Introduction chapter I developing intercutural competence through task-based language

2.2 Factors considered in task sequencing
Having defined task features, this chapter moves on to discuss how this teaching proposal is to be implemented during the two sessions. The author of this paper opted for a 3-phase task sequence in line with propositions made by well-known authors such as Willis (1996) and Ellis (2006, as cited in Ellis & Shintani, 2013). This workplan will include a wide range of activities aimed at promoting both learners’ communicative and intercultural competences by triggering the use of the four skills (i.e. speaking, listening, writing and reading) as well as by fostering intercultural understanding.
The pre-task phase, conceived as a grounding stage destined to prepare students for task performance, has been here structured into 4 different steps with 4 definite objectives. Step 1 encourages learners to retrieve content knowledge about subjects, playground games and food by means of brainstorming activities. Step 2 will be devoted to develop learners’ time-telling skills as this will be necessary to successfully carry out subsequent steps. These two steps are critical to facilitate learners’ filling in the chart about ‘My Everyday School Routine’ planned at Step 3 (See Appendices). It is important to note that teacher assistance will be necessary at this stage as learners may face problems when dealing with language work. Teacher can ask aloud individual learners about their routines while moving from table to table in case any clarification or correction is needed. Once learners have finished completing the chart, they will be afforded some time in Step 4 to discuss and compare in groups of 4 the responses they have provided to questions such as ‘What do you like eating for breakfast?’ or ‘What playground games do you play during break time?’. This step will allow learners to engage in conversation while realizing that most classmates bear different preferences and routines to that of theirs. The fact that this class features a rather multicultural background will be highly profitable from the point of view of intercultural exploration and comparison expected at this step. It is for this reason that teacher should sensibly arrange groups for them to be as heterogeneous as possible by mixing students with very different profiles and cultural orientations. It is calculated that the whole pre-task phase will take around the 45 minutes of the first session. Hence, session two will be devoted to task and post-task work.
Before initiating the task cycle in session two, it is advisable to start by refreshing learners’ memory on what has been done in the previous session (Step 5). If necessary, teacher can revise on those language aspects learners had more problems with such as time-telling skills. Then, they will be briefly introduced what the following task is about. To make the most of the video, it will be screened twice. Screening at Step 6 is for learners to have the first contact with the audiovisual content and to maximize comprehension possibilities on the subsequent screening. Learners may be also afforded some time before moving on to Step 7 to comment in groups on those aspects that got their attention from what they had just seen. Before playing the video for a second time, learners will be provided with ‘Jamie’s School Day’ chart. Instructions for this activity will be to correct errors in the timetable and to provide correct answers to the questions: ‘What playground games are they playing?’ and ‘What do they eat for lunch?’. The video may be shown up to a third time if teacher deems it appropriate for the oncoming report of results and intercultural analysis. By this time, the while-task phase should have taken around 20 minutes to complete.
Steps 8 and 9 at the post-task phase seek to not only focus on form but also to trigger intercultural reflection. First, learners are expected to compare and share those results they have gathered from the video with those of their group classmates. Each group will select a spokesperson to provide the corrections or response for the item in the chart the teacher asks for. This is also to foster cooperative and collaborative work among learners holding a variety of behaviours and cultural profiles. Meanwhile, the teacher will visualize the results on board and assist learners when any problem is detected. The objective of filling in this table is not so much acquiring linguistic knowledge but transforming into a useful tool for intercultural comparison and analysis in the step that follows. Hence, it is at Step 9 when intercultural understanding is addressed in depth. In the form of a whole-class debate, learners are invited to contribute their own comments on those aspects they found interesting, curious or strange about the target culture. The role of the teacher will be to direct learners’ attention to those areas which can offer opportunities for comparison, and consequently, the identification of similarities and differences between their school routine and that of Jamie’s; that is, between their culture and the target culture. It is of the utmost importance to make learners aware of the many pictures which can be representative of the English-speaking community and that our understanding of it should not be limited to the idea portrayed in the video in the same way that learners’ culture is not only what they experience first hand but a much wider reality. Altogether, the whole lesson should have occupied a total of 90 minutes arranged in two different sessions.
Because only a single perspective of the target culture is presented in this lesson, a follow-up project which offers more viewpoints can be initiated through the use of the eTwinning platform to further increase learners’ intercultural awareness. Launched by the European Comission, eTwinning is both an online tool and workspace that encourages school collaboration and allows teachers and learners to share, communicate and develop projects with schools all around Europe (Dragas, 2012). Henceforth, exploiting the potential of this resource for promoting intercultural dialogue I suggest setting up a project where learners from different countries participate to share how their schools are and what they usually do on a normal school day. Learners may upload photographs, posters, PowerPoint presentations and short videos which illustrate their timetables, typical playground games they like playing and food they usually eat. In this way, learners are exposed to more than one picture on the subject matter, realize of the many cultural practices that exist and challenge stereotyping.