Creating suitable tasks for ESL students

This page has information on how to assess the suitability of tasks given to ESL students. It introduces the concept of scaffolding as a way to make challenging tasks easier to complete successfully.

Introduction

Learning for all students in all their subjects (whether it involves, for example, the acquisition of knowledge, the understanding of concepts or the development of skills) is to a large extent achieved through the successful completion of the classroom and homework tasks Tasks in the learning context are everything the student is required to do in the classroom or at home.

Essentially, all tasks involve one of the following activities, very often in combination: listening, reading, speaking, writing, thinking, doing. they are given by their teachers.

The ability to set appropriate tasks and help students to successfully complete them can be considered as a fundamental characteristic of a good teacher.

Clearly, the first ability (i.e. to set appropriate tasks) requires that the teacher has a good understanding of difficulty for the students of any given task. And the second ability (i.e. to help students successfully complete the tasks ) requires that the teacher knows how to construct the various steps in task completion in such a way that each step is manageable.

Note: This article focuses on setting tasks for ESL students. But much of what is discussed applies equally to setting tasks for native English speakers too – particularly those who have what are commonly called special needs.

Assessing task suitability

Tasks are suitable for ESL students if they fulfil two basic criteria. The first criterion is that the students will learn something new by doing them; for example, new facts, new concepts, new skills. In other words, the tasks must be useful.

The second criterion is that the tasks must be achievable. For example, students are unlikely to learn much if the tasks they are set are beyond their current level of English proficiency.

A useful model

A useful model for determining whether both of these criteria are satisfied for any given task was developed by SLA Second Language Acquisition researcher Jim Cummins. The model is shown in simple form below.

Note: Click a quadrant above to see examples of tasks in that quadrant.

The model shows tasks categorized along two clines. The horizontal cline ranges from context-embedded to context-reduced. The vertical cline ranges from cognitively demanding to cognitively undemanding.

Explanation of model terms

The horizontal cline needs some explanation. Context-embedded is a fairly nebulous term, since all tasks are embedded in some kind of context. But in Cummins' model it means that the learner has access to different kinds of support in order to understand the task and to complete it successfully.

This support can include the activation of pre-existing knowledge of the topic, as well as preteaching necessary vocabulary, outlining the key steps in task completion, providing a model of a successfully completed task, and making oneself available at recess, after school or by email for students to ask for help if they get stuck.

A context-reduced task is a task where the learner has little or none of the above support. An example of a context-reduced task is being required, as homework, to summarise the content of a brief podcast on the separation of powers in the US constitution.

The four model quadrants

Now we will take a look at examples of each of the four quadrants or cells in Cummins' model.

Quadrant A: Context-Embedded, Cognitively Undemanding. Tasks in this quadrant are easy to perform (cognitively undemanding) and provide students with various kinds of help (context-embedded). Examples are face-to-face conversation, copying words from the board, creating a timeline based on a list of dates and events, assembling the life cycle of a butterfly from a series of pictures.

Quadrant B: Context-Embedded, Cognitively Demanding. Tasks in this quadrant are challenging in various ways (cognitively demanding). Typically, they include thinking deeply, solving different kinds of problem, making connections, and analysis rather than simple presentation of facts. However, such tasks provide students with various kinds of help (context-embedded).

Task examples are analyzing and interpreting data from a survey or experiment, preparing and delivering a presentation on one type of environmental pollution, interpreting a political cartoon.

Quadrant C: Context-Reduced, Cognitively Undemanding. Tasks in this quadrant are easy to perform successfully (cognitively demanding) despite the absence of any visual aids or other types of help (context-reduced). Examples are answering yes/no questions about a historical event, reciting a list of the important parts of a plant, matching a list of words to their definitions.

Quadrant D: Context-Reduced, Cognitively Demanding. Tasks in this quadrant are both challenging to perform (cognitively demanding) and without access to any types of help (context-reduced). Examples are participating in a classroom debate on a contentious issue, taking notes during a lecture on the causes of the French Revolution without visual aids, reading an article in a science journal and preparing to present a summary to the class.

Reflections on the four-quadrant model.

Firstly, it is important to repeat that the axes of the model represent a cline, not binaries. So, for example, there are no tasks that are not to some extent cognitively demanding and there are no tasks that are completely decontextualised. Nevertheless, the model does give teachers a starting point to determine whether a given task is both achievable by ESL students and useful in terms of their learning.

The clear goal should be to lead ESL students to the point where they can reasonably comfortably complete context-reduced, cognitively demanding tasks (Quadrant D). Ability to do so is the basis for academic success. Along the way they primarily need context-embedded tasks that are cognitively demanding (Quadrant B).

What they do not need is what is often called busy work - in other words, tasks with no useful purpose or outcome. Such tasks can be in any of the quadrants, but most typically they will be found in the cognitively undemanding quadrants A and C. ESL students are as cognitively adept as the native-speakers in the class. They have the right and need to be challenged and to be given appropriate help.

Note: Busy work includes copying science terms and definitions from a textbook, memorizing a list of the kings and queens of England, doing page after page of mathematical problems of the same type, reading an article in a newspaper without any follow-up or explanation of the purpose of the reading.

Embedding tasks: Scaffolding

ESL students, by their very nature, need the kinds of additional support in order to successfully complete cognitively demanding tasks - particularly in respect of the language challenges such tasks entail. In Cummins' model this additional support is encompassed in the term context-embedded.

Another term which is essentially synonymous with context-embedded is scaffolded. Scaffolding entails providing ESL students with the necessary structural help to understand the task and to complete it successfully. As in real-life, the scaffolding can be removed piece-by-piece to the point that the student doesn't need it at all.

A very useful list of scaffolding examples as they fit into the four quadrants is given by Coelho (2012) in her own representation of Cummins' model, whereby the term context-embedded is replaced by maximum scaffolding and context-reduced by reduced scaffolding.

Note: In schools where there is an ESL program, scaffolding is commonly undertaken by ESL teachers. But the techniques are equally applicable in mainstream classes, and are particularly important in schools with no ESL support.

More on scaffolding

Following are a few of Coelho's many examples of scaffolding in each quadrant.

Quadrant A: Maximum Scaffolding, Cognitively Undemanding

Quadrant B: Reduced Scaffolding, Cognitively Demanding

Quadrant C: Reduced Scaffolding, Cognitively Demanding
Coelho states: "Students who have achieved level B2* are ready to be challenged by Quadrant C tasks, which are both cognitively and linguistically demanding." She does not list any specific scaffolding techniques but makes (inter alia) the following comment:

*Level B2 refers to the standards set by the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Quadrant D: Reduced Scaffolding, Cognitively Undemanding
In Coelho's model there is a big "DO NOT ENTER" sign in this quadrant. She states (full text):

"Tasks in Quadrant D are cognitively undemanding but may also be incomprehensible for many L2 learners because of a lack of background knowledge or contextual support, or because the language level is too far above the students' present level of comprehension. Examples of Quadrant D activities include tasks such as copying or memorizing material that the students do not understand. Even activities that are intended to be student-centered and academically challenging, such as research projects, can become Quadrant D tasks if students do not receive the necessary guidance and support. Many second language learners end up completing their projects by copying or memorizing whole chunks of text from reference books, with little comprehension of the material.

"These kinds of activities are unlikely to advance academic learning, while incomprehensible or decontextualized activities are not likely to promote and language acquisition."

Note: Some representations of Cummins' model have the ABCD quadrant letters in a different order to those shown in the diagram above. Coelho's scaffolding model discussed here is one such alternative.

Conclusion

Cummins' quadrant model is a good tool for assessing both the difficulty of any given task and its usefulness for ESL students.

Coelho has adapted the model to focus on some of the ways to make even cognitively (and linguistically) demanding tasks achievable by ESL students - a process called scaffolding.

Both the original model and its adaptation are not only relevant to the ESL students in mainstream classes. They are also helpful guides to assessing task difficulty and usefulness for all students, as well as providing suggestions on how to make difficult tasks manageable.

Further reading

Here is a link to a workshop handout on the topic of scaffolding using an interactive whiteboard. The workshop covered insights by three important figures in the fields of cognitive and educational psychology: Vygotsky, Bruner, and Krashen. The handout page also has links to further information about and examples of scaffolding.

The Cummins page elsewhere here includes a further discussion of the quadrant model, as well as other important insights and recommendations for mainstream teachers. Cummins is the researcher, along with Krashen, who has had the most influence on the information and advice provided on this site.

Finally, here are three site links with information and advice on how to make the language of the classroom, homework and tests more comprehensible to ESL students:

Reference

The section about scaffolding is based on this article by Coelho: Teaching in the Quadrants: A framework for teaching and learning academic language for school success. The topic is also covered in her book:

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