The Curious Case Of

Teaching Backwards

by Sandra Plazibat

RELO Belgrade OPEN Online

Conference (August 20th,2020)
 INTRODUCTION

Inclassforteachers,
(2nd,Feb,2010) Benjamin
Button collision course
(Video), YouTube
https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=6Zp7dq6b
2PI
Can you, please, copy the verbs you
see!

remembered
happened

hadn’t stopped

been wrapped

had
moved would had got

have driven
 Task
• write a story based on the photos you saw and using the verbs I gave
you and include “IF”

• students do the task, in pairs or in groups and rehearse what they want
to say or write.
• the emphasis is more on meaningful communication, fluency than on
accuracy.
PLEASE, FILL IN WHAT IS MISSING IN THE TEXT USING THE VERBS YOU COPIED:
(you have 5’’)

happened
And if one thing 1.had_______________ differently,
if the shoelace 2._________broken,
hadn’t
or the truck 3.had_____________moments
moved earlier,
or that package 4.___had________________
been wrapped and ready,
had
or the man 5.___________set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier,
stopped
or the taxi driver 6.__hadn’t_________________ for the cup of coffee,
or that woman 7.had ______________
remembered her coat and 8._ had ___________
got into an earlier
cab,
would
Daisy and her friend 9.____________have crossed the street. And the taxi
10. would _____________
have driven by…..

taken from: Inclassforteachers, (2nd,Feb,2010) Benjamin Button collision course (Video),

YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zp7dq6b2PI
Please, annotate the column with the
correct time reference of the events!

In the In the In the

PRESENT PAST FUTURE
 THE END

Inclassforteachers, (2nd,Feb,2010) Benjamin Button collision course (Video), YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zp7dq6b2PI
 Annotate the Past Perfect, please
And if one thing had happened differently,
if the shoelace hadn’t broken,
if
or the truck had moved moments earlier,
or that package had been wrapped and ready,
or the man had set his alarm and got up five minutes
earlier,
or the taxi driver hadn’t stopped for the cup of coffee
or that woman had remembered her coat and had got
into an earlier cab,
Daisy and her friend would have crossed the street. And
the taxi would have driven by…..
 The Third
Conditional
If clause Main clause

Past Perfect Tense would + have + past participle

 Practice
Could you now, please, imagine yourself in the
following situations in the past and finish the
sentences using the Third Conditional 

What would you have done if you…

• had your passport stolen in a foreign country.
• got caught up in political unrest somewhere
abroad.
• missed your flight .
Based on the analysis of the learners’ products, more
work on specific language points may follow.
 3 phases of TBLT:
(Task-Based Language Teaching)

3. 1.

•T introduces the topic and •T monitors and

explains the task encourages S
•Ss may listen, read or watch •Ss prepare to report
how they did the
2. TASK-CYCLE task
•T brings out the specific •Ss report
vocabulary or
PRE-TASK
lang.patterns (analysis)
•S produce vocabulary •Talk less
/language patterns POST-TASK •Model everything
•T asks Ss to reflect •Focus on independence

How To Teach While Wearing A Mask

 TBLT1
(Task-Based Language Teaching)
• It is a reverse to the traditional teaching approach: presentation-
practice – production; it is problem – analysis – solution.

• In a task-based lesson students do tasks while the teacher

monitors their performance, identifies what language they need,
and focuses on that language in the final stage;

• It promotes learner centeredness and learner engagement with

purposeful real life tasks that emphasize communication and
meaning, in the last stage they focus on the form.

1WorldLearning. (2018). The basics of task-based language teaching. In

"Teaching Grammar Communicatively"[Online course].
 TBLT resources
Here are two links for additional material as а
follow-up of this session. Feel free to download.

1. The Basics of Task-Based Language Teaching

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1raTv9Tunnqy523Ik
QfkxCvFoDgOIIkze/view?usp=sharing
2. Sample TBLT Grammar Lessons
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10pJbJ49sa1UirxO
GvUrY2UbdPdvtsz-G/view?usp=sharing
Should you have any questions,or you
would like me to send you the slides,
please contact me at:
plazibat@eunet.rs