One of our tasks this week was to take an unorganized list of 21 tasks language learners might do and:

A.       Identify whether each is an input or an output (or both i/e)

B.       Place them in order, from most effective to least effective.

C.       Create at least 5 more activities, and add them to the list.

1. Listen to a song in the target language while on the bus. I-ME

2. Read the news in the target language. I-ME

3. Write a paragraph in the target language. O-LE

4. Write a paragraph in your native language, then translate it to the target language. O-LE

5. Repeat a recording of a native speaker. I/O-ME

6. Memorize target/native word pairs (e.g. hacer à do/make) from a list. I-ME

7. Read along with an audio recording of a conversation in the target language. I-ME

8. Live Listening exercise in Instreamia. I-ME

9. Conjugation drills (e.g. given a verb, subject, and tense, produce the correct verb form). I/O-LE

10. Live Reading exercise in Instreamia. I-ME

11. Article Recognition exercise on Instreamia. I/O-ME

12. Read a children’s story in the target language. I-ME

13. Write a paragraph in the target language AND record audio for it. O-LE

14. Try to say tongue twisters in the target language. I/O-LE

15. Participate in a live lecture on grammar principle. I/O-ME

16. Watch a recorded lesson on a grammar principle (in student’s native language). I-LE

17. Watch a recorded lesson on a grammar principle (in student’s target language). I-ME

18. Have a virtual, text-based (chat) conversation in the target language. I/O-ME

19. Have a virtual, speech/video-based (Skype) conversation in the target language. I/O-ME

20. Have a live conversation in the target language with peers. I/O-LE

21. Have a live conversation in the target language with native speakers. I/O-ME

22. NEW IDEA Replace your favourite song (target language) lyrics with your own. I/O – LE

23. NEW IDEA Write a letter to your pen pal in the target language in class. O-ME

24. NEW IDEA Answer reading comprehension questions for a newspaper article written in the target language in class. I/O-ME

25. NEW IDEA Make a presentation about yourself in the target language to a native speaker. O-ME

26. NEW IDEA Interview someone about their job in the target language. I/O-ME

My Reflections

Inputskills are listening and reading. I regard these as passive skills, where the student absorbs or takes in information. Output skills are speaking and writing. I regard these skills as active skills, where the student produces information. I do not see any one of these skills as more important than the other. I believe that they are all co-dependent. Indeed, there is a cross-over between input and output, where the student takes in information from what (s)he sees or hears, and re-produces it in the form of speaking or writing.

I consider all of the tasks listed above as effective. In any classroom it is important to use a variety of different tasks in order to keep the student engaged in learning. And this list is comprehensive enough to keep most students “on task” for quite some time!

But how to differentiate between most and least effective? I made two assumptions to help me identify each task as more or less effective than the other,

(i) the likelihood that the learner would get immediate feedback on their task, and

(ii) the likelihood that the feedback would come from a native speaker.

Thus, in order to make the tasks more effective, native or near-native speakers should be on hand to make corrections. Obviously, this may not always be time and cost effective for the average school. However, with the developments in language learning technology, such as Instreamia, (Plug, plug! No, no, I am not paid for this!) automated corrections by such a platform could save money, time and energy.