Language Skills Related Tasks /

PART 1 (Justification of material choice)

Holidays go to top of the perks list is the text selected to design and carry out several reading
and speaking activities. It is an authentic newspaper article (taken from: The Standard) on a
couple of studies conducted about what workers tend to prioritize as advantages.
The text certainly offers interesting areas to be exploited in class. First, the topic in question
speaks directly to the students lives. Almost all students are adult workers (a few are retired)
that already have a well-supported opinion on the matter, coming from their own experience
and knowledge. Thus, rich discussions are more likely to take place with exercises that are
designed following that premise. Students have responded well to stimulating articles like this,
by either expanding on or refuting the ideas presented by the author.
On top of that, the text poses a reasonable challenge for Pre-Intermediate students as to skills
and language, with thought-provoking ideas and appropriately complex vocabulary.
PART 2 (Reading task design)
GIST
The first activity could be used as a gist activity in which students skim the text to get a general
understanding of it. Since the word perk(s) is part of the title of the text and is key to the
general comprehension, it needs to be pre-taught (during orientation or even introduced in
the lead-in). There are several other words that are definite hurdles but they do not prevent
the understanding of the text though. Students are given 1-2 minutes to skim the text since it
is not too long.
There is a subtle change from the first question to the second one, aiming at personalizing and
possibly triggering some reflections that combine the main idea of the text with students
experience. Consequently, the ideal result is an answer that not only uses the idea presented
by the author but contains part of the students opinion on that same idea.
In Learning Teaching, Jim Scrivener talks about how skimming, contradictory to what some
people may think, does contribute to the development of a reader, since it imitates the way in
which we most often do our reading in real life; and, if a text is used in class in ways that are
reasonably similar to real life, it is likely that the task will be effective (Scrivener, p. 264,266).
The task is therefore modelling a real life situation, and the students are approaching it in the
way they would do it in real life, using language that is both contextualized and natural.
DETAIL
The detail activity is a True, False or Not Given exercise. Students will read for specific
information after some vocabulary is clarified. The words that are vital for accomplishing the
activity successfully are: fringe, questioned, incentives, survey, season ticket. In the case of
questioned, it is important to clarify the two meanings which are activated in the text (to ask,
interrogate /to rethink something).
The exercise balances with and transitions from the gist task well. Although students are
practicing a different reading skill, the connection between their ideas and the ones in the text
is not lost, therefore, motivation may stay high.

The Not Given item has been introduced because it is a good opportunity to exploit in
feedback. There are several students with the ability to use past experience (20 years ago) to
make comments on this. Even if some students think the item is True, it definitely contributes
to the purpose of providing a particularly rich communicative moment in the lesson. Most of
the items focus on the actual priorities listed by the author, which could potentially lead to
follow up questions or debates in the exercise.
So students are dealing with the format of an exercise they are familiar with, which does not
pose as an external threat to the desired outcome. Moreover, this type of exercise proves to
be useful as a demanding way of testing comprehension (Scrivener, p. 266).
PART 3 (Speaking task design)
A speaking task is probably the natural continuation to the activities carried out by students,
especially in this case in which they have been able to transmit their opinions in a controlled
way. The topic could finally be exploited in the follow-up setting a speaking exercise following
the structure of a pyramid.
Students have time to organize their own ideas (see exercise 3) and communicate them with
more support and in an environment that promotes fluency. Then they have to debate in pairs
to be able to reach a decision, incidentally practicing negotiation language, and at the same
time reinforcing the mini-debates that could have occurred earlier in the class. Finally, the
class discussion capitalizes on the material by not only using contextualized language with a
communicative aim, but also addressing more directly the students needs and interests.
The ideas from the text will be recycled, modified or expanded, and fortunately some new
ideas will be even introduced. That would definitely epitomize the idea of using or even
further exploiting a text.
Additionally, students will process this new or edited information on the spot, which is
stimulating because it generates genuine responses, not to mention beneficial for their
fluency.
At the end, the reading passage is not only used to develop the students reading for gist and
specific information skills, but encourages students to communicate; or, quoting Harmer the
reading passage may be the springboard for discussion (Harmer, p.251).

READING TASKS
1) Gist task (skimming)
According to the text
1) Are these changes positive or negative for workers?
2) Could job conditions in the future look better to you?
Detail task (reading for specifics)
2) Are the following statements True (T), False (F) or Not Given (NG)?
__F__ Workers usually enjoy additional benefits more than receiving salary increases.
__T__ 1000 staff members were interviewed by a job agency about their top priorities.
__F__ Although pensions were not on the top of the list, they were still popular.
__F__ Only a small study has been done to understand working priorities.
__F__ Some companies are now taking the first steps in offering more than 4 weeks as
holidays
_NG__ In 1975 people worked harder.
__F__ The majority of the corporations is planning to ignore giving workers more money.
__T__ Firms are considering helping employees with transportation.
SPEAKING TASK
3) Its the right time for you to get a better job! You are meeting some possible
employers. Think about 5 perks that the job you want needs to offer. List them.
Longer holidays
Flexible hours
Good health insurance
Company car
Safe environment
Now talk to your partner and decide on the 3 perks that are most important for you.
Good health insurance
Longer holidays
Flexible hours
(after pair work they gather in a circle)
Try to agree now on what you think is the most important perk of any job.
Flexible hours

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Harmer, J. (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman
Scrivener, J. (1994) Learning Teaching. MacMillan Books for Teachers
Swan, M. (2005) Practical English Usage. Oxford University Press