Grammar sequenced Communicative Task based Learning

So after reading so much about CLT and TBLT and the lack of focus on accuracy.. I'm starting to wonder.. how would I approach it? I noticed the same problem when I taught this past year in China.

It was quite interesting. I was given a "blank sheet" and told to go plan the course, and not knowing a clue about what I was doing, I went with intuition. Turns out, in the end, I did a task based communicative CBI approach...without realizing it! Amazingly it was intuition driven. But one thing that gnawed away at me the whole time was this: their form sucked.

They could talk and interact (and that was a big milestone reached I'm told as most Chinese students fear talking), but it left me feeling frustrated. Sure, they were all able to talk now, but they talked terribly! I could understand them... but I know no other native speaker could. Their form was lacking. And I knew why too...

...because I don't know grammar well myself!

So slowly towards the latter half of the 2nd semester I started to wonder - how can I approach this? How can I deal with their terrible form, while they are building the confidence to speak, and learning to put into practice the years of written/reading/exam English they had learned?

There was one idea that I had in China which I never got to try... and that was to take a grammar form, isolate it (from other forms) and then drill it... BUT... in a communicative setting. Now having learned the 'labels' and the trends, I'm wondering... if this would indeed work.

The idea would be - to have the class sequenced by form. But, rather than teach the form in isolation (that is, from context and meaning which GT does), take the form, and teach it IN context. And then, drill (habit forming) the association between the form and the context. (There is an "approach" that I am working from -and that is to 'train' the students to associate context with form. This association is key to fluency I believe - I will explain this later).

(note: although the lesson is form sequenced, the associative process is the opposite. It is identifying the situation/context first, and then choosing the appropriate form. Not the other way around. Thus the form is 'contextually' driven)

So here is a simple activity (or two) that I thought up. I'll tackle 2 forms that were terrible that I encountered. The proper use of pronouns, and the proper use of past tense...

1. pronouns

In Chinese, he/she/it is all contained in one word "ta". Thus, there are no gender associations. So when students spoke, they would always make the blunder "He is my girl friend", or "She is my father". So how does one address this?

Well, the problem is association. They need to instinctively associate the right word in the right context. So an activity that drills this association would be helpful (so I think).

The activity that I was going to do (but never got to try) was to do a quick game. The game was to flash pictures of people, and quickly the students had to say a 1 liner using the he / she to get it right.

But then.. where it gets more complicated (phase 2) is to have the students FOCUS on something other than the he/she and then indirectly associate it. For example, if I had the pictures of people but with name tags. Then they would have to say "his name is xxx", "her name is xxx".
So they are not mentally focusing on "is this a he or she?" but on something else, and subconsciously?? peripherally? focus on that form. This could further be stretched out to have them describe the picture.. ie he is taller than her, she is taller than him. The idea is to flash the pictures fast, and have them describe it, and then have them so quick to 'associate' that it becomes second nature - a habit... and that instant reflex is what I believe to cause "fluency". There is no thought. The concept is linked (solidly) to the pronoun.

This activity can then easily be adapted into a more 'communicative' style (ie interview format), and easily sequenced into a task (ie. A murder mystery, or cop identifying a mug shot, a blame game - he did it! no she did it! etc etc)


Now there is another activity that can be done, but I will demonstrate with a 2nd exercise.

2. past tense verb:

My students were terrible at getting the right past tense. They couldn't use it right. Rather than teach it in isolation (near useless imo, unless they really didn't know what a past tense looks like) and understand the metalinguistic features, I wanted them to know how to use it. So I had to brainstorm and think of instances where past tense is used. In communication, it's in retelling past stories. In reporting. In a diary. (Present would be in descriptions, stating truths, etc).

So the idea for an activity was this.

They have to describe an event / scene / that took place last week. The students would write down a list of 10 things that happened and then describe it. It would all be done using the past tense. (for beginners, a prompt would help ie. write "Start with - 'Yesterday I...'"). Once they could say the story in past tense, they are good to go.. for phase 2.

There is a projector in my room and what I was planning on doing was to project the day on the screen. It would project "YESTERDAY", or "TODAY", or "TOMORROW". The students would have to relay the information to their partner (and this can easily be adapted into a communicative activity - perhaps the 2nd half of the class) in accordance to the time shown. Suddenly, midway through their conversation, an audible bell would sound, and the time would change. The students would then have to instantly *adapt* their conversation to use the correct tense. So instead of saying "yesterday i went to the store and bought a bag" the would switch to "tomorrow I will go to the store, and buy a bag..".

An intermediate stage can take place here where the correct form is corrected. (ie, the first switch from past to future - the T can go around and make sure everyone is using it right)

Again, like the previous exercise, as then, the activity continues and as the TIME switches, the Ss must adapt their conversations accordingly. The focus is once again on associating the conversational context with the correct form (verb tense).

As for making it communicative, this activity can also be adapted. For example, instead of simply retelling the events, it can be an information type dialogue that requires one student to ask the other questions.

Habit forming once again is the key: associating when to use what form. Context driven. Not the other way around.


Thus in this way, grammar / form / is the sequencing agent. But taught in context. In a communicative setting. And easily as part of a task based lesson.