«xxi ғасырдағЫ Ғылым және білім»

11 
3) Aim and theme of the lesson
4) Level and age of the students.
What is the definition of activity, task and exercise? Exercises are adopted for 
learning and checking what students have learned. Exercise is the process that helps 
to practice a particular skill. And also exercise is the activity or situation that has a 
particular quality and result and it is the set of questions in a book that test a students’ 
knowledge or skill. They can be different according to the features of the lesson and 
level of the students. Whilst in solitude we use each in day to day practice, however 
placing the three in juxtaposition may raise issues of definition and use. In attempting 
to distinguish the each of the terms, difficulties were encountered; the distinctiveness 
of each being difficult to place as we admittedly use these interchangeably in 
practice. We opted rather to place these on a scale, all possessing similar traits but on 
varying levels. Whilst we believed that exercises were very controlled and structured, 
tasks were often less so and activities even less. Exercises resonate with a feeling of 
form and precision, their aim for ELT teachers seemingly to practice the correct 
production of the lesson target, whereas activities connote less structure, placing a 
focus on fluency and communication instead. We also believed that exercises were 
predominantly written, whereas tasks could be written, spoken, kinesthetic, or a take 
a multitude of various forms, and activities are typically active and physical. 
Jack Richards describes the three as follows: An exercise is a controlled and 
guided practice of a particular language aspect such as a reading comprehension. An 
activity describes any procedures in which learners work towards a goal such as play 
a game or engaging in a discussion. Finally, a task is something undergone by 
students using pre-existing or scaffold language resources. In our initial 
understanding of the terms, I believe that we were accurate in some aspects such as 
the decline in control; however it’s apparent they cannot be placed neatly on such a 
continuum for all aspects. My basic understanding of task comes from that of task-
based learning, a teaching procedure I have both researched and implemented in 
practice.
The fundamental of such is that aspects of language or vocabulary are provided 
to or elicited from students in the pre-task stage which they then use during the task 
stage in which they are to complete a task with the end goal being non-language 
related. For instance, students will prepare a presentation or construct a model. 
Richards lays out the following criteria for a task: Students use existing language 
resources or those introduced pre-task The outcome is not language orientated Is 
relevant to learners’ needs The focus is upon meaning Affords chances to reflect on 
language use Depends upon students’ communication and interaction skills Ellis 
similarly proposed the following criteria:

A primary focus on meaning

There needs to be a ‘gap’

Learners use own resources

Clear outcome that is not language based Activities used very common in ESL 
classrooms. It is called activity based method or Task based method. 

12 
Activity method is a way of teaching adopted by a teacher to emphasize his or 
her method of teaching through activity in which the students participate rigorously 
and bring about efficient learning experiences. It is a child centered approach. It is a 
method in which the child is actively involved in participating mentally and 
physically. Learning by doing is the main focus in this method. Learning by doing is 
imperative in successful learning since it is well proved that more the senses are 
stimulated, more a person learns and longer he or she retains. Pine .G said that in an 
activity based teaching, learners willingly with enthusiasm internalize and implement 
concepts relevant to their needs. Activity-based teaching strategies imply active 
learning on the part of the learner. Strategies include cooperative learning, 
simulations and games, problem-based learning, and self-learning modules—all 
requires that the learner do more than just listen and study. Learners are engaged in 
creating and storing up knowledge for themselves. So our understanding on the 
activity method by now should mean any learning that is carried out with a purpose in 
a social environment, involving physical and mental action, stimulating for creative 
action or expression.
Steps required for Effective Organization of Activities.

Planning.

Involving children in the learning process.

Each child is made an active learner.

For each activity ensure you follow the principles of:

What?

How? Work directions step by step, including:

With whom? Where? How long?

What after?

Role of a Teacher in an Activity Based Method

A planner, an organizer and evaluator.

Facilitator

Decision maker.

Knowledge imparter.
The information processing theory in psychology views learners as active 
investigators of their environment. This theory is found in the premise that people 
innately strive to make sense of the world around them. In the process of learning, 
they experience, memorize and understand. Students need to be provided with data 
and materials necessary to focus their thinking and interaction in the lesson for the 
process of analyzing the information. Teachers need to be actively involved in 
directing and guiding the students’ analysis of the information. It requires active 
problem solving by students in finding patterns in the information through their own 
investigation and analysis. With continued practice in these processes, students learn 
not only the content of the lesson but also develop their many other skills.
It enhances creative aspect of experience. Builds the student’s self-confidence 
and helps to develop understanding through work in their group. Gets experiences, 
develop interest, enriches vocabulary and provides stimulus for reading.

13 
Develops happy relationship between students and students, teachers and 
students. The main form of activity organization at the lesson is an exercise as 
repetition of the same typical operations and actions many times. Using exercises at 
the lesson demands understanding the types and kinds of exercises and their purpose, 
what place an exercise occurs in the system of exercises and what results can be 
achieved doing a certain exercise. Exercises must be created as a system. By the 
system of exercises we understand organization of teaching actions in algorithm 
(logical consecutive) in accordance with increasing of language and operational 
difficulties. It was mentioned, that the system of exercises includes itself tasks and 
activities. Van-de Branden defines a task as “… activity in which a person engages 
in order to attain an objective and which necessitates the use of language”[1,p.67] .
That is, by understanding language input and by producing language output; 
better still, by interacting with other people in real-life situations through the use of 
EL, the goal that the learner had in mind could be better achieved.[2,p.90] 

жүктеу/скачать 4.46 Mb.

Достарыңызбен бөлісу: