Additional Info

• Name: Buying a house

• OVERVIEW

• Linguistic dimension

• CEFR Level: A2
• Linguistic dimension - Skill(s): Speaking; Writing
• Duration: 90 minutes
• Target language: Any modern language

• ICT dimension

• ICT resources:

  PC, Internet connection; online dictionaries; Go animate; microphone

• ICT competences: To browse or search in the Internet for specific information; To use free online tools to create animations.

• Detailed description of the task

• Situation / theme(s): Buying a house House and furniture vocabulary
• Product requirements or prerequisites: Students must be acquainted to house and furniture vocabulary. Students must have an account and know how to use the online softwareGo Animate - http://goanimate.com
• I can...:
  • I can understand straightforward texts on subjects related to my fields of interest.
  • I can search one long or several short texts to locate specific information I need to help me complete a task.
  • I can briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions, plans and actions.
• Product: To produce an animation of a house sale.
• Product requirements or prerequisites:

  Students must be acquainted with house and furniture vocabulary.

  Students must have an account and know how to use the online software Go Animate - http://goanimate.com

• Process:
  • Students watch the animation: http://goanimate.com/videos/0sLphcq_OcRM
  • Students answer to some questions about what they have watched:

  What were these people doing? What divisions were there in that house?

  What type of house was that? What do people look for when buying a house?  

  • After the lead in activity, students are asked to choose a flashcard from the teacher’s hand. Flashcards are about people looking for different and specific types of houses.
  • The teacher explains the task:
  • In pairs students have to create an animation where a real state’s agent tries to sell or rent the best house possible according to the information in the flashcards.
  • Go animate allows two types of voice processing: either students use their own voice dictating the text with a microphone or they text what the characters in the animation needs to say and the text is converted into voice, it allows the user to choose accent for each character.
  • Animations are shared by email with teacher and colleagues. 
• Division of roles (optional): Peer work
• Consolidating activities suggested or follow up plan:

  Students watch their peers' animations at home and answer a questionnaire on each animation:

  1. What divisions were there in the house?

  2. What type of house was it?

  3. Who would be interested in the houses? (according to the flashcards)

  4. What furniture is mentioned in the animation?

  5. Is that a good house? Why/why not?

  Another consolidating activity can be to ask students to do a presentation about their dream house.

• Success factors or evaluation criteria:

  Students have done well:

  if they have created an animation which meets the requirements of the flashcards, and have ensured the following criteria.

  Vocabulary
  they have used vocabulary and expressions connected to the topic
   
  Grammatical correctness
  they have used simple grammatical constructions and expressions that they have learnt by heart
   
  Fluency
  they have been able to talk for a longer period of time without lacking
  words or making too many mistakes
   
  Coherence
  they have been able to link sentences with fitting connectors and have used conjunctions quite frequently
   
  Interaction
  they are active within the small and larger group, and share their ideas and accept other people’s opinion and criticism.
   
  Pronunciation
  they could pronounce the words used correctly and could correct some major mistakes made by their classmates or group members.

   

• Authors: Lúcia Nassa Tardão - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Isabel Orega - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Didactic added value of the task and other information

• Practical hints for teachers:

  In order to avoid delays in lesson development, the students must be used to the programme and must have used it a few times before this task.

• Additional methodological or didactic comments:

  Ask students to explore beforehand all the possibilities that the Go animate software gives them.

  Although the site has a paid version, the free version allows a pretty good use of its potential.

  Set precise deadlines to conclude the task. If students don ́t finish after the first 90 minutes, ask them to finish it at home.

  Be precise in setting the goal of the task and in explaining the evaluation criteria.

• Reasons why this task is a model of best practices:

  The housing theme is connected to everyone. Finding a house is something students can relate to and are interested in.

  By using an animation generator programme students build up their text and express their language competences without really exposing themselves.

• Impact that it is expected to have on the teaching practices and attitudes:

  Engage teachers in the inclusive use of ICT in the language lesson.

  Encourage teachers to adopt TBLT and CEFR in their practice.

• Reasons why this task travels well:

  This task can be introduced in the house and furniture theme which is transversal to most national syllabuses and foreign language programmes.

  This task can be performed by making a PowerPoint presentation using Google images and transforming it from a speaking activity into a writing activity.

• Rationale and/or theoretical underpinnings of the task: TBLT using CEFR common reference levels.