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Balancing Task Demands and Task Support in Classroom Activities

This article discusses the importance of balancing task demands and task support in foreign language classroom activities. It explores the challenges that students may face in understanding and participating in language lessons and provides strategies for effective group work.

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Balancing Task Demands and Task Support in Classroom Activities

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  1. Week 03

  2. The task as an environment for learning • Classroom tasks and activities are seen as the “environment” or “ecosystem” in which growth of skills in the foreign language takes place

  3. Foreign language classroom

  4. Children as mentally active learners will try to make sense of what teacher asks them to do, and they will do the task with their own understanding of the purposes and expectations of the adults.

  5. BUT • Even the most motivated child can have problems making sense of some of the activities in which they are asked to participate in their language lessons • Teachers may not notice their confusion because children are anxious to please and may act as if they understand

  6. TASK DEMANDS

  7. There may be other demands on the pupils beyond the language and the cognitive • INTERACTIONAL demand – activities in pairs • METALIGUISTIC demand – to understand the use of technical terms about language • INVOLEMENT – to keep students engaged with the task • PHYSICAL demand – sitting, using the fine-motor skills

  8. BALANCING TASK DEMAND AND TASK SUPPORT

  9. , (Questions and answers)

  10. GROUP WORK • Have a good reason to use group work • It’s good to have students collaborate in order to learn but only if this does in fact lead to useful learning • Group work is not necessarily a good thing in itself: • difficult to control • Some tasks are inappropriate for group work • If a task can be more conveniently done by an individual, then there is unlikely to be much collaboration even if it is done in groups • Not all students enjoy working in groups • Busy work – little learning

  11. Make collaborating worthwhile • Activities that will get more responses and better results if done in groups: • Brainstorming • Recall activities

  12. Do group work in the middle of the lesson • It’s a good idea to have your group work planned for some time in the middle of the lesson • Use pair work a lot • In many cases, pair work gets better results than group work: it’s easier to set up and control, and ensures more participation • Instruct before making groups • It’s important to ensure that students know what they are going to do before they actually move into groups

  13. Organize groups quickly • A lot of class time can be wasted getting students into groups • So you need strategies to help you achieve this quickly and smoothly • Arrange endings in advance • Sometimes it’s difficult to draw group work to a close • It helps a lot to build in arrangements for ending within your initial instructions

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