ECML's 2nd medium-term programme (2004-2007)

Training teachers to use the European languages portfolio

Training teachers to use the ELP:

Language communication tasks /
joining up the ELP, the curriculum and the schoolbook

1. Introduction

Communication activities are in a key position in the ELP, as they are included in the
passport and in many of the language biographies. The main phases in carrying out an
activity are design, execution and evaluation. We shall be dealing here with activity
design, because part of the work with the ELP consists, precisely, in designing language
communication activities. Broadly speaking, activity design is necessary whenever a
descriptor constitutes a learning objective and consequently when a language
communication activity is the starting point for communication and learning operations.
This raises the question of how to move on from a language communication activity
descriptor to the activity itself, or in other words how to design the activity in such a way
as to ensure its success.

activity descriptor > learning objectives > activity design > operations

More specifically, why should ELP users have to learn to design tasks? The fact is that a
learner who is managing his/her own ELP will carry out self-evaluations with the help of
checklists of communication activities (as in the case of the Swiss ELP). Drawing on
these self-evaluations, the learner sets his/her own learning objectives, which take the
form of “communication activities”. How is (s)he to achieve these activity objectives?
How can (s)he proceed? Another learner working with his/her own ELP may note that
his/her schoolbook (or even school curriculum) is insufficient to cover all his/her own
learning objectives and that the textbook lacks any activities capable of illustrating these
objectives. (S)he must therefore design the latter activities on the basis of the activity
descriptors. Alternatively, teachers may find themselves with a school curriculum
stressing common reference levels in terms of language communication activities, a
curriculum which is, for instance, directly modelled on the ELP, and yet the teachers have
no textbook really suited to this type of objective. They must therefore “teach” these
objectives, and the learners have to follow suit.

Training teachers to use the ELP - Module “Language communication tasks /

joining up the ELP, the curriculum and the schoolbook”, H.P. Hodel 1
But in this case, how are we actually to move on from an activity descriptor to the
activity itself? A highly promising way forward, in our view, is to incorporate this
activity into something broader, i.e. into a task based, precisely, on the activity in
question. It is this task concept that we shall be developing here.

task

activity

2. Language communication tasks

2.1 Definition of task

The Common European Framework defines a task as basically “any purposeful action
considered by an individual as necessary in order to achieve a given result in the context
of a problem to be solved, an obligation to fulfil or an objective to be achieved” (2.1).
Let us illustrate this concept with an example from a language communication context. A
communication task might consist in reaching a group decision on a project. The task
would include reading out a report, followed by discussions between the group members
[picture: group discussions/round table/young people]
In this example the task obviously comprises reception and interaction activities and
activates several types of competence.

2.2 The “learning” dimension of the task

To a language learner, the objectives to be achieved and the problems to be solved (to
quote the CEF definition) are twofold in nature, involving both communication and
acquisition. Moving on from a language communication activity descriptor to the
activity itself, therefore, the problem to be tackled is precisely to ensure that this activity
involves the learner both in as real a communication as possible, ideally of a type relevant
to the learner, and in an effective learning process. We are therefore looking for a type of
task that is aimed at communication and learning, at meaning or substance as well as
form, and at the manner in which this meaning is understood, expressed and negotiated.
We could add a third requirement: the task should also include reflection on and
evaluation of communication and learning.

Training teachers to use the ELP - Module “Language communication tasks /

joining up the ELP, the curriculum and the schoolbook”, H.P. Hodel 2
 task
communication learning

Reflection/evaluation

These are the main reasons for introducing the concept of “language communication
task” at this point. This concept models, and in a way synthesises, what the CEF defines
as three different types of task: authentic, educational and metacommunicative. The idea
of a language communication task can therefore help constantly maintain the “changing
balance … between attention to meaning and form, fluency and accuracy” (CEF 7.1).

Language
communication task
Authentic Educational
communication learning
Metacommunicative
reflection/evaluation

3. Outline “language communication task”

In elaborating our language communication task concept or model we have had recourse
to various chapters in the CEF (particularly Chapters 2 and 7), which together have led us
to the following definition of this type of task: The language communication task is an
interaction combining and calling on several dimensions: language activities,
communication skills (e.g. linguistic competence), strategies (except in the case of a
routine or “automatic” activity) and texts (input and/or output texts), transmitter and
receiver, learner attitude, the demands of the situation and purposes (communication,
acquisition, pedagogical, social, cultural, moral, recreational, aesthetic, affective, etc).

Dimensions of the language communication task according to the CEF:

- linguistic activities
- communication skills
- strategies
- texts
- transmitter/receiver
- learner attitude
- demands of the situation
- purposes.

The table below recapitulates these dimensions, with a number of modifications (Table:
Language communication task):

Training teachers to use the ELP - Module “Language communication tasks /

joining up the ELP, the curriculum and the schoolbook”, H.P. Hodel 3
3.1 Table: Language communication task

reception production
Language communication activity(ies) Language communication activity(ies)
(ELP, CEF, Ch. 4) (ELP, CEF, Ch. 4)
Communication themes / contents
Input text(s) Output text(s)
Participants in communication (interlocutors)
General and communicative language General and communicative language
competences (CEF, Ch. 5) competences (CEF, Ch. 5)
Communication strategies Communication strategies
Planning, co-operation, aids, general and technical strategies
Individual objectives Individual objectives
Criteria for success Criteria for success
documentation

3.2 Explanation of table

In our view, it might be desirable to take systematic account of both aspects of

communication, namely reception and production, even though only one of these aspects
is relevant to the set task. For instance, when we design a reading (reception) task, it is
useful to think of or to design a product, a production as the end result of such reading.
And conversely, in writing a text, it is often advantageous to begin with a number of
readings as the basis for the text. Taking account of both reception and production in a
task induces users/learners to put themselves at risk and deal more closely with language,
to treat the language more intensely and deeply, which helps communication and
learning.

It is as if these conditions were fulfilled naturally in interaction and mediation, a fact

which might help explain the major importance attached nowadays to interaction in
language learning.

In the work with the ELP, a language communication activity usually constitutes the
task’s starting point – and its finishing point. The reason why we added (ELP, CEF) in
brackets (as in the case of “language communication activity”, as well as other items in
the table) was to remind people that the ELP and the CEF, with their scales of descriptors,
can be used to define these items coherently and transparently.

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joining up the ELP, the curriculum and the schoolbook”, H.P. Hodel 4
The activities selected by learners cannot be conceived of without a link to one or more
texts, whatever the medium carrying the latter. The texts themselves present thematic
categories belonging to different fields of community life.

In any act of communication, regard must also be had to the interlocutor. The need for
communication presupposes a “communication vacuum” between the partners which
they can and want to fill. In institutional language-learning contexts, this vacuum may
often be lacking.

The activities update communication skills and strategies, to which we may pay special
attention, even if this means exercising them separately, i.e. outside the context of the
actual task. However, the presence of the activity, and of the task in general, is such as to
necessitate these competences, e.g. in the case of vocabulary, thus facilitating their
learning or integrated development. This helps match the competences much better with
the learner’s needs.

The closer the links between the task and a given project, the greater the need to establish
action plans, and in this context we would particularly stress co-operation among learners
on their individual objectives. The whole idea of the language communication task is
conducive to group work, and the concept also provides the learner with the requisite
space and time for self-organisation.

Evaluation based on criteria and observations enables us not only to conclude whether a
task has succeeded or failed but also, after showing the requisite commitment for
implementing the task, to disengage and move on.

Obviously, any item or element in the table (and not only the activity but also any text,
competence, theme, etc) can function as an input or starting point for developing a task or
else remain as a goal. However, it is by taking account of and catering for the interplay
between and integration of all these items that we can build up the whole task and thus
trigger a set of dynamics. In that sense, during the process of designing a new task or
analysing an existing one, whether set out in a schoolbook or carried out spontaneously in
an emergency situation, this table can be used as a consistent model or “outline
specification”, the items in which add up to a veritable checklist.

3.3 “Learner” version and simplified/enlarged version

Tasks can be developed in co-operation with the learners, who can contribute to the
preparation, analysis and evaluation of the task by explaining their needs, motivations
and capacities. Such co-operation can, moreover, be accompanied by an explicit
realisation of the objectives, nature and structure of the task, expectations of the role to be
played by participants, etc. It may comprise periods of negotiation not only between the
teacher and the learners but also within a group of learners.

Training teachers to use the ELP - Module “Language communication tasks /

joining up the ELP, the curriculum and the schoolbook”, H.P. Hodel 5
We might envisage simplifying the model we have proposed, or enlarging it in
accordance with task complexity or the number of dimensions to be explicitly addressed.
Chapter 7 of the CEF sets out several further dimensions of the task (material, cognitive,
affective and behavioural), which we have not covered in our model but which are
naturally present under the surface (implicitly) in any task and which can be addressed as
required during the operation. A minimum or fundamental model could, for instance,
comprise activities, initial and final texts, the interlocutors and the evaluation criteria.

4. Arguments

This model for language communication tasks enables us to:

- motivate learners (the task may be highly relevant to the learners, and carrying out a
task is rewarding/satisfying in itself)
- differentiate and adapt objectives according to the learners needs, motivations and
capacities
- stimulate specific activities or operations (e.g. formal exercises) by highlighting their
role within the overall task, thus making the teaching and learning of competences
more coherent (integrated conception of learning)
- prompt reflection and comprehension, discuss and negotiate the activities in a
language class
- illustrate the objectives
- envisage and organise the progression in terms of activities rather than of systematic
grammatical or vocabulary work
- prepare courses, using the model as a checklist
- observe and evaluate learning processes
- encourage learner autonomy and self-evaluating capacities
- incorporate a key item in recent language learning theories, namely the action-
oriented aspect of learning (exposure to, use of and motivation for the language)
- skilfully combine learning and communication (use) of the language
- encourage learner autonomy by enabling them to independently manage the various
stages or phases in the task, which forms a coherent, albeit complex whole.

5. An eye on the workshops

Subsequently our table will help explain the position of the various dimensions of the
table in schoolbooks. Our model for language communication tasks can be seen as a
means of teaching and learning to facilitate work with the ELP, thus corresponding to the
pedagogical function as well as to ELP’s documentation and presentation function. In
Workshop 1, therefore, it will serve to gauge the correspondence between the textbook
and the ELP. Later on, in Workshop 2, it will be an instrument for designing language
communication tasks without reference to any school textbook.

Training teachers to use the ELP - Module “Language communication tasks /

joining up the ELP, the curriculum and the schoolbook”, H.P. Hodel 6