Teaching Languages to Young Learners

Chíldren need space for language growth

2 Learning language through tasks and
activities
In both language and cognitive development, the ZPD or immediate
potential of the child is of central importance for effective leaming.
Routines and scaffolding are two types of language-using strategies that
seem to be especia11yhelpful in making space for children's growth.
2.1 The task as an environment for learning
Language ín use carríes cues to meaníng that may not be notíced
In this chapter 1 set up a framework for analysing tasks from a leaming
Children need ski11ed help in noticing and attending to aspects of the perspective that takes account of young leamers' soci;¡¡l and cognitive
foreign language that carry meaning. Since they cannot benefit much development. Classroom tasks and activities are seen as the 'environ-
from formal grammar, other ways of doing this have to be found. ment' or 'ecosystem' (van Geert 1995) in which the growth of ski11sin the
foreign language takes place. The idea of 'task' will need to be adapted
slightly from the way it is used in current 'task-based' approaches to
Oevelopment can be seen as ínternalísíng from social ínteractíon
language teaching, and wi11be given a (post-)Vygotskyan slant.
Language can grow as the child takes over control of language used Our starting point in this chapter is children as (menta11y) active
initia11ywith other children and adults. leamers, who wi11try to find a meaning and purpose for activities that
are presented to them. Young leamers work hard to make sense of what
teachers ask them to do, and come to tasks with their own under-
Chíldren's foreígn language learníng depends on what they
standings of the purposes and expectations of adults. Studies of young
experíence children starting school have shown how much difference there often is
There are important links between what and how children are taught, between language use and activities at home and at school, but also
and what they leam. Within the ZPD, the broader and richer the how quickly children work out what is expected of them and how to fit
language experience that is provided for children, the more they are into the new pattems of interaction (e.g. Tizard and Hughes 1984). We
likely to leam. Foreign language lessons often provide a11or most of a can predict that children wi11 bring these abilities to their language
child's experience of the language in use; if we want children to develop lessons, and that this urge to find meaning and purpose can be a very
certain language skills, we need to ensure they have experiences in helpful language leaming tool for teachers to exploit. Unfortunately,
lessons that wi11build those skills. cven the most motivated child can have problems making sense of some
The activities that happen in classrooms crea te a kind of 'environ- of the activities in which they are asked to participate in their language
ment' for leaming and, as such, offer different kinds of opportunities lessons; the combined effect of the activity-type and new language can
for language leaming. Part of teaching ski11is to identify the particular render everything just too mysterious. Teachers may not notice pupils'
opportunities of a task or activity, and then to develop them into confusion beca use the children are anxious to please and may act as i(
leaming experiences for the children. In the next chapter, the idea of they understand. For example, they may pick out and repeat key words
identifying the language leaming opportunities offered by classroom from the teacher's language, giving an illusion of understanding, or they
tasks is developed further. may persevere with a writing or matching task without rea11y under-
standing what they are doing. Here again, we see the importance of a
Icarning perspective that will go beyond a superficial evaluation of
c1assroom activity, and give teachers tools for rea11y checking on how
ml1ch pupils are understanding and leaming.
Wc begin by analysing the environment created by an activity in
tt'rms of demands on lcarncrs (in section 2.2) and support (or learning
(ill scctiol1 2.1). 111sl'ctiol1 2.4 wc sec how learnil1g opportunities can be
dclilwl':llely COllstl'lIl'll'd hy adjllsting t1w halance hetwecn dcmands and

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Teaching Languages to Young Learners Learning language through tasks and activities

Look ot the toble. Soy sentences. practice material, to supplement activities in the Pupils' Book, and to be
used in conjunction with a Teacher's Book. I ha ve removed the activity
fram its context in order to analyse its structure and its demands, and
Hani's weekend the support provided to meet those demands.
The basis for this speaking activity is a grid with 2 raws and 3
columns. This type of graphic is frequently found in foreign language
materials as a prampt to speaking or writing practice. The raws
represent the days of the weekend (the Islamic weekend is Thursday and
Friday), and the columns show three times in the day: morning, after-
noon and evening. Pupils are required to make up ,sentences using
Thursdoy vocabulary and grammar they have already learnt, and the particular
objective is to practise structures like on Thursday afternoon with the
past tense, which has been focused on in preceding activities. Each box
in the grid is supposed to prampt one sentence of the form:
Hani watched television on Thursday afternoon.
The original is nicely coloured and care has been taken to use activities
familiar to pupils. For the moment, we will ignore the issue of how the
Fridoy teacher might use the COlme book in the lesson to get pupils started on
this activity, and focus just on the demands placed on pupils when they
try to make sense of the information given in the grid and use it to
produce accurate sentences in English. We will also leave aside, for the
time being, the question of whether this is an oral skills task or a
grammar task (or both), and take a limited view of the goal of the task
Figure 2.1 J-Iani's Weekend: an activity fram 'Our Warld through English', as the oral praduction of sentences, in order to take a learner's
Activities Baok 6E (B), p.1S, far TI year olds (Sultanate af Oman)
perspective on the text and visuals.
The grid must be 'read' in a particular way: times of day follow fram
support, and how, if teachers have clear language learning goals, this
left to right across the columns, and the days of the week go fram top to
can be done more effectively (section 2.5). Sections 2.6 and 2.7. set up a
bottom. As adults, we know this convention and use it automatically;
task framework for young learner classraoms, first defining 'task', and
children may not know the conventions so well, and graphical informa-
then showing how staging a task can help learning. In section 2.8, we
tion may not be accessed as easily by children. In fact, the pupils for
return to the classraom activity that starts the chapter, applying the task
whom this was designed read and write their first language, Arabic,
framework to see how learning opportunities might be enhanced.
from right to left. So, in using the grid, they have to know, and
remember to use, the 'English' convention of working from left to right
2.2 Task demands across the page.
The pictures show boys involved in various activities; the title 'Hani's
I will use an actlvlty to illustrate the first key points of the task weekend' suggests that Hani is the central character and he can be seen
framework, returning in section 2.6 to define 'task' more precisely. The in each picture, although sometimes he is wearing his white dishdasha
activity in Figure 2.1 is taken from a course written for II year olds in and sometimes a green track suit. A pupil must understand this in order
the Sultanate of Oman, who come to this book after learning English for the grid and the task to make sense.
for 3 years. The set of course materials, fram which this particular In each picture Hani is doing something, so that a further demand on
activity has been taken, has been carefully thought-out and structured l"IlCpupil is lo recognise the actioll from the picture, and then find the
for the target aucliellce. In its cOlltext of use, the activity is illlellded ,1S 1':I/<~lish ll'ords rOl' lha!" actioll, l'.g. fl!elld his hike. The words l1lust be

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 Teaching Languages to Young Learners Learning language through tasks and activities

produced in the past tense form: e.g. watched, even though there is Table 2.I Types of task demand
nothing in the title or the grid to show that these things were done at
some point in the past, rather than being planned for the future. The TASK DEMANDS
sentences are to be spoken aloud, so that a further demand beyond
finding vocabulary and grammar is to pronounce words and find • Cognitive
appropriate stress and intonation. demands vary with the degree of contextualisation of language; difficulty of
These demands on the pupil can be divided into two types of demand: concepts that are needed to do the task (e.g. use of graphics, colours, telling the
cognitive and language, and are summarised below. Cognitive demands time).
are those related to concepts, and to understanding of the world and
other people. Language demands are those related to using the foreign • Language
language, and to uses of mother tongue in connection with learning the demands vary with whether the language is spoken or written, understanding or
foreign language. production, extended talk or conversation; with vocabulary and grammar
needed; with the genre; with the amount of Lr and L2.
from one row
-- understand
pronounce thetowords
nextthe grid works to show times
way oE
• Interactional
demands understand
feedback
actions
sentence
- work
-understand
give
findleft
understand
the teacher's
correct
recognise
put to right
the words
past
that stress
thethat
tense
key
Hani instructions
across
and
together
the columns
actionintonation
ending
appears
pictures
ininthe
for
each
in and
show
eachto
right
each explanation,
top
words
picture
past
verb
order to
picture and and
bottom
actions
- find the vocabulary to describe each action
demands vary with the type of interaction required, e.g. pair work; with the
participants in talk - adult / peers; with the nature of the interaction, e.g.
question + answer.

• Metalinguistic

demands may indude the use of technical terms about language in production or
comprehension e.g. in instructions, in feedback.

• Involvement

demands vary with the ease or difficulty the learner has in engaging with the
task, e.g. length of task stages; links to child's interest and concerns; novelty,
humour, suspense.

• Physical
There may be other demands on the pupils beyond the language and the
demands vary with how long the child must sit still fOf; with actions needed;
cognitive. If they are required to do the activity in pairs, then each pupil with fine motor skills needed e.g. to write or draw.
needs to listen to his or her partner, paying attention to the particular
box on the grid being talked about; this would be an interactional
demando Metalinguistic demands would require pupils to understand or The analysis of the demands that a task place s on pupils is a key way to
use English to talk about the language, e.g. if pupils were instructed 'use assess its suitability and its learning potential. It is, however, only one
the past tense of the verbs'. Involvement rders to the demand on the side of the equation; we also need to look at how the child is supported
child to keep engaged with the task for as long as it takes to complete it; in achieving the goals of the task.
involvement demands will vary with how interesting the task is to the
child. With younger children, especially, we need to remember that
classroom tasks will present physical demands, sitting stilllong enough 2.3 Task support
to do the task or using the fine-motor skills required to manipula te a
pencil to write, draw or tick boxes. The box below shows a list of types The grid in Figure 2. I h;lS heen providcd to sLlpport the learners'
of demands that a task may place on learners: prOdlll'tíOI1 of hngllage. offn,s sllppor1' in Iwo ways. Firstly, the
11

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Teaching Languages to Young Learners Learning language through tasks and activities

pictures provide support for meaning, contextualising the language to Table 2.2 Types of task support
be used. Secondly, the structure of the grid supports concepts, by using a
graphical way of representing times of day and avoiding the need to do Task Support
this through language. Graphics can often concretise quite abstract • Cognitive
ideas without requiring the use of language, and can support under-
standing of ideas for second language learners (Tang 1992). The use of support can come from the contextualisation of language; fmm the use of
concepts already developed; from familiar formats of graphics or activity; fmm
the rising, fu11and setting suns in the top row can give added support to
familiar topics and contento
reca11 of the meaning of morning, afternoon and evening. The task
includes language support through the use of words and phrases already • Language
encountered in earlier lessons. Explanation and modelling of the task by
the teacher will provide further support to pupils. They may also be support can come from re-use of language already mastered; from moving fmm
easier domain to more difficult, e.g. spoken to written; fmm using known
supported by working in pairs and listening to their partners. We can
vocabulary and grammar to help with the new; from use of LI to support L2
categorise the types of support for learning in the same way as types of development.
demando When we think in terms of support, we try to use what the
children can already do to help them master new ski11sand knowledge, • Interactional
or we try to match tasks to children's natural abilities and inclinations.
Examples are given in Table 2.2. support can come fmm the type of interaction, e.g. pair work; from helpful
co-participants; from the use of familiar routines.

• Metalinguistic
2.4 Balancing demands and support
support can come from familiar technical terms to talk about new language;
Clearly, whether learners can do the task, and whether they learn clear explanations.
anything by doing it, depends not just on the demands or on the • Involvement
support, but on the dynamic relationship between demands and
support. We can here reca11 the idea of the zone of proximal develop- support can come from content and activity that is easy for the learner to engage
ment, or space for growth, that children need for their language and with, e.g. links to child's interest and concerns; from l11ixingphysical movement
cognitive development. If the demands are too high, learners will find and call11,seated activities.
the task too difficult; they are likely to 'switch off' and not finish the
• Physical
task, or to finish it as we11 as they can, using what they know to
complete the task but not using the language intended. In either case, variation in sitting and moving; use of familiar actions; match to level of fine
learning goals are not achieved. Perhaps, most dangerously of a11 for motor skills developl11ent,e.g. to write or draw.
future learning, children may appear to the teacher to have completed
the task, but may not ha ve understood it or learnt from it. The teacher
may then try to build on the unlearnt language in future lessons, and for use of the first language to explain the meaning of a reading text; this
a time may appear to succeed. Pupils' problems can remain hidden, provides so much support to understanding that the learners do not need
particularly in contexts where the teacher leads and controls classroom to think about the foreign language or to use more than just single words
activity very strongly, until revealed by some crisis, such as end of year (see Ch apter 9). In trying to strike a balance between demands and
examinations. While the desire of young children to pie ase adults and support, we can apply what cognitive scientists ca11 'the Goldilocks
participate as much as they can is one of the very positive sides of principie': a task that is going to help the learner learn more language is
teaching young learners, we need to be aware that it can also hide a one that is del/ll71u{inghuI !tol 100 demanding, that provides support but
multitude of problems. 1101 100 1111I e/; su/,/,orl. Th(' dif/erellce helween demands and support
If a task provides too much support, then learners will not be lT('¡¡tcs t1H' Sp:ll'(' 1m growlh amI produces oppol'tllnities for learning.
'stretched'. A very common example of too I1111ch SllppOl'l is lh(' t('acher\ 1\11 :lI1;dogy 111;IY 1\('lp(';\Pllll'l' 1 his i<ka. 111l:1gil1e
lh;11YOII;11'(' working

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Teaching Languages to Young Learners Learning language through tasks and activities

out in a gym and lifting weights. Your aim is to increase the size of breaking down tasks into manageable steps, each with its own sub-
weights you can lift, or the number of times you lift a weight. Either goals. The teacher takes responsibility ior the whole task while learners
increase is an advance in fitness and can represent language learning. work on each step at a time. Careful design oi sub-goals should help
Now, the way to get fitter is not to try to pick up a weight that is very ensure success and achievement at each step, and of the task as a whole.
much heavier than the one you can lift at the moment, nor is it to use a Young learners face many years of classroom lessons and it is important
weight much lighter. If the weight is too heavy (or task demands too that they feel, and are, successful from the start. Too many demands
great or support not enough), you will just fail to lift it altogether or, if early on will make them anxious and fearful of the foreign language;
you do manage to lift it, may well cause injury. If the weight is too light too few demands will make language learning seem boring. Careful
(demands too low or support too great), you will be able to lift the selection and grading of goals is one of the key tools available to
weight (complete the task) very easily, but it won't inerease your fitness. teachers to build success into learning.
What will promote inereased fitness (or learning) is to work with a In primary language classrooms there is a further force that may shift
weight that is just a little bit heavier than your usual weight, so that teaching away from learning, and that is the borrowing of materials and
muscles can adapt to the increase, and then, through practiee, the new activities from general primary practice. This transfer of methodology
weight will become your new eurrent limito The process can then be happens rather often at primary level, partly beca use of the methodolo-
repeated with a slightly heavier weight still. Over time, you will become gical vacuum in teaching young learners, and partly beca use primary
able to lift mueh heavier weights, but at no time will the strain have practice has some genuinely good techniques and ideas that clearly
been too great! Language learning for an individual can be seen work well with children. My point is not that such transfer is wrong,
similarly as a repeated proeess of stretehing resources slightly beyond but that, when ideas are transferred, they need to be adapted for the
the eurrent limit into the ZPD or spaee for growth, consolidating new new aim of language learning. Thinking through the demands, support
skills, and then moving on to the next ehallenge. and learning opportunities of activities may help in this adaptation.
Prime examples of techniques transferred from primary education
would be theme-based learning and the use of songs and rhymes.
2.5 The importance of language learning goals Theme-based learning will be further discussed in Chapter 9, and
rhymes will be shown to be useful in early literacy (Chapter 6).
How then can teachers achieve the most useful balance of demands and
support when they plan lessons and adapt tasks fram COlme books? If
language learning is made the focus of this issue, the question then 2.6 Defining 'task' for young learner c1assrooms
becomes, 'How can teachers ensure that the balance of demands and
support produces language learning?' The answer we will pllrSlle is that My aim in this seetion is to produce a list of defining features of task for
the teacher, in planning, must set clear and appropriate language use in teaching foreign languages to children. I am not interested in an
learning goals. abstraet coneept of task but in a unit of aetivity that ean be used for
As a bald statement, this may sound rather obvious. After all, surely lesson planning and evaluation, and which will also work as a unit of
language learning is a goal for alllanguage teaching? At a generallevel, analysis in researeh by teaehers or by researehers coming into class-
this may be so, but it does not always seem to be the case for individual rooms (Cameron 1997). I begin by seeing how the ways in whieh the
lessons and tasks. Moreover, goals that result in learning need to be term 'task' is eommonly used in language teaehing can contribute to re-
tailored to particular learners. The course book or syllabus may dicta te defining for teaehing children.
what is to be taught, but what is to be learnt can only be planned by a One way in whieh the construet 'task' entered language teaching was
teacher who knows the pupils, and can make the book or syllabus work through work with adults, who needed to use the seeond language
for them. Learning goals are objectives or intended learning for outside the classroom (Breen 1984; Nunan 1989, 1993). For these
particular learners working on particular tasks, made specific from the learners, there was sometimes a marked contrast between the kinds of
generallearning aims of book or syllabus. activitícs they did in c1assrooms and the kind of aetivities they needed
In setting clear and specific language learning goals, teachers are English for in thcír lives outsíde the c1assroom, and tasks were adopted
scaffolding the task ior cbildren. Furtber scaHolcling can involve as ;¡ uníl dl;¡t" would try lo hríllg Ihe chssrooll1 and 'real' life closer

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Teaching Languages to Young Learners Learning language through tasks and activities

together. The goals and outcomes of tasks were to relate to the real language that will grow with the children, in that, although some
needs of learners, such as reading bus timetables or buying cinema vocabulary will no longer be needed, most of the language will provide
tickets. Some writers argued that materials used should be real and a useful base for more grown-up purposes.
authentic too, while others suggested that authenticity of texts was too From this point of view, school activities are congruent with chil-
difficult as a requirement but that authenticity of activities, or of dren's lives, and using English to take the register or sing songs is quite
interaction of learner and text, was more desirable (Breen 1984, real enough. Ir seems appropriate that tasks can be defined as classroom
Widdowson 1990). The latest versions of 'task-based learning' (TBL) activities. However, not all activities that take place in a classroom will
locate real-ness in outcome, with learners working together to do things qualify as 'tasks'; an activity can be any kind of event that children
like 'solve a problem, do a puzzle, playa game or share and compare participate in, but a task has further features. As with our demand and
experiences' (Willis 1996). A young learner version of a task-based support analysis of the grid task at the start of this chapter, learner
syllabus was tried out in the Bangalore project twenty years ago participation is the pivot around which classroom 'tasks are to be
(Prabhu 1987), with children working on maths, geography or other examined. There must be something unified and coherent, for learners,
problems through English. about a task. Rather than taking outcomes as criterial as in Willis' and
In all these developments, the essential aspect of a 'task' is that Skehan's form of TBL, the focus is on how the goals and action create a
learners were focused on the meaning of content rather than on form, unified whole (Coughlan and Duff 1994). A classroom task will have a
i.e. the learners' goals and task outcomes are not explicitly language- clear beginning and end; it may be quite short or it may last over several
focused. Recently there has been something of a return to form as lessons. For the child, a classroom task should have a clear purpose and
needing attention too (Ellis 1994; Kowal and Swain 1994). We will meaning; for the teacher, the task should have clear language learning
explore this in more detail in Chapter 5 when we look at grammar, but goals. Key features of classroom tasks for children learning a foreign
it is of relevance here to note that the most meaning-focused of all language are summarised as follows:
language learning contexts, immersion, is where problems with lack of
attention to form have be en discovered (Lightbown and Spada 1993)· Classroom tasks for children learning a foreign language
Children in immersion classes, who have studied school subjects • ha ve eoherenee and unity for learners
through their second language, are found to develop language skills that (from topie, aetivity and / or outeome)
match their native-speaking peers on listening skills and pronunciation,
• have meaning and purpose for learners
but lag behind in grammatical accuracy and precision. Ir seems that
focusing on meaning is important, but is not enough for continued • have c1ear language learning goals
language development. • have a beginning and end
Language for young learners raises more problems with the notion of
• involve the learners actively
'real' or 'authentic' language use. Many children do not use the foreign
language much outside the classroom, except perhaps on holiday, with
tourists to their country, and when using computers. Beyond these If we think about these features in singing songs, we can see that
limited domains, their outside lives do not readily pro vide a needs- although any instance of singing is an activity, only the more carefully
related syllabus for foreign language learning. Furthermore, their adult planned and structured events using songs will be classed as 'langllage
lives and possible needs for the language are still too far away to give learning tasks'. This perspective turns the song into a tool for language
content to lessons; 7 and 8 year olds have lirtle need to book holiday teaching and learning, that can be effectively planned, implemented and
accommodation or even give directions! What 'real language use' evaluated.
(Skehan 1995: 23) is for these children is not obvious; it might be seen
as the language used by native speaker 7 and 8 year olds, but by the
time they have learnt it, they will be 9 and 10 year olds, and will no 2.7 Stages in a classroom task
longer need to talk about, say, teddy bears or dolls. The best we can do
is aim for dynamic congruence: choosing activities and content that are In this section, a further ~lspect is added to the framework of classroom
appropriate for the children's age and socio-cultural experiencc, and l~lSks,and lhal is dll' 1101 ion of stcps 01' stages. In teaching reading skills,

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Teaching Languages to Young Learners Learning language through tasks and activities

it has been common practice for many years to plan reading activities in 24·2.OI D
three stages: pre-reading, reading and post-reading. The three stage
format has been applied to listening, to mainstream task-based learning mending ~ mended
rade
watched
(Skehan 1996) and to activity-based language learning in primary class-
riding ~
rooms (Vale 1990). I adopt it here too, with the following labels:
watching ~
PREPARATION ----> CORE ACTIVITY ----> FOLLOW DP.

Figure 2.2 The board divided into two, to highlight meaning and form of Past verb
The 'core activity' is central to the task, just as the earth has a hot, molten
tenses. (Note: the boxes represent pictures.)
core or an apple has its pips inside the coreo Without the core, the task
would collapse. The core activity is set up through its language learning
goals. Preparation activities prepare the learners to be able to complete time phrases such as on Thursday evening. To support these demands,
the core activity successfully, and might include pre-teaching of language the teacher could make one small but crucial change to the information
items or activation of topic vocabulary. The 'follow-up' stage builds on and then use simple graphics. The small change that I suggest might
successful completion of the core, perhaps with a public performance of really help pupils understand the meaning of the grammar, i.e. why the
work done in the core or with written work based on oral language Past Tense is needed, is to add dates (e.g. 24th, 25th February, when the
used in the coreo Since one task can lead to another, the follow up of the class takes place in March) to the grid, so that it is not just any weekend
first may be, or lead into, the 'preparation' stage of the next. that is being talked about, but a particular weekend that has passed.
As an example of how the stages can combine to produce a task, we Alternatively, the weekend could be some holiday or festival that has
can return to Hani and his weekend, and place the production of oral just passed. Either way, making the weekend clearly specific to the
sentences from the grid as the core activity in the centre of an imaginary pupils gives a support to their understanding that the weekend activities
task. We can then fill out the task with possible preparation and follow- need to be talked about in the past tense.
up activities. It is likely that when shown the pictures, pupils will produce verb
forms such as mending. The teacher can then use a graphical prompt to
support the production of the correct form, dividing the board into two
2.8 Hani's Weekend: Possible preparation and follow-up with a vertical line, and writing the selected (past) date on one side
activities (Figure 2.2). Holding the picture on the undated side, the teacher can
use the form mending; moving the picture to the dated side, the teacher
Given the core goals of pupils saying sentences about each picture in the can produce the past form mended, emphasising the ending with stress
grid, it seems helpful for the preparation stage to activate the vocabu- or, if the word is written down, with a different colour or underlining.
lary that will be needed, i.e. the action verbs and the names of objects Other verbs can be practised in the same way.
and places in the pictures. This can be done using the pictures from the Practice with the past tense forms and pictures (still separately, rather
grid in Figure 2.1, but with a small adjustment: the pictures are used than in the grid) could be done by pupils in pairs, as extra preparation.
one-by-one rather than in combination, and are blown up in size for At the end of the preparation stage, pupils should be ready to move
whole class work (or changed into big, quickly done sketches by the on to the core activity, supported by the teacher first modelling for the
teacher straight on to the board). Each picture can then be used with the students how to 'read' information from the chart. A large grid could be
class as support to recall words for objects, people, places, and actions. constructed on the board, placing the large pictures one by one on to
In the core activity, the same pictures will be used, and the link made at the grid as the sentences are modelled. Follow-up activities could
preparation stage between picture, form and meaning will be available develop written production, by pupils writing down the sentences about
as support for sentence production. Hani, and then writing about their own weekend, using the same
There is however a more weighty demand for pupils in this task than phrascs 01' ones that they choose.
the lexis: having to understand why a past tense form is Ilcedcd, '1'hc task is slllllrnarised on the grid in Figure 2.3. The three stages of
constructing the past tense form, and prodllcing it in a selltTnl'l' with lhe Ihe L1Sk :1PI)('ar ill lhe COIUIllIlS.For c:lch stage, working downwards

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 Teaching Languages to Young Learners Learning language through tasks and activities

To Addition
understand of
idea dates to sentences.
Of course, none of the activities I have suggested are groundbreaking,
TASK Pair
learnt
SayTeacher
Activate
Practise
pictures
of past and
To
of
Core
ofsentences
lexis
work. and
Follow
etc.
lexis.
P2
(1)
while
To
practice
Oral
pupils'
(2)
(4)
of
Key forms
recalllexis
Hani
Teacher
new
verb teacher
words
forms
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6).
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or even very exciting! However, I have tried to show how thinking
.a board
ntences.
box and
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own activities.
(r) Use of
express single
this.
about demands, support and goals can help to plan carefully linked
Preparation
stages that scaffold the pupils' language use towards language learning.
We should also notice the important point that making very sma11
changes to the information (adding dates) or to the activity (using
separated pictures singly) can lead to very large changes in the task as
experienced by pupils. This is a very powerful tool: if teachers have
repertoires of such small changes, they can use them to adapt and adjust
tasks found in course books to suit particular learners.

2.9 Task-as-plan and task-in-action

At the beginning of this chapter, we used the metaphor of the task as

creating an environment in which learning can occur. We have seen that
this environment can be better understood by analysing the demands
and support of activities. In the last section, the course book task has
been adapted by adding more activities to produce an environment in
which (imaginary) students might be able to meet the demands and
achieve language learning goals. In many ways, this analysis was an
unrealistic exercise, beca use we did not know much about the specific
pupils or teachers who might use the grid, how the teacher might
introduce it, or what language pupils would bring to making sense of it.
If we had that information, we could have produced a much tighter
analysis. However, it would still ha ve been an analysis of a plan, and we
still would not know what actually happened when the activity was
used in action with a particular class, unless we observed and recorded
the lessons. In order to help maintain a clear distinction between what is
planned and what happens in practice, we can label the two 'task-as-
plan' and 'task-as-action' (after Breen 1987).
Until the task is turned into action, it cannot be fully evaluated for its
usefulness or effectiveness. However, the different aspects of tasks
introduced in this chapter can a11be used for evaluating tasks-in-action,
once they have been identified in the task-as-plan. In the next chapter,
data recorded in classrooms will allow us to analyse a task-in-action, as
Figure 2.3 Hani's weekend: turning an activity into a task we use the grid and task analysis to discuss an oral task from a
Norwegian primary school, and oral skills development more generally.
through the column, we first see the language learning goal s that are set
for the stage. The activities that will take place are then listed in the
next box. Below that, the activities are analysed in terms of demands
and support. The grid as a whole displays the plallllillg Illat wOllld
underpin the task.
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