Decision-making restaurant-choice task: pairs merge into larger groups across cycles while re-choosing a restaurant¶

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Description¶

Adapted from a textbook task, pairs compare three real English menus and must agree on one restaurant, then merged groups of four and eight re-run the choice with the previously chosen and rejected menus, creating immediate repetition cycles. The post-task elicits the linguistic and non-linguistic reasons for choices and polls the most influential speaker's convincing strategies.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Printed menus in English gathered beforehand; the task works well for a group of 16 students or more; modelling of the task before performance

Constraints¶

• Some quiet learners tend not to participate in bigger groups, so the teacher should circulate and ask them for their opinions; adding a new menu increases cognitive load and requires adjustment time

Target Learners¶

• additional language learners studying food vocabulary and suggestion forms, ages 12 to 55 in the author's practice

Target Learning Goals¶

• making, responding to, agreeing and disagreeing with suggestions; justifying choices with arguments

Affordances¶

• Task Repetition Slightly Altered Tasks

Related Elements¶

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