“Developing effective and meaningful communicative tasks” Teacher-training workshop by Carlos Barragán Cristina Barón Rodrigo Molina Claudia Mosquera Tatiana Olmos Salvador Jiménez Maria Isabel Romero
Workshop designed for "Reflective teaching and learning in context course". Universidad de la Sabana. Master in English language teaching for self-directed learning.
Citation preview
1. Developing effective andmeaningful communicative tasks
Teacher-training workshop by Carlos Barragn Cristina Barn Rodrigo
Molina Claudia Mosquera Tatiana Olmos Salvador Jimnez Maria Isabel
Romero
2. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES Communicative activities include
any activity that encourages and requires a learner to speak with
and listen to other learners, as well as with people in the program
and community. Communicative activities have real purposes: Find
information Break down barriers Talk about self Learn about the
culture.
3. Very Important! Even when a lesson is focused on developing
reading or writing skills, communicative activities should be
integrated into the lesson. Furthermore, research on second
language acquisition (SLA) suggests that more learning takes place
when students are engaged in relevant tasks within a dynamic
learning environment rather than in traditional teacher-led classes
(Moss & Ross-Feldman, 2003)
4. TEACHER-TRAINING WORKSHOP PREPARATION1. Aspect to improve:
IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.2. Target population: 25
state school teachers with average English level of A23. Possible
tasks to be carried out: Taking into account that the average
English level reached by this group of teachers is A2, activities
for beginners would be the most suitable. Information gap, a survey
or a game would fit with teachers communicative skills.4. Goal:
Training teachers in the effective and meaningful implementation of
communicative tasks.
5. ACTIVITY PROCEDURES1. Name of the activity: GETTING TO KNOW
EACHOTHER 2. Welcome and Introductions (10 minutes)Trainers
introduction, coalition members, and otherimportant guests. Brief
explanation of the purposeof the workshop. Ask participants to
briefly introducethemselves (including the grade they teach) and
tellof any experience they have had with
communicativetasks/activities.
6. 3. Activity introduction: (5 min.)Teachers will be told they
aregoing to participate in a communicative task which is the
mainaspect to talk about during the workshop.4. Activity
implementation: a. Warming-up (10 min)AIMS Skills : speaking
Language: giving reasons, expressing likes and dislikes Other:
funLEVEL ElementaryORGANIZATION IndividualPROCEDURE Step 1: Many
pictures of food are put on the table. Each student chooses two:
one picture of something he likes, one of something he dislikes
Step 2: each student shows the two pictures to the class and
explains why he likes or dislikes them
7. b. Vocabulary presentation: (10 min.)In groups of 5 people
teachers will participate in a concentration game containing images
of food and the word in English. These words will be used during
the survey activity.c. Survey: (20 min.) AIMS -Using vocabulary
previously checked in the concentration game. -Asking for
information and answer questions orally -Classifying information
-Producing language in context ORGANIZATION Trainees walk around
the classroom PROCEDURE Step 1: Trainees complete the chart by
themselves. Step 2: Trainees apply the survey to five people in the
classroom. Step 3: Trainees compare their answers with others.
Then, they join people with similar likes and dislikes.
8. Step 4: People in the group design a shopping list with the
food they need to prepare a recipe. Step 5: Students report the
class what people in the group have in common and what they have
different. They will also explain why they chose that
recipe.Teachers will be given hand-outs with the survey and
theinstructions. Instructions will also be given in oral way and
theactivity will be modeled in order to check grammar,
questionformation, ways to answer and instructions
understanding.
9. SURVEY OUR FAVORITE FOODDear trainee, in this format you
will find a survey containing the vocabularyreviewed about food.1.
Complete it with your own information.2. Interview at least five(5)
people and take notes of their answers.3. Make groups with the two
people you have similar likes and dislikes .4. Make a shopping list
with the necessary ingredients to prepare a recipe.5. Report the
class what people in your group have in common and the reasons for
choosing the recipe.
10. Suggested questions for the interview: What food in the
chart do you like? What food in the chart dont you like? What food
do you have in your kitchen? What food do you need in your house?
What food do you eat every day? What food do you eat sometimes?
What food do you never eat?
11. ANALYSIS OF THE ACTIVITY PROCEDURE (25 min.)As our masters
aim is to implement self-directed learning, the trainees will live
the experience of being learners and they will analyze the task
from that position.- How they felt- What they found difficult- What
was easy- What problems they had during the activity- How effective
communication was.Then, they will be encouraged to take teachers
position toinfer what the procedure for a communicative task is.
Ingroups of five people teachers will present their analysis.
12. COMMUNICATIVE TASKS PROCEDURE (10 min.)At the end of the
workshop and after trainees presentations some importantaspects
will be presented and compared with their ideas and opinions
duringthe analysis report. The main conclusions at the end of the
workshop will be: BEFORE THE LESSON DURING THE LESSON Before the
lesson the teacher must During the lesson teachers role is: think
of: -Create interest. -A realistic situation. -Give planning time
-Goals -Model -Motivation -Check for understanding. -Grouping
-Monitor (identify mistakes and -Exchanges problems, encourage
learners, change pairings when necessary) -Encourage learners to
report the result of the task and draw conclusions.Tait, Steven.
(2001) Ingredients for successful communicative tasks. Retrievedon
April 15, 2012
13. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITY PROPOSAL (30 min.) Finally, after
reflecting and analyzing the communicative task used during the
workshop trainees will propose their own activity for their
particular learners. Teachers will make groups of five people
taking into account the level they teach in. Each group will
present the suggested activities explaining the procedures they
would use in order to have an effective and meaningful
communicative task.Conclusions will be drawn at the end of the
workshop.
14. REFERENCES- Tait, Steven. (2001) Ingredients for successful
communicative tasks. Retrieved on April 15, 2012- (n. g.) (n. d.)
Elements of communicative activities