Action-oriented Approach Scenarios

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Now that you know more about action-orientation, it is time to do a deeper dive into:

  1. the theory behind it and
  2. how you can make or adapt action-oriented tasks and scenarios.

Let’s start with a little theory ▶️✏️

  1. Read Section 4.2. on The Action Oriented Approach from A Guide to Action-oriented, Plurilingual and Intercultural Education  (pp. 34-39)
  2. Now watch the more theoretical part of the workshop presentation The action-oriented approach: From theory to practice (25:54) from 07.19.
  • Think about the difference between the communicative approach and the action-oriented approach. The difference was summarised in the paper on pages 36-38 and in the presentation video at 21:25 to 23:36.
  • Reflect a little on the extent to which the tasks in your normal (coursebook) programme provide students with affordances and an opportunity to exercise their agency. Are they more ‘communicative’ or more ‘action-oriented’?  Is there a project aspect? Do they give students scope over several lessons to develop something? How could they become more action-oriented?

Now let’s turn to the practical side ✏️➡️⚙️

  1. Please study the handout from the workshop The action-oriented approach: From theory to practice, from which you have been watching the presentations. After summarizing the similarities and differences between communicative and action-oriented, it gives the summary, steps and relevant CEFR descriptors for the LINCDIRE scenario Storytelling for the 21st Century before moving on to instructions on developing a scenario, which ask you to go to the CEFR website and download the CEFR Descriptors Excel.
  2. After downloading the Excel file with the CEFR descriptors onto your computer, choose one of the four scenario summaries given in order to elaborate it into a full scenario with Steps and relevant Descriptors.
  3. Develop your scenario.
  4. Compare your selection of steps and descriptors for the scenario summary you chose with the examples from those suggested by the participants at the time. These are given below.

Finally, please remember that the examples you explore – or in this case elaborate – serve to inspire your own creation of tasks for your context. After all, tasks and scenarios need to be tailored according to students’ needs, curriculum, and contextual considerations. In other words, we do not recommend that you implement examples we present as is, but rather that you adapt and change them or follow up on an idea they give you to develop a scenario to suit your students’ needs.

Elaborating a scenario 💡

Write the title of the selected scenario, list possible steps leading to the culminating task, insert a few relevant descriptors.

Scenario 1: How are you feeling?

You have been selected as your class representative! You have been asked to offer advice to your friends and community members about what to do when they have strong feelings in a new situation. Your task is to find out how other students or family members feel in different situations and prepare advice to give to your friends. Also, you will have to prepare a poster with advice that will help everybody feel better, which will be put up on the wall of the class.

Target group: Primary school pupils

Step 1: Using emojis, mimicry of emojis

Step 2: Role-play with emotions

Step 3: Selecting images for poster

Step 4: Discuss possible solutions, how to face situations 

Step 5: Choose a feeling for their poster

Some relevant descriptors:

Oral production

  • Can exchange likes and dislikes for sports, foods, etc., using a limited repertoire of expressions, when addressed clearly, slowly and directly.
  • Can ask and answer simple questions, initiate and respond to simple statements in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics.
  • Can use a very short prepared text to deliver a rehearsed statement (e.g. to formally introduce someone, to propose a toast).

Oral interaction

  • Can interact in a simple way, but communication is totally dependent on repetition at a slower rate, rephrasing and repair.
  • Can ask and answer simple questions, initiate and respond to simple statements in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics.

Plurilingual/cultural:

  • Can interact in a simple way but communication is totally dependent on repetition at a slower rate, rephrasing and repair.
  • Can ask and answer simple questions, initiate and respond to simple statements in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics.
  • Can recognise internationalisms and words/signs common to different languages (e.g. haus/hus/house) to: deduce the meaning of simple signs and notices; identify the probable message of a short, simple text; follow in outline short, simple social exchanges conducted very slowly and clearly in their presence; deduce what people are trying to say directly to them, provided the articulation is very slow and clear, with repetition if necessary.

Scenario 2: The community cookbook

Some parents in your community have complained that their children are too picky with their food. They’re looking for interesting and tasty recipes to try out and have asked your class for help compiling a new community cookbook. You and your classmates have decided to contribute recipes from different cultures and countries around the world. For this task, each student will create one entry in the cookbook based on their family’s favourite recipe. When the cookbook is completed, you will put it all together and bring a copy home to your family.

Steps:

Step 1: A brainstorm: favourite national or regional dish or food (including ingredients in it).

Step 2: The teacher brings their own favourite dish to get students to think of recipes, ingredients, etc. How do you know how something is a recipe? What do they look like? What do they include?

Step 3: The teacher asks learners to bring either a cookbook from their country/region or some recipes (from the internet). The class compares and discusses different ways in which recipes are presented for students, and what the final product could look like.

Step 4: Choose a traditional recipe from your home. If the recipe is written in another language, the student will mediate the content for classmates. The class will discuss different dishes and ingredients. The key here is cross-cultural learning.

Step 5: Form groups and share with students the project plan or contract (students’ roles, various cultures/languages present). Students discuss and decide who will do what and make a plan. HOMEWORK: Students will record a cooking demonstration.

Step 6: Watching the cooking demonstrations, students will outline the steps (structuring what will be included in the write-up of the community cookbook).

Step 7: The write-up process starts for the individual recipe, and then students contribute to the class community cookbook. Teacher and/or peer feedback on writing.

Step 8 (if possible): Do a potluck/gathering over food.

Some relevant descriptors:

B1:

  • Can report straightforward factual information on a familiar topic, for example to indicate the nature of a problem or to give detailed directions, provided they can prepare beforehand.
  • Can understand short, clearly expressed messages and instructions by piecing together what they understand from the versions in different languages.

A2:

  • Can give simple directions [on how to get from X to Y], using basic expressions such as [“turn right” and “go straight”] along with sequential connectors such as “ first”, “then” and “next”.
  • Can produce a series of simple phrases and sentences linked with simple connectors like “and”, “but” and “because”.
  • Can mobilise their limited repertoire in different languages in order to explain a problem or to ask for help or clarification.
  • Can understand short, clearly expressed messages and instructions by piecing together what they understand from the versions in different languages.

Scenario 3: (A2) Lost in a new town

You are participating in an exchange program in Germany, and you have lost your group after the city tour. Now you are trying to find your way back to the youth hostel, but unfortunately, your cellphone is out of battery. You cannot check online or call a friend. However, you do have a paper map and can ask someone on the street for help.

Target group: 11-13 years olds

Step 1: Figure out your location on the map (use information around you, such as road signs and landmarks to read the map).

Step 2: Confirm with a passerby where you are (show them the map).

Step 3: Ask for directions to your destination (the youth hostel).

Step 4: Take notes on what you heard.

Culminating Task: Participating in a broadcast/podcast about their experience navigating a new town.

Some relevant descriptors:

  • Overall oral production (A2): Can give a simple description or presentation of people, living or working conditions, daily routines. likes/dislikes, etc. as a short series of simple phrases and sentences linked into a list.
  • Oral comprehension | Understanding announcements and instructions (A2): Can understand simple directions on how to get from X to Y, by foot or public transport.
  • Reading comprehension | Reading for orientation (A2): Can understand everyday signs and notices, etc. in public places, such as streets, restaurants, railway stations; in workplaces, such as directions, instructions, hazard warnings.

Target group: 16-25 years olds

Step 1: Choose the place and a particular part of the city/town.

Step 2: Youth Hostel address/location (card/brochure).

Step 3: Talk to a passerby and ask how to get to the Tourist Office.

Step 4: Look at road signs (directions).

Step 5: Go to the Tourist Information Office and ask for a map.

Step 6: Read the map and get the route to get back to the Youth Hostel (landmarks: shops, post office, etc.).

Some relevant descriptors:

  • Reading: Can understand everyday signs and notices, etc. in public places, such as streets, restaurants, railway stations; in workplaces, such as directions, instructions, hazard warnings.
  • Reading: Can understand information given in illustrated brochures and maps (e.g. the principal attractions of a city).
  • Oral: Can follow in outline short, simple social exchanges, conducted very slowly and clearly.
  • Interaction: Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters to do with work and free time. Can handle very short social exchanges but is rarely able to understand enough to keep conversation going of their own accord.

Scenario 4: (B2) The time machine

Your class has found a time machine! The whole class will vote on which three places to go, but there are some limitations: You can only go up to 100 years in the past and you can only travel to a place where someone that is in the machine (i.e., someone within your class) has lived.

Your group’s responsibility is to travel to three different times in one city/region/country of the world. Research where you would go and what you would find at each destination. Then create a five-minute podcast that describes your experiences and compares and contrasts the location’s economy and other social aspects (e.g. political climate, immigration patterns) over time. Share your travel documentary with your classmates and then vote for where the class will go!

Target group: University-level adult students

Step 0: Teacher planning. Timeline & possible resources needed. Students need to decide what they need to use and how.

Step 1: Groups of 2-3 students choose the place and time to work on.

Step 2:  Do research on your place at the time.

  • Relevant Descriptor:
    • Can quickly identify the content and relevance of news items, articles and reports on a wide range of professional topics, deciding whether closer study is worthwhile.

Step 3: Identify the most relevant pieces for your proposal by evaluating the sources. Choose the appropriate materials and media for your proposal.

Step 4: Discuss what makes a good presentation and poster. (Teacher may provide tools or samples or resources.)

Step 5:  Prepare your proposal: 1. oral presentation + poster, and 2. distribute tasks among group members

  • Relevant Descriptors:
    • Can synthesize information and arguments from a number of sources.
    • Can plan what is to be said and the means to say it, considering the effect on the recipient(s).

Step 6: Speaker rehearses, does a dry run of the presentation, and gets feedback from the other members. Revise the presentation and poster.

  • Relevant Descriptors:
    • Can give clear, detailed descriptions on a wide range of subjects related to their field of interest.
    • Can give a clear, prepared presentation, giving reasons in support of or against a particular point of view and giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.
    • Can work collaboratively with people from different backgrounds, creating a positive atmosphere by providing support, asking questions to identify common goals, comparing options for how to achieve them and explaining suggestions for what to do next. Can further develop others’ ideas, pose questions that invite reactions from different perspectives and propose a solution or next steps.
    • Can convey detailed information and arguments reliably, e.g. the significant point(s) contained in complex but well-structured texts within their fields of professional, academic and personal interest.

Step 7: Groups present their proposal. (5 mins each)

Step 8: Class votes for the place and the time to visit.

Another version:

Step 1: Students prepare and conduct a survey of possible places that can be visited (it is possible to stick to places where students have lived if you have students from different nationalities). Students brainstorm ideas on Padlet or Jamboard.

Step 2: Students work in small groups (4-5 students in a group- students talking and negotiating) and make a decision about the place(s) and the time they would like to visit from the ones suggested previously. Each group agrees on one country.

Step 3: Students collect information about that place – the focus would be on history in their research/choose a historical period- which point in time they would like to go.

Step 4: The teacher provides a series of examples of descriptions of places and how people lived there in different historical periods. The groups analyse the examples in terms of language used and they jot down structures/vocabulary etc. that they could use for their description.

Step 5: Each group prepares a video presenting their choice of place and time. They prepare bullet points that can help to convince the other groups to vote for their video.

Step 6: Students watch the videos in class and take notes for each video in a shared Padlet.

Step 7: Groups campaign for their country/time with a poster/PPT. (Use of persuasive language to convince people).

Step 8: Students vote (vote for the country where they think the class should go based on the information presented):
I voted for X…. (provision of reason; reference to criteria). This can be a message (written or recorded) to a friend (via Whatsapp or other).

Some relevant descriptors:

  • Can give a clear, prepared presentation, giving reasons in support of or against a particular point of view and giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.
  • Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction, and sustained relationships with users of the target language, quite possible without imposing strain on either party.
  • Can highlight the personal significance of events and experiences, and account for and sustain views clearly by providing relevant explanations and arguments.
  • Can account for and sustain their opinions in discussion by providing relevant explanations, arguments and comments.
  • Can outline an issue or a problem clearly, speculating about causes or consequences, and weighing advantages and disadvantages of different approaches.
  • Can ask questions to stimulate discussion on how to organise collaborative work.
  • Can help define goals for teamwork and compare options for how to achieve them.
  • Can present their ideas in a group and pose questions that invite reactions from other group members’ perspectives.
  • Can further develop other people’s ideas and opinions.
  • Can intervene when necessary to set a group back on task with new instructions or to encourage more even participation.

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