Teaching English Toolbox
Action Oriented Scenarios - the Basics
Canva: A cute cat speaking seriously to a bunch of mice asking them to please stop eating all the cheese
An action-oriented approach to teaching English means that the unit or the activities meet all of the following criteria:
- It is purposeful with real-life applications;
- There is a clearly communicated goal to be accomplished that results in a product or outcome;
- Larners process authentic texts and real-life experiences;
- Learners exercise agency in an authentic social context;
- There are conditions and constraints (e.g., that promote critical and creative thinking);
- Learners work collaboratively, helping the progress of others;
- Learners draw upon existing and newly developed competencies;
- Learners make choices and think and act strategically.
Hunter D., Cousineau D., Collins G., Hook G. (2019), Action-oriented approach: handbook, Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers, Ottawa.
You can read a lot more about this approach from the Council of Europe and the LINDIRE Project offers many practical examples. The following pages are a few examples from Swiss primary schools.
Think about the following questions:
- What sort of ideas make English meaningful? In the primary school classroom, is English ever meaningful or do we teach it so learners can use it later? What scenarios can you imagine that might be useful in the "now" (e.g. a visitor is coming who does not speak the local language and you need to plan a day trip in your region for them)?
- How are making choices, acting strategically, and exercising agency similar or related?
- How might the constraints you put on the scenario be linked to principles of gamification?
- How do you "force" learners to work collaboratively?