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Class surveys: task-based methodology for beginners

Getting beginners or near-beginners to carry out surveys with their classmates is a stock-in-trade for language teachers. It's also a great way to incorporate some task-based, communicative methodology into lessons (more of a challenge with beginners than older students). Students get to mill around, talk to their peers in a very structured way and use repetitive comprehensible input. 

In the best cases, they should also have a genuine interest in what their peers say. In terms of class management, just ensure that the task is crystal-clear and modelled, behaviour is fine and that the target language is used nearly all the time. Otherwise, stand back and enjoy the students communicating in the language.

On my website I have a good few examples of such surveys, with instructions on how to carry them out. The latest one I just uploaded also has some nice cultural input, since students get to learn about some classic French desserts. (And yes, rum baba is the best). Here is the slide I put in my presentation (images from pixabay).

Students have their own grid with the desserts listed and go and ask their classsmates to give their THREE favourite desserts from the list. Model the question format first, maybe with some choral repetition. Note with students the contarst between the articles (le/la/les/l'). Talk a bit in English about the desserts.

By the way, when you present vocabulary you always have to descide how to deal with articles - definite, indefinite, partitive? I choose the one which is likely to prove most productive in use. In this case, I thought that the definite article would be best, since, when ordering from a menu we usually use the definite artcile ("Je prends la mousse au chocolat") and the definite article works well for general preferences too.

After 10 minutes or so, let the students collate their responses individually. Then elicit some feedback on what the most popular desserts were. Get them to guess what yours are. As a bief novice writing task students could copy down the list, paying special attention to the articles and accents.

As an aside, for teachers in England who are being encouraged to focus on high-frequency vocabulary for GCSE, this is an example of where much of the language is low-frequency but still well worth doing for its interest and cultural value. Don't get overly hung up on the GCSE word lists!




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