TEACHING LANGUAGE THROUGH

TASK and ACTIVITY

By:

Eka Hardiyanti Bugis (NIM: TAR 136002)

Department: Tarbiyah

Study Program: English Education

Semester: IV

Lecturer:

Suharmoko ,S.Pd., M.Pd.

STATE COLLEGE OF ISLAMIC STUDIES

SORONG – WEST PAPUA

PREFACE

All praise and thanks be to Allah may we all always in His protection. Overwhelming peace and blessings may effused to the Prophet Muhammad and his entire family, friends, and all his people until the end of time.

Thank God for the blessings of His grace and guidance, we can finally complete the preparation of a paper with the title "Teaching Language Through Task and Activity". Writing this paper is one of the tasks subjects given in English for Young Learner at the State Islamic Institute of Sorong.

In this occasion we would like to thank profusely to all those who have helped in the preparation of this paper and to colleagues who have provided the motivation, both morally and materially.

Finally we realized that in the preparation of this paper is far from perfect. Therefore we apologize profusely to all parties if the paper is not as expected. Criticisms and suggestions that are built so we expect the sake toward better in the writing of this paper.

Hopefully, this paper gets the blessing of God and beneficial for us all. Amen.

Sorong, March 20, 2015

                                                                                                                                  Writer

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE.................................................................................................................i

TABLE OF CONTENTS.........................................................................................ii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION..............................................................................1

A. Background...................................................................................................1

B. Formulation Of The Problem........................................................................1

CHAPTER II DISCUSSION...................................................................................2

A. Young Learner..............................................................................................2

a) Young learner definition...........................................................................2

b) The role young learner’s teacher...............................................................2

c) What do children like and unlike?.............................................................3

B. Introducing to Teaching Language Through Task and Activity...................3

a) Task definition...........................................................................................3

b) Task characteristics...................................................................................5

c) Types of task.............................................................................................5

d) Difficulties in using tasks..........................................................................7

C. The Example of Teaching Language Through Task and Activity................7

a) Good advice...............................................................................................7

b) Task: Getting to know your resources.......................................................8

c) Adverb Action...........................................................................................9

d) Art Gallery.................................................................................................9

CHAPER III CONCLUSION................................................................................10

REFERENCES.......................................................................................................11

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. BackgroundOn entry to pre-school or the early years of primary education, children

whose mother tongue is not English do not differ greatly from their English-speaking peers. They may suffer from shyness and some fear at being removed from the safety of the home environment. Like other small children experiencing these feelings, they will require plenty of support. Most language learning at this stage will take place through play and interaction with peers and teacher. Their formal language learning needs will not differ greatly from those of English-speaking peers. At this stage they must develop the repertoire of language required for socialisation and engagement with classroom learning and activities.

Teaching young learners can be a fascinating job because generally children are very enthusiastic and willing to learn. They are warm, spontaneous and have great admiration for their teacher. Every day is like a new experience. When planning a class for Young Learners the teacher has to take into account many different factors such as age and ability. In this paper we will give an explain how you can best plan a class for your Young Learners through task and activity.

B. Formulation Of The Problem1) Who is young learner?2) Introducing to teaching language through task and activity?3) What is the example of teaching language through task and activity?

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CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

A. Young Learner

a) Young learner definitionBefore we begin, let’s define what we mean by a young learner. In the

EFL (English as a Foreign Language) world, young learners are children between the ages of 3 and 18 years old who are learning English. They can be broken into two groups.

Very young learners are generally considered to be children aged between 3 and 5 years old. They study at a preschool or kindergarten. Perhaps they have 1 hour of English a week. Perhaps there is an English assistant helping the teacher in the class. They are introduced to English through games and songs and rhymes.

Young learners are generally considered to be children who are between 6 and 13 years old. In some countries, Young Learners may go up to 16 or even 18 years old. They generally study English for 4-5 hours per week. They generally follow a course book and they are assessed on their ability. This group has the biggest difference in age and ability.

There are many differences between very young learner and young learner. You will have to be very careful when you plan your lessons for each group. Think about what children in each age group are interested in and what can they do. For example, very young Learners probably can’t write or even hold a pencil.

b) The role young learner’s teacherAs a young learner teacher, you have a very important role. You are

responsible for activating learning. Children will learn if they understand what they are doing. They must understand the message in order to develop a new language. Consequently, when you are planning your classes, you must use materials that are appropriate for the children’s age and reality. Experience is very important. For example, if you try to teach 6 year olds language for ordering food in a restaurant they will have trouble. This is because the language is not related to their lives. The best example would be games. It is essential that you include games and fun in the classroom to help young learners learn in an environment appropriate for their age.

Also, we must remember that learning is cyclical. What children know today, they may forget tomorrow, and then remember again next week. As the

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teacher are in charge of recycling the content of each class. Don’t think that because you taught some words today your young learners will remember them easily.

You are fundamental in the child’s development. You will help and guide the child in every class. You will ask them to talk to their partners, to work in groups, to speak to other teachers. This is the social function of language, since language is for communication.

c) What do children like and unlike?Many children like to make a noise and move around. Don’t worry, simply

do activities where you can utilize this noise and movement. Children like learning ‘by doing’ or learning through experience. Many children love listening to stories and songs. They are very good at imitating sounds. Give them lots of songs, rhymes and poems. Sing to them, tell them stories! They will soon join in and sing with you. Children are very spontaneous. They like to use their imaginations. Children are very competitive. Make sure you give them lots of games. Divide them into groups. Make sure they know who the winner was.

Of course it is also important to think about what many children don’t really like. Children don’t like structured classes. Repetition of the same concept over and over again may lead to bored students. If students are not paying attention, they can’t learn. Children don’t like boring classes. Make sure you give them a variety of activities. Change the order of activities as much as you can to ensure that they don’t begin to feel bored. Children don’t like to listen to the teacher all the time. Let them participate and get involved. Children’s attention span is relatively short and varies according to age. Generally, the younger child the short their concentration. If you are working with 6-7 year olds for example try to change activities after 5-10 minutes. This doesn’t mean change the language focus. You can still practice the same language but use a different activity or game to do it.

B. Introducing to Teaching Language Through Task and ActivityIn foreign language teaching, there is an onus on the teacher to provide

exposure to the language and to provide opportunities for learning through classroom tasks and activities.

a) Task definitionTasks are important in language learning because they create a meaningful

context for language use. They require students to work with language input, to

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process the meaning of some language in some way, and to produce an outcome. Task learning offers the student an opportunity to do exactly this. The primary focus of classroom activity is the task and language is the instrument which the students use to complete it. The task is an activity in which students use language to achieve a specific outcome. The activity reflects real life and learners focus on meaning, they are free to use any language they want. How children learn?

Children are active learners and thinkers.

Children construct knowledge from actively interacting with the physical environment in developmental stages. They learn through their own individual actions and exploration.

Children learn through social interaction.

Children construct knowledge through other people, through interaction with adults. Adults/teachers work actively with children in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) =

difference between the child's capacity to solve problems on his own and his capacity to solve them with assistance

Children learn effectively through scaffolding by adults.

The adult’s role is very important in a child’s learning process. Like Vygotsky, Bruner focused on the importance of language in a child’s cognitive development. He shows how the adult uses “scaffolding” to guide a child’s language learning through finely-tuned talk.

Effective Scaffolding.Parents who scaffolded effectively: created interest in the task; broke the task down into smaller steps; kept child “on task” by reminding him of the purpose or goal; pointed out the important parts of the task; controlled the child’s frustration during the task; modeled the task, including different ways to do the task.

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b) Task characteristicsAccording to Rod Ellis, a task has four main characteristics:

A task involves a primary focus on (pragmatic) meaning. A task has some kind of ‘gap’ (Prabhu identified the three main types as

information gap, reasoning gap, and opinion gap). The participants choose the linguistic resources needed to complete the task. A task has a clearly defined, non-linguistic outcome.

Other characteristics of task are: Students are encouraged to use language creatively and spontaneously through

tasks and problem solving. Students focus on a relationship that is comparable to real world activities. The conveyance of some sort of meaning is central to this method. Assessment is primarily based on task outcome Task is student-centered

Tasks might be described as purposeful and contextualised instances of language use. They include: a purpose: an underlying reason for undertaking the task (beyond the mere

display of subject knowledge) a context: the thematic, situational, and interactive circumstances in which the

task is undertaken. The context may be real, simulated or imaginary. Considering context includes knowing where the task is taking place, when, who are involved, what previous experiences they share and what relationships they have.

a process: a mode or process of inquiry, thinking, problem-solving, performing, creating

a product: the result of completing a task

c) Types of taskAccording to N. S. Prabhu, there are three main categories of task;

information-gap, reasoning-gap, and opinion-gap. Information-gap activity, which involves a transfer of given information from

one person to another – or from one form to another, or from one place to another – generally calling for the decoding or encoding of information from or into language. One example is pair work in which each member of the pair has a part of the total information (for example an incomplete picture) and attempts to convey it verbally to the other. Another example is completing a tabular representation with information available in a given piece of text. The activity

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often involves selection of relevant information as well, and learners may have to meet criteria of completeness and correctness in making the transfer.

Reasoning gap Reasoning-gap activity, which involves deriving some new information from given information through processes of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception of relationships or patterns. One example is working out a teacher’s timetable on the basis of given class timetables. Another is deciding what course of action is best (for example cheapest or quickest) for a given purpose and within given constraints. The activity necessarily involves comprehending and conveying information, as in information-gap activity, but the information to be conveyed is not identical with that initially comprehended. There is a piece of reasoning which connects the two.

Opinion gap Opinion-gap activity, which involves identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling, or attitude in response to a given situation. One example is story completion; another is taking part in the discussion of a social issue. The activity may involve using factual information and formulating arguments to justify one’s opinion, but there is no objective procedure for demonstrating outcomes as right or wrong, and no reason to expect the same outcome from different individuals or on different occasions.

The value of tasks resides in the fact that they represent a worthwhile, integrative, purposeful, contextualised piece of work. Building on this value, tasks may be grouped in different ways to ensure a comprehensive range and variety of experiences for learners. These groupings are called task-types. The most frequently used way of categorising tasks is according to the four macro-skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Another way was developed in the six activity-types of the Australian Language Levels Guidelines. These include: interacting and discussion interacting and deciding/transacting obtaining information and using it giving information personal response personal expression.

Another system of task-types focuses on higher order thinking skills: enquiring, interpreting presenting problem-solving performing creating, designing, composing judging, evaluating, responding

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The task-type categories provide a means for ensuring that students engage with a range of learning experiences, participate in a range of language use in different contexts and through this, learn increasingly to manage the variability of context.

d) Difficulties in using tasksTasks can be seen as a ‘one-off’ experience. There is a danger, then, that

the task, no matter how engaging, becomes an end in itself, rather than a meaningful experience that leads to further learning in a conceptually, well-sequenced program. From an assessment point of view, teachers may be tempted to ‘teach to the task’, which again is not necessarily conducive to developing language learning over time. Another difficulty is sequencing. While principles can be offered to provide a basis for sequencing tasks (eg extendedness, complexity, application) the way in which these are used is not obvious.

C. The Example of Teaching Language Through Task and ActivityThere is some examples of teaching language through tasks and activities

below:

a) Good advice Use the foreign language as much as possible. Use only mother tongue when necessary for explanation of exercises. The pre-task is meant to help create a good atmosphere for learning without

anxiety. Give words and supporting sentences for students to use. The pre-task must supply words, phrases, ideas to support the individual

student in the main task. Remember that a pre-task can be anything from for example:

o audio text

o a video clip

o a brainstorm activity

o a small exercise ( cloze, cross word etc. )

o photos (what do you see?)

o webpage ( what do you see?)

Anything that will promote the foreign language and set the minds of the students into a certain context and atmosphere.

The main task must facilitate a process where each student can activate and use his/her own strategies.

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Teacher role in the main task: monitoring the processes of the students working with the main task.

Remember the importance of the last step, the consciousness raising activities:

o Students repeat their process and their work with the main task –

must be performed in class – the process will make students realize that language is diverse and that many different structures and words give meaning and can be used for communication.

o The teacher must pick up and draw attention to relevant grammatical

and semantic points in this last phase of the Task based learning-cycle.

b) Task: Getting to know your resourceso Level: Pre-intermediate and above.

It is assumed in this lesson that your school has the following student resources; books (graded readers), video, magazines and Internet. Don’t worry if it doesn’t, the lesson can be adjusted accordingly.

o Pre-task preparation: One of the tasks is a video exercise which

involves viewing a movie clip with the sound turned off. This can be any movie depending on availability, but the clip has to involve a conversation between two people.

o Pre-task activity: In pairs students discuss the following questions:

Do you use English outside the classroom? How? What ways can you practise English outside the classroom?

o Stage one - Running dictation

Put the text from worksheet one on the wall either inside or outside the classroom. Organize your students into pairs. One student will then go to the text, read the text and then go back to her partner and relay the information to her. The partner who stays at the desk writes this information. When teams have finished check for accuracy. You can make this competitive should you wish.

o Stage two

In pairs students then read the Getting To Know Your Resources task sheet (worksheet two). Check any problem vocabulary at this stage. This worksheet can be adapted according to the resource room at your school.

o Stage three

Depending on how the resources are organized in your centre, students then go, in pairs, to the resource room or wherever the resources are kept and complete the tasks on the task sheet.

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o Stage four

Working with a different partner students now compare and share their experience.

o Stage five – Feedback

Having monitored the activity and the final stage, use this opportunity to make comments on your students’ performance. This may take form of a correction slot on errors or pronunciation, providing a self-correction slot.

c) Adverb ActionTeacher writes on the board an activity like "brush your teeth." Teacher picks one student, they come to the front of the class. The Teacher then shows the Student a card with an adverb written on it, such as "slowly". The chosen student then does the activity in the way of the adverb. The other Studetns have to guess the adverb. The one who guesses right gets a point and mimes the next action which the teacher writes on the board. To help them you can give them a list of options, if you think they need some help.

d) Art GalleryThis is a great activity for reviewing vocab. Draw enough squares on the board for each Student to be able to draw in. Have the Students write their names above their squares. Teacher calls out a word and the Students draw it (could be simple nouns e.g. "dog, bookcase, train", verb structures e.g. "draw a man running, eating cake, sleeping") or adjectives ("draw a big elephant, an angry lion, an expensive diamond ring"). For each Student give a score for his/her picture, and then move on to the next picture. The Student with the highest score at the end is the winner.

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CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

In the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) world, young learners are children between the ages of 3 and 18 years old who are learning English. As a young learner teacher, you have a very important role. You are responsible for activating learning. Children will learn if they understand what they are doing. They must understand the message in order to develop a new language. Children like learning ‘by doing’ or learning through experience. Children don’t like structured classes. Repetition of the same concept over and over again may lead to bored students.

The primary focus of classroom activity is the task and language is the instrument which the students use to complete it. The task is an activity in which students use language to achieve a specific outcome. The activity reflects real life and learners focus on meaning, they are free to use any language they want.

According to Rod Ellis, a task has four main characteristics: A task involves a primary focus on (pragmatic) meaning. A task has some kind of ‘gap’ (Prabhu identified the three main types as

information gap, reasoning gap, and opinion gap). The participants choose the linguistic resources needed to complete the task. A task has a clearly defined, non-linguistic outcome.

According to N. S. Prabhu, there are three main categories of task; information-gap, reasoning-gap, and opinion-gap. Tasks can be seen as a ‘one-off’ experience. There is a danger, then, that the task, no matter how engaging, becomes an end in itself, rather than a meaningful experience that leads to further learning in a conceptually, well-sequenced program.There is one example of teaching language through tasks and activities:

Adverb ActionTeacher writes on the board an activity like "brush your teeth." Teacher picks one student, they come to the front of the class. The Teacher then shows the Student a card with an adverb written on it, such as "slowly". The chosen student then does the activity in the way of the adverb. The other Studetns have to guess the adverb. The one who guesses right gets a point and mimes the next action which the teacher writes on the board. To help them you can give them a list of options, if you think they need some help.

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REFERENCES

English as a Second Language; Integrate Ireland Language and Training 2005; pdf.

Teaching and Learning Languages: A Guide; pdf.

Teaching English to Young Learners, Joan Kang Shin (English Language Center; University of Maryland, Baltimore County) pdf.

http://www.ESL-Kids-Classroom-Games&Activities.html

http://www.languages.dk/-task-based-learning.html

http://www.leap.com/How-language-learning-tasks-can-help-language-development_Curriculum-and-language-development_Supporting-language-development_Language-Enhancing-the-Achievement-of-Pasifika.html

http://www.onestopenglish.com/teaching-approaches-task-based-learning.html

http://www.task-based-language-teaching.html

http://www.wikipedia.com/task-based-language-learning.html

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