Fancy trying Task Tweaker - my new tool for language teachers?
Repetition is boring.
No?
Here’s a quick experiment: say repetition. Now say over and over, time and time again, day after day, again and again, on and on, round and round. Aren’t you bored yet?
Here comes that classic dilemma in language teaching: the need for repetition versus the risk of boredom.
Repetition doesn’t sell in our field.
While it’s essential for language learning (no repetition, no progress), the word itself is often carefully avoided when promoting teaching methods or learning platforms. Why?
a) Because even the most engaging activity can become dull when it’s repeated over and over, time and time again, day after day, well, you know the drill.
b) Because there are far too many non-professionals or teachers from unrelated fields in the language teaching space, especially in edtech, basing their approaches on personal school memories of ‘repeat, repeat, and repeat again’, and simply swapping that for ‘quiz, quiz, quiz’ or ‘game, game, game’ (but that’s a topic for another post).
c) Because young and inexperienced teachers often begin their journey with a Holy Grail quest, searching for what to use by trying out a constant stream of wow-tasks, new every single day. (No judgment, we’ve all been there, before figuring out what actually works.)
Whatever the reason, repetition is often synonymous with mechanical drilling and plain boredom. And while boredom can sometimes spark some creativity, that creativity usually has little to do with learning. More often, it just leads students to lose focus, or to focus on anything but the learning (see more here: How to Be a Boring Teacher).
Yet the challenge isn’t repetition itself – it’s finding ways to get students engaging with language again and again.
How often do you revisit tasks?
The goal isn’t just to revisit the task as-is, but to vary key parameters so that each iteration feels fresh and keeps students meaningfully engaged.
To help with brainstorming the ideas for variations, I’ve built my Task Tweaker.
I’ve used an experimental model for the app with the combination of parameters that I think give the best results in terms of language learning. It’s not as fast as ChatGPT, but I like the output it generates for this purpose.
It’s simple to use:
Describe your task or task instructions (e.g., ‘Describe a picture to your partner’). The more specific details you provide, the better and more accurate the generated variations will be.
Add your learning objective (e.g., Prepositions of place+fluency).
Include your students’ age (e.g., Teens), level (e.g., Intermediate), and, optionally, interests (e.g., Travelling and adventures), or specific constraints (e.g., Hybrid or online class, low-resource setting, limited time, or particular focus, e.g., speaking).
Click Generate.
You’ll get six variations. Each variation highlights the parameters that have changed, helping you further fine-tune your task.
I’ve included the options of copying or saving each variation.
The tool can also be a great teaching aid for teacher educators, supporting discussions and planning with trainee teachers.
No, it won’t do anything a skilled teacher couldn’t do. But sometimes, a little external inspiration is all we need.
Repetition doesn’t have to be boring, does it?
Let’s repeat our experiment. Say repetition. Now say iteration. Say fresh. Say meaningful.
You can try Task Tweaker on my blog here https://eltcation.com/task-tweaker/.
I’d be happy to hear your thoughts!
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