Designing a task-based course for special educators

HOCHMANOVÁ, Dita. Designing a task-based course for special educators. In LSP4Employability: Language skills for employable graduates. 2022.

Basic information

• Original name: Designing a task-based course for special educators
• Name in Czech: Metoda TBL v navrhování kurzů pro speciální pedagogy
• Authors: HOCHMANOVÁ, Dita.
• Edition: LSP4Employability: Language skills for employable graduates, 2022.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Organization unit: Language Centre
• Keywords (in Czech): metoda TBL, zaměstnatelnost studentů, měkké dovednosti
• Keywords in English: task-based learning, employability, soft skills

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a series of task-based courses of English for special educators at B1-B2 level recently introduced at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Following the need to progress from traditional forms of teaching to more contemporary approaches, the courses are centred on a set of tasks, which students complete and present as their portfolio. Rather than fulfilling the idea of teaching specific content related to special education in English, the tasks and scaffolding activities included in the courses have the ambition to develop transferable skills which have been identified as crucial for successful graduation and future career by specialists in the field. First, the presentation explains how the tasks included in the courses are related, integrated and sequenced to provide the students with a meaningful structure of skills they will find useful in their future practice. Then, it shows how the tasks align with the CEFR framework and assesses how the participants responded to the assignments in course evaluation surveys. Finally, the paper describes the experience of running the courses online at the times of pandemic and discusses the challenges and possibilities of teaching transferable communication skills on online platforms.