TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills

development Teachers Notes

Description
This activity begins with a review of teaching terms, then explores the purpose of some
typical classroom activities. Participants discuss what approaches different activity types fit
into. The syllabus area discussed here is types of activities and tasks for language and skills
development, tested in TKT Module 1 Part 3.
Time required:

60 minutes

Materials
required:

Participants Worksheet 1 (cut into strips)

Participants Worksheet 2 (one for each participant)

Participants Worksheet 3 (one for each participant)

Participants Worksheet 4 (one for each participant)

Sample Task (one for each participant)

To introduce and review teaching terms

To provide an opportunity for participants to discuss the design and

purpose of a range of common comprehension and production tasks
and activities

To provide an opportunity for participants to discuss frameworks for

activities and tasks

To provide practice in completing tasks in which types of activities

and tasks for language and skills development is the testing focus

Aims:

Procedure
1. (10 minutes) Cut up Participants worksheet 1 into strips before the session. The
strips are organised in matching pairs of teaching term and definition on the
worksheet. For example: to tell someone they have done well matches with Praise.
Give each participant one strip. Reduce or repeat the number of strips as
appropriate, making sure that you give out matching pairs of definitions and teaching
terms.
2. Tell participants that they have either a definition or a teaching term on their strips of
paper. They walk around the room saying their definitions/terms until they find
someone whose strip matches with theirs. When they find their partner, they should
sit down next to each other and discuss when teachers would use these terms in the
classroom.
3. Tell participants that knowledge of teaching terms falls into the syllabus area of types
of activities and tasks for language and skills development, which is tested in TKT
Module 1 Part 3 and that the terms in this activity were taken from the TKT Glossary.

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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills development Teachers Notes
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4. Explain that this syllabus area also tests candidates on their knowledge of the design
and purpose of a range of comprehension and production tasks and activities. Ask
participants:
What do comprehension activities do? (test or develop listening or reading
skills and subskills)
What do production tasks and activities do? (provide opportunities for
learners to practise and extend their productive skills, i.e. speaking and writing)
5. (10 minutes) Hand out Participants worksheet 2. Participants work with their
partners and choose the correct name for each task from the list at the top of the
worksheet. Check answers together (see key below).
6. (10 minutes) Refer participants again to the first activity on Participants worksheet
2 a survey. Ask:
Is a survey used for testing or developing comprehension or for
practising and extending productive skills? (practising and extending
productive skills)
Which productive skills? (speaking)
Is this a controlled practice activity, a less controlled practice activity or a
free practice activity? That is, how much choice do students have in the
language they use? (It depends on the survey. They can be designed to
practice specific language (controlled practice or less controlled practice), or
they could be designed to allow students to develop oral fluency (free practice).
Sum up by confirming that surveys are used to practise or extend speaking skills and
can be used for controlled practice, less controlled practice or free practice.
7. Participants work in pairs again and refer to Exercise 2 on Participants worksheet
2. Point out that some of the activities may be designed for more than one purpose.
Check answers together (see key below).
8. (15 minutes) Ask participants to think about lessons they have had and about how
activities can be linked in a lesson. Point out that the types of activities, the ways the
activities are used and how they follow each other in the lesson depends on the
approach, and the framework or procedures that the approach uses.
9. Participants work in groups of three. Give out Participants worksheet 3 Exercise
1, and ask participants to fold the worksheet in half along the dotted line (they should
not look at Exercise 2 yet). Participants discuss the frameworks/procedures and the
activities that are used for these approaches. Allow 5 minutes for this discussion.
10. Participants now unfold Participants worksheet 3 and look at Exercise 2. They
continue to work in their groups of three and decide which of the approaches go with
each of the frameworks in Exercise 2. Give out Participants worksheet 4 for
participants to check their answers.
11. (10 minutes) Give out the Sample Task. Participants complete the task on their own
then compare their answers with a partner. Check answers together (see key below).
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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills development Teachers Notes
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12. (5 minutes) Round up to summarise points covered. Ask participants:

What is the TKT Module 1 syllabus area for this lesson? (types of activities
and tasks for language and skills development)
What is the testing focus for this syllabus area? (the design and purpose of
a range on common comprehension and production tasks and activities,
teaching terms, frameworks for activities and tasks)
How can participants prepare for this section of the test? (look at the
section in the TKT Glossary on practice activities and tasks and make sure that
they are familiar with the terms and their meanings)

UCLES 2009. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For further
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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills development Teachers Notes
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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills
development Answer Keys
Key to Participants Worksheet 2 Exercises 1 and 2
Exercise 1

Exercise 2

1.

production

speaking, controlled practice, less controlled practice

and free speaking.

2.

production

speaking, controlled practice

3.

production

speaking, free practice

4.

comprehension

reading or listening

5.

production

speaking, free practice

6.

comprehension

listening

7.

production

writing, controlled practice or less controlled practice

8.

production

speaking, less controlled practice or free practice

9.

production

speaking, free practice

10. C

production

speaking, free practice

11. G

comprehension

reading

Key to Sample Task

1

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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills development Answer Keys
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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills
development Participants Worksheet 1
Drill - choral drilling and individual drilling

The teacher says a word or sentence and the students repeat it together as a class
or individually.

Revise/Review
When a teacher or a student looks again at language or skills that have already been
taught in order to remember this language better.
Contextualise
to put new language into a situation that shows what it means
Elicit

When a teacher asks specially designed questions or gives clues to get students to
give the information.
Model
The teacher says the language for students to repeat in a drilling.
Praise
to tell someone they have done well
Prompt
to help learners think of ideas or to remember a word or phrase by giving them a part
of it or by giving another kind of clue

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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills development Participants Worksheet 1
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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills
development Participants Worksheet 2
Exercise 1
Choose one of the task types (AK) for each of the activities below (111).
A guided writing
E brainstorming

B role-play
F chant

I rank ordering/prioritising

C problem solving

G jumbled text
J visualisation

D survey
H warmer

K jigsaw listening /reading

1. Students find out information from others by asking questions or using questionnaires in
order to practise speaking skills and/or specific language.
2. Students repeat a phrase, sentence, rhyme, verse, poem or song, usually with others, in
a regular rhythm.
3. An activity that a teacher uses at the beginning of a lesson to give the class more
energy.
4. A text is divided into two or more different parts. Students listen to or read their part
only, then share their information with other students so that in the end everyone knows
all the information.
5. Students think of ideas (usually quickly) about a topic (often noting these down). This is
often done as preparation before writing or speaking.
6. An activity where the teacher asks students to close their eyes and create the pictures in
their minds of the story she is telling them.
7. Students produce a text after a lot of preparation by the teacher. The teacher may give
the students a plan to follow, or ideas for the language to use.
8. A classroom activity in which students are given parts to act out in a given situation.
They usually work in pairs or groups.
9. Students are given a list of things to put in order of importance. It involves discussion,
agreeing/disagreeing and negotiating.
10.

Students work in pairs or groups talking together to find the solution to a problem.

11.
Students are given a text in which the paragraphs or sentences are not in the correct
order. The students put the paragraphs or sentences into the correct order.

Exercise 2
Look at the activities again. Is the activity a comprehension task or a production task? If its a
comprehension task, which skill? If its a production task, which skill?

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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills development Participants Worksheet 2
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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills
development Participants Worksheet 3
Exercise 1
Guided discovery

Task-based learning (TBL)

Grammar-translation method

Test-teach-test

Lexical approach

Total Physical Response (TPR)

Presentation, practice and production (PPP)

Skills-based lessons

____________________________________________________________________
Exercise 2

Frameworks for activities and task

Approaches

1. Activity with a task and discussion of the task activity to

focus on language used in the task
2. Grammar rule students translate a text
3. The teacher presents language items as instructions the
students do the actions the students give the instructions
4. Lead in pre-teach key vocabulary gist task detailed
comprehension task follow up productive activity
5. Activity with a task to see if students can use a particular
structure the teacher presents the new language to the
students students do another task using new language
6. The teacher presents the language in context controlled
practice activities less controlled freer practice
7. Activity with examples of the target language provided
activity for students to work out language rules for themselves
activity for students to practice the language
8. Activity for students to notice words or chunks of language
discussion of the meaning of the chunks of language
activity to practise the language

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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills development Participants Worksheet 3
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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills
development Participants Worksheet 4
Key to Participants worksheet 3 Exercise 2

Frameworks for activities and task

Approaches

1. Activity with a task and discussion of the task activity to

focus on language used in the task

Task-based learning
(TBL)

2. Grammar rule students translate a text

Grammar-translation
method

3. The teacher presents language items as instructions the

students do the actions the students give the instructions

Total Physical
Response(TPR)

4. Lead in pre-teach key vocabulary gist task detailed

comprehension task follow up productive activity

Skills-based lessons

5. Activity with a task to see if students can use a particular

structure the teacher presents the new language to the
students students do another task using new language

Test-teach-test

6. The teacher presents the language in context controlled

practice activities less controlled freer practice

Presentation, practice
and production (PPP)

7. Activity with examples of the target language provided

activity for students to work out language rules for themselves
activity for students to practice the language

Guided discovery

8. Activity for students to notice words or chunks of language

discussion of the meaning of the chunks of language
activity to practise the language

Lexical approach

UCLES 2009. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For further
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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills development Participants Worksheet 4
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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills
development Sample Task
For questions 17, match the classroom activities with the types of speaking practice listed
A, B or C.
Mark the correct letter (A, B or C) on your answer sheet.
You need to use some options more than once
Types of speaking practice
A

oral fluency practice

controlled oral practice

neither

Classroom activities
1

At the beginning of the lesson, we got into groups and talked about an interesting
newspaper article we had read.

The teacher gave us word prompts such as cinema and friends, and we had to
say them in sentences using the past simple, e.g. We went to the cinema. We
visited some friends.

We listened to a recording of two people talking about their hobbies, then did a
gap-fill comprehension task.

The teacher gave us roles such as film star or sports star and we had to role play
a party in which we chatted to each other.

We had a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of the internet.

The teacher read out some sentences, some of which were correct and some
incorrect. We had to shout out Right or Wrong.

We had to ask our partner five questions about abilities, using can, e.g. Can you
swim?

UCLES 2009. This material may be photocopied (without alteration) and distributed for classroom use provided no charge is made. For further
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TKT Module 1: Types of activities and tasks for language and skills development Sample Task
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