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Participating in, reflecting on, and evaluating functional language lessons is a great way for students to come to understand the practical power of functional language skills and strategies. From the functional perspective, content is always grounded in context and participants’ interactions are co-constructed, being driven by their competing and/or coordinated interests. As a result, a key opportunity inherent in functional language instruction is the emergence of learners as bona fide participants in an increasing variety of communicative contexts, discourse spaces, and language communities.

With this in mind, this week’s AoW is designed as a wrap-around activity for students to examine the effectiveness and potential of other functional language lessons they have already experienced. The lesson template can be used to evaluate a single or series of activities. In either case, it is suggested to only apply it to lessons with a single targeted function.

Outcomes: 

• Learners will identify the target language functions presented in learning activities
• Learners will demonstrate understanding of the learning activities’ purpose in relation to the target language function
• Learners will identify and enlarge opportunities for self-directed implementation of the targeted language functions in their preferred contexts.

Resources: Content in Context graphic organizer

Procedure:

1. Carry out any functional language lesson with your students, as directed by the activity/lesson.
2. Using the attached graphic organizer, have students individually hypothesize the lesson’s target language function.
3. In groups of two or three guide students through the graphic organizer section by section. Prompts are provided in each section to help frame and facilitate discussion around each item before students discuss with peers and record their responses.

Note: This graphic organizer may also be a helpful tool for teachers to confirm that learning activities and learning objectives are well aligned.