The Task as an Environment for Learning in the Primary Classroom

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The Task as an Environment for Learning in the
Primary Classroom

• Ella Lovece
• World Wide English

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Misunderstandings about teaching young learners

• Teaching children is straightforward.

• Children only need to learn simple
• language.

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learning the foreign
language learning oral skills learning
the written language vocabulary discourse
conversation extended talk grammar
Dividing up language for child foreign language
learning. Lynne Cameron (2001)
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• To awaken interest and kindle
• enthusiasm is the sure way to teach
• easily and successfully.
• Tyron Edwards

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Learner-centred Teaching

• Learner-centred teaching places the child at
• the centre of teacher thinking and
• curriculum planning.
• Successful lessons and activities are those that
  are tuned to the learning needs of the students,
  and not necessarily to the demands of the next
  text-book unit, or to the interests of the
  teacher.
• At the same time, we must not risk losing sight
  of what it is we are trying to do in schools, and
  of the enormous potential that lies beyond the
  child.

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What are the differences in teaching a
foreignlanguage to children as opposed to adults
and adolescents?

• Children are often more enthusiastic and lively.
• They want to please the teacher rather than their
  peer group.
• They will have a go at an activity even when they
  dont quite understand why or how.
• They lose interest more quickly and are less able
  to keep themselves motivated on tasks they find
  difficult.
• They dont find it easy to use language to talk
  about language (i.e. they dont have the same
  access as older learners to metalanguage that
  teachers can use to explain grammar or discourse.
• Children often seem less embarrassed than adults
  at talking in a new language.

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Children actively try to construct meaning

• Children actively try to make sense to find
  and construct a meaning and purpose for what
  adults say to them and ask them to do.
• They can only make sense in terms of their world
  knowledge, which is limited and partial (although
  this does not mean we cant challenge them).
• Teachers therefore need to examine classroom
  activities from the childs point of view in
  order to assess whether students will understand
  what to do or will be able to make sense of new
  language.

• How does this affect the way we choose classroom
  tasks?
• How do different learning styles affect classroom
  tasks?

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• If a child cant learn the way we teach, maybe
  we should teach the way they learn.
• Ignacio Estrada

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Language Learning through tasks and activities
Learning Styles

1. Linguistic intelligence
2. Interpersonal intelligence
3. Intrapersonal intelligence
4. Musical intelligence
5. Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence
6. Logical-mathematical intelligence
7. Visual-spatial intelligence

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Wild Animals
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Activating multiple intelligences in one task

• How did we activate linguistic intelligence in
  that task?
• How did we activate visual-spatial intelligence
  in that task?
• How did we activate bodily-kinaesthetic
  intelligence in that task?
• How did we activate intrapersonal intelligence in
  that task?
• How did we activate interpersonal intelligence in
  that task?
• How did we activate logical-mathematical
  intelligence in that task?
• How did we activate musical intelligence in that
  task?

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Meaningful use of language

• Children are (mentally) active learners, who will
  try to find a meaning and purpose for activities
  that are presented to them.
• This urge to find meaning and purpose can be a
  very helpful language tool for teachers to
  exploit.
• Unfortunately, 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 the combined effect of
  the activity type and new language can render
  everything just too mysterious.
• Teachers may not notice students confusion
  because the children are anxious to please and
  may act as if they do, in fact, understand.

If students are not understanding, they cannot
be learning
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The task as an environment for learning

• If teachers have a clear language goal,
  effective learning opportunities can be
  deliberately constructed by adjusting the balance
  between task demands and task support.

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Language learning through tasks

• Task Demands
• ? Cognitive ? Language
• ? Interactional ? Metalinguistic
• ? Involvement ? Physical

The analysis of the demands that a task places on
students is a key way to assess its suitability
and its learning potential but it is only one
side of the equation
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Language learning through tasks

• Support Demands
• ? Cognitive ? Language
• ? Interactional ? Metalinguistic
• ? Involvement ? Physical

How do we balance task demands with task support?
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• Language learning for an individual can be seen
  similarly as a repeated process of stretching
  resources slightly beyond the current limit into
  the zone of proximal development or space for
  growth, consolidating new skills, and then moving
  on to the next challenge.
• Lynne Cameron

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• How can teachers achieve the most useful balance
  of demands and support when they plan lessons and
  adapt tasks from course-books?
• How can teachers ensure that the balance of
  demands and support produces language learning?
• The teacher, in planning, must set appropriate
  language learning goals.

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Setting clear and specific language learning goals

• In setting clear and specific language learning
  goals, teachers are scaffolding the task for
  children.
• Further scaffolding can involve breaking down
  tasks into manageable steps, each with its own
  sub-goals. The teacher takes responsibility for
  the whole task while learners work on each step
  at a time.
• Careful design of sub-goals should help ensure
  success and achievement at each step, and of the
  task as a whole.

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Tasks are classroom activities but not all
classroom activities are tasks. What is a
classroom task?
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Classroom tasks for children learning a foreign
language ? have coherence and unity for the
learners (from topic, activity and
outcome) ? have meaning and purpose for the
learners ? have clear language learning goals
? have a beginning and an end ? involve the
learners actively
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Stages in a classroom task

• Preparation ? Core activity ? Follow-up

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Turning an activity into a task(Your turn!)

• Hanis Weekend
• Remember, that when learning the spoken language
• Meaning must come first if children do not
  understand the spoken language, they cannot learn
  it.
• To learn discourse skills, children need both to
  participate in discourse and to build up
  knowledge and skills for participation.

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Scaffolding and routines

• Teachers can help students By
• attend to what is relevant suggesting
• praising the significant
• providing focusing activities
• adopt useful strategies encouraging rehearsal
• being explicit about organisation
• remember the whole task and goals reminding
• modelling
• providing part-whole activities

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Supporting learners to fulfil their language
learning potential

• Support through motivating topics
• (meaning and purpose)
• Support through task structure
• (clear language learning goals preparation,
  activity and follow-up recognising demands and
  adding support)
• Support through language practice

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Learning the spoken language

• Listening and doing
• Listen and identify
• Bingo
• Listen and take away
• Find the odd one out
• Listen and put

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Learning the spoken language

• Listening and saying
• 6. Look and say
• 7. Listen and choose
• 8. Listen and sort
• 9. Tennis game
• 10. Guess my animal questions
• 11. Guess my animal - actions

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Learning the spoken language

• Focus on sounds and discourse
• 12. Poems and charts
• 13. Tongue twisters

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• A tendency towards communication at any cost
  affects learners of all ages. In a
  learning-centred approach to classroom activities
  and tasks, the human drive to find and share
  meaning is harnessed to support language use by
  being built into task demands.

Thank you for sharing your time with me and for
taking part!