Designing Task-based Lessons with a

Focus on Professional SkillsBrian J. Baer, Ph.D.

Tatyana Bystrova-McIntyre, Ph.D.

Kent State University, OH

Agenda/Goals

• I can:

• Design an interepretive, intepersonal, and presentational tasks that integrate professional skills and behaviors

• Add a professional component to current tasks

• Adapt tasks to the age/interests of my students

KSU Foreign Language Academy

• Student program / no previous knowledge of Russian + Teacher program (Russian & Chinese)

• 4-week immersion program in a safe, culture-rich environment (Elementary I)

• Lead instructors and assistant teachers (structured task-based learning): 9 AM – 3 PM

• TL-only lunch (with staff)

• Culture instructors and RAs: 6 PM – 9 PM

• Study hall (self-study with staff): 9 PM – 11 PM

• Immersion experience in community

• Fieldtrips

• Cooking workshops

• Special guests

• Skype sessions

• Native speakers from the community

• On KSU campus—exposure to college environment

KSU Foreign Language Academy

• Short-range goal: Novice high

• Long-range goal: Set our students on the path to advanced level proficiency

Building Bridges

• Mandatory AY follow-up blended learning component (Elementary II)

• Monthly Saturdays sessions

• Plus distance learning (SKYPE, Ning, LanguageLabs)

• Funded through the PSEOP

• Students receive high-school and college credits

Focus on Professionalism

• Target audience: rising seniors and juniors in Ohio HS

• Continuation of our initiative to invite professionals to talk about potential careers with languages

• We had speakers from:

• Translation and interpreting industry

• Localization industry

• Language teaching

• Graduate programs

• Study-abroad participants

• Government

Task-based Curriculum

- Resembles real-world activities (lessens the gap between performance and proficiency)

e.g., filling out a visa application & reviewing visa applications; designing a university brochure

- Ends in an outcome

approved/denied/further review visa applications in TL; real-world audience commenting on a finished university brochure in TL

- Uses authentic materials

application or part; websites; samples of real-world university brochures in TL

- Uses higher order thinking skills

analysis, synthesis, evaluation

http://collaboration.wikispaces.com/Lower+and+higher+order+thinking+skills

Alumni Tracking• Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburg (PA)

• Study-abroad in Russia and Moldova (NSLI-Y, Fulbright) – more than 5 students

• Russian Majors and Minors at KSU (3 alums in Intermediate Russian; 1 alum in Advanced Russian—all 4 are majors, College of Wooster, Brown

• Career plans: Government, science, education, web design, translation, interpreting, professional writing

Longitudinal Study

• Articulate successful paths to achieving professional-level language

proficiency

• Isolate road bumps and other impediments to achieving professional-level

language proficiency

Portfolio of 5 Tasks:

Integrating TBI & Professionalism

Task 1: Professional self-presentation (business cards, cumulative resume)

Task 2: Video with a professional focus (blog-type video introducing oneself)

Task 3: Job interview (looking for a summer job in an international camp)

Task 4: Preparing for study-abroad (finding an ideal roommate or host family)

Task 5: LinkedIn Profile

My Slide with pix tht can be used