Task-Based Language Learning: Closed vs. Open Tasks

1. From grammar point to task-based lesson: closed and open tasks Jane Willis www.willis-elt.co.uk Honorary Visiting Fellow, Aston University

2. Overview • What we mean by ‘task’ with examples • Demonstration of short TBL lesson with rationale • Closed and open tasks – workshop mode • Predicting language points – workshop with transcripts and findings… • Sample ‘closed’ tasks which prioritise certain language items • Some ways of designing closed tasks

3. What exactly is a task? When is an activity a task?

4. Characteristics of effective tasks • Would the activity engagelearners’ interest? • Is there a primary focus on meaning? (Are learners free to use whatever language forms they choose to?) • Does it have a clear outcome for learners to achieve? (Is completion a priority?) • Is success judged in terms of outcome rather than accuracy of language? • Does it relate to real world activities? The more confidently you can answer YES to these questions, the more task-like the activity.

6. Tasks for this picture • Memory challenge: Look at the picture for 30 seconds. How many things can you list in one minute? E.g. fireplace; blue vase with flowers in. • True or False?Teacher led: There are some birds over the fireplace. The blue vase is on the right of the clock. • Guess what I am thinking of. Here are some clues! it’s on a shelf, it’s useful, you can put things in it ... • Look at the picture for one minute and write five quiz questions to give to other teams – to answer without looking. E.g. Where exactly is the cat? • Picture hide-and-seek.

7. Play picture hide-and-seek Discuss with your neighbour the best place in the room in the picture to hide something small (like money or keys). Decide together exactly where you would put it. Change partners. See how quickly you can guess what place they have decided on. Ask them questions – but they can only answer yes or no. (Count the questions.)

9. Typical TBL lesson framework Priming & Preparation (exploring topic, useful words & phrases) Task Cycle(s) Task(s) Planning >> Report of outcome Form focus Analysis of text / transcript >> Practice

10. Report stage Choose your best hiding place and tell the class. E.g. Best place for keys - behind the radio on the shelf by the fireplace. Listen and - remember who hid what and where… OR - note down the really good places. OR - take brief notes. Which were the most popular places? Note: there must be a clear purpose for the class to listen or read others’ reports.

11. How ‘closed’ was this task? • Precise goals, predetermined outcome? • Strategies set? • Vocabulary items predictable? • Whole phrases predictable? • Grammar predictable? • Interpersonal talk & task-oriented language? (What would you predict?)

12. How ‘closed’ was this task? • Precise goals, Yes; predetermined outcome? No, but restricted • Strategies set? variable but limited • Vocabulary items predictable? Yes • Whole phrases predictable? Yes • Grammar predictable? Yes, quite... • Interpersonal talk & task-oriented language? Some predictable…

13. Sample tasks: closed or open? • How strict were your parents? Find who had the strictest / most easy-going ones. • Things on a tray – memory challenge. • What will life be like in 50 years’ time? List three aspects you agree on. • Problem page letter about a difficult daughter: what advice would you give to these parents? • Find seven differences between your two pictures. • What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you? Tell your partner. • List 3 interesting places and say why people should visit them. Share recommendations; vote

14. Closed and open tasks - a cline from closed: a very specific outcome, one pre-determined solution; clearly defined parameters; predictable language to open: learners are free to decide on their own solution(s) and ways of achieving them. Less predictable / unpredictable language

15. Can you predict some language items? We recordedseveral people doing the same picture Hide & Seek task and transcribed what they said. >>Write down your language predictions for the task. Prepositional phrases, expressions of location Question forms: Is it .. ? Are they…? Task-oriented phrases: How many questions is that?

16. F OK, it’s your turn to guess. I’ve got a small bunch of keys and I’ve hidden them somewhere in the picture. M Ah let me see. Are they – erm - inside the teacup on the table? F No. M. Er.. beside the chair? F No ..[…] M Oh dear. Er... behind the clock? F No. That’s four. [………….] M Oh where can they be? [……] M Inside that little jar with a lid on? F That’s it – you got it in fifteen. M Oh dear. What a long time I took! M Erm now , I’ve hidden a pen. F Mhm mhm. You’ve hidden a pen. M Yes. F OK. Is it on top of the table? M No. F Is it among the books on the shelf? M No […] F In the pot of - the vase of flowers? M No. F Oh dear – how many questions have I had? M one two three four five […] eight. F Oh dear […] Is it in the letter rack? M Yes. F Oh, Wonderful! How many? Transcripts

17. Form Focus: analysis & practice • Underline eight phrases of location. • Choose five other useful phrases and read them to your partner. • Think of a small object (pen, keys, gold coin). Describe three hiding places in this room, making it easy for someone to find your object quickly. Can you write three long sentences of over 12 words? • Who can write the longest sentence in 1minute?

18. F OK it’s your turn. I’ve got a small bunch of keys and I’ve hidden them somewhere in the picture. M Ah let me see. Are they – erm - inside the teacup on the table? F No. M. Er.. beside the chair? F No ..[…] M Oh dear. Er... behind the clock? F No. That’s four. [………….] M Oh where can they be? [……] M Inside that little jarwith a lid on? F That’s it – you got it in fifteen. M Oh dear. What a long time I took! M Erm now , I’ve hidden a pen. F Mhm mhm. You’ve hidden a pen. M Yes. F OK. Is it on top of the table? M No. F Is it among the books on the shelf? M No […] F In the pot of - the vase of flowers? M No. F Oh dear – how many questions have I had? M one two three four five […] eight. F Oh dear […] Is it in the letter rack? M Yes. F Oh, Wonderful! How many? Transcripts

19. Predicting language points occurring in task interactions • How would you advise someone who is about to visit [ADD a country / town / areathey know] for the first time? • What advice would you give to the parents of a daughter who is rude, disobedient, often lies to them, and who has become friends with a girl they don’t like? (Problem page letter). Source: Nunan (Atlas) and Cox 2005) David Cox got 25 pairs of native-speakers / fluent speakers to record their advice to the parents. Two minutes; average 320 words)

20. Findings from recorded data Advice on places to visit (Thailand): past tenses: ‘When I went, I used buses mainly’, ‘you can…’ ; relative clauses + which; comparatives; ‘It’s a…’ + adjective phrases Problem page letter: what advice would you give? Common:modal verb phrases, esp. ‘got to’, conditionals, imperatives Also common: noun / adj + to: e.g. ‘the (..) thing to do is to..’./ ‘it’s important (not) to…’/ ‘it might be an idea to’… / Also ‘try and/ try to…’ Note:very few phrases with‘strong’ modals ‘should’ / ‘ought to’; no usual ‘text-book’ advice-giving phrases such as If I were you I’d..

21. What are you going to do …? - this coming week-end? Will our paths cross? D Will you be going to the supermarket? B Probably, yes. I’ll have to go shopping at some stage. D I might be, too. [..] I’m going to a concert on Friday night. - this summer ? A I hear you are planning a trip to Africa… J Yes. Going in September to see my son.. So I’m going to fly to Lusaka, and erm he’ll meet me there.. And we’ll do a bit of travelling around. I think we’re going to be staying most of the time in Monze [..] But we are planning all sorts of exciting things. We’re going to go on safari…

22. In fifty years’ time? What will life be like in 50 years’ time? List three aspects you agree on. • Findings from recordings - will (I think people will travel more; there’ll be …) - going to (People are going to live longer) - will be +ing; More people will be working from home - will / won’t be able to Nunan task adapted and recorded by David Cox 2005

23. So can we ’trap’ structures? • Even within a given time frame (future) and a specific context (plans), it is not easy to predict what forms a speaker or writer will choose. • The future is uncertain, so need to express various degrees of certainty, plus volition, hope etc (lexical choices)

24. So can we ‘trap’ structures? Put this head elsewhere?? Teacher-led spoken tasks, Short texts: true/false statements, quiz questions

25. You can deliberately constrain the lexical load by using a text (written or spoken) or a picture as the basis for a task; • By recording people doing tasks you gain more idea of what grammar is typical for that task, and learners get insights into real language use. • Important not to restrict learners’ choice of forms – using language is all about choice – ‘what is the best way of getting my meaning across?’

26. Devising activities, diagrams, pictures which prioritise certain language Order of adjectives: • sets of coloured balls of two different sizes – throw them round the class who catch and keep one; then ask Who’s got a/thebig red ball…/ Teacher-led > Child-led (Extends to Who had the.. ? I’d like a/the.. • Coloured shapes in a square – True or False? There are six small blue triangles; There are more x than y; All the/some of the/none of the…) You can prioritise but you cannot restrict

27. Prioritising verb tenses Present Simple – plan a survey questionnaire to find the most popular sports, hobbies and spare time activities Second conditionals – write a personality quiz: How courageous are you?What would you do if …an alien space ship landed in your garden? A. I would hide under my bed. B. …. (Hint: start by listing scary scenarios) Future continuous – write a personality quiz: How ambitious are you? What will you be doing in 10 years time? A. I’ll be managing my own company.B… Sources: Lamprini Loumpourdi (2005) pp33-39) Past simple: a busy day: find who had the busiest day. Tell an anecdote e.g. my most embarrassing experience.

28. Prioritising other language items • Question forms: survey questionnaires, planning interviews, guessing games like 20 questions • Modal verbs: speculation tasks e.g. matching photos of un-named places to names of countries • Noun groups: identifying a person in a picture of a crowded shopping centre or beach scene.. • Greetings: list the greeting words and phrases you know in English and another language; explain to your partner in what situations you use them. Note: text-books have many ideas – add a goal or outcome to ‘taskify’ them. Then try them out with a fluent speaker.

29. Start with a text (inspired by the recordings) How strict were your parents? Find who had the strictest / most easy-going ones. • JANE – DO THIS INTO LESSON FRAEMWORK LAYOUT? • First do this questionnaire text

30. Designing tasks to provide a natural context for language use Easier to work from topic or text to task - designing sets of tasks based on specific topics or texts. Write clear instructions, record 2 or 3 pairs doing the task and see what language emerges… Transcribe useful sections Design form focus exercises from the data afterwards. Start with lexis. Harder to work from grammar point to task and find a natural context for specific language use. But you can narrow down by using simple pictures or diagrams, or quiz or questionnaire formats.

31. Messages • Meaning focus - using language is all about choice – ‘what is the best way of getting my meaning across’? • Use tasks to get learners using language to mean things • Important not to constrain their choice of forms • Work from data - richer than prediction; short texts or spoken transcripts of tasks, recorded interviews • Text-book tasks can often be tweaked and improved – to give learners a specific goal or outcome to achieve • do the text-book tasks first then the grammar sections

32. Referenceswww.willis-elt.co.uk • Edwards C. and J. Willis (eds) 2005. Teachers Exploring Tasks in ELT. Palgrave MacMillan. British Council ELT Innovations Award 2006 • Leaver B. and J. R. Willis 2004 Task-based Instruction in FLE: practices and programs Georgetown University Press • Willis D. 2003. Rules, Patterns and Words: Grammar and Lexis in English Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press • Willis D. &J. Willis, 2007 Doing Task-based TeachingOxford University Press (available at OUP stand) • Willis, J. 1996, e-book 2012, A Framework for Task-based Learning Intrinsic – IATEFL Stand 30, English Language Bookshop. Useful websites: • An excellent introductory article on TBL by Richard Frost: • http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/a-task-based-approach • Four articles on TBL by Jane Willis can be found at: • http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/criteria-identifying-tasks-tbl • Free sample task-based lesson plans at www.willis-elt.co.uk

33. Extra slides follow

34. When to work on language and focus on form? Priming & Preparation Key lexis & useful phrases Task >> Planning >>>> Report of outcome Language extension >> Prestige language use Form focus Analysis & practice of language features from texts (written or spoken) that learners have read or heard

35. So why Task-based Learning? • TBL provides learners with natural exposure (input), chances to use language to express what they want to mean (output), to focus on improving their own language and to analyse and practise forms. • TBL is more likely to keep learners motivated since it builds on whatever language they know in a positive way. Learners are actively engaged throughout the task cycle, and get chances to think for themselves and express themselves in the security of their group. • Learners become more independent and feel empowered, gaining satisfaction from successfully achieving things through the FL.

36. Tweaking tasks – some hints Find seven differences between your two pictures Hint: provide more than 7 differences – to ensure the Report stage is engaging as pairs will find different ones. Questions: have you got a/is there a.. ‘what about the .? intonation questions, PLUS topic oriented language Hint: richer language used if they work co-operatively to write a list e.g.‘ So what shall we put?’

37. Implementing and exploring TBL… • Aim at richer interactions in class – focus on meaning first, form later. • Use your text-books flexibly: ‘taskify’ them. • Explore what happens when you use tasks: get learner feed-back, adapt tasks and try again. (Edwards and Willis (eds) Teachers Exploring Tasks)

38. Teachers’ advice on TBL ‘Collaborate with your colleagues – it saves time – and it makes teaching much more rewarding…’ ‘Collaboration is the key’ ‘Don’t give up - it really works!’ www.willis-elt.co.uk

39. Some more ‘open’ tasks: with same picture/similar theme • What kind of people do you think might live here? Who might they be? Think of five things you could guess about them, and give your reasons. • Memory challenge quiz – write 5 questions. • Have you ever locked yourself out of your home? What did you do? • Where do people sometimes leave a spare set of keys? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each. ???