Kōrero Māori!Some considerations for practice

Associate Professor Martin EastFaculty of Education, The University of Auckland

President: New Zealand Association of Language Teachers

Introduction

• Tēnā koutou katoa! Ko Martin ahau !

• Associate Professor of Education / Language Teacher Educator

• Current President: New Zealand Association of Language Teachers(NZALT)

In this workshop

1. Language learning in schools – the New Zealand context

2. The notion of ‘task’ in task-based language learning – theory and practical examples

3. Working on a task for te reo Māori

The New Zealand Curriculum and language learning

• What is its essence?• What are its priorities?

The NZC• Teaching languages in New Zealand’s schools

has undergone something of a radical transformation in recent years.

• We now have a revised curriculum for New Zealand’s schools, published in 2007, and mandatory from 2010.

• The revised curriculum now encourages a learner-centred and experiential approach, in contrast to a teacher-led didactic model.

The NZC

• What does this mean for languages?

The NZC

The NZC

• Learning to use the language to make meaning

• Becoming effective communicators• Developing productive skills like speaking and

performing

The NZCThis focus on communication has provided a strong theoretical justification for considering new learner-focused approaches - such as task-based language teaching or TBLT - as alternatives to more established teacher-fronted methods, such as ‘Presentation – Practice – Production’.

The NZC• TBLT moves practitioners away from the

‘classic lesson structure’ of Presentation / Practice / Production or PPP (Klapper, 2003) that has become embedded in the practice of many teachers worldwide

• In its place TBLT centres on language production – the core ‘communication’ strand of the NZC.

The NZC• TBLT is built on a learner-centred and

experiential premise that “the most effective way to teach a language is by engaging learners in real language use in the classroom … by designing tasks – discussions, problems, games, and so on – which require learners to use language for themselves” (Willis and Willis, 2007, p. 1).

The NZC• TBLT does not reduce or negate the need for

structured languages programmes and teacher input.

• But in several respects TBLT represents a radical departure from existing practice for many teachers.

• TBLT shifts the emphasis away from the teacher and onto the learner – with language in actual use being central.

What exactly is a task?

• What is its essence?• What are its properties?

Ellis (2009)1. The primary focus should be on ‘meaning’ (by which is

meant that learners should be mainly concerned with processing the semantic and pragmatic meaning of utterances).

2. There should be some kind of ‘gap’ (i.e. a need to convey information, to express an opinion or to infer meaning).

3. Learners should largely have to rely on their own resources (linguistic and non-linguistic) in order to complete the activity.

4. There is a clearly defined outcome other than the use of language (i.e. the language serves as the means for achieving the outcome, not as an end in its own right). (p. 223)

Samuda and Bygate (2008)

A task is a holistic activity which engages language use in order to achieve some non-linguistic outcome while meeting a linguistic challenge, with the overall aim of promoting

language learning, through process or product or both. (p. 69)

Willis and Willis (2007)

1. Does the activity engage learners’ interest?2. Is there a primary focus on meaning?3. Is there an outcome?4. Is success judged in terms of outcome?5. Is completion a priority?6. Does the activity relate to real world

activities? (p. 13)

Taxonomy of task types

Categories of task

Listing tasks

• brainstorming• fact-finding

The outcome would be the completed list

Categories of task

Ordering and sorting• sequencing items, actions or events in a logical or

chronological order• ranking items according to personal values or

specified criteria• categorising items in given groups or grouping them

under given headings• classifying items in different ways, where the

categories themselves are not given.

Categories of task

Comparing

Comparing information of a similar nature but from different sources or versions to identify common points and / or differences:

• matching to identify specific points and relate them to each other

• finding similarities and things in common• finding differences

Categories of task

Problem solving

• Tasks may include short puzzles such as logic problems.

• Real-life problems may involve expressing hypotheses, describing experiences, comparing alternatives and evaluating and agreeing a solution.

• Predicting the ending of a story

Categories of task

Sharing personal experiences

These tasks encourage learners to talk more freely about themselves and share their experiences with others.

Categories of task

Creative tasks These are often called projects and involve pairs or

groups of learners in some kind of freer creative work. They also tend to have more stages than other tasks, and can involve combinations of task types: listing, ordering and sorting, comparing and problem solving. Out-of-class research is sometimes needed.

Some real-life experiences

Tasks in action• What do they look like?• How effective are they?

Some real-life experiences

• During their practicum, my students were asked to design and implement a task with at least one of their classes

• After practicum they were asked to report back on the task and its perceived effectiveness:1. Justify the task in light of theory2. Evaluate the task for its effectiveness3. Reflect on what might be changed in the future

Two straightforward junior tasks

Class surveygroup interaction

Class blogindividual presentation

Class survey

Class survey

“The main incentive for using this task was to get the students talking amongst themselves

and practising the language that they had been exposed to during the lesson. It gave them an opportunity to express their personal opinions and link the language to personal experience.”

Class survey

“The task was also planned so that further tasks could be developed from this initial set of

information. In the next class students would use the information gathered in order to record and practise using the same verb and indirect

object pronoun in the third person” (my emphasis)

Class survey

In terms of evaluating its task-likeness, this teacher considered that the task “has an outcome which was to find out which subjects were most popular, completion is a priority, the subject matter is relevant to students, there is a primary focus on meaning and having observed the task in action, I can confirm that it was engaging.”

Class survey

“Overall, the task was very successful in terms of the stated learning outcomes and the levels of interaction between students. Students were well-prepared for the task due to an extensive pre-task phase. Students seemed to enjoy it.”

Where to next?

The class survey

“Some students spoke too much English and others cheated by getting students to fill in the sheet without speaking to them.”

The class survey

The task was “somewhat prescribed and provided little room for students to be creative and rely on their own resources. It was possibly too easy for them, given that the responses were shown at the top of each page, so that all they had to do was ask the question and choose one of the answers that best reflected their opinion.”

Class blog

Students were given examples of the resources they could draw on, and examples of phrases they might use. There was a checklist of what to look out for (phrases, pictures, accuracy, etc.).

Class blog

“It engaged student interest as it related directly to themselves as well as the formulaic expressions and phrases they had learnt. By asking students to introduce themselves, the primary focus was placed on meaning, and since it was set in the context of a blog, there was an outcome other than using the target language.”

Class blog

“This also created a ‘gap’, which required students to convey information, and the context related the task to real-world activities, such as creating a blog and communicating with other target language speakers. Completion of this

activity was most definitely a priority as it was worth five credits towards the students’ grades.”

Class blog

“Although I used it in a year seven class, it could be adapted to work for almost any year level in

any language (especially with beginner language speakers). The students were able to bring everything they had learnt together, which

allowed them to realise how much they had learnt.”

Where to next?

Class blog

“Originally, this task was designed to be completed with Photo Story, a computer programme that allows you to create a

slideshow of photos, which you can then record voice overtop. The software was, however, no longer on the school computers. If I was to do

this task again … I would try to incorporate some other aspect of technology into it to tie it back

to the real-world relativity.”

Two more complex junior tasks

‘Missing Person’Describe the House

Missing Person

Missing Person

“I chose this task because it fulfils most if not all of the criteria for being task-like. … ‘Missing

person’ is engaging because the students are creating their own characters with artistic

freedom and also because of the colouring and moving around elements.”

Missing Person

“The outcome is to find your lost character, achieved through focusing on listening to others and creating meaningful exchanges. Success is determined by how quickly you can find your

character and being a race makes it competitive.”

Missing Person

“‘Missing person’ also relates to real-life activities because it mimics general conversation

where one person is describing something/someone while another person

listens and responds in turn.”

Missing Person

“the task was generally quite successful. Students were engaged in both phases of the tasks, the first being the creation of the character and the second

being the finding of that character. Moreover, everyone found their characters using the target

language so they all achieved success.”

Where to next?

Missing Person

“However there was a large difference in the amount of time it took the first person to find their character compared to the last person. Effectively, it seems that the idea of a race in

itself is not enough of a competition for some students and so there is no force driving them to complete the task. I can imagine two ways to fix

this issue.”

Missing Person

“Either introduce a prize system for those who do the best, most likely edible prizes for the first

3 to 5 students who find their character. Or introduce a demerit system where if students do

not achieve the task goal in six minutes then they are subject to some kind of punishment. This could be the opposite of the prize system

where students have to eat something unpleasant like wasabi …”

Missing Person

“Another change that could be made is for students to do this in pairs, collaborating in the creation phase to make the character and then

racing against each other to find that character.”

Describe the house

Describe the house

“Because of the nature of real estate writing, the students were unable to translate from English

to Spanish but had to use the information provided to answer the questions. It involved

using Spanish in an everyday situation, the students had to describe real houses. The task

supported weaker students and extended stronger students.”

Describe the house

“I was pleased with how successful the task was. Most students seemed engaged throughout the lesson, and

the final products were all done well. I thought that the task catered well for the different abilities in the class: the stronger students were able to write as much as they wanted, use new vocabulary, and give further

information such as their own opinion on the house, while weaker students were still able to give basic

descriptions of the house using familiar vocabulary.”

Describe the house

Feedback from students

I liked:• that we got real pictures of real houses. It was awesome. Fun

homework• [the task] because it was something a bit different and was

fun• how we had to think for ourselves and I like how it was not

just sitting down and writing notes• how you had an aspect of freedom• that we could do it in a realistic environment

Describe the house

Feedback from students

I didn’t like:• [the task] because it was a bit hard• the way I didn’t know every word off by heart. I had to find it

in the textbook• the house I was given• that we weren’t able to have the CV in order to make a proper

evaluation of the property

End of course – reflections on practice

“In view of what I’ve seen and what I’ve experienced in my pre-service teaching experience, a well-considered task-based communicative approach results in a far more engaging, learner centred, and authentic language learning experience than other methods observed. … In this way students are more likely to become confident communicators of the language and have fun.”

End of course – reflections on practice

Having had “the opportunity to observe and implement TBLT in the classroom,” one teacher could “now say with confidence that when students are appropriately set up with a task which they understand and find interesting, they can have very effective learning experiences.”

End of course – reflections on practice

“When I do TBLT in the classroom I find it so rewarding

when students are on their own working and trying to figure things out for themselves and using the language because they are enthusiastic about what they are learning and they understand what the aim is without me being on their backs the whole time and trying to get them motivated.”

End of course – reflections on practice

“Actually trying it out on practicum has helped me more in coming to my own position on this.” That is, “[t]his year has challenged my perceptions of language teaching. … While I really enjoy the more academic side of learning a language, I have found integrating tasks to be beneficial to students, with both their mastery of the language and their motivation and engagement.”

More ideas for tasks

Task-based language teaching from the teachers’ perspective: Insights from

New ZealandMartin East

Doing task-based teachingDave Willis and Jane Willis

fishpond.co.nz

In conclusion

• In the New Zealand context that focuses on experiential learning, helping students to communicate in te reo through learner-centred tasks is one way of fulfilling the key goals of the NZC

• Communicative language use tasks do not negate a place for teacher-input and structured lessons

BUT• Communicative language use tasks will hopefully enable

students to participate in using the target language with others in ways that are relevant and motivating for them

In conclusion

Kōrero Māori!