Anecdote task (my treasured possession): mingling retelling of a personal story across partner changes¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 design), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

A low-preparation speaking task in which learners tell the story of a treasured possession to a classmate they normally do not work with, each speaking for 2 minutes, then change pairs and retell. Students get 1 minute of planning time beforehand, since "planning for challenging tasks is an important step that improves students' performance" (Ellis 2005, as quoted); notes may be taken but not used while speaking.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Guiding questions prepared to scaffold learners with more difficulty; prior practice with the needed vocabulary and past forms; cycles repeated only while the class benefits so the task does not become automated and too repetitive

Constraints¶

• Planning notes cannot be used during the speaking task, otherwise it might turn into a reading activity

Target Learners¶

• additional language learners practising past forms and personal-experience vocabulary

Target Learning Goals¶

• fluency in extended personal storytelling; adjectives and past forms

Affordances¶

• Task Repetition Slightly Altered Tasks

Claims¶

• Across repetition cycles, attention can shift from message meaning to linguistic form, enabling recycled language and self-correction [+W]
• Lynch and Maclean's carousel task showed immediate repetition benefits in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar [+W]
• Immediate task repetition benefits oral performance, including fluency, self-correction and reduced anxiety [+W]

Related Elements¶

• Decision-making restaurant-choice task: pairs merge into larger groups across cycles while re-choosing a restaurant
• Travel fair carousel task: pairs present a destination to rotating visitors across immediate repetition cycles

Examples¶

• Convert ordinary textbook or internet speaking tasks into immediate repetition tasks by adding interlocutor change or task alteration

Key Sources¶

• Rafael Zaccaron. (2019). Ideas for integrating meaningful immediate repetition tasks in the English as an additional language classroom: promoting fluency. BELT, 10(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.15448/2178-3640.2019.2.32988