Have you ever used newspapers in your classroom activities? How?

A step towards the spontaneous use of the foreign language (TASK DESIGN PROJECT)

What can I do to encourage my students to speak in English and lose their fair to talk in front of the classmates? One of the problems as teachers can face is when our students do not speak in front of their classmates because they are afraid of making mistakes and their classmates make fun of them. They feel ashamed even when they have to read a single sentence in front of the class. However it is not impossible to deal with this particular situation, we can find different solutions in order to make our students more willing to speak or participating in class. One way to get this aim is to design meaningful and authentic tasks which are interesting and appealing to them. According to Prabhu, Nunan (1989) he defines a task as “a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form" (p.10). In this sense, I consider tasks as meaningful activities that can let my students be actively involved in their learning process. That is, they can become the center of the teaching practice in which they are provided with meaningful and authentic materials that could enhance their learning. Besides, authentic tasks offer input to students and give them the chance to use the language in real situations (Richards. p 97), that is to say, tasks are likely to be familiar to the students, so learners are more likely to be engaged in the process. Taking into account what I have mentioned before, I designed a task called “At the hospital” (a step towards the spontaneous use of the foreign language) which was carried out with students from ninth grade. They were expected to rewrite and perform a sketch in groups of three people. The script was given by me but they were asked to make changes in it using their real names, the name of a hospital they knew, the illness (es) the patient had in that moment and some advices to get over the illness. Also they were supposed to dress like a doctor, secretary or patient and condition the place like a hospital.

 

Profile of the learners.

 

The task was carried out in ninth grade at Agropecuario del Huila High School located in a country in Garzón, Huila. This group has 33 students which ages ranged from 14 to 17. Most of them live with their parents and their brothers in low social economical status homes. Others live with grandparents and uncles. In fact, they come from small family structures (parents and two or four brothers).

In relation to their educational background, the majority of them attended to English classes since primary. Most of these students are highly motivated to learn English however they presented some difficulties when they had to speak in English or participate in class. They feel ashamed or afraid of making mistakes. So I decided to apply a sketch in the classroom in order to encourage them to speak. They had never worked with sketches in the classroom and they suggested me to implement one of them because they wanted to act. So I took advantage of this situation and design a task in which they could express some feelings and participate in class actively. I consider this activity gave the opportunity the students not only to show their acting abilities and to acquire self confidence when talking in public, but also apply some previous knowledge about the topic. It was meaningful because this sketch was made based on a situation they can face in their real life.

 

Objectives of the task.

• Speak in English in front of all the classmates performing a sketch called “At the hospital”. 

• Use the vocabulary taught in classes regarding some illnesses and advices: headache, stomachache, earache, backache, flu, fever, toothache; take a pill, go to the doctor, go to the dentist, put a jumper on, take a rest.
•  Use the modal verb should to give advices.

Development

 

Pre-task:

 

After having explaining the topic about illnesses and advices, I gave the students a model of a sketch (Appendix 1) that I invented in order to make the topic more meaningful for students. I wrote the script on the board and while I was writing it down I was explaining what it was about. When I finished it, I asked two volunteers to help me acting it in order to show the students what they were supposed to do or how they should act.

After acting it, I asked students to make groups of three people, once they organized the groups I said to them that the sketch was a suggestion and they could change some things in that sketch. For example, they could write their own names, put the name of the hospital they knew, change the illness (ex: headache, stomachache, earache, backache, flu, fever, toothache); and give more advices to get over the disease (ex: take a pill, go to the doctor, go to the dentist, put a jumper on, take a rest). They could make whatever changes they wanted to do using what we had already studied in class.

 

Task

 

Once they were given the task they started to write the sketch in their notebooks making the changes I suggested to them. After that, they began to rehearse the sketch in their groups in order to present it in front of the class. During the task phase, my role was limited to observe each group since the reason of the task is to be a more student-centered methodology and to encourage them to participate or be more active in the classroom.

 

Planning

 

Having completed the task, the students prepared an oral report to present to the class. This oral report was the performance of the sketch in front of their classmates with the appropriate customs and scenery to perform so. I video recorded it, prepared some questions to asked the other students about the sketch and otherwise monitored the students. Some of the questions were: ¿What was the sketch about? What illness (es) did the patient have? What were the advices given? How did the sketch finish?

 

Report

 

After each group presented the sketch to the rest of the class I provided them with a feedback. I first congratulated all of the groups for such an excellent activity. I said to them that that activity showed they could participate and be more active in the classroom. Then I asked the students observing to give a feedback to them as well. First I asked them to tell them the strengths, then the areas to improve. They did so and it was enriching because every group learnt something from each other.

 

Analysis

 

In this step of the task, I reviewed what happened in the task given to the students and in regarded to the language they used to complete the task. I noticed that although some students were ashamed to participate in class, this day they showed that they had some abilities to act so they performed the task very good. I saw them comfortable acting and during the feedback students and me gave to them they said they were very motivated to do the activity and at first they felt nervous but then they felt like if they were really in a hospital. They also expressed it was a different activity and they really enjoyed it.

I also realized that students tried to use what I taught them in the classroom, they used the vocabulary studied and the modal verb should, to give advices. They had some grammatical mistakes when speaking and some mispronounced words that sometimes limited the understanding of the sketch. So I think it was required to give them more time to assimilate the pronunciation and structure of the sentences before given them the task since it was the first time they did so.

 

Practice

 

In this stage I made a review of the topic covered and to do so, I use as example the sketches they presented and this was more meaningful for them because they remembered what their classmates performed so I used that information to emphasize the key language. For example I asked them “what do you think is the best way to get over a headache?” If they did not give the answer I said: “remember the group of Mrs. Quiza? What did the doctor said to him?” so they remembered and answered.

 

Acknowledgement of sources

 

To carry out this task I provided the students with previous knowledge about the topic and I also gave them the script of the sketch (Appendix 1). This script was creating by me using the students´ background information about the topic.

 

Comment

 

The activity seemed to be successful because the students were motivated when rehearsing the sketch and performing it, the students could use the vocabulary and expressions related to the topic. Furthermore, students from ninth grade linked this activity with their real life since they sometimes missed classes because they should go to the doctor or dentist. In general terms, this activity was very interesting and familiar for them. They seemed to feel confidence when acting and I will take advantages of the students’ abilities to plan classes appealing to them and with connection to real life. I attached a video that showed the students' performance (Appendix 2).

 

APPENDIX 1

 

At the hospital

Script Sample

S: Secretary P: Patient D: Doctor

(Phone ringing)

S: Hello, San Antonio´s Hospital. This is Adriana Gerena Rivas. Can I help you?

P: (Sick voice, coughing) Yes, please. I am Uriel and I need an appointment.

S: Ok. Can you give your full name, please?

P: My name is Uriel Quiza (coughing and sneezing)

S: Ok. Mr. Quiza. Come here at nine.

(Hang out)…. Patient enters o the hospital an looks really bad

S: Oh my gosh. (Looking at the patient) Sit down here please.

She runs to the doctor´s door.

Doctor, Doctor (Knocking at the door). Mr. Quiza is here.

D: Ok, let him pass.

The patient enters to the doctor´s office

D: Sit down please. What´s the matter?

P: I feel really bad (making faces). I have a terrible headache and fever

D: Let me check.

The doctor stands up and starts to check him.

D: Breath, cough.

P: What do you advice me to do doctor? Am I going to get over soon?

D: Yes, you are. You should take some rest and put a jumper on. Here is the prescription.

You shouldn´t drink beers or any dizzy drinks for eight days.

P: Oh, I had a party tonight. What ashamed? Thanks doctor.

D: Ok, take care.

 

APPENDIX 2

 

Video recorded