As a class, briefly review cause/effect relationships and the brainstorming activity from the previous class period.
Activity B: Watching the Video (55 minutes)
Watch the NOVA program entitled "The Iceman." Try to discover cause/effect relationships in the video.
Activity C: Answering Questions (10 minutes)
Answer the questions on the handout called Questions about the Iceman Video in as much detail as you can. When you finish answering the questions, think about which aspect of the Iceman discovery interests you the most. Which aspect would you most like to write a paper about? Here are some ideas:
Scientific
After determining which aspect of the topic interests you most, try to find three other people who share your interest. Feel free to walk around the classroom to find others interested in the same topic. It is important that the groups consist of at least three people and no more than four. Also, try to find partners with different cultural backgrounds if possible. The teacher will make final decisions regarding the composition of groups if there are too many or not enough people with the same interests, or if there is not enough cross-cultural mixing in the groups. You may choose topics other than the ones listed above if you can find enough other people who are interested in your topic.
After the groups have been formed, in the time remaining, you should discuss within your group the cause/effect relationships mentioned in the video which had the most direct connection to the interest of your group. Keep a record of your discussion on your cause/effect handout.
After reviewing cause/effect relationships in Activity A, viewing the video in Activity B and answering comprehension questions (not reproduced here) in Activity C, students evaluate which aspects of the Iceman discovery interest them most. They can now decide what topic they wish to write their papers on. Suggested topics for students to explore include aspects of the scientific, historical/cultural or political dimensions of the discovery; however, students are not limited to such topics provided they can form large enough groups. The formation of groups is done in Activity D, where learners use the topics they have chosen as the basis for selecting their partners for the rest of the unit. Thus, interest groups emerge as a result of negotiations between students who, in finding out which other learners share their interests, have to bridge a complex information gap.
Information gap tasks consist of a family of tasks, which include information gap, reasoning gap, opinion gap and information transfer activities (Prabhu, 1987; Nunan, 1989). The purpose of such tasks is to gather information, solve problems and to evaluate information. Of course, the use of such tasks pre-dates TBLT and may be found in communicative materials that are not principally task-based. However, while the use of such tasks is not unique to TBLT, TBLT is defined by its reliance on these tasks. The advantage of relying on information gap tasks is that these activities not only provide psycholinguistically rich opportunities for language learning, they also give students the chance to negotiate the content of learning and to develop critical thinking skills.
Of course, as Clarke (1991) points out, ESL teachers often find that it is difficult to get learners to negotiate the course of a course, since many students regard this as the teacher's job. However, note that Activities C and D get round this problem very neatly by setting up a real communicative need for learners to negotiate the group's composition. First, they must decide what aspect of the Iceman discovery interests them most; second, they must find other people who share their interests; and third, they must collectively identify which of the cause/effect relationships in the video may be relevant to their interest group. In short, Activities C and D requires group members to assume responsibility for their own learning. Since each group member reads different articles, everybody must decide what information they need to highlight for their partners so that the group can develop a broad picture of the Iceman discovery. During the discussion, individual group members must be ready to clarify any information that is unclear. And they have to gather information and evaluate it critically in order to accomplish tasks efficiently within the time frame given. These materials thus promote negotiation in both an educational and a psycholinguistic sense.
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