Activity Sheets in TBLT Curriculum Assignment Paper

Activity sheets in TBLT curriculum
Context
The context in which I would implement the activities being developed for this assignment is teaching English as a second or other language. These language learners are studying the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) with a score of 6. The goal of these language learners is to learn a new language—English—so that they can communicate in it. The objective of second language teaching is not just teaching vocabulary and grammar, but providing language learners with skills for effective communication (Celce-Murcia, Dornyei & Thurrell, 2011). The language course will have the overall goal of communication competence.
IELTS is designed to evaluate the language aptitude and capability of candidates who want to work or study in a country in which English is the language of communication (Cambridge English Language Assessment, 2016). IELTS is requisite before a candidate can be allowed to enrol in universities in Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, the United States, and Ireland, all of which have English as the language of communication. It is also widely recognized by employers, professional bodies and government agencies in these countries. Every year, in excess of 1.5 million candidates take this test (Costin, 2015). Therefore, communication lessons or practice are necessary for candidates who wish to enter a college or university in an English-language country. These usually require an IELTS score of 6 or 7, with a minimum score in each of the four sections of the IELTS test. These sections include speaking, writing, listening and reading in English. IELTS aims to assess the English language proficiency of people who are not native/first-language English speakers.
The communication activities below would be implemented with candidates in the IELTS band score of 6. A candidate with Band 6 is considered to be a competent user of the English language in spite of some misunderstandings, inaccuracies and inappropriate expressions, and such a student is usually able to utilize and generally comprehend complex language, especially in situations that are familiar (Grant, 2011). In IELTS, there is no Pass or Fail as candidates are usually graded on their performance in the test, with the use of scores from 1to 9for every part/section of the test. Cambridge English Language Assessment (2016) states that whenever and wherever the test is taken, the nine-band scoring system consistently measures performance. IELTS students with score of 6 particularly need the adapted communication activities since they are preparing to go to college/university or to work in a country where English is extensively utilized as the language of communication hence they need to be able to express themselves well in the English language and be understood correctly. These activities will help them to properly construct full sentences and texts in both written and spoken forms. The students will also be able to mix different language structures into logical and organized written and oral texts. This will greatly help them in the conversations they engage in with other people in the university/college or place of work, and they will also be able to make coherent speeches.
Communication activities
Jigsaw listening communication activity
This activity is appropriate for strategic competence. Strategic competence is basically about knowing how to work around gaps in a person’s knowledge of the target language and how to identify communication breakdowns and repair or even prevent them (Thornbury, 2012). The jigsaw listening activity can be described as relevant to communication since it requires language learners to communicate with one another to fill-in missing information and integrate it with their other information. This activity is also relevant to communication because, in completing it, students are required to utilize their language resources to communicate meaningfully (Leung & Lewkowicz, 2013).
Learners’ competence would be developed through the jigsaw listening activity because they would practise listening to information in English and then convey that information to another person in paraphrase. In essence, this is a type of information gap activity in which the students are missing the information which they require to complete the task, and they have to talk to one another in order to get that information (Grant, 2011). The activity is performed inside the classroom, with language learners obtaining information from other learners in the classroom to find the information that they require.
The principles of communicative language teaching (CLT) that are involved in this activity include (i) adopting a learner-centred approach whereby the educator considers his learners as partners; and (ii) teaching communication competence, which entails using grammar appropriately (Brumfit & Johnson, 2011). The activity is vital for a number of reasons: not only does it involve skills like re-phrasing and clarifying meaning, but also represents real communication, provides a chance for extended speaking practice, and involves high motivation (Costin, 2015).
Dyad communication activity
This activity is relevant to communication because it allows the student to learn how to construct longer stretches of language so that sentences or paragraphs actually construct from their elements a coherent whole. Furthermore, the student will learn how to combine phrases, words and sentences to create speeches, conversations and other communications (Brumfit & Johnson, 2011). The learners’ competence is developed through the Dyad activity because the language learner discovers how to create and understand written or oral texts in the respective modes of writing/speaking and reading/listening (Celce-Murcia, Dornyei & Thurrell, 2011). Moreover, the learner will discover how to combine various language structures into coherent and cohesive written/oral texts.
The principles of CLT that are involved in the Dyad communication activity include: (i) ensuring there are real partners, real needs and information gaps within the classroom; and (ii) giving priority to fluency over accuracy. Fluency is the ability to use the language in an effective and spontaneous way, while accuracy entails being able to use the language in a correct way (Brumfit & Johnson, 2011). This classroom activity focuses on performing a task which involves negotiation of information or information sharing or is mediated through language. As in any other communication activity in the Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) curriculum, communication intent in this activity is given emphasis. Language learners are given the opportunity for significant use of the English language in this activity.
Summary of the communicative activities
The two activities that were identified for the TBLT curriculum are (i) the Jigsaw listening communicative activity; and (ii) the Dyad communicative activity. I have revised the two activities by providing a detailed description of the way in which the adapted activities would enhance the particular competence. Furthermore, I have revised the activities by clearly explaining the way in which the other 3 competencies would also be developed.