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Text in language classrooms: TALO,
TAVI and TASP
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One of the enormous benefits of the Internet has
been the accessibility of loads and loads of English
texts for teachers to use with their learners.
But the gap between a teacher finding a text and
successfully using it in class can be quite large. How should
teachers use texts? How have they used them in the past?
This article looks at different approaches to text in the
language classroom.
Texts in language classrooms: A brief trip through time
Different times, different texts
TALO: Text as a linguistic object
TAVI: Text as a vehicle for information
TASP: Text as a springboard for production
Planning a typical text lesson in the 21st century
Texts in language classrooms: A brief trip through time
Texts have been used in language classrooms for a long
time. Their exploitation, however, has changed over the
years.
A hundred years ago, a teacher would bring a text,
usually literary, into class and would translate it word for
word and sentence for sentence with the students,
drawing attention to similarities and differences between
English and the students' L1. This was part of the grammar
translation approach.
Fifty years ago, teachers were also using texts. These
texts would be considerably different from the literary
texts mentioned above. For a start, they were most often
presented in dialogue form of the following variety:
"Is this a pen?"
" Yes this is a pen."
" Is that a pen?"
" No, that is a pencil."
The text had been written specifically to highlight a
language point (in this case, the verb 'to be' and the
difference between this and that - deixis). Students
would read the text silently, then repeat parts of the
dialogue after the teacher before practising it together
in pairs. If you saw a teacher using a text like this fifty
years ago, there's a good chance that it was in a
classroom using the Audiolingual method.
Fifteen years ago, if you saw a teacher using a text in the
language classroom, it would probably be much more
interesting than its counterpart thirty-five years earlier.
The Communicative Approach to language teaching also
used texts, but authentic texts were preferred. In this
approach, the teacher would be focussing much more on
the meaning of the text as a whole. Students would be
urged "not to try and understand every word" but to read
a text to get at the content and the overall meaning,
rather than just the language.
Different times, different texts
What purpose do texts serve? What makes a text suitable?
As approaches to teaching have changed over the years, so
have the texts. In language teaching literature TALO, TAVI
and TASP are three acronyms that have been used to
describe texts.
TALO: Text as a linguistic object
A TALO text is used for language work, specifically
grammar or vocabulary.
TALO texts:
are written especially with a pedagogical purpose in
mind
could be authentic texts the teacher has chosen
because they contain lots of examples of a particular
feature of language
could be authentic texts "adapted" to contain or
highlight certain features of language.
Some sample TALO activities are:
Find all the examples of X in a text (for example, a
grammar pattern, function words, a particular verb
form…)
Find all the words in the text that are connected to X
(words that are topically linked, or lexical sets)
Decide why certain forms were chosen over others
(why was a conditional used, for example)
TAVI: Text as a vehicle for information
A TAVI text has a different focus. Information within the
text is seen as more important than the language.
Students should understand the overall meaning of a text
instead of (or at least before) the finer points of detail.
TAVI texts:
can be chosen because they are motivating
can be ones that the teacher would hope the students
would like to read anyway
can be authentic texts.
TAVI type activities include:
predicting the content of the text, discussing questions
or statements that relate to the text
marking things in the text that you knew/didn't know
before
answering comprehension questions
summarising the main points of a text
putting events in order
In the examples we saw above, the first two (Grammar
Translation and Audiolingualism) use TALO and the third
example (Communicative approach) uses TAVI.
TASP: Text as a springboard for production
Another text acronym is TASP. TASP stands for Text as a
Stimulus for Production. This means using a text as a
springboard for another task - usually a reading or writing
task. TASP approaches also fit well with the communicative
approach.
TASP type activities could be:
doing a role play based on the text
discussing issues raised by the text
having a debate about the points of view presented in
the text
writing a similar text about something the students
know about
writing a response to the text.
Planning a typical text lesson in the 21st century
How can teachers 'get the most' out of a text in the 21st
century? One way is to combine the different approaches.
So, a text lesson from start to finish would look like this.
Choose a text that you think will be interesting and
motivating for your students (but not too hard). Do this
with the information content in mind, not just the language
in mind (i.e. TAVI). Design activities that will help students
process this information and understand the text.
Look for particular grammar or vocabulary that is worthy
of mention in the text and design activities that can bring
that out.
Think of what kind of task the students could do once
they've finished with the text.
In class, start with TAVI-type activities, so that the students
understand the information in the text.
Then look at the language in the text in closer detail,
through TALO-type activities.
Finally, close the lesson off with a TASP activity.
Further reading
Beaumont M. Reading in a foreign language at elementary
level, In Matthews, A. et al. (eds). At the Chalkface Edward
Arnold.(1986)
John T., Davies F. Text as a vehicle for information: the
classroom use of written texts in teaching reading in a
foreign language, Reading in a Foreign Language, 1 (1), pp.
1-19. (1983)
Lindsay Clandfield, Teacher trainer and Writer, Spain
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