Set of task -based language teaching

1. PORTAFOLIO
Applied Linguistic 2013
Teacher
Student
: Roberto Silva Torres
: Claudia Rozas
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2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
…………………………………………….
………………
3
…………………………………………….
………………
4
…………………………………………….
………………
6
Input Processing
………………
6
Comprehension in an L2
………………
6
Production in L2
………………
6
Task definition
Introduction
………………
6
Autobiographical
Statement
THEORETICAL
CONTENT
TASKS
…………………………………………….
7
DEVELOPMENT
Input based Communicative Task
………………
7
Reflective Statement
………………
9
Reading Task
………………
11
Reflective Statement
………………
14
Output Based Interactive Task
………………
15
Reflective Statement
………………
16
Analysis of Learning Materials: Task, ………………
17
Exercise or Communicative Activity.
Reflection
………………
20
Feedback
…………………………………………….
………………
21
Conclusion
…………………………………………….
………………
22
References
…………………………………………….
………………
23
2

3. INTRODUCTION
The following work will include my academic and professional background, three different tasks with specific
requirements where the first is related to Input processing theory and the activities will be focused on formmeaning connections; the second set of activities is related to reading and listening task, where its theoretical
content is focused on comprehension in an L2; the third task will be an output based-interactive task, where its
theoretical content has its basis in production in an L2. Each of these tasks constitute a summary of the
program studied during the Applied Linguistic course. Additionally, there will be the analysis of a set of
activities provided by the teacher that we must classify as language exercise, communicative activities or tasks
according to Ellis’ s definition (2003:16)
“A task is a workplan that requires learners to process language
pragmatically In order to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated
in terms of whether the correct or appropriate propositional content
has been conveyed. To this end, it requires them to give primary
attention to meaning and to make use of their own linguistic
resources….Like other language activities, a task can engage
productive or receptive, and oral or written skills and also various
cognitive processes”.
Each of the activities mentioned above will also include a short piece of theoretical background and a reflection
of the process itself, where in my case include the reason why I had to change the previous set of activities
which after the feedback received from my peers and my teacher Roberto Silva, I decided to start up all anew.
And this time I included the suggestions obtained by those who collaborated with me in this work.
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4. Academic and Professional Background
I am currently studying a Master in Linguistics mention “Teaching a Second Language”, Teacher of English
and owner of a Degree in Education graduated with maximun distinction; Bilingual Executive Secretary,
graduated with distinction. My academic training was acquired in prestigious Chilean Universities and
Professional Institute. I possess a valuable work experience in the educational field and administrative area.
Good interpersonal relationship management, proactive, disciplined, responsible and committed to Chilean
education.
WORK EXPERIENCE
2013
Teacher of English
INSEC, Viña del Mar.
Assistant Teacher of English Phonetics and
Phonology II in the English Pedagogy
Universidad de las Américas, Viña del Mar.
2013
Assistant Teacher of English Grammar III
In English Pedagogy
Universidad de las Américas, Viña del Mar.
2013
Assistant Teacher of English Grammar I
In English Pedagogy
Universidad de las Américas, Viña del Mar.
2013
Assistant Teacher of English Phonetics and
Phonology II in the English Pedagogy
Universidad de las Américas, Viña del Mar.
2012
Assistant Teacher of English Grammar III
In English Pedagogy
Universidad de las Américas, Viña del Mar.
2012 - 2012
Assistant Teacher of English Phonetics and
Phonology III in the English Pedagogy
Universidad de las Américas, Viña del Mar.
2012 - 2012
Translator in the Enterprise Idiomatic,
2012 up to now Competent Lta.
Translator in Consultora DTS Ltda,
2012 up to now
4

5. Teacher of English in the School.
Los Fundadores de Quilpué
2012
Teacher of English in the Institute.
John Kennedy de Viña del Mar
2008- 2010
Teacher of English in the School.
Barros Borgoño de Concón
2006 -2009
Teacher of English in the Institute.
American Language Institute
1990 – 2004
Bilingual Executive Secretary
Animalfeed S.A.
2000 – 2003
Sales Order Representative
In Herbalife Chile S.A.
1997 - 1998
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION (ACADEMIC)
Master in Linguistics
Mention in Teaching a Second Language
Universidad de Playa Ancha
2013
Teacher of English and Educational degree
Universidad de las Américas
2012
Bilingual Executive Secretariat
Instituto Profesional Manpower
1995
English Pedagogy – (up to the 3rd year of the career)
Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación
1989
High School
Liceo 105 de Puente Alto
1987
Primary School
Colegio Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes de Puente Alto
1982
5

6. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Input processing
Input processing is the term associated to the comprehensible information that a student receives when he or
she is acquiring a SL or learning a FL. According to Van Patten, input processing includes two main stages;
the first one corresponds to the process of making a connection for the first time between form and meaning,
i.e. the connection between content words or grammatical form with the mental representation that a learner
obtains from that process. The second stage is the parsing, which is related to the syntactic assignment that a
learner gives to all those words he learned and the mental representation he /she made. It has to do with the
mental syntactic projection and it works when a learner anticipates helped by the functional words he hears,
when he is trying to comprehend. Under Van Patten (1996, 2003) “a Spanish learner of English relies on a
first-noun strategy to process sentences”.
Comprehension in an L2
This skill is one of the Communicative Competences domains, which is related to the capacity to understand
either aural or visual comprehensible inputs. Comprehension is considered as a cognitive process of a higher
level in general terms, where many mental processes such as decode, infer, reflect, even the activation of
previous schemata or previous knowledge which are saved in the LTM or WM and that learner brings along. In
other words learner comprehend when he or she is able to interpret what he reads or listens. Comprehension
in a L2 involves the capacity of a learner to comprehend vocabulary, understand the main idea of messages or
texts that are, at first, shorter and easier ones which must become more complex as learner is widening his
vocabulary.
Production in an L2
The Output theory introduced for the first time by Swain as a response to Krashen’s input hypothesis. Where
she explained that not only comprehensible input were needed to develop a Second Language, it also required
to produce output. At first, that was the requirement, but afterwards, linguists agreed that this output should be
comprehensible as well, where the learner’s competences must be shown up. To produce comprehensible
output requires that learner activates many cognitive processes; it is also the starting point where learner faces
his weakness and strengths. On the other hand, output is a useful tool for teachers to correct mistakes and
eradicate errors and the most important characteristic of output is that this is the stage where learners can feel
proud of themselves as they can see the result of their learning.
Task definition
Task according to Nunan’s definition makes first of all a distinction between real world or target tasks and
pedagogical tasks, where the first distinction referes to language as a tool that will be used in a real world
activities, and the second one refers to those activities which are adapted to be used inside a classroom. An
especific definition is not given, instead differents views are shown in his book, however the one that was used
in the analysis of the activities was the one provided by Ellis who considers a task as long as it contains the
following elements: a workplan, an outcome , it must pay attention to meaning upon form, it has to develop
communicative skills, and it must involve cognitive processes”. Ellis (2003: 16).
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7. TASKS
INPUT BASED COMMUNICATIVE TASK
Theoretical Content
INPUT PROCESSING/ Form-meaning connection
Task component
Content
Use of present continuous.
Material
Visual input, aural input.
Activities
Students
1.- Previous knowledge activation verbs they know
2.- put the verb into progressive form
3.- by an aural input students will identify what people are
doing now
4.- Associate object with specific verbs
1.- Student will learn how to express action in progress
2.- Through pictures student will be able to use –ing form
3.- Student will be able to use 3rd person in present
continuous
A1 level (under MCRE)
Social Community
Very cohesive group
Goals
Previous knowledge.
Teacher comes into the classroom eating an apple, and she says I’m eating an apple now, and I’m
leaving the apple on the table now, now I’m talking to you. Teacher will show different flashcards with
different actions and will ask what people are doing. Therefore students will have to transform the
action into its progressive form, for example: Valentina is eating ice-cream
The objective of this activity is to learn the use of 3rd person in Present continuous ……
What is Valentina doing now? – She is
……eating ice-cream
…….smiling to his father
What is Bob doing now? – He is
…reading a book
…studying for his exam
What are these people doing, now? – He /She is……..
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8. A. Look at the pictures and say what people is doing
A
B
Now, children are ……….. with a ball
Now, the dog is ………behind the ball
C
D
Now, the father is ……with his daughter in the
Now, the little girl is ……… for her ball
park
B. Listen to the audio and then choose the right picture
Aural input
Picture A
Picture B
At this moment, students are playing
in the classroom
Now, Tom and Mary are watching TV
Ronald is building his house, now
Now, Mario is driving is car
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9. c.
Work with a partner only student A will see the picture that the teacher will provide. Student B will guess what
Pete is doing. (Pictures contains objects)
Vocabulary: boiler - Stove /stouv/ - paintbrush /peintbrash/ - camera /keamra/
Student A looks at the pictures and describe the object
Student B pays attention to the description and relates the object with what Pete is
doing at the moment.
Ex. 1: St. A: there is a boiler
: What is Pete doing?
St. B: Pete is boinling water
Ex. 2:
St. A: It is an apple
: What is Pete doing?
St. B: Pete is eating an apple
D. Now work with your partner and choose some of the pictures, then relate them with the verbs provided by the
teacher, remember to take turns and make complete sentences as in section C, Say what Peter is doing with that object
now, some of them can be used more than once
Give
Paint
read
Drive
Draw
Bake
Peel
Buy
fix
Write
Sell
Use
Example: What is Peter doing with the apple?
Peter is peeling his apple
Peter is washing his apple
E. Work with a partner and discuss according to the pictures from section C what Peter likes doing or he does not like
doing during weekends, fill the chart below with Peter’s likes and dislikes. Follow the example
Peter’s activities
Peter likes
doing the laundry
1.
2.
Peter does not Like
Drinking coffee
3.
4.
9

10. FIRST TASK: INPUT-BASED COMMUNICATIVE TASK
REFLECTION
This first task is based on input processing theory. It consists of 6 different activities, including the previous
knowledge activation; the idea in this set of activities was to teach the present continuous tense. I incorporated many
visual inputs for students could relate them with their meaning and also they could associate objects with different verbs,
in this way they could form short chunks that they will be able to use afterwards. I provided as well a lot of practice so they
could internalize the structure by exercising as many time as they can. From this point of you, and after your comments I
changed the previous activities as I felt that weather topic limited the number of activities I wanted to include. The
activities move from language exercise and communicative activities. Language exercises, as most of them focus on
lexicon and grammatical aspects of language, applying the first stage of input processing, the connection between form
and meaning. In activities C and D, I incorporated communicative exercises, as they have to interact in order to get the
activity outcome. The goal of these six lessons was to teach the third person in singular, present continuous tense and
lexicon. Although Student will have to interact in order to relate pictures with different activities, they will have make
decisions in order to reproduce specific structure that they were given.
It has a work plan; the cognitive processes involved in this activity are observation, memorizing and selection. It involves
form-meaning connections. It does not involve real world language use, as language is used to learn language in here,
but not as a tool. The skills developed during the activities are listening, writing and in lesser degree speaking. The
outcome is practicing by repeating a set of structures given by the teacher and makes the relation between object and the
different action associated with those objects. However in the final activity, I included an activity where learners must
interact, associate pictures with likes and dislikes, choose, decide and reflect according their own likes and dislikes.
In relation to the process while I prepared the activities, the first attempt to meet your request, I did not considered the key
word Form-meaning connection, I just relate visual input with vocabulary, I have to recognize that it is a kind of difficult for
me to move from prescriptive activities to communicative ones, although I apply them during my own classes, they are not
as planned as they must be in this task and I have noticed that I work without an specific approach I normally mix them
according to my own experience and in the way that I learn the language. That is way and after your feedback I decided to
change the activity as I could not relate weather to any other activity different from the ones I presented. Therefore the
feedbacks that my peers provided me were in relation to those activities and not to the final one. Although some of their
suggestions were included while I prepared the second set of activities.
In the second attempt, and applying your comments, I decided to use present continuous tense and add some adverbs of
time in order give students a clue they could follow, where visual input was the essence of the activity and aural input in a
lesser degree. The idea was to make student to relate the input to different activities and the possibility they link objects to
different actions as well.
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11. SECOND TASK: READING OR LISTENING TASK
Theoretical Content
Comprehension in L2
Content
TASK COMPONENT
Literature
Literary Genre: Tales
Material
Oscar Wild’s Tales
Activities
1.- Previous knowledge activation
2.- Talk about tales students have read
3.- Presentation of some Wild’s well known tales
4.- Reading Comprehension
Goals
1.- Student will be able to develop reading strategies
2.- Student will be able to infer meanings
3.- Student will be able to answer according to the text
4.- Student will be able to answer according to
implicit information
Students
A2 level (under MCRE)
Social Community
Very cohesive group
A. - Previous Knowledge activation. Tales
A tale is a fictitious or true narrative or story, especially one that is imaginatively recounted.
What tales do you know? What was it about?, did you like it? Did you learn something from them?
Little Red Riding Hood
The Happy Prince
Little Peter and the Wolf
The nightingale and the rose
B. Reading comprehension strategies
1.- Read the first page,
a.- Number all paragraphs of the story
b.- Read fast in order to get the whole idea of the sentences and not the meaning of word by word
c.- If there were any word you do not know, try to find out its meaning by the context. if you cannot look for its
meaning. Use a dictionary or wordreference.com
d.- Write them down
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12. c. Read the “The Happy Prince”
2.- Work in pairs and discuss the following
a. How many words did you have to look for their meanings? and
b. How many words did you understand their meaning by context?
c.
Which are they?
d. Choose 5 of those words and then make sentences with them. Share your results with a partner
3.- REMEMBER!
-
Keep in mind the topic. (What the tale is about)
-
A topic is a concept. (no more than 2 or 3 words)
-
It is in the first paragraph
-
Examples: love, hate, happiness, sadness, etc.
a. Read the first page and find out what the story is about
b. How did you know?
c.
Work with a partner and discuss if he or she thinks the same
4- Reading comprehension activity
a. Number the sentences chronologically according to the story.
1.-_____ The Happy Prince asks the swallow to take the ruby, sapphires and golden leaves from his body to
poor people.
2.-_____ The statue is torn down and melted
3.- ____ The swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt, meets the statue of the “Happy
Prince”
4.- ____ An angel took the Prince’s broken heart and the dead swallow up to heaven
b. Read the statements and check if they are true or false
_____ The happy prince is a statue made of cooper and pearls
_____ The statue of the prince was worried about people in town
_____ The swallow could not help the prince because it had no time
_____ The swallow stayed with the prince and did what the prince asked him to do
_____ the prince was very selfish
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13. c. Answer the following questions according to the happy prince tale
1.- What was the statue of the happy prince made of?
2.- Why do the statue’s name is the happy prince?
3.-Was the statue of the happy prince happy indeed? Why?
4.- Who helped the prince?
5.- How did the statue and the swallow meet each other?
6- How did the swallow help the prince?
7.- How did the Statue show his compassion?
8.- What is the lesson that the story taught you?
d. Discuss about selfless deeds
1.- Work in group. And explain what selfless deed means
2.- Write down situations from the tale in which you consider there was selfless deed. Discuss with your group
if they agree with you or not.
3.- Find out if some of you has ever experienced or seen a selfless deed. Tell what happened.
4.- Discuss about it, do you think that this is a common behavior? Why? Why not? Support your answer.
5.- What do you do for helping people? Create a poster that shows different situation where people act
disinterestedly. Share your poster and put it in the notice board of your school.
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14. SECOND TASK: READING OR LISTENING TASK
REFLECTION
In this activity, I introduced the activities by presenting the literary genre “Tale”. Then I focused on Oscar Wild’s tale
‘The Happy Prince’. First I showed some basic strategies to help them work with the reading. With this first activity
they will have to learn how to handle the text, therefore, they will use English as a tool in order to perform a specific
activity and learn a literary genre. In this way they need to comprehend the instructions and comprehend the text itself
to answer the questions. Then in the discussion section, students will have to interact with their group, and talk about
experiences they have had in relation to the word ‘Selfless Deed’; here they will explain what they understand by this
concept, and probably they will compare experiences they have had in their lives, with this activity I include a cross
curricula item where the final outcome will be to make a poster to paste it in the notice board of the school.
It has a workplan, as instructions are given at the beginning, this involves primary that students focus on meaning as
they will have to learn and apply some reading strategies, so this is a communicative exercises as they will learn
strategies to handle texts, and finally I introduced a Pedagogical Task as they will have to discuss about an specific
term, share their experiences, identify different situations of their daily lives where they have applied, felt or seen this
sentiment, that is to say, they will have to internalize some reading strategies, get use to the genre tale and learn
some lofty sentiments, that they will probably apply in their daily lives and create a poster. Skills that students will
have to use to perform the activities are reading, speaking, writing and listening. In relation to the cognitive processes
involved in these activities, they are analysis, remembering, inferring, exemplifying and creating. Finally the
communicative outcome will be the creation of a poster to show different situations where the lofty sentiment ‘Selfless
deed’ is expressed.
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15. Third Task: OUTPUT BASED-INTERACTIVE TASK
Theoretical Content
Production in an L2
TASK COMPONENT
Content
Literature
Literary Genre: Tales
Material
Oscar Wild’s Tales
Activities
1.- Previous knowledge activation
2.- jigsaw activity (Oscar Wild’s life)
3.- Confirmation of data
4.- Presentation of the segment
5.- Quiz
Goals
1.- Student will be able to work collaboratively
2.- Student will be able to get information and transmit it
3.- Student will be able to paraphrase information
Students
B1 level (under MCRE)
Social Community
Very cohesive group
Tales
Previous knowledge activation.
1. We have already read the Happy Prince and the Nightingale and the Rose both written by Oscar Wild.
Could you tell what they are about? Let’s start with the Happy prince. Now Let’s continue with the
Nightingale and The Rose. Who wrote these tales? What do you know about him?
2. Now you are going to read about Oscar Wild’s life. You are going to work in group of 5 people and each
of you is going to work in one aspect of Wild’s life, which will be provided by the teacher. But none of you
will learn anything about your partner segment, those segments are:
1. His childhood
2. His family
3. His work
4. His family life after 1895
5. His work after 1895
3. Choose a leader for your group. He or she will be in charge of giving to each member his / her turn
4. You will have time to read the text at least twice in order to become familiar with it.
15

16. 5. Once you finish, a group of experts, formed by those who had the same segment that you have, will meet
in order to share information about the assignment you had to work with.
1. Explain what is the segment about
2. The rest of the expert group will check if the rehearsal is the appropriate one and if it cover all the
main points
6. Everyone goes back to his/her original jigsaw group
7. Once you are in the original group, you are going to present the segment to the rest of the group in order
to get the whole information about Oscar Wild’s life. Listeners will be allowed to make questions for
clarifications
8. Finally when all members of the group are aware of Oscar Wild’s life you are ready to take a quiz.
THIRD TASK: OUTPUT-BASED INTERACTIVE TASK
REFLECTION
The activity introduced here was a jigsaw, the idea was to continue using Wild’s tale as previous knowledge. It has a
workplan clearly explained by means of instructions students will have to follow in order to complete the task.
According to its focus it was oriented to meaning, for this activity nature, the collaborative process that emerge during
the activity is essential for students who must interact among them, by corroborating, correcting, explaining,
exemplifying to mention some of the abilities they will have to make use during the activity performance to finally
provide the correct information to the rest of students which will be used as part of an evaluation. Language used is
the real world one where the four skills are used reading as they will receive a written text that they must read,
speaking as they will provide information orally, and they also are allowed to ask for clarifications, and for correct
information, listening as they must pay attention to the information given by the partner and use it later on and in
lesser degree writing, just if they feel more self-confident by doing it. In relation to the cognitive processes involved in
this activity, we can see, remembering, as they have to recall facts of Wild’s life, understanding, as they must read
and process the information, analyses and explain it, and the most important one that represent the outcome of the
activity is that they must transmit an accurate information necessary for the final quiz they will have to take.
This activity includes all the necessary elements required to learn a second linguistic system, such as comprehension,
speech production, learning and social interaction.
16

17. Fourth task:
ANALYSIS OF LEARNING MATERIALS: TASK, LANGUAGE EXERCISE, or COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITY
THEORETICAL CONTENT: Focus on the concept of task
GOAL: Analyze learning materials to determine if they can be characterized as tasks or not.
Criteria to consider for considering a task as such: Workplan, focus on meaning, use of real world language,
development of language skills, cognitive process involved in the activity, the existence of a defined
communicative outcome.
In this section will be analyzed 6 tasks:
1.
1
Classification: This is a Language exercise, Lexical focus, and the
second part of the activity is a communicative exercise, as students
must provide a comprehensible output related to lexical that they
have chosen.
There is a workplan; it engages cognitive processes such as make
differences between helpful and non-helpful inventions, make
decisions. The activity requires an outcome, first make a list, and
then give opinion.
2
1.
(Nunan 2003: 65 and 96)
Classification: I consider that this activity is Communicative
exercise; it is focus on meaning, Student will have to interact to
discover the differences between the pictures each one has,
although, they will have to reproduce specific structure that they
were given, they will have to interact between them to find the
differences that the pictures have. It could become task if they
were allowed to create their own question to get the differences.
It has a work plan; the cognitive processes involved in this activity
are observation, memorizing and selection. The outcome is
practicing by repeating a set of structures given by the teacher.
The excuse in here is to find the differences in the pictures.
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18. 3
1. Classification: It is a role play activity that must be considered a
pedagogical task for different reasons. First of all it has a
workplan whose focus is on meaning as it is not paying attention
on grammar; neither lexical nor phonological aspect of language,
but on describing a real situation lived by student A who has to
narrate to Student B a dangerous situation he experienced. The
activity does not limit student A with a given structure to follow, so
he/she is free to use language to communicate the sad
experience. On the other hand Student B must pay attention to
Student A´s story in order to make a drawing that represents that
event.
Therefore it is a task activity, which has a work plan as both
students are given short but clear instructions which they must
follow in order to get their respective outcomes, as Student A as
Student B. The whole activity focuses on meaning and uses real
world processes of language use. The skills developed in this
activity are speaking and listening, where the cognitive processes
involved here are recall past events, research for L2 words and
the use of metacognitive monitoring and Student B, must pay
attention, remember the key elements of the story and identify
relevant from irrelevant events, among others. According to the
outcomes for both students are very clear, for student A, has to
narrate a dangerous situation, and Student B must decode that
information and represent it through a drawing. Finally, I consider
that the form in focus to this activity is Natural.
2. Theoretical Concept: Production in L2
4
1. Classification: This is a communicative exercise that has a
specific work plan. This exercise is focused on meaning where the
language to be used is not restricted but it looks for developing a
communicative exercise where students have to express as much
differences or similarities as they can observe.
In relation to the skills which are intended to be developed in the
exercise, they are listening and speaking, while the cognitive
processes applied here are comparison, comprehension and
evaluation. The outcome is to communicate in order to find out
differences and similarities among the pictures.
2. Theoretical Concept: Production in L2
18

19. 5
1. Classification: Student A: In these 3 lesson the two
firsts are language exercises as both of them are
focus on lexical aspect of language. Regarding to
the third activity is a mixture of Language exercise
and communicative activity.
Activity one: Focus: Form – lexical
Activity two: Focus: Form – students are asked to recall
language by filling the blanks.
Activity Three: Focus: Meaning – Request and provide
personal information
The skills worked here were listening and writing while the
cognitive processes are, memorizing, comprehension, and
pay attention among others.
2. Theoretical Concept: Input processing and the third one
is an output production
1. Classification: This is a task which is focused on
meaning. Although students are given the theme or
the orientation of what they have to say, they do
not have to use any specific structure as long as it
reflects the instructions. The outcome is to be able
to request and/or reject requirements and by given
reasons for that rejection. The skills worked here
are listening and speaking and probably writing as
well. This activity is instructional and the cognitive
processes are comprehension, production and to
follow instructions.
2. Theoretical Concept: Production in L2
19

20. 6
1. Classification: This is a task where the focus is on
meaning and language is used as a tool of
interaction. As it is a situation of real life ‘At the
restaurant’, language used here is real world
language, it involves different cognitive processes,
such as reading, comprehend, choose, change his
mind, and explain among others. In relation to the
skill developed here, four of them are used,
reading, listening, writing and mainly speaking.
And the outcomes are:
2. Ask for food
3. Bring the right food
4. Collect the bill
5. Pay the bill
2. Theoretical Concept: Production in L2
According to the concept of task learnt during the course, few are the activities focused only on form. I read the first
analysis that I had made to these activities, and I had to reconsider it. It was much easier to identify them after your
comments upon the activities I sent. Nevertheless, I think that I require analyzing more activities to feel sure that I
already internalized the concepts. During the process I noticed that when I checked any activity or unit that I have to
teach to the INSEC students, the first thing that I pay attention to is the structure that they must learn, instead of the
type of activities that the book shows. After I got aware of this, I decided to change my methodology and I decided to
include readings (Oscar Wild’s tales) and a lot of pair works using communicative exercises and tasks as well, for
example as they will become secretaries, I decided to create an office environment in the classroom where one of them
was going to be the secretary and the other one was the customer, who wanted to talk with somebody, the person of
course was not there so she had to leave the message. And the one who played as secretary had to take the message,
request for clarification, take notes, etc.
In this institute, we use Interchange 1, 3rd edition and the sixth activity that I analyzed ‘Are you ready to order’ was the
same that I worked with the class, in here I asked them to work in groups of 5 people, they had to prepare a role play
simulating a situation in a restaurant, some of them were the waitresses, other the host, other was the chef and the
other was the cashier. They had to prepare a paper were they have to include step by step what was going to happen
during the presentation, the recipes, choose what food to prepare, learn the vocabulary for the recipes, the costumes
and props. Here I did not pay attention in their accuracy, but in the interaction they had among them and the one they
had with us. The principal asked them to explain the preparation of the dishes they gave us, students did not expected
that the Principal would ask them anything, but they did it well. Once they finished the presentation, they were so
happy; they said that they really enjoyed the activity, that they learnt a lot of vocabulary. They were able to move from
one tense to another fairly well, they corrected themselves, and it was really a good experience.
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21. Feedbacks provided by peers and the magister teacher
First of all, I would like to thank to those who gave me part of their precious time, above all during this period, end of
the year and we all as teachers know what that means, time is never enough in these days and it is for this reason that I
am very pleased to count on those that will be mentioned in this paper. Nevertheless their feedbacks do not correspond
to the activities presented in this paper, but they correspond to the previous activities prepared by me, however, their
suggestions were all used in the process of the second attempt.
The first two teachers Mrs. Carla Chavez and Mrs. Veronica Skewes were quite benevolent with my activities mainly
because, I am their product or their extension, as they both were my teachers for a long time and in different subjects.
On the other hand, I also received Mr. Silva feedback and I did not seen him but I could imagine the way he felt when he
noticed that I did not consider none of his instructions to prepare the tasks and in an effort to improve those activities
by mending, adding, deleting, reorganizing to mentions some, he tried to take me to the right track again. It is for this
reason that I would like to take this opportunity to thank his effort in helping me to internalize these methodologies that
I used them during my classes but it was a kind of difficult to connect them with the specific activities, or follow a
specific pattern. At this point, I do not know if I could get the whole objective of the course applied linguistics 2013, but I
do know that I moved more than one step ahead in planning my activities.
In relation to Mrs. Chavez feedback, she emphasized the scaffolding for students could complete the tasks, how the
students would provide themselves feedback to each other, she suggested a kind of rubric that students could use in
these activities.
Mrs. Skewes, suggested the idea to make collective practice and a group practice, she mention the possibility to mix
more advanced with weaker students, what would give me a good chance for strengthening bonds and make a sort of
collaborative work and scaffolding. She also mentioned the lack of previous knowledge activation and she suggested a
song a poem a brainstorming among others.
Regarding to the reading activities both of them agreed in that this was a good technique in teaching a second language,
as long as I pay attention in the scaffolding or the corresponding guidelines for students can follow.
Mr. Roberto Silva, basically realized that the activities presented at that time were not related what I was asked to do,
however he tried to improve them, therefore this was my second starting point where I decided to start all again, but
this time I included all the corresponding suggestions he and the other teachers gave me.
My conclusion is that students need more scaffolding than the one I thought, also they need to practice many times the
same activities but presented in different ways, and in only this way they could internalize the subject matter properly. I
am positive that there are many things that I need to polish, change, include and some of them are that I should make
them practice a bit more with guided structures or chunks to make them improve their rehearsal before making them to
continue with more complex stages. I should also pay attention in the length of instructions, they were too long, and it
will be probably hard for students to follow and finally, I think that it would be a good exercise to ask for feedback to
peers that one trusts on, in order to improve one’s teaching practices. This final reflection corresponds to my own
process, for instances, I thought that the first activities were fairly good, however they were not, and as a way of life my
policy is that everything is perfectible above all if in one’s hand is the learning of many other people who trust on you as
their leader.
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22. Conclusion
The work presented above, shows an emphasis in a communicative approach where learners must pay attention to
meaning rather than form or grammatical structures. However it also shows the importance that the interrelation
between form and meaning has, as Nunan claims “Grammar exists to enable the language user to express different
communicative meanings”. Nunan, David (2004: 4).
From my point of view, the specific tasks performed in this work, constitute an ideal class planning or the process that a
whole unit should have as they involve the main aspects that we as teachers must take into consideration when we are
planning our lessons. For instance we started with an input processing task where learners are introduced, for the first
time, to the form and its meaning, from my perspective it is esencial, just like human first impression, that is way
teacher should make an effort and provide as many inputs as learner can see or hear in this first stage of the learning
process; the second activity of reading task where the outcome required here was the comprehension in an L2, this
activity appeals to the cognitive process used by learners, first with the bottom up process for then to continue with the
top-down process and the activation of their schemata, for as long as they use language as a tool but not as object of
study their progress will be faster, personally I used reading activities with my students in INSEC, in a period of 3 months
and a half they were ready to read short but deep tales, at first I worked with them and made them to manipulate the
text and then they continued alone, when I gave the written test of the tale I could notice that they moved from words
or chunks to complete sentences, as the evaluation was not an specific tense but the comprehension, they really
enjoyed the reading and we also had the opportunity to discuss about it, they had a lot to say, as the end of the tale was
not the one they expected, obviously I had to turn blind eyes to the accuracy, but as my objective here was to decrease
their anxiety toward English language, and improve their self-confidence, accuracy was not a requisite in this stage.
The third activity developed in this work was an output based-interactive task, which constitutes the stage in which we
can evaluate if learner through a correct form-meaning connection is able to comprehend a more complex task and if he
or she will be able to produce in the L2. Therefore this third and final task that I had to create, involves the production in
an L2, that in this case was a jigsaw activity, very useful and funny which sums up the whole process, appeals to the
collaborative work, requires comprehension and the obligation of doing it well as they are a key member that have to
convey the information to the rest of the students in order to see the whole picture of the information.
In relation to the fourth exercise, the analysis of different activities that we had to classify as task or not, was very useful
for me as I had to make an effort and see beyond structures, it was a long personal process considering the first time I
had to analyze the activities during the course, probably I need to continuing practicing this type of analysis in order to
identify easily all the elements that constitute an activity and get used to it. As my final aim is to improve my own
performance in the classroom what eventually will be a benefit for all those students I will work with throughout my
professional life.
In relation to the feedbacks provided by my peers to the first set of activities most of them were related to the
scaffolding that I had to include in the activities. However, those activities did not consider the specification required for
these tasks as Mr. Roberto told me that is why I decided to start all over again considering all the suggestions provided
for all of them.
Finally, my conclusion is that there is not only “the theory” to teach a SL, but we have many of them that we can make
use of in order to get an effective class, where the focus is on preparing students to communicate, considering that
there are different aspects of SLA that we as teacher should cover during our carrier. We also must take into
consideration the discourse community we are preparing, as well, as some of them are not interesting in producing in an
L2, but just to comprehend it as part of their job, for instance how a backhoe works.
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23. REFERENCES
Nunan, David 2004. Task- based Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
VanPatten, B. et. al. 2004. Form-Meaning Connections in Second Language Acquisition. New Jersey: Lawrence Eribaum
Associates, Inc.
VanPatten, B. 2002. From Input to Output: A teacher’s guide to Second Language Acquisition.
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