Designing tasks for the language classroom Zhu Linghong Capital Normal University

Objectives  Some key points in the new syllabus  Model of TBL  Understanding of a task  Designing a task

课程目标 帮助学生进一步学习英语基础知识，培养听、 说、读、写等语言技能，使学生初步形成职 场英语的应用能力；激发和培养学生学习英 语的兴趣，提高学生学习的自信心，帮助学 生掌握学习策略，养成良好的学习习惯，提 高自主学习能力；引导学生了解、认识中西 方文化差异，培养正确的情感、态度和价值 观 。

语言目标  帮助学生进一步学习英语基础知识  培养听、说、读、写等语言技能  使学生初步形成职场英语的应用能力

Common beliefs in LT Language should be learned as close as possible to how it is used in real life.

Example Why don’t you close the door?  As a question  As a complaint  As a suggestion ??

I can’t sleep well. Suggestions:  You should drink a glass of milk in the evening.  Have you thought about drinking …?  Don’t you think it’s a good idea to drink…?  Why don’t you drink…?  I suggest that you drink…  If I were you, I would drink…  You’d better drink…

教学建议 引导学生在完成任务的过程中，体验 语言，培养技能，积极实践，提高语 言综合应用的能力。

任务型语言教学 任务型语言教学就是让学生在做事情的 过程中学习语言和使用语言。在任务型语 言教学中， 学生之所以进行对话是因为需 要完成某项任务。

Unit Task: Make a survey to compare the three restaurants near your school. An American friend will come to your school. You want to invite him/her to eat out. You want to find a restaurant with reasonable price and high food quality. Now you need to make a survey and decide on a restaurant.

Objectives of PPP and TBL Students learn the difference between countable and uncountable nouns, and when to use a and some with them. Students choose food and drinks for a birthday party

Procedures of PPP and TBL  Presentation  Practice  Production  Pre-task  Task cycle  Language focus (example)

What is a task? A task is a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some reward. In other words, by “task” is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between. ( Long )

Examples  cleaning the classroom  buying a pair of shoes,  filling out a form,  borrowing a library book  taking a driving test  making an airline reservation  writing a check  finding a street destination

What is a communicative task? A communicative task is a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending ， manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form. (Nunan)

Four components of a task  A purpose  A context  A process  A product

Unit Task: Make a survey to compare the three restaurants near your school. An American friend will come to your school. You want to invite him/her to eat out. You want to find a restaurant with reasonable price and high food quality. Now you need to make a survey and decide on a restaurant.

Think and ask. 两人对话，猜猜对方包里有什么。 Example: A: What is in your bag? B: Guess. A: Is there a pen in your bag? B: Yes, there is. / No, there isn’t.

Talk and find. 向同伴描述你的卧室，并找出不同。

Kinds of tasks  Real-world tasks  Communicative tasks  Pedagogic tasks

Factors to consider  Objective  Complexity of the task  Difficulty level

Unit Task Make a survey about the hobbies of your group members to set up hobby groups in your class.

Factors to consider  Objective  Complexity of the task  Difficulty level

Step 1 Write down your information: Name: __________________ Age: ____________________ Group number: _______________ Likes: _______________________ Dislikes: _____________________

Step 2 Find out the information of your group members. NamesAgeGroup No.LikesDislikes

Step 3 Share your group information with other groups in the form of a report and / or a chart.

Sample report We are Group _______. There are ____ people in our group. _______( how many ) people like ____________. ____________ people like ________________. _______________ people don’t like _____________. ____________ people don’t like ______________.

Factors to consider  Objective  Complexity of the task  Difficulty level

Talk and decide. 讨论并确定 Ben 在哪天购物最 划算. Ben’s Shopping list Item Number Fish 1 Salad 2 packs Pear 1.5kg Sugar 8 boxes

ItemQuantity ( 数量 ) Original price ( 原价 ) Present price ( 现价 ) When on sale How much cheaper? Fish 1 ￥ 8.90 Salad2 packs ￥ 5.99 Pears1.5 kg ￥ 3.60 Sugar8 boxes ￥ Ben wants to buy_____ _____. It’s ___ yuan. But it is on sale on ___. It’s __ yuan now. So It is ______ yuan cheaper in all. ￥ 8.70 ￥ 7.99 ￥ 3.40 ￥ Friday Sunday Tuesday Saturday ￥ 0.20 ￥4￥4 ￥ 0.30 ￥4￥4

￥ boxesSugar ￥ kgPears ￥ packsSalad ￥ Fish How much cheaper? （ in all) When on sale Present price ( 现价 ) Original price ( 原价 ) Quantity ( 数量 ) Item ￥ 8.70 ￥ 7.99 ￥ 3.40 ￥ Friday Sunday Tuesday Saturday ￥ 0.20 ￥4￥4 ￥ 0.30 ￥4￥4 精打细算奖 Can you tell Ben on which day he can buy the four items with the least money? SaturdaySunday

Thank you !

Example Unit task: Organize a Used Book Sale. Your class is going to hold a used book sale. Work in groups of four and get the information of the books you want to sell and make a poster.

Talk and decide. 讨论并确定 Ben 在哪天购物最 划算. Ben’s Shopping list Item Number Fish 1 Salad 2 packs Pear 1.5kg Sugar 8 boxes