My observation of Task-Based Learning

As I said before, the private English institute I did my field experience at, recently switched to Task-Based Learning. I'm going to describe in this blog my observation of how all classes developed for you to see how this institution teaches EFL using TBL.  

- The class started at 12:10 with all girls but not all boys. 

- The teacher asked her students to compare homework in pairs (usually from the workbook) and later she proceeded to write on the board the objectives and task for the day. 

- Immediately the teacher read and explained what she just wrote; she emphasized on what the final product was and also on what the preparation would take. 

- Then she generally followed the exercises proposed by the text book: American cutting edge level 4 (as you can see in the picture) by Peter Moor and Sarah Cummingham (1998) Pearson, Longam. These exercises activated students vocabulary, provided some authentic material as readings or listening exercises, among other things.  

- Next she named again the task and let students work in pairs, it usually involved lots of talking, recycling vocabulary, activating students' schemata and students were expected to come up with a conclusion or final product.

- Students presented their task verbally (mainly) to the class, or volunteers spoke up their conclusions.

- The teacher then wrapped up everything by eliciting students' opinions, providing her own point of view, or simply by guiding the class into a discussion. 

- Finally she reminded students to work on the vocabulary she copied on the board, and she also assigned homework from the workbook.

If you read carefully this report you didn't find a grammar moment in the class, this is due to two things: first these are advanced students about to finish the whole English program, therefore they already have all the main grammar and are polishing what they already know. Second, this private institute -along with TBL- believes on teaching grammar implicitly which means students discover the grammar rules from the intensive input provided.