Task Based Learning

As it has been said many times, one of the most important things of the methodology which is in the base of CLIL is the increase of the STT (Student Talking Time). But it is also important that students realise the sense of the activitiy. The context helps, but if the activity has a certain objective, the motivation of the students is higher. This is the sense of the TBL (Task Based Learning).
In TBL, learners doing tasks will be making free use of whatever English they can recall to express the things that they really want to write in the process of achieving the task goal.

The features of a good task are:
- Engages the learner's interest
- The meaning is the primary focus
- There is a goal or an outcome
- The success is judged in terms of outcome
- Completion is a priority
- The activity relates to real world activities

There are different types of TBL, for example: listing, comparing, ordering and sorting, comparing, problem solving, sharing personal experiences, creatice tasks,...

As all the activities we have seen, the TBL has also different components or steps:

- The pre-task: Introduction of the topic. Teacher explores the topic with the class, highlights usefull words and phrases, and helps students understand task instructions and prepare for the task.

- The task cycle:

1. Students do the task in pairs or small grups.
2. Planning: Students prepare to report to the hole class (orally or writing) how they did their task, what they decided or what they discovered.
3. Report: Some groups report to the class or exchange written reports and compare the results. After that, it can be a comparison between the groups, or a competition. 

- Language focus:

1. Analysis: Students analyse specific features of the text or transcript
2. Practice: Teacher conducts practice of new phrases ocurring during or after analysis.

In our case, the task was to build a house with flashcards and paper clips,  and to sell it to our teacher Samantha. And our goup built this incredible house:

<< This is a picture of some of us with the teacher Samantha in te middle.












How can I adapt this to my classes?
In a philosophy class, we could change a bit the sense of the activity, and ask for a philosophical product. For example, to design a product which can make people happy, in order to discuss about what is happiness and how we can achieve it. Or a perfectly fair city, to think about justice.