headlines and toguess Whole class 0-5
the topic what the articles are about mins

Task Students read Give each group an article. Pairs. 5 –

an Article and to read it carefully. T 15
answer three any unfamiliar words. monitors mins
question following questions:
a. What is the article about?
b. What are the two most
important claims made in the article?
c. Think of one interesting question arising
from the article that you would like to discuss
with fellow students

Planning Students write Ask students to summarise Pairs. T 15-

out their their answers in writing. They monitors 25
answers may ask T to help them and makes mins
express their answers suggestions

Report Students read Each pair reports to the whole 25-

out their class. Other students listen an Whole 28
answers to may ask questions class mins
the rest of the
class
 Listening To hear an ative Ask students to listen Whole 28-
Speaker talk Carefully to a tape of a fluent class 32
about Speaker summarising a mins
asimilar article Newspaper article. Play is
once without transcript.
Distribute transcript and play
it again.

Analysis To draw the Ask students to identify any Pairs 32-

Students words or phrases in the 40
attention transcript which might be mins
to aspects of useful in summarising their
the native own article. Answer questions
speaker’s about form
language

Practice To give tudents Ask students to read another article. Answer Pairs 40-
T>P>R the opportunity the three questions using any new language 60
to do the task they have learnt mins
again from the transcript
&incorporate
new forms

3. Post-Lesson
3.1 Evaluation of the experiment

a. I was pleased to see that the class reacted in a positive wayto the experiment. My observer noted
that the learners were actively engaged by the class. After the lesson, I asked them to complete the
questionnaire (Appendix1). The results of the questionnaire showed that they enjoyed the class
and many of them felt that they had gained something from it.
b. Following the Willis model, I did not help them during the task phase of the task cycle.The
students were left alone to use whatever language they had to do the task. As they moved to the
planning phase, I could see how they put some thought in to expressing their ideas. I told them
that during this phase, they could ask me for help and suggestions. Most of the students took

advantage of this, although some used dictionaries. They presented their answers to the three
questions during the reporting phase. However, I now realise that I had compromised the objective
of the planning and reporting phases, i.e. the movement towards greater accuracy,by not giving
clear enough instructions. I omitted to tell students that I would not interrupt their reports. As a
result, the students did not actually use summarising languageas frequently as I had hoped

c. There was good over all fluency during the task cycle. I felt at the time that the learners’ language
was more accurate as the cycle progressed and the observer confirmed this. However, during the
reporting phase, it was observed that I was prompting the student who was making the report. I
had not made it sufficiently clear to the students that they would have to prepare a written report
and read it out to theclass. I can see how a teacher could mistakenly conclude that the task cycle
does not work, as there did not seem to be a significant qualitative difference between the learners’
language at the start and at the end of the cycle.

d. In retrospect, I realise that it may have been more appropriate to state discourse(the language of
summarising) as the lesson’s main aim because grammar was only going to be asupporting aim. I
invited the learners to focus on words or phrases in the native speaker’s summary,which might
have been useful in doing their task. They successfully identified the appropriate language but did
not ask questions about form. I feel that I did the students a disservice by not spending time on
apractice activity. In stead, they re-entered the task cycle without having spent sufficient time
focussing on and practising the new language.

Overall, this experiment showed me how effective task based learning can be because I saw how
engaged the learners were and how the processof completing the task created a context for effective
language input.

3.2 Action points

Having read about task based learning and having taught this class, I feel I Have a much greater
appreciation of the pros and cons of this approach. However, it Seems to me that I am only
beginning to realise what its potential and drawbacks are. My first reaction after the class was that
I wanted to teach another task based class as soon as possible. Taking into account what I had
learnt from the experience, I would like to continue researching TBL and using it in as
manydifferent teaching contexts as possible in order to experience for myself how effective it can
be,

TBL and long term learners

Since, for the fore seeable future, the classes I am teaching are likely to be comprised of long term
students, I would be very interested to see if teaching task based lessons on a continuous basis to
them would add up to a comprehensive language syllabus. I would like to investigate this further
as I would be curious to see how new language can be learnt organically rather than systematically.

Task design

The task I chose for the class was adapted from a textbook. Already,I have begun to look at text
book material in a new way,asking myself if it would be suitable for a task-based class. I have
noticed that frequently,while the material maybe suitable, very often activities suggested have to
be made more concrete with an identifiable outcome.

I would be interested to see if I could design tasks which would successfully elicit certain
language. This maybe a useful in situation in which some learners specifically request “input”on
aparticular area of grammar. Although the temptation might be to revert to an orthodox PPP
approach, I am curious to see if the expressed need of the learner could be met by the task based
approach.

Learner training

In ateaching context such as mine,which is aprivate language school, there Are commercial
demands made on the teacher to satisfy the clients’wishes. I fore see that sometimes the learner
style of the client learner might not be compatible with the task based approach becauses/he has
learned to learn in a more traditional grammar-led way.In the case of long term learners, I would
like to experiment with some learner training in order to help them benefit from this method.

3.3 Evaluation of the lesson and action points

Aims:

The learners completed the taskas stated in the aims.Although they were

given the opportunity to practise the new language by re-entering the task cycle, not

all the students actually used it.

Action:

Include specific practice activities such as repetition, gap-filling and memory

Challenge as suggested byWillis (pp110-113)

Systems aim:

During the planning phase, I answered students’ questions and helped Them correct their
grammatical errors. During the analysis stage, theydidn’t ask any questions about form

Action:

In future, I would make the analysis stage more of an event by using an overhead projector. I had
handed out transcripts of the native speaker’s summary and this was too similar to what had
happened during the task cycle .I would also try preparing specific questions abou tform,asking
them to notice certain features of the language.

Skills aim:

The learners had plenty of opportunities to improve their reading. On the whole, the very act of
doing the task was asuccessful integrative skills experience.

Although not a stated aim,writing is an essential part of the task based lesson. The learners did not
make the most of the opportunity,largely because my instructions Were not clear enough.

Action:

Bemore explicit when giving instructions for the planning and reporting phases.

Teaching Skills:

Thanks to the observation comments from mycoursetutor, I realise that a key factor in
implementing a successful task based lesson is the clarity of instructions, especially duringthe task
cycle. I have to ensure that they understand that they will be making a formal presentation, possibly
asking them to stand up infront of the class, so the that they are the focus of attention and not me.
I will not start them off or prompt them.Thus, they will assume the full responsibility of planning
and presenting the report.

4. Appendices
Student Questionnaire

1. Did you find the topic of this class (circle one):

a. very interesting

b. interesting

c. not very interesting

Comment:

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

2. Did this class give you the opportunity to improve your:(number1-4)

a. reading

b. writing

c. listening

d. speaking

Comment:

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

3. How useful was this class for: (number1-3)

a. grammar

b. vocabulary

c. pronunciation

Comment:

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

4. What did you like about this class?

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

5. What did you dislike about this class?

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________