JETIP CAR 2004 REPORT

HOW TO DESIGN TASKS FOR COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOMS

School: Jiangsu Qidong Middle School & Huilong Middle School, Qidong City, Jiangsu Province
CAR facilitator: Ye Wenhua (Priscilla Leaf), Senior One English teacher in Jiangsu Qidong
Middle School, supervisor of the Teaching and Research Division of Qidong Educational
Bureau, Jiangsu Province
Participants: Guo Hongwei (Senior Two, Jiangsu Qidong Middle school)
Huang Liqun (Senior Two, Huilong Middle School, Qidong City, Jiangsu Province)
Xue Huisong (Senior Two, Huilong Middle School, Qidong City, Jiangsu Province)
Yang Hong (Senior Two, Huilong Middle School, Qidong City, Jiangsu Province)
Aims: By the end of the CAR(the first stage), the participants will have:
1. known what CAR means;
2. learnt to put CAR into practice;
3. learnt how to design tasks to make their interesting more communicative and interesting so as
to attract the students attention
Planning: As a supervisor, I often attend and observe my colleagues English lessons. I find few
of them can design communicative tasks and apply them to their classes. To solve the
problem, I have been trying to do several things:
1. observe lessons;
2. collect data;
3. make a questionnaire;
4. organize some workshops, give some lectures and recommend several books to make the
teachers acquainted with CAR and how to design tasks for communicative classrooms;
5. observe their classes again to see if they have got a knowledge of CAR and what a
communicative task is;
and etc.
1. Problem identification:
From August to October last year, I was lucky enough to get a chance to go to the UK to take
part in the Jetip programme. Before and after the trip, Chris from the British Council gave us some
lectures on CAR and showed us several activities to make our classes more communicative. So
after I returned to China, I began to observe my colleagues with the purpose to compare our
classes with the classes given by Chris and other English teachers. I found that most of our
teachers knew nothing about task designing. For example, they would let the students recite the
words and the grammar rules by rote memorization instead of trying to find ways to make them
interesting to arouse students interest.
2. Preliminary investigation:
First, I borrowed the Questionnaire made by Shangwen Junior High School, Huangpu
District and gave it out to find out our students preference. The result was quite similar to that of
Shangwen Junior High School. I can see from the result (see Appendix 1) that our students prefer
tasks to exercises or drills.
Then I held a discussion with several teachers(the names are listed above) to ask for their felling
about their teaching in class. All of them agreed on the point that the students in senior high
schools are less active in class. They were eager to change this but didnt know how. I also
distributed several personal reviews among them to let them reflect on their teaching. One of the

inquiry result struck me most: All of them wrote that they benefited a lot from attending language
workshops and high-quality demonstration classes.
3. Classroom observation, data collection and analysis
The next thing I did was to observe their classes one by one and make a lot of notes of how they
gave tasks for students to fulfill. The common vocabulary and grammar teaching is quite dull. For
example, they would just tell the students to open their books and read after the teacher when they
taught new words. They would tell the students grammar rules one by one and then let the students
do grammar exercises. When they finished teaching a passage, they seldom did something to
check their students understanding of the text. After thinking the phenomenon over and discussing
it with the teachers, I found there are two reasons for this: one is that they were taught in this way
when they themselves were in high school or at college; the other was that nobody ever pointed
this out to them even when they were being trained to be a teacher. There was need to acquaint
them with how to design tasks.
In August this year, when I took charge of the English teachers training session, I purposely
organized several workshops. One of the workshops was entitled How to design written tasks for
communicative classroom(See Appendix 2). I gave them several lectures on how to bring
activities into classrooms, such as word guessing, describing and drawing pictures, ball games,
story writing and etc. I even photocopies some games learnt from Paula, one of the English
teacher trainers on Setip and Chris from the British Council. I showed them how to begin a class
by brainstorming or leading in in other ways and how to end a lesson with an interview or a
debate. Also, I recommended some books for them to refer to, such as the magazine Foreign
Language Teaching in Schools in which there were some articles on how to design tasks and
about simulative tasks. And I offered some handouts I brought back from the UK, which were
taken from some books on activities.
4. Formulation of possible solutions:
The most important is doing not listening for a teacher. So even after I did all of these
things, I was still not quite sure whether they would follow me and their own intention or not.
Then the new term began. I attended their classes again. I am glad to see they are making changes,
more or less, though not quite to our satisfaction. After class, I often exchange opinions with them
and then they will improve their tasks in the next lesson. We can see that real tasks and simulative
tasks greatly arouse the students interest. For example, one of the teachers use the name card
game(See Appendix 3) and the gossip game on the first day of the new term to break the ice
between the new students. It was really wonderful!
5. Practical outcome:
After several months of trying, failing, adapting, trying again, succeeding., the teachers have
come to understand how important a communicative task is. It really motivates the students to be
active in class and after class. It helps the students to use English more in class and after class. It
makes the students remember English more easily. It creates a good atmosphere for students. It
also enables students to help each other and cooperate with each other. As the teachers cooperating
with me usually have a good command of the English language, its very easy for them to apply
the tasks to their English class. Yet we dont know whether these methods work until the final
examination of this term. But one thing is certain: their students are becoming more and more
interested in English and their classes are usually more lively than those of other teachers.
In October, I asked two of them to give open classes to al the senior high school English

teachers. Considering the students preference, both of them used the multimedia in class(See
Appendix 4 and 5). They received a warm applause and set a good example to other teachers.
VI. Reflection
Yet how to monitor the class, how to involve everybody in and how to evaluate their
behaviour in class have become a problem because in China we always have such large classes.
Everybody can see that I am the only teacher but there are more than 50 of them! We will try to
solve the problem in the next CAR cycle besides further improving our ability to design tasks for
communicative classrooms.

Appendix 1 Questionnaire

ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING QUESTIONNAIRE

(Altogether 335 students handed in the paper.)
1. Which language do you prefer in class?
A. Only Chinese
27
B. Only English
35
C. Both, but Chinese more
95
D. Both, but English more
178
E. Others: ________
0
2. Which teaching aids do you like best?
A. Pictures
43
B. Posters
5
C. Objects or models
83
D. Multimedia equipment
194
E. Others: ________
10
3. Which is most helpful when learning new words?
A. Reading again and again
B. Using pictures, models or objects
110
C. Playing spelling games
120
D. Practising using the words
20
E. Others: ________
35
4. Which is most helpful when learning a text?
A. Reading again and again
B. Listening to explanations from the teacher 123
C. Comprehension checks on the text
D. Repeating or acting out the text
109
E. Others: ________
2
5. Which is most helpful in grammar learning?
A. The teacher's explanations
20
B. A lot of similar practice
20
C. A variety of practice activities
D. The teacher's explanations plus practice
E. Others: ________
0
6. Which do you prefer during review?
A. Tests
B. A lot of practice
56
C. Practice in simulated situations
97
D. Practice in real situations
E. Others: ________
0
7. Which activity do you like best?
A. Listening
B. Speaking

50

40
8

96
199

49

199

65
70

C. Reading
D. Writing
E. Others: ________
8. Which do you prefer during listening classes?
A. Only listen
B. Listen and practise
C. Listen and retell
D. Read the tape scripts
E. Others: ________
9. Which do you prefer during speaking classes?
A. Repeating the model
B. Speaking according to the model
C. Speaking according to the cues
D. Free talk
E. Others: ________
10. Which do you prefer during reading classes?
A. Only read
B. Read and practise
C. Read and retell or act
D. Recite the text
E. Others: ________
11. Which do you prefer during writing classes?
A. Write according to the model
B. Write according to the cues
C. Free writing
D. Follow the teacher's instructions
E. Others: ________

134
66
0
54
95
80
106
0
30
110
112
83
0
50
76
161
48
0
75
65
117
78
0

Appendix 2 Workshop

How to Design Written Tasks for Communicative Classrooms

by Ye WenHua(Priscilla Leaf), supervisor of the Teaching and Research Division
of Qidong Educational Bureau, Jiangsu Province
Stage One
1. Give out handouts with two pictures on them;
2. Ask the teachers to design a written task based on the two pictures;
3. The teachers share their ideas in pairs.
Stage Two
1. Discuss what a communicative task is. Raise the question: Are the tasks youve just designed
authentic in real life? What aspects should you take into consideration when you are trying to
design communicative written tasks?
(Suggested answer: a. Purpose; b. Target reader; c. Format)
2. Design tasks again, also based on the two pictures, but this time the teachers must make their
tasks authentic;
3. The teachers share their new ideas in pairs.
Stage Three
1. Show them the writing test in 2003s English paper of the National College Entrance
Examination. Ask them: Is this task authentic?
(Suggested answer: Yes.
a. PurposeOffer information about residence;
b. Target readerKey Pal from the UK; 3. FormatA letter.)
2. The tasks here can be fulfilled individually. How can we improve it so that it is more
appropriate for classroom use?
3. Handouts from David Nuan: Designing Tasks for the communicative Classroom; Cambridge
University Press 1989, P172-175.
4. Ask the teachers to carry out the task in groups.
5. Report their solutions to the whole class.
Stage Four
Conclusion and reflection

Appendix 3 A sample of task designing

Keys to a Better Life

Pre-reading task:
Ask your friends the following questions and write down the answer. You may add any
question to the list as long as it relates to money management. Then prepare a short report on how
your friends get and use their money.
1. Do your parents give you any pocket money?
About how much do they give you?
How do you spend your pocket money? I spend my pocket money on ______.
a. snacks
b. reference books, such as an English workbook
c. reading materials, such as story-books, newspapers or magazines for entertainment
d. toys
e. clothes
f. school supplies
g. software of some sort to help you study
h. other things
2. Have you earned any money yourself?
In which way?
How much have you earned so far?
3. Have you got a Piggy Bank?
Do you build up your money in it?
Do you use the money in the Piggy Bank?
4. How much money can you receive as a New Year gift every Spring Festival?
What do you usually do with the money?
a. Give it to your parents.
b. Buy things youve been longing for.
c. Put it in the bank.
Post-reading tasks:
1. Children everywhere love toys. As a matter of fact, who doesn't? But are toys the number one
item that children anywhere will buy when they have some money to spend? Do children in
different cultures make the same choices? Use your imagination to fill the table. The following
items are just for reference.
toys clothes reading materials snacks school supplies software of some sort
American young spenders

Chinese young spenders

No 1 item
No 2 item
No 3 Item
No 4 item
2. The summer vacation is over. During the holiday, you found a part-time job and earned some
money. Now you have got 1,000 yuan in your pocket. How will you spend the money? Will you
follow the bankers advice? Think it over and tell your partner your plan and explain why.

3. Homework: Finish all the exercises on page 90 and page 91.

Teaching process
I. Warming up
A leafSelf introductionA card on which is written some information about Maggie
11
1,000

5
Maggie
10

11: eleven year old

5: study in Grade 5 in an elementary school
1,000: the sum of money she gets every year as a lunar New Year giftput it away in the bank
10: pocket money she gets or earns every weekbuying reading materials, buying ice-creams,
buying school supplies, buying toys and put the rest in a piggy bank
2. Lead-in (Pre-reading task)
A questionnaire a. Instructions
b. Survey
c. Report
d. Conclusion
So you all have got some money. But do you know whats the best way to use your money? How
can you use your money in a smart way? Lets turn to page 90 and look at the text. Lets see what
the experts advice is.
3. Presentation
a. First reading (skim for the gist)
What are the keys to a better life according to the text?
Education and Money management skills.
b. Second reading (read for details)
Who said this? 2,500 bankers.
When? On April 17, 1999. (When they gave talks)
Where? In elementary schools throughout the United States.
Why? They wanted to help the children to be able to make smart decisions about money and
teach children how to save money.
c. Third reading
What are the tips and skills that the bankers advised the children to learn?
Theme: Develop A Habit Of Saving When You Are Young!
How: a. make your savings visible so build up your savings in a piggy bank
b. make sure that part of your money goes into your savings
For every dollar you earn or have,
spend 25 cents on what you want or need now,
put 25 cents away for a bigger item later, and
save or invest the rest.
Explain some of the words or sentences if necessary.
4. Practice
a. Retell the text
b. A game: A word game
5. Production (Post-reading task 1 and task 2)

6. Homework