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TKT Core Module 3: Teachers' and learners' language in the classroom
Giving feedback

 feedback

Feedback = Information


keys

Key concepts in this guide

By the end of this guide, you should be able to understand and use these key concepts:

  • getting feedback:
    • on product tasks
    • on process tasks
  • giving feedback
    • assessment
    • praise
    • advice
    • focus
  • getting feedback on the course and the teaching

Look out for these words like this in the text.
There will be tests at the end of the guide for you to check that you understand the ideas.


type of task

Identifying task types

As we saw in Module 1 (guide to Practice activities and tasks), there are two basic sorts of task:

product tasks
In these, what the learners produce is very important.  Learners need to know that the product of the task is acceptable and teachers need to know whether it is safe to move on to the next phase of a lesson.
Feedback, therefore, both from the learners and from the teacher has to be quite thorough.
process activities
In these, it is doing the task which is important, not its outcome.  Because the doing is more important than the production, what the learners actually produce is probably not important.  It has to be valued in some way to maintain motivation and commitment but it needn't be judged on a right / wrong / not bad basis.
think Task 1: Here's a set of tasks you might do with students working together.  Can you divide them into the two sorts?
Product or process?  Make a list of the numbers on a piece of paper, if you like.
1 You start a lesson on 'going to' by asking people to work in threes to come up with three things they would like to do this evening / this week etc.  They make the plans and will later express them using the target structure. 4 You give the class three pictures that go with a text and ask them in pairs to speculate about what the text concerns and what vocabulary it might contain.
2 You have a text which contains five facts expressed in numbers.  To practise scanning, you get the class to work individually to locate the numbers and make a brief note of what they refer to. 5 You have a reading text with some multiple-choice questions to go with it.  You get the class to work in pairs to find the answers.
3 To introduce a listening text, you put up a picture of two people sitting in a cafe ordering from a waiter and ask the class individually to make a note of where they are and what they are doing. 6 For controlled practice in a lesson, you have handed out a gapped text to get the students to complete in pairs.  The gaps concern the target language of the lesson, of course.

Click here for the answer when you have had some thoughts.

Now look through the 6 tasks and ask yourself two simple questions:

Click here when you have some ideas to see if the suggestions which follow match your thoughts.


Summary

feedback summary


want

Giving feedback: what information do learners want?

Feedback is information.

think Task 2: Think for a moment about what information learners need from teachers when they have finished a task.
Click here when you have thought a little.


feedback

Getting feedback from your learners

From time to time, you need to get some organised feedback from your learners about the course they are following.  This can be simple or elaborate and can involve:


self test

Self-test questions

Before you go on, make sure you can answer these questions.  If you can't, go back to the sections which give you trouble.

If you are happy with your progress, go on.


practice

Tests and practice for TKT

There's only one practice test.

Test 1 A quiz task

That is the end of the Module 3 course.  Thank you for doing the course.
If you have now followed all the guides to Module 3 of the TKT, you can:
Revise Module 3 by doing all the tests in the course.
Try a full practice examination for Module 3.
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Return to the TKT course index