Task-based Grammar Lesson
Prepared by
Azhar Youssef, PhD
Alumni Facilitator for the AE E-Teacher Program 2017
TOPIC: LEVEL: Time:
How to cook a meal? Pre-intermediate 45 minutes
Target language (grammar ▪ Using the imperative form to write instructions
and vocabulary): ▪ Food-related vocabulary
Skill in focus: Writing
Secondary skill focus: Speaking
Lesson objective: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to create a
recipe for a meal and write the instructions to cook it.
Preliminary considerations:
What vocabulary/grammar/information/skills do your students already know in relation
to today’s lesson?
▪ Ss are familiar with many food-related words and phrases.
▪ Ss have studied the imperative form before, but not reviewed it recently.
What aspects of the lesson do you How will you avoid and/or address each of
anticipate your students might find these problem areas?
challenging/difficult?
▪ The only challenge is that students ▪ Giving a model in the pre-task to
are not familiar with this genre analyze with students can help them
of expository writing. know more about its features, and
how to get started.
This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by
FHI 360 and delivered by WORLD LEARNING
Time Stage /Purpose Procedure /steps Interaction
15 Pre-Task 1. Write down the following conversation on the T-S
min. board:
The purpose of S-S
this stage is to A: Can you make dinner for your sister tonight?
prepare B: Aw, she only eats macaroni and cheese!
students to A: What's the problem?
perform the task B: I don't know how to make it.
by refreshing A: It's super easy, just follow the box
their schemata, instructions.
introducing new B: We're all out of instant macaroni and cheese.
vocabulary, and A: Well, make it from scratch, then.
giving models to B: How do I do that?!
learn from. A: Just cook the pasta, and mix it in cheese,
milk, and butter.
B: It can't be that easy.
A: Cooking isn't hard at all. You can do it.
B: If I accidentally burn the house down,
it's not my fault.
2. Choose two volunteers to read out the
conversation in public encouraging the whole
class to find out the meaning of the new
words; e.g., instructions, instant, scratch, mix,
fault ... etc.
3. Write down the following question on the
board:
" What other meals can you cook?"
4. Working in small groups, give your students
three minutes to write down a list of meals
they can cook.
5. Ask some groups to share their lists with the
whole class.
6. Tell your students that they are going to write
a paragraph describing how to cook one of
the meals they have suggested.
This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by
FHI 360 and delivered by WORLD LEARNING
Time Stage /Purpose Procedure /steps Interaction
20 Task Cycle Task S-S
min. The purpose of
1. Ask your students to work in groups of three.
this stage is to
give students an 2. Give them five minutes to discuss the task
orally and choose one meal.
opportunity to
use their 3. Listen to the students doing the task, but do
language while not try to correct any language at this
moment.
performing a
real-world task. 4. Stop the discussion once most of the groups
have finished.
Planning:
5. Working in groups, ask your students to write
the first draft of their paragraphs describing
the ingredients and instructions of the meal.
6. Tell them to first focus on the content then try
to edit their work in the second draft checking
any grammar, spelling, and punctuation
mistakes to make it ready for audience.
7. Encourage them to exchange their final drafts
with each other to receive some feedback
from their peers (Peer correction).
8. Go around the students and offer help.
Report:
9. Ask some volunteers to report their groups'
paragraphs.
10. While listening, jot down the gross mistakes
they made on a paper to use later in the next
stage.
11. Give the students a positive feedback to feel
a sense of achievement using verbal and non-
verbal communication signals (facial
expressions, tone of voice, gestures, ….).
This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by
FHI 360 and delivered by WORLD LEARNING
Time Stage /Purpose Procedure /steps Interaction
10 Post-task Analysis: S-S
min. (Language 1. Ask your students to work in groups and
Focus) underline all the verbs in the following T-S
sentence:
The purpose of
this stage is to “Just cook the pasta, and mix it in cheese,
milk, and butter.”
draw students’
attention to 2. Explain to them that when they write
form, instructions for the meals, they use the
imperative. And to make it, they use:
particularly to
those Infinitive of the verb without 'to'
grammatical in the affirmative, and
items that don’t / do not + infinitive without 'to'
seemed in the negative.
problematic 3. Tell them that there are often "sequencing"
while words to show the steps in the process. For
performing the example, "first", "second", "after that",
task. "then" and "finally".
Practice:
4. Ask each student to complete the following S-S
instructions with suitable verbs in the
imperative:
Good morning, can you tell me how I can
go to the bus station?
............ up this road, ....... right at the
corner, ........ along to the end of the street
and you will find it there.
(Adopted from here)
5. Once they finish, ask students to work in groups
to check their answers together and help each
other, then give your feedback.
6. Use some of their wrong sentences you
collected in the previous stage, and encourage
students to correct them themselves.
This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by
FHI 360 and delivered by WORLD LEARNING
Time Stage /Purpose Procedure /steps Interaction
Deadline: Evaluation 1. Ask your students to choose one of the S-S
@home options below and write an expository
It should paragraph of 5 sentences using T-S
be The purpose of the imperative form:
completed this evaluation
▪ How to make a cup of tea?
before the is to check if the
next lesson objective ▪ How to search for a topic on
Google?
lesson and has been
posted on achieved, and ▪ How to learn new words?
the blog make sure ▪ How to borrow a book from
students are the school library?
able to apply
2. Draw their attention to the use of
the target sequencing words when writing their
language to paragraphs; e.g., first, then, next, after
other tasks. that, and finally that makes it easy for
readers to follow and read their
instructions.
3. Once they finish, tell them to post
their paragraphs on the class blog.
4. Ask them to leave comments to their
peers and help each other to make
their paragraphs better.
5. Encourage them to revise and edit
their paragraphs taking into
consideration their peers’ and
teacher’s feedback.
Note:
▪ This evaluation task is posted on the class blog in the tasks section
before the lesson.
This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by
FHI 360 and delivered by WORLD LEARNING
