Materials & tasks design for teaching

Grammar & Vocabulary

Instructor: NGUYEN THUY DUONG
— How many vocabulary items can you
remember?
 Any difference in
the number of
WHO ARM words that you can
DOT LEG remember from
ASH BEG each list?
LAR PIG
SEX TON
OCT FOX Any difference in
FOR DOG the number of
AWE CAT words that you can
remember from
ION MAN each round?
CAN BOY
OWN SON
DIG MOM
OBI DAD
HUT BAD
THE SAD
— Were there any particular words that you seem
to remember better?

— What strategies did you use or invent to help

you remember?

— Were there any significance in the placing of an

item in a list?
— Uniform level of difficulty of items in a list.

— Grouping methods (e.g., based on meaning or

sound association)
Q: Can vocabulary be learned or acquired?

A: Vocabulary can be learned consciously or

acquired (picked up) subconsciously through
exposure to language.
àA vocab task/material should help learners
associate words with meaning or sound.

àIf possible, a vocab task/material should

suggest emotive or personal significance.

àWords in the beginning of a list tend to be

remembered better à A vocab task should
briefly teach important vocab at the beginning of
a lesson, review vocab later in the same &/or
the next lesson.
— Form: Pronunciation & Spelling

— Grammar: change of forms; variations of forms

— Collocation

— Aspects of meaning: denotation, connotation,

appropriateness, meaning relationships

— Word formation
— Concise definitions (X is mime, etc.)
an animal which…)
— Context (story or context
— Detailed description (of in which the item occurs)
appearance, qualities,
etc.) — Synonyms, antonyms

— Examples (e.g.: — Translation

hyponyms)
— Associated ideas,
— Illustration (picture, collocations
A vocab task is often
object, etc.) INTEGRATED in
speaking/ listening/
— Demonstration (acting, reading/ writing tasks.
— Develop a vocabulary tree (as extensively as
possible)

— Use flashcards showing key words à Ss

complete phrases or sentences using the key
words

— [higher level]: have Ss take more responsibilities

for decision-making how words are used in
different contexts.

— Etc.
— Share your opinions on the given 5-10 minute
vocabulary tasks.
 Look at the following list of words & answer the Qs which follow:
attractive, beautiful, chubby, emaciated, fat, flabby, good-looking, handsome, hideous,
lean, muscular, nubile, obese, overweight, plain, pretty, shapely, sinewy, skinny, slender,
slight, slim, stout, tanned, thin, ugly, underweight, voluptuous, well-built

1. At what level would it be appropriate for Ss to concentrate on

these vocab items?

2. How could you get Ss to understand the meaning & connotation of

the words?

3. What aspects of the pronunciation of these words would you draw

Ss’ attention to?

4. What kind of situations can you think of to get Ss using the new
words?
— Watch a video clip that demonstrates how
games are used in teaching vocabulary and
answer the questions in the handouts.
How do you use this material (picture) to develop a
grammar task that teaches the present simple?
— A grammar task should activate learner’s previous knowledge.

— Instruction of a task may be explicit or implicit; presentation may be

inductive or deductive.

BUT communicative tasks should NOT be used alone in teaching

grammar. (Why?)

à communicative tasks are NOT sufficient for development of learner

accuracy in the use of grammar points.

— Extensive communicative exposure to the instructed grammar point is

essential.
Explicit: clearly & directly present a new grammatical item.
Implicit: involve only communicative use of the grammatical item.
— Production activities/tasks are important.
(Why?)

à help learners practice & receive feedback.

— Tasks in form of group work is recommended

(Why?)

à Learners have chance to receive

communicative input & produce output à allow
collaborative construction of meaning to occur.

— Post-lesson activities/tasks are also in need.

1. Awareness

2. Controlled drills

3. Meaningful drills

4. Guided, meaningful practice

5. (Structure-based) free sentence composition

6. (Structure-based) discourse composition

7. Free discourse
Read the given text and answer the Qs:
1. What level could you use the text with?

2. How would you use the text to revise/teach

different ways of talking about the present?
3. How would you introduce the text?
4. How would you get learners to practice the
different present tenses in the text?
5. What other activities/tasks would you use with
the text?
Write a reflection paper (1000 - 1200 words)
answering the following questions:

— What do you know now about ELT materials

development and evaluation that you did not
know before taking the course?

— What is/are your current concern(s) regarding

materials development and evaluation in your
own teaching context?