What is the difference?

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ESL forum > Techniques and methods in Language Teaching > What is the difference?

What is the difference?

sasuna

What is the difference?

Hi everybody,
I hope that you answer this question:What is the difference between task,exercise and activity?
I need an explanation and which one should be written on the blackboard?
I always write task,but some colleagues objected and they didn �t convince me.
Thanks in advance.

9 Sep 2012

ueslteacher

IMHO:

An activity involves is a wider term and it may or may not involve exercises, it �s what ss do (speaking activity, writing activity, group activity)

Task is usually stated instructions at the beginning of an activity/excercise, e.g. "Listen to the dialogue and fill in the missing information"

An exersice is a set of questions/sentences that test your knowledge/provide practice.

Here �s what the dictionary offers:

task- an activity which is designed to help achieve a particular learning goal, especially in language teaching

actity- a thing that you do in order to achieve a particular aim

exercise-1)an activity that is designed to achieve a particular result

2)a set of questions in a book that tests your knowledge or practises a skill

All of which sounds pretty confusing I guess:)

Maybe someone has a betterexplanation.

Sophia

9 Sep 2012

In MY humble opinion:

They all have more-or-less the same meaning with a slight difference in focus.

task- focuses more on something that is required (perhaps given from an outside source such as a teacher)

activity- focuses on the action (more often used for crafting, etc.)

exercise- focuses on practicing something to achieve learning (in any of the three areas)

cheers,

Douglas

10 Sep 2012

sasuna

Thank You Animated GIF Comments | GraphicsGrotto.com

10 Sep 2012