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TASK

Paper Task

Stefany M. Meza Meriño

Universidad del Atlántico

1. Input:
Reading and Writing:

2. Activities:

a) Read the letter again and complete. Use: favourite things, age, country.

Paragraph 1: name,________, Paragraph 2: best friend,

A letter to a
new pen-pal

Paragraph 3: ask pen-pal to

b) Collect a supply of different types of letters — both formal and informal. Which were

written to friends? Which are formal letters from businesses? Which features or
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characteristics distinguish formal from informal? In each case you should decide what

type of letter would be most appropriate in each case — formal or informal? Draw up a

chart for each group.

 Letters of congratulation

 Exchanging news

 Writing to friends

 Letters saying sorry for doing something wrong

 Making appointments

 Asking for information

 Dealing with banks or stores

 Letters to family members who live some way away

 Letters to Santa Claus

 Thank you letters

 Letters showing how much you appreciate someone

 Letters responding to someone who has had bad news — showing how much you

care by trying to share their sadness

 Letters of complaint

 Letters to newspapers and magazines

c) Choose a special event and write a letter inviting a friend. What do you need to include in

the letter so that they have all the necessary information? You need to be clear on the date

and the time, as well as the location. Your friend would be very upset if he or she went to

the wrong place. Does he or she need to bring anything with them? Does he or she need
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to be collected at a set time? Will outdoor clothing be needed if the weather is bad? How

will your friend reach the location of the event? Should a parent bring them or will you

provide transport?

Remember to ask them to reply saying yes or no. Give a date by which you must have

their reply. This is important if food and drink are being provided, or if you need to know

exactly how many people are coming.

d) Just imagine what Mr. Bear must have been thinking at the end of the story of Goldilocks

and the Three Bears. A naughty girl had broken into his home, eaten his porridge; broken

a chair and then gone to sleep on his child's bed. Then she had run away without even

saying sorry when the bears came back. Write a letter of complaint from Mr. Bear to the

parents of Goldilocks.

Activities are based on processes in learning to communicate. In that way, activities “a, c

and d” are related with skill getting (students have to produce or construct a letter in what

students have focus in grammatical forms and structure of the types of letters) and skill

using (they apply these skills in communicative interaction when there are different

motivations and intentions to write the letter). On the other hand, activity “b” is just skill

getting because students have to recognize in what situation they have to use formal or

informal letters.

3. Goals:

- Communicative:

In order to give student a real goal in the context of the task gives them immediate

motivation to communicate, the goal will be:

To encourage students to write letters helping them to improve their communication,

social and handwriting skills.

- Socio-cultural:

In contrast, with the idea students to be aware of different styles of writing and the

use of formal and informal letters, the goal has to be related with:

To select style and vocabulary appropriate to the intended reader.

4. Teacher role:

Taking into account the activity related with writing a letter using the appropriate process

to the intended reader, the role of teacher is:

- Mediator: in this case, teacher gives students the way to do an informal or formal

letter according to the reader. That mean, teacher teaches them what they need to

know about writing and structuring letters.

- Planner: teacher prepares students before they start writing their composition, he or

she invites students to think about the topic and write down anything that comes to

mind about it. After that, students can decide what to include taking into account the

structure of the informal or formal letter.

- Controller: here, teacher supervises activity providing support as necessary in the

elaboration of letter according to the reader. In that case, students work in the letters

if invitation, letter to a new pen-pal and letters of complaint.

5. Learner role:
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- Listener and performer: in this case, students recognize the structure and begin to develop

the activity of writing. They support their knowledge about the writing letters with the

guide of teacher.

- Interactor and negotiator: students interact between them with the idea to share

information, clarify some doubts about the activity.

6. Settings:

Finally, for the development of the activity, students work individually in the classroom.

The instructions for the activity are: read carefully, write letters based on requirements of

the exercises. For this, students have to pay attention to grammar, structure, reader, types

of letters as evaluation criteria.

Time: 2 hours.