What is “Language Focus”? …

…well, it is the last phase of the TBL framework and it also follows the report stage of the task cycle. It adds an opportunity for explicit language instruction.

So, this means that it encourages students to focus their attention on forms of the language which they have already processed for meaning? Exactly!

My question is: the teacher will be leading the activities at all times? Not necessarily, the teacher will introduce the activities; however, she must be on hand to help while students do them and review them at the end…

“A certain amount of form- focused practice, integrated with analysis activities, may also help students pronounce and memorize useful phrases and common patterns and also give them confidence to try out new combinations and to generate some of their own.”

Analysis activities Must: Have a purpose Be clear Give an example or two Have a dictionary Be monitored but not controlled Be reviewed Be adapted according to the students level

Are there any other practice activities that I can use to help my students? Sure, they are called “Language practice activities”. These activities can combine naturally with analysis work and are useful for consolidation and revision.

Language practice activities: Repetition: -useful phrases - dialogue readings Listen and complete -Listening to a recording and completing a text. Gapped examples - Learners write out a list of phrases omitting a word and their peers have to complete it. Progressive deletion -The students read a list of phrases and the teacher starts deleting them. Then, the students have to remember what was written.

Dear teacher, always remember that a methodology based on analysis and consciousness raising says, “Be a creative learner”.

Summarizing…

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO DIPLOMADO ALAD MÓDULO 3 “TASK BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING” ACTIVITY 3.6 TEAM #3 – Language Focus -María Nidia Robles Hinojosa -Duline Iphygenie Theogene Vazquez