Article By: Rachel Tsateri

This is the first in a regular series of blog posts in which we share a lesson idea that can be expanded and adapted to your learners and context. We hope you will enjoy it and leave us some feedback on what you think. The first topic is INFOBESITY, which according to MacMillan Dictionary is…

…the condition of continually consuming large amounts of information, especially when this has a negative effect on a person’s well-being and ability to concentrate.

Lesson Idea

This could be the lead-in for a lesson on infobesity.

You can use a TBL (task-based learning) approach, which includes:

1) A pre-task phase

2) A task or during task phase  

3) A post-task phase

Pre-task

  • Lead-in: show students the picture and elicit the concept
  • Elicit some definitions or synonyms such as:
    • Information overload/overdose
    • Information/social media fatigue
    • Data smog

During task 

  • Give your students a task:

How can we deal with infobesity? With a partner, make a list of top 5 tips or strategies.

  • Students prepare the task and report to the class. Why not have them do a web search if they have access to internet?
  • You can give feedback on content by sharing your suggestions on how to tackle infobesity. Here are some ideas you can use:
    • Omission: Seeing that we can’t possibly consume everything, we just ignore some information.
    • Queuing: Putting information aside until we have time for it. Bookmarking posts on social media, or just allocating time in the morning to respond to emails can help.
    • Skimming: Read texts quickly to see if they are useful to you before you give them your full attention.
    • Filtering: Select and prioritize what is most important to you.
    • Taking breaks to help the brain process information.
  • Are these ideas the same as your students’? Do your students agree with this advice?
  • You can use a template like this one to identify and capture language worth exploring (Anderson and McCutcheon, 2019:24) 
Successful language What you said What you should say
     

Post-task suggestions

  • Reflection on how task was performed. 
    • Students present a report and evaluate the language they used. 
    • They evaluate their fluency or accuracy. 
    • They reflect on what language they learned from the task.
  • Encourage attention to form. You can select and focus on language that was used inaccurately (using the table above).  Either present this explicitly or elicit class correction. You can ask students to share what useful features of language they’ve noticed.
  • You can explicitly teach/practise:

Language for listing and sequencing

    • First of all../To begin with
    • Secondly..
    • Another tip is to..
    • Finally..

Language for expressing opinion

    • I/we believe that..
    • In my/our belief/opinion..
    • It’s crucial/essential/important to..

Language for giving advice

    • You should always..
    • We recommend +ing..
    • An idea is to..

Topic-related vocabulary

Omission, queuing, skimming, filtering, productivity, tackle, deal with, prevent, limit distractions etc.

What about you? How do you deal with infobesity? How would you use this lesson idea? Let us know in the comments! 

References

Anderson, N. and McCutcheon, N. (2019). Activities For Task-Based Learning. Stuttgart: DELTA Publishing.

Ellis, R., 2002. The Methodology of Task-Based Teaching. [online] Semantic scholar. Available at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Methodology-of-Task-Based-Teaching-Rod-Ellis-%E3%83%BB-Ellis/84db68b0456e3e13758a4612da0ef5cddaa103ec [Accessed 24 March 2022].