Workshop designed for "Reflective teaching and learning in context course". Universidad de la Sabana. Master in English language teaching for self-directed learning.

1. “Developing effective and
meaningful communicative tasks”
Teacher-training workshop
by
Carlos Barragán
Cristina Barón
Rodrigo Molina
Claudia Mosquera
Tatiana Olmos
Salvador Jiménez
Maria Isabel Romero

2. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
• Communicative activities include any activity that
encourages and requires a learner to speak with
and listen to other learners, as well as with
people in the program and community.
• Communicative activities have real purposes:
 Find information
 Break down barriers
 Talk about self
 Learn about the culture.

3. Very Important!
• Even when a lesson is focused on developing reading
or writing skills, communicative activities should be
integrated into the lesson. Furthermore, research on
second language acquisition (SLA) suggests that
more learning takes place when students are
engaged in relevant tasks within a dynamic learning
environment rather than in traditional teacher-led
classes (Moss & Ross-Feldman, 2003)

4. TEACHER-TRAINING WORKSHOP
PREPARATION
1. Aspect to improve: IMPLEMENTATION OF
COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.
2. Target population: 25 state school teachers with
average English level of A2
3. Possible tasks to be carried out: Taking into account
that the average English level reached by this group of
teachers is A2, activities for beginners would be the
most suitable. Information gap, a survey or a game
would fit with teachers communicative skills.
4. Goal: Training teachers in the effective and
meaningful implementation of communicative tasks.

5. ACTIVITY PROCEDURES
1. Name of the activity: GETTING TO KNOW EACH
OTHER
2. Welcome and Introductions (10 minutes)
Trainers introduction, coalition members, and other
important guests. Brief explanation of the purpose
of the workshop. Ask participants to briefly introduce
themselves (including the grade they teach) and tell
of any experience they have had with communicative
tasks/activities.

6. 3. Activity introduction: (5 min.)Teachers will be told they are
going to participate in a communicative task which is the main
aspect to talk about during the workshop.
4. Activity implementation:
a. Warming-up (10 min)
AIMS Skills : speaking
Language: giving reasons, expressing likes and dislikes
Other: fun
LEVEL Elementary
ORGANIZATION Individual
PROCEDURE Step 1: Many pictures of food are put on the table. Each
student chooses two: one picture of something he likes, one
of something he dislikes
Step 2: each student shows the two pictures to the class and
explains why he likes or dislikes them

7. b. Vocabulary presentation: (10 min.)In groups of 5 people
teachers will participate in a concentration game containing
images of food and the word in English. These words will be
used during the survey activity.
c. Survey: (20 min.)
AIMS -Using vocabulary previously checked in the concentration
game.
-Asking for information and answer questions orally
-Classifying information
-Producing language in context
ORGANIZATION Trainees walk around the classroom
PROCEDURE Step 1: Trainees complete the chart by themselves.
Step 2: Trainees apply the survey to five people in the
classroom.
Step 3: Trainees compare their answers with others’. Then,
they join people with similar likes and dislikes.

8. Step 4: People in the group design a shopping list with the
food they need to prepare a recipe.
Step 5: Students report the class what people in the group
have in common and what they have different. They will also
explain why they chose that recipe.
Teachers will be given hand-outs with the survey and the
instructions. Instructions will also be given in oral way and the
activity will be modeled in order to check grammar, question
formation, ways to answer and instructions understanding.

9. SURVEY “OUR FAVORITE FOOD”
Dear trainee, in this format you will find a survey containing the vocabulary
reviewed about food.
1. Complete it with your own information.
2. Interview at least five(5) people and take notes of their answers.
3. Make groups with the two people you have similar likes and dislikes .
4. Make a shopping list with the necessary ingredients to prepare a recipe.
5. Report the class what people in your group have in common and the
reasons for choosing the recipe.

10. Suggested questions for the interview:
• What food in the chart do you like?
• What food in the chart don’t you like?
• What food do you have in your kitchen?
• What food do you need in your house?
• What food do you eat every day?
• What food do you eat sometimes?
• What food do you never eat?

11. ANALYSIS OF THE ACTIVITY PROCEDURE
(25 min.)
As our master’s aim is to implement self-directed learning, the
trainees will live the experience of being learners and they
will analyze the task from that position.
- How they felt
- What they found difficult
- What was easy
- What problems they had during the activity
- How effective communication was.
Then, they will be encouraged to take teacher’s position to
infer what the procedure for a communicative task is. In
groups of five people teachers will present their analysis.

12. COMMUNICATIVE TASKS PROCEDURE
(10 min.)
At the end of the workshop and after trainees presentations some important
aspects will be presented and compared with their ideas and opinions during
the analysis report. The main conclusions at the end of the workshop will be:
BEFORE THE LESSON DURING THE LESSON
Before the lesson the teacher must During the lesson teacher’s role is:
think of: -Create interest.
-A realistic situation. -Give planning time
-Goals -Model
-Motivation -Check for understanding.
-Grouping -Monitor (identify mistakes and
-Exchanges problems, encourage learners,
change pairings when necessary)
-Encourage learners to report the
result of the task and draw
conclusions.
Tait, Steven. (2001) Ingredients for successful communicative tasks. Retrieved
on April 15, 2012

13. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITY PROPOSAL
(30 min.)
Finally, after reflecting and analyzing the
communicative task used during the
workshop trainees will propose their
own activity for their particular learners.
Teachers will make groups of five people
taking into account the level they teach
in.
Each group will present the suggested
activities explaining the procedures they
would use in order to have an effective
and meaningful communicative task.
Conclusions will be drawn at the end of
the workshop.

14. REFERENCES
- Tait, Steven. (2001) Ingredients for successful
communicative tasks. Retrieved on April 15, 2012
- (n. g.) (n. d.) Elements of communicative activities