Methods In Language Teaching

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………..4

Argument …………………………………..………………………………. 4

General Remarks …………….………..……………………………………. 6

PART I

CHAPTER I………………………………………………………..……………… 9

THE PLACE OF DIFFERENT METHODS AND TECHNIQUES IN LANGUAGE TEACHING……………………………………………………………….………. 9

Conceptual delimitations……………………………………………………….9

The Grammar Translation Method…………………..…….….………9

The Direct Method……………………………………….………….11

The Audio-Lingual Method ……………………………………………..14

The Silent Way…………………………………………………….…16

Suggestopedia……………………………………………………….19

Community Language Learning………………………………….….19

Total Physical Response……………………………………………..20

The Communicative Approach………………………………………22

The role of grammar in English language learning and teaching……………25

PART II

CHAPTER II……………………………………………………………………….28

METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF INTRODUCING AND PRACTISING DIFFERENT TOPICS (VISUAL AIDS, EXERCISES, SUPPLEMENTARY READING, POEMS AND GAMES)……………………………………………………………………………28

CHAPTER III…………………………………………………………….….…….36

COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM…………………….36

What are communicative activities?……………………………………………………..36

Accuracy as well as fluency…………………………………………37

Promoting learning………………………………………………..…38

Motivation……………………………….……………………………38

How do I know to what degree an activity is communicative?…………………39

What are the benefits and challenges of using communicative activities?….40

Types of communicative activities

Information-Gap Activities………………………………………….40

Jigsaw Activities…………………………………………….……….41

Role-Plays……………………………………………………………41

CHAPTER IV……………………………………………………………………..42

COMMUNICATION GAMES IN THE CLASSROOM………………………….42

Enquiry and elimination…………………………………………………….44

Enquiry and elimination 1……………………………………………44

Enquiry and elimination 2……………………………………………45

Enquiry and elimination 3……………………………………………45

Jigsaw…………………………………………………………………46

Enquiry and elimination: Go, ask and tell……………………………46

Enquiry and elimination: I spy……………………………………….47

Barrier games………………………………………………………………..47

Barrier game 1………………………………………………………..47

Barrier game 2………………………………………………………..48

Barrier game 3………………………………………………………..48

Communicative crossword……………………………………………49

Spot the differences…………………………………………………..49

Paired Word Search…………………………………….……………49

Sorting and classifying………………………………………..…………….50

Sorting and classifying: Matrix Activities……………………………50

Sorting and classifying: Logic Matrix………………………………..50

Sorting and classifying: Structured Overview……………………….52

Sorting and classifying: Vocabulary Cluster…………………………52

Sequencing……………………………………………………………….…53

Picture Sequencing……………………………………….………..…53

Oral Picture Sentence Match…………………………………………53

Sentence Sequencing…………………………………………………54

Matching…………………………………………………………………….55

Picture Sentence Match……………………………………………….55

Bingo…………………………………………………………………56

Dictogloss……………………………………………………………………57

CHAPTER V………………………………………………………………………58

LESSON PLANS-FOCUS ON COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES……………..58

PART III

CHAPTER VI…………………………………………………………………….101

THE DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH……………………………………………101

CONCLUSION………………………………………………..………….………110

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………….…….………….111

ANNEXES…………………………………………………………..….….……..113

INTRODUCTION

Argument

General Remarks

ARGUMENT

MOTTO: “Communication is a skill that you can learn. It's like riding a bicycle or typing. If you're willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.”

– Brian Tracy

I think that communicative activities are activities to which children participate with pleasure and they may contribute in a pleasant way to the consolidation of some things students know. When the teacher wants to repeat a theme, vocabulary or grammar, he/she may do it without giving the impression that everything is focused on learning, giving to the activity the aspect of a game.

In this paper I speak about the importance of communicative activities in the English learning and teaching process, how communicative activities can help the development of the main abilities of a child.

I talked about communicative activities according to a child’s needs, with whom we may work efficiently during the teaching process.

Nowadays the language curriculum and the syllabus offer us the possibility to teach English from the kindergarden, as an optional course. We can do all these if we find and interesting and enjoyable way to teach English, to make pupils have fun at the same time they learn.

These  activities use real life situations to trigger communication. They encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen to other learners. Communicative activities have real purposes such as finding and exchanging information, breaking down barriers, talking about oneself, and learning about culture. Learning is maximized when students are engaged in relevant tasks within a dynamic learning environment instead of  traditional teacher-centered classes. Real life communication is the target. Learners are trained not only to be linguistically competent but also  communicatively and sociolinguistically competent.

Communicative activities are motivating. Learning is achieved while learners are having fun. The success of a communicative activity can be determined by the extent to which learners are dependent on the teacher. Tasks should be devised in a manner that learners gain autonomy and independence while learning. The role of the teachers is to give clear and to the point instructions and provide the appropriate environment for learners to interact and exchange information. Learners should be at ease and have fun while doing the communicative tasks.

Communicative tasks are realistic. Real communication situations should be the focus instead of isolated structures with no real-life reference. While in teacher-led classrooms learners were expected to be quiet and listen to the teacher and then, when asked, to respond to the teacher in unison with the one correct answer, communicative tasks require learners to take initiatives and provide their responses ( instead of a response) to contribute to the success of learning.

Communicative activities are meaningful: they are carried out to fulfil specific purposes such as booking a plane, hotel ticket, inviting somebody to a party, answering  an invitation letter, shopping. Performance in communicative tests reflects an underlying competence that is linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, strategic. Communicative activities should consider this multi-dimensional nature of language.

GENERAL REMARKS

Teaching is a wonderful profession and one thing we all know for sure is that we never forget our teachers. As a language teacher I believe the greatest gift you can give is the skill and confidence to speak the language.

Noam Chomsky Syntactic Structures observes: "A language is a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements."

The Cambridge Concise Encyclopaedia defines the term "language" as: “A species-specific communicative ability, restricted to humans, which involves the use of sounds, grammar, and vocabulary, according to a system of rules. Though other animals can communicate vocally and by gestures, they are restricted to a participate set of messages, genetically given, which cannot be creatively varied.”

In his Essays on Language, Hall notes: “Language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with one another by means of habitually used oral auditory arbitrary symbols.”

Encyclopaedia Britannica comments: “Language is a system of conventional spoken or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, communicate.”

The teaching of language is basically conditioned by the nature of the subject. Language is the manipulation of experience by the use of symbols. The concept of language as a learning task is a complex of interrelated and interdependent experiences and elements, in which growth proceeds simultaneously but in varying degrees, dependent on points or emphasis and interest.

The primary functions of language are communication, self-expression and thinking.

“Another language, another man” says an old German proverb emphasizing the usefulness of being multilingual.

As teachers of English, we have an open invitation to enter the world of children with the gift of a new language. With practical tools such as thematic lessons, patterned chants and playful songs, as well as activities that encourage cooperation we can offer our students a joyful and memorable experience every time we enter our classrooms. Learning foreign languages is both useful and important.

Speaking foreign languages it is a sign of education and nobility. The reason why people learn foreign languages today is quite different from why they have learnt them a hundred years ago.

The new role of foreign languages is closely connected to the development of society itself. Today we live in a world that is completely different from what it used to be even fifty years ago. Today, in the age of speed, we cannot function efficiently without knowledge of computers and of least one foreign language.

When applying for a job, the knowledge of a foreign language is generally among the basic requirements.

Teaching English as a young teacher in a village, where pupils’ housework was more important than their homework, I had to take over the rigid frame of a textbook and I have discovered the fabulous world of communicative activities and of games: the moment of fun and the spirit of competition made pupils forget the fact that they are learning.

In my opinion, it is never too early to learn a foreign language. At an early age, one can learn a foreign language through games and playing.

As any other process, learning takes place only if there are some conditions: internal conditions (the person who is learning) and external conditions (linked to the people who organize the teaching activity).

Among the internal conditions the psychologists speak about a target for learning, a motivation.

The external conditions constitute the communication with teachers, the atmosphere and the places where the lessons take place. The majority of external conditions don’t exist from themselves; the talent and the teacher’s ability encourage their appearance.

The learner’s attention is limited. Elena Verza mentions that “in the beginning this attention will be without any intention, so that the teacher’s role is to turn this into intention.”

“The pedagogic ideal should be to create attention without intention, so the final results will be better due to a better implication in the activity.” (Verza, 1993:21)

Bruner (Bruner, 1997:17) speaks about the necessity of the teachers to hire in a struggle against passivity. Using well chosen communicatve activities in the classroom, we create situations where pupils participate actively and even they will be very enthusiastic about their real success.

The communication function is obvious.

CHAPTER I

THE PLACE OF DIFFERENT METHODS AND TECHNIQUES IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Language teaching is not just about teaching language, it is also about helping students to develop themselves as people. No one knows exactly how people learn languages although a great deal of research has been done into the subject.

Conceptual delimitations

Approaches to teaching foreign languages went hand in hand with the changes in the faces of society, the basic pedagogical concepts of the age and the characteristic needs of the students. According to the teaching methods devised, we can distinguish several successive approaches:

The grammar-translation method originated from the practice of teaching Latin. In the early 1500s, Latin was the most widely-studied foreign language due to its prominence in government, academia, and business.However, during the course of the century the use of Latin dwindled, and it was gradually replaced by English, French, and Italian. After the decline of Latin, the purpose of learning it in schools changed. Whereas previously students had learned Latin for the purpose of communication, it came to be learned as a purely academic subject.

Throughout Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, the education system was formed primarily around a concept called faculty psychology. This theory dictated that the body and mind were separate and the mind consisted of three parts: the will, emotion, and intellect. It was believed that the intellect could be sharpened enough to eventually control the will and emotions. The way to do this was through learning classical literature of the Greeks and Romans, as well as mathematics. Additionally, an adult with such an education was considered mentally prepared for the world and its challenges.

At first it was believed that teaching modern languages was not useful for the development of mental discipline and thus they were left out of the curriculum. When modern languages did begin to appear in school curricula in the 19th century, teachers taught them with the same grammar-translation method as was used for classical Latin and Greek. As a result, textbooks were essentially copied for the modern language classroom.

In the United States of America, the basic foundations of this method were used in most high school and college foreign language classrooms. There are two main goals to grammar-translation classes. One is to develop students’ reading ability to a level where they can read literature in the target language. The other is to develop students’ general mental discipline. The users of foreign language wanted simply to note things of their interest in the literature of foreign languages. Therefore, this method focuses on reading and writing and has developed techniques which facilitate more or less the learning of reading and writing only.

As a result, speaking and listening are overlooked. Grammar-translation classes are usually conducted in the students’ native language. Grammar rules are learned deductively; students learn grammar rules by rote, and then practice the rules by doing grammar drills and translating sentences to and from the target language. More attention is paid to the form of the sentences being translated than to their content. When students reach more advanced levels of achievement, they may translate entire texts from the target language. Tests often consist of the translation of classical texts. There is not usually any listening or speaking practice, and very little attention is placed on pronunciation or any communicative aspects of the language. The skill exercised is reading, and then only in the context of translation. The mainstay of classroom materials for the grammar-translation method is the textbook.

Textbooks in the 19th century attempted to codify the grammar of the target language into discrete rules for students to learn and memorize. A chapter in a typical grammar-translation textbook would begin with a bilingual vocabulary list, after which there would be grammar rules for students to study and sentences for them to translate. Some typical sentences from 19th-century textbooks are as follows:

The philosopher pulled the lower jaw of the hen.
My sons have bought the mirrors of the Duke.
The cat of my aunt is more treacherous than the dog of your uncle.

The method by definition has a very limited scope. Because speaking or any kind of spontaneous creative output was missing from the curriculum, students would often fail at speaking or even letter writing in the target language. A noteworthy quote describing the effect of this method comes from Bahlsen, who was a student of Plötz, a major proponent of this method in the 19th century. In commenting about writing letters or speaking he said he would be overcome with "a veritable forest of paragraphs, and an impenetrable thicket of grammatical rules."

According to Richards and Rodgers, the grammar-translation has been rejected as a legitimate language teaching method by modern scholars. Though it may be true to say that the Grammar-Translation Method is still widely practiced, it has no advocates. It is a method for which there is no theory. There is no literature that offers a rationale or justification for it or that attempts to relate it to issues in linguistics, psychology, or educational theory.

The grammar-translation method was the standard way languages were taught in schools from the 17th to the 19th century. Despite attempts at reform from Roger Ascham, Montaigne, Comenius and John Locke, no other methods gained any significant popularity during this time. Later, theorists such as Vietor, Passy, Berlitz, and Jespersen began to talk about what a new kind of foreign language instruction needed, shedding light on what the grammar translation was missing. They supported teaching the language, not about the language, and teaching in the target language, emphasizing speech as well as text. Through grammar translation, students lacked an active role in the classroom, often correcting their own work and strictly following the textbook. The grammar-translation method is still in use today in hybrid forms in many different countries, including many parts of India.

The Direct Method

The direct method allows students to perceive meaning directly through the target language because no translation is allowed. Pantomime and visual aids are used to clarify the meaning of vocabulary items and concepts. Students speak a great deal in the target languageand communicate as if in real situations. Writing and reading are taught from the beginning. Speaking and listening skills are emphasized. Grammar is learned inductively. The direct method of teaching, sometimes called the natural method. Not limited to but often used in teaching foreign languages, the method refrains from using the learners' native language and uses only the target language. It was established in Germany and France around 1900. Characteristic features of the direct method are:

teaching concepts and vocabulary through pantomiming, real-life objects and other visual materials

teaching grammar by using an inductive approach (i.e. having learners find out rules through the presentation of adequate linguistic forms in the target language)

centrality of spoken language (including a native-like pronunciation)

focus on question-answer patterns

Classroom instructions are conducted exclusively in the target language.

Only everyday vocabulary and sentences are taught during the initial phase; grammar, reading and writing are introduced in intermediate phase.

Oral communication skills are built up in a carefully graded progression organized around question-and-answer exchanges between teachers and students in small, intensive classes.

Grammar is taught inductively.

New teaching points are introduced orally.

Concrete vocabulary is taught through demonstration, objects, and pictures; abstract vocabulary is taught by association of ideas.

Both speech and listening comprehensions are taught.

Correct pronunciation and grammar are emphasized.

Student should be speaking approximately 80% of the time during the lesson.

Students are taught from inception to ask questions as well as answer them.

The key aspects of this method are:

I. Introduction of new word, number, alphabet character, sentence or concept (referred to as an Element) :

• SHOW…Point to Visual Aid or Gestures (for verbs), to ensure student clearly understands what is being taught.

• SAY…Teacher verbally introduces Element, with care and enunciation.

• TRY…Student makes various attempts to pronounce new Element.

• MOLD…Teacher corrects student if necessary, pointing to mouth to show proper shaping of lips, tongue and relationship to teeth.

• REPEAT…Student repeats each Element 5-20 times.

Teacher should be aware of "high frequency words and verbs" and prioritize teaching for this. (i.e. Teach key verbs such as "To Go" and "To Be" before unusual verbs like "To Trim" or "To Sail"; likewise, teach Apple and Orange before Prune and Cranberry.)

II. Syntax, the correct location of new Element in sentence:

• SAY & REPEAT…Teacher states a phrase or sentence to student; Student repeats such 5-20 times.

• ASK & REPLY IN NEGATIVE…Teacher uses Element in negative situations (e.g. "Are you the President of the United States?" or "Are you the teacher?"); Students says "No". If more advanced, may use the negative with "Not".

• INTERROGATIVES Teacher provides intuitive examples using 5 "w"s (Who, What, Where, Why, When) or How". Use random variations to practice.

• PRONOUNS WITH VERBS Using visuals (such as photos or illustrations) or gestures, Teacher covers all pronouns. Use many random variations such as "Is Ana a woman?" or "Are they from France?" to practice.

• USE AND QUESTIONS…Student must choose and utilize the correct Element, as well as posing appropriate questions as Teacher did.

III. Progress, from new Element to new Element (within same lesson):

A. Random Sequencing:

1. After new element (X) is taught and learned, go to next element (Y).

2. After next element (Y) is taught and learned, return to practice with element (X).

3. After these two are alternated (X-Y; Y-X; Y-Y, etc), go to 3rd element (Z).

4. Go back to 1 and 2, mix in 3, practice (X-Y-Z; Z-Y-X; Y-Y-Z, etc.) and continue building up to appropriate number of Elements (may be as many as 20 per lesson, depending on student, see B.1), practicing all possible combinations and repeating 5-20 times each combination.

B. Student-Led Limits:

1. Observe student carefully, to know when mental "saturation" point is reached, indicating student should not be taught more Elements until another time.

2. At this point, stop imparting new information, and simply do Review as follows:

C. Review: Keep random, arbitrary sequencing. If appropriate, use visuals, pointing quickly to each. Employ different examples of Element that are easy to understand, changing country/city names, people names, and words student already knows. Keep a list of everything taught, so proper testing may be done.

D. Observation and Notation: Teacher should maintain a student list of words/phrases that are most difficult for that student. List is called "Special Attention List"

IV. Progress, from Lesson to Lesson:

• LESSON REVIEW The first few minutes of each lesson are to review prior lesson(s).

• GLOBAL REVIEW Transition from Lesson Review to a comprehensive review, which should always include items from the Special Attention List.

V. Advanced Concepts:

• Intermediate and Advanced Students may skip some Element introduction as appropriate; become aware of student's language abilities, so they are not frustrated by too much review. If Student immediately shows recognition and knowledge, move to next Element.

• Non-Standard Alphabets: Teaching Student to recognize letters/characters and reading words should employ same steps as in above Aspect I. and alphabet variations may be taught using Aspect III. Writing characters and words should initially be done manually, either on paper or whiteboard.

• Country Accents: Any student at intermediate stages or higher should be made aware of subtle variations in pronunciation, which depend on geography within a country or from country to country.

It should be noted that an integral aspect of the Direct Method is varying the setting of teaching; try different scenarios using the same Element. This makes the lessons more "real world," as it will bring some confusing distractions to the student and employ organic variables common in the culture and locale of language use.

The direct method was an answer to the dissatisfaction with the older grammar translation method, which teaches students grammar and vocabulary through direct translations and thus focuses on the written language. There was an attempt to set up conditions that imitate mother tongue acquisition, which is why the beginnings of these attempts were called the natural method.

At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Sauveur and Franke proposed that language teaching should be undertaken within the target-language system, which was the first stimulus for the rise of the direct method. The audio-lingual method was developed in an attempt to address some of the perceived weaknesses of the direct method.

The Audio-Lingual Method

The audio-lingual method is based on the behaviourist belief that student’s learning is the aquisition of a set of concepts. The speaker can substituewords to make novel sentences. The teacher directs and controls students’ behaviour, provides a model and reinforces correct responses.

The audio-lingual method, Army Method, or New Key, is a style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which professes that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement—correct use of a trait would receive positive feedback while incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback. This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called the direct method.

Like the direct method, the audio-lingual method advised that students be taught a language directly, without using the students' native language to explain new words or grammar in the target language. However, unlike the direct method, the audio-lingual method didn’t focus on teaching vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar. Applied to language instruction, and often within the context of the language lab, this means that the instructor would present the correct model of a sentence and the students would have to repeat it. The teacher would then continue by presenting new words for the students to sample in the same structure. In audio-lingualism, there is no explicit grammar instruction—everything is simply memorized in form.

The idea is for the students to practice the particular construct until they can use it spontaneously. In this manner, the lessons are built on static drills in which the students have little or no control on their own output; the teacher is expecting a particular response and not providing that will result in a student receiving negative feedback.

This type of activity, for the foundation of language learning, is in direct opposition with communicative language teaching. Charles Fries, the director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States, believed that learning structure, or grammar was the starting point for the student. In other words, it was the students' job to orally recite the basic sentence patterns and grammatical structures. The students were only given “enough vocabulary to make such drills possible.” (Richards, J.C. et-al. 1986). Fries later included principles for behavioural psychology, as developed by B.F. Skinner, into this method.

Drills and pattern practice are typical of the Audiolingual method. (Richards, J.C. et-al. 1986) These include:

Repetition: where the student repeats an utterance as soon as he hears it

Inflection: Where one word in a sentence appears in another form when repeated

Replacement: Where one word is replaced by another

Restatement: The student re-phrases an utterance

Inflection : Teacher : I ate the sandwich. Student : I ate the sandwiches.
Replacement : Teacher : He bought the car for half-price.

Student: He bought it for half-price.
Restatement : Teacher : Tell me not to smoke so often.

Student : Don't smoke so often!
The following example illustrates how more than one sort of drill can be incorporated into one practice session :
“Teacher: There's a cup on the table … repeat
Students: There's a cup on the table
Teacher: Spoon
Students: There's a spoon on the table
Teacher: Book
Students: There's a book on the table
Teacher: On the chair
Students: There's a book on the chair
etc.”

The Audio-lingual method is the product of three historical circumstances. For its views on language, audiolingualism drew on the work of American linguists such as Leonard Bloomfield. The prime concern of American Linguistics at the early decades of the 20th century had been to document all the indigenous languages spoken in the USA.

However, because of the death of trained native teachers who would provide a theoretical description of the native languages, linguists had to rely on observation. For the same reason, a strong focus on oral language was developed. At the same time, behaviourist psychologists such as B.F. Skinner were forming the belief that all behaviour (including language) was learnt through repetition and positive or negative reinforcement. The third factor that enabled the birth of the Audio-lingual method was the outbreak of World War II, which created the need to post large number of American servicemen all over the world.

It was therefore necessary to provide these soldiers with at least basic verbal communication skills. Unsurprisingly, the new method relied on the prevailing scientific methods of the time, observation and repetition, which were also admirably suited to teaching en masse. Because of the influence of the military, early versions of the audio-lingualism came to be known as the “army method.”

The Silent Way

The basis of silent way is the idea that teaching must be subordinated to learning and students must develop their own inner criteria for correcteness. The four skills- reading, listening, writing and speaking are taught from the begining. Students’ errors are expected as a normal part of learning, the teacher’s silence helps foster self-reliance and student initiative.

The teacher is active in setting up situations, while the students do most of talking and interacting. The Silent Way is a language-teaching method created by Caleb Gattegno that makes extensive use of silence as a teaching technique. It is not usually considered a mainstream method in language education. It was first introduced in Gattegno's book Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools: The Silent Way in 1963. Gattegno was skeptical of the mainstream language education of the time, and conceived of the method as a special case of his general theories of education. The method emphasises the autonomy of the learner; the teacher's role is to monitor the students' efforts, and the students are encouraged to have an active role in learning the language. Pronunciation is seen as fundamental; beginning students start their study with pronunciation, and much time is spent practising it each lesson.

The Silent Way uses a structural syllabus, and structures are constantly reviewed and recycled. The choice of vocabulary is important, with functional and versatile words seen as the best. Translation and rote repetition are avoided and the language is usually practiced in meaningful contexts. Evaluation is carried out by observation, and the teacher may never set a formal test. The teacher uses silence for multiple purposes in the Silent Way. It is used to focus students' attention, to elicit student responses, and to encourage them to correct their own errors. Even though teachers are often silent, they are still active; they will commonly use techniques such as mouthing words and using hand gestures to help the students with their pronunciation.

Teachers will also encourage students to help their peers. Silent Way teachers use specialized teaching materials. One of the hallmarks of the method is the use of Cuisenaire rods, which can be used for anything from introducing simple commands to representing abstract objects such as clocks and floor plans. The method also makes use of color association to help teach pronunciation; there is a sound-color chart which is used to teach the language sounds, colored word charts which are used to teach sentences, and colored Fidel charts which are used to teach spelling. Gattegno was a rank outsider to language education when Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools was first published in 1963.

The book was conspicuously lacking the names of most prominent language educators and linguists of the time, and Gattegno's works were only cited rarely in language education books and journals. He was previously a designer of mathematics and reading programmes, and the use of color charts and colored Cuisenaire rods in the Silent Way grew directly out of this experience. Gattegno was openly sceptical of the role linguistic theory of the time had in language teaching. He felt that linguistic studies "may be a specialization, [that] carry with them a narrow opening of one's sensitivity and perhaps serve very little towards the broad end in mind".

The Silent Way was conceived as a special case of Gattegno's broader educational principles, rather than a method specifically aimed at teaching languages. Gattegno developed these ideas to solve general problems in learning, and he also applied them to his work in the teaching of mathematics and the mother tongue. Broadly, these principles are:

Teachers should concentrate on how students learn, not on how to teach

Imitation and drill are not the primary means by which students learn

Learning consists of trial and error, deliberate experimentation, suspending judgement, and revising conclusions

In learning, learners draw on everything that they already know, especially their native language

The teacher must not interfere with the learning process

These principles situate the Silent Way in the tradition of discovery learning, that sees learning as a creative problem-solving activity.

The general goal of the Silent Way is to help beginning-level students gain basic fluency in the target language, with the ultimate aim being near-native language proficiency and good pronunciation.

An important part of this ability is being able to use the language for self-expression; students should be able to express their thoughts, feelings, and needs in the target language. In order to help them achieve this, teachers emphasize self-reliance. Students are encouraged to actively explore the language, and to develop their own 'inner criteria' as to what is linguistically acceptable.

The role of the teacher is that of technician or engineer. The teacher's task is to focus the students' attention, and provide exercises to help them develop language facility; however, to ensure their self-reliance, the teacher should only help the students as much as is strictly necessary. As Gattegno says, "The teacher works with the student; the student works on the language." For example, teachers will often give students time to correct their own mistakes before giving them the answer to a question. Teachers also avoid praise or criticism, as it can discourage students from developing self-reliance. A sound-color chart for English; these charts are used right from the beginning stages to teach pronunciation and word stress.

In the Silent Way students are seen as bringing a vast amount of experience and knowledge with them to the classroom; namely, their first language. The teacher capitalizes on this knowledge when introducing new material, always building from the known to the unknown. The students begin their study of the language by studying its sound system. The sounds are associated to different colors using a sound-color chart that is specific to the language being learned. The teacher first introduces sounds that are already present in the students' native language, and then progresses to sounds that are new to them. These sound-color associations are later used to help the students with spelling, reading, and pronunciation.

The Silent Way uses a structural syllabus. The teacher will typically introduce one new language structure at a time, and old structures are continuously reviewed and recycled. These structures are chosen for their propositional meaning, not for their communicative value. The teacher will set up learning situations for the students which focus their attention on each new structure. For example, the teacher might ask students to label a floor plan of a house in order to introduce the concepts of inside and outside. Once the language structures have been presented in this way, learners learn the grammar rules through a process of induction. Gattegno saw the choice of which vocabulary to teach as vital to the language learning process. He advised teachers to concentrate on the most functional and versatile words, to help students build a functional vocabulary.

Translation and rote repetition are avoided, and instead emphasis is placed on conveying meaning through students' perceptions, and through practicing the language in meaningful contexts. In the floor plan example, the plan itself negates the need for translation, and the teacher is able to give the students meaningful practice simply by pointing to different parts of the house.

The four skills of active listening, speaking, reading, and writing are worked on from the beginning stages, although students only learn to read something after they have learned to say it. Evaluation in the Silent Way is carried out primarily by observation. Teachers may never give a formal test, but they constantly assess students by observing their actions. This allows them to respond straight away to any problems the students might have. Teachers also gain feedback through observing students' errors; errors are seen as natural and necessary for learning, and can be a useful guide as to what structures need more practice.

Furthermore, teachers may gain feedback by asking the students at the end of the lesson. When evaluating the students, teachers expect them to learn at different rates, and students are not penalized for learning more slowly than their classmates. Teachers look for steady progress in the language, not perfection. Just as the name implies, silence is a key tool of the teacher in the Silent Way. From the beginning levels, students do 90 percent or more of the talking. Being silent moves the focus of the classroom from the teacher to the students, and can encourage cooperation among them. It also frees the teacher to observe the class. Silence can be used to help students correct their own errors.

Teachers can remain silent when a student makes a mistake to give them time to self-correct; they can also help students with their pronunciation by mouthing words without vocalizing, and by using certain hand gestures. When teachers do speak, they tend to say things only once so that students learn to focus their attention on them. A Silent Way classroom also makes extensive use of peer correction. Students are encouraged to help their classmates when they have trouble with any particular feature of the language. This help should be made in a cooperative fashion, not a competitive one. One of the teacher's tasks is to monitor these interactions, so that they are helpful and do not interfere with students' learning.

Suggestopedia

Suggestopedia seeks to help learners eliminate psychological barriers to learning. The learning environment is relaxed and subdued with low lighting and soft music in the background. Students choose a name and a charactermin the target language and culture and imagine being that person. Dialogues are presented accompanied by music. Students just listen to dialogues and practice the language later during an ” activation” phase.

Community Language Learning

Community language learning (CLL) is an approach in which students work together to develop what aspects of a language they would like to learn. The teacher acts as a counsellor and a paraphraser, while the learner acts as a collaborator, although sometimes this role can be changed. Examples of these types of communities have recently arisen with the explosion of educational resources for language learning on the Web.

The CLL method was developed by Charles A. Curran, a professor of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago. This method refers to two roles: that of the knower (teacher) and student (learner). Also the method draws on the counseling metaphor and refers to these respective roles as a counselor and a client. According to Curran, a counselor helps a client understand his or her own problems better by 'capturing the essence of the clients concern relating (the client's) affect to cognition. In effect, understanding the client and responding in a detached yet considerate manner.

To restate, the counselor blends what the client feels and what he is learning in order to make the experience a meaningful one. Often, this supportive role requires greater energy expenditure than an 'average' teacher.

Total Physical Response

Total physical response (TPR) is a language-teaching method developed by James Asher, a professor emeritus of psychology at San José State University. It is based on the coordination of language and physical movement. In TPR, instructors give commands to students in the target language, and students respond with whole-body actions. The method is an example of the comprehension approach to language teaching.

Listening serves two purposes; it is both a means of understanding messages in the language being learned, and a means of learning the structure of the language itself. Grammar is not taught explicitly, but is induced from the language input. Asher developed TPR as a result of his experiences observing young children learning their first language. He noticed that interactions between parents and children often took the form of speech from the parent followed by a physical response from the child. Asher made three hypotheses based on his observations: first, that language is learned primarily by listening; second, that language learning must engage the right hemisphere of the brain; and third, that learning language should not involve any stress.

Total physical response is often used alongside other methods and techniques. It is popular with beginners and with young learners, although it can be used with students of all levels and all age groups. James Asher developed the total physical response method as a result of his observation of the language development of young children. Asher saw that most of the interactions that young children experience with parents or other adults combine both verbal and physical aspects. The child responds physically to the speech of the parent, and the parent reinforces the child’s responses through further speech. This creates a positive feedback loop between the parent’s speech and the child’s actions.

Asher also observed that young children typically spend a long time listening to language before ever attempting to speak, and that they can understand and react to utterances that are much more complex than those they can produce them. From his experiences, Asher outlined three main hypotheses about learning second languages that are embodied in the total physical response method. The first is that the brain is naturally predisposed to learn language through listening. Specifically, Asher says that learners’ best internalize language when they respond with physical movement to language input. Asher hypothesizes that speech develops naturally and spontaneously after learners internalize the target language through input, and that it should not be forced.

In Asher’s own words: “A reasonable hypothesis is that the brain and the nervous system are biologically programmed to acquire language, either the first or the second in a particular sequence and in a particular mode”.

The sequence is listening before speaking and the mode is to synchronize language with the individual’s body. The second of Asher’s hypotheses is that effective language learning must engage the right hemisphere of the brain. Physical movement is controlled primarily by the right hemisphere, and Asher sees the coupling of movement with language comprehension as the key to language acquisition. He says that left-hemisphere learning should be avoided, and that the left hemisphere needs a great deal of experience of right-hemisphere-based input before natural speech can occur.

Asher’s third hypothesis is that language learning should not involve any stress, as stress and negative emotions inhibit the natural language-learning process. He regards the stressful nature of most language-teaching methods as one of their major weaknesses. Asher recommends that teachers focus on meaning and physical movement to avoid stress. The main text on total physical response is James Asher’s Learning Another Language through Actions, first published in 1977.

Total physical response is an example of the comprehension approach to language teaching. Methods in the comprehension approach emphasize the importance of listening on language development, and do not require spoken output in the early stages of learning. In total physical response, students are not forced to speak. Instead, teachers wait until students acquire enough language through listening that they start to speak spontaneously.

At the beginning stages of instruction students can respond to the instructor in their native language. While the majority of class time in total physical response is spent on listening comprehension, the ultimate goal of the method is to develop oral fluency. Asher sees developing listening comprehension skills as the most efficient way of developing spoken language skills.

Lessons in TPR are organized around grammar, and in particular around the verb. Instructors issue commands based on the verbs and vocabulary to be learned in that lesson. However, the primary focus in lessons is on meaning, which distinguishes TPR from other grammar-based methods such as grammar-translation.

Grammar is not explicitly taught, but is learned by induction. Students are expected to subconsciously acquire the grammatical structure of the language through exposure to spoken language input, in addition to decoding the messages in the input to find their meaning. This approach to listening is called “code breaking”.

Total physical response is both a teaching technique and a philosophy of language teaching. Teachers do not have to limit themselves to TPR techniques to teach according to the principles of the total physical response method. Because the students are only expected to listen and not to speak, the teacher has the sole responsibility for deciding what input students hear.

The majority of class time in TPR lessons is spent doing drills in which the instructor gives commands using the imperative mood. Students respond to these commands with physical actions. Initially, students learn the meaning of the commands they hear by direct observation. After they learn the meaning of the words in these commands, the teacher issues commands that use novel combinations of the words the students have learned. Instructors limit the number of new vocabulary items given to students at any one time. This is to help students differentiate the new words from those previously learned, and to facilitate integration with their existing language knowledge.

Asher suggests that students can learn between 12 and 36 words for every hour of instruction, depending on their language level and class size. While drills using the imperative are the mainstay of total physical response classes, teachers can use other activities as well. Some typical other activities are role plays and slide presentations. However, beginners are not made to learn conversational dialogs until 120 hours into their course.

There is little error correction in TPR. Asher advises teachers to treat learners’ mistakes the same way a parent would treat their children’s. Errors made by beginning-level students are usually overlooked, but as students become more advanced teachers may correct more of their errors. This is similar to parents raising their children; as children get older parents tend to correct their grammatical mistakes more often.

According to Asher, TPR lesson plans should contain the detailed commands that the teacher intends to use. He says, “It is wise to write out the exact utterances you will be using and especially the novel commands because the action is so fast-moving there is usually not time for you to create spontaneously.”

The Communicative Approach

The communicative approach stresses the need to teach commuinicative competence as opposed to linguistic competence. Functions are empasised over forms. Students work in small groups with authentic materials. Communicative language teaching rose to prominence in the 1970s and early 1980s as a result of many disparate developments in both Europe and the United States.

First, there was an increased demand for language learning, particularly in Europe. The advent of the European Common Market led to widespread European migration, and consequently there was a large population of people who needed to learn a foreign language for work or for personal reasons.

At the same time, children were increasingly able to learn foreign languages in school. The number of secondary schools offering languages rose worldwide in the 1960s and 1970s as part of a general trend of curriculum-broadening and modernization, and foreign-language study ceased to be confined to the elite academies. In Britain, the introduction of comprehensive schools meant that almost all children had the opportunity to study foreign languages.

This increased demand put pressure on educators to change their teaching methods. Traditional methods such as grammar translation assumed that students were aiming for mastery of the target language, and that students were willing to study for years before expecting to use the language in real life. However, these assumptions were challenged by adult learners who were busy with work, and by schoolchildren who were less academically able.

Educators realized that to motivate these students an approach with a more immediate payoff was necessary. The trend of progressivism in education provided a further pressure for educators to change their methods. Progressivism holds that active learning is more effective than passive learning, and as this idea gained traction in schools there was a general shift towards using techniques where students were more actively involved, such as group work.

Foreign-language education was no exception to this trend, and teachers sought to find new methods that could better embody this shift in thinking. The development of communicative language teaching was also helped by new academic ideas.

In Britain, applied linguists began to doubt the efficacy of situational language teaching, the dominant method in that country at the time. This was partly in response to Chomsky’s insights into the nature of language. Chomsky had shown that the structural theories of language prevalent at the time could not explain the creativity and variety evident in real communication.

In addition, British applied linguists such as Christopher Candlin and Henry Widdowson began to see that a focus on structure was also not helping language students. They saw a need for students to develop communicative skill and functional competence in addition to mastering language structures.

In the United States, the linguist and anthropologist Dell Hymes developed the concept of communicative competence. This was a reaction to Chomsky’s concept of the linguistic competence of an ideal native speaker. Communicative competence redefined what it meant to “know” a language; in addition to speakers having mastery over the structural elements of language, according to communicative competence they must also be able to use those structural elements appropriately in different social situations. This is neatly summed up by Hymes’s statement, “There are rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless.” Hymes did not make a concrete formulation of communicative competence, but subsequent authors have tied the concept to language teaching, notably Michael Canale.

An influential development in the history of communicative language teaching was the work of the Council of Europe in creating new language syllabuses. Education was a high priority for the Council of Europe, and they set out to provide syllabuses that would meet the needs of European immigrants. Among the studies used by the council when designing the course was one by the British linguist, D. A. Wilkins, that defined language using “notions” and “functions”, rather than more traditional categories of grammar and vocabulary. Notional categories include concepts such as time, location, frequency, and quantity, and functional categories include communicative acts such as offers, complaints, denials, and requests.

These syllabuses were widely used. Communicative language-learning materials were also developed in Germany. There was a new emphasis on personal freedom in German education at the time, an attitude exemplified in the philosophy of Jürgen Habermas. To fulfill this goal, educators developed materials that allowed learners to choose what they wanted to communicate freely.

These materials concentrated on the various different social meanings a given item of grammar could have, and were structured in such a way that learners could choose how to progress through the course themselves. The materials were used in teacher training courses and workshops to encourage teachers to change to using a communicative syllabus.

Two similar projects were also undertaken by Candlin at Lancaster University, and by Holec at the University of Nancy. Meanwhile, at the University of Illinois, there was a study that investigated the effects of the explicit teaching of learning strategies to language learners. The study encouraged learners to take risks while communicating, and to use constructs other than rote memorized patterns.

At the study’s conclusion, students who were taught communicatively fared no worse on grammatical tests than students that had been taught with traditional methods, but they performed significantly better in tests of communicative ability. This was the case even for beginners. As a result of this study, supplemental communicative activities were created for the French CRÉDIF course Voix et Visages de la France.

These materials focused on classroom autonomy, and learners were taught various phrases they could use to negotiate meaning, such as “What’s the word for …” and “I don’t understand”. CLT is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as a teaching method with a clearly defined set of classroom practices. As such, it is most often defined as a list of general principles or features. One of the most recognized of these lists is David Nunan’s (1991) five features of CLT:

An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.

The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.

The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself.

An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning.

An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom.

These five features are claimed by practitioners of CLT to show that they are very interested in the needs and desires of their learners as well as the connection between the language as it is taught in their class and as it used outside the classroom.

Under this broad umbrella definition, any teaching practice that helps students develop their communicative competence in an authentic context is deemed an acceptable and beneficial form of instruction. Thus, in the classroom CLT often takes the form of pair and group work requiring negotiation and cooperation between learners, fluency-based activities that encourage learners to develop their confidence, role-plays in which students practise and develop language functions, as well as judicious use of grammar and pronunciation focused activities.

In the mid 1990s the Dogma 95 manifesto influenced language teaching through the Dogme language teaching movement, who proposed that published materials can stifle the communicative approach. As such the aim of the Dogme approach to language teaching is to focus on real conversations about real subjects so that communication is the engine of learning.

This communication may lead to explanation, but that this in turn will lead to further communication. Classroom activities used in communicative language teaching can include the following:

Role-play

Interviews

Information gap

Games

Language exchanges

Surveys

Pair-work

Learning by teaching

However, not all courses that utilize the Communicative Language approach will restrict their activities solely to these. Some courses will have the students take occasional grammar quizzes, or prepare at home using non-communicative drills, for instance.

William Glasser's "control theory" exemplifies his attempts to empower students and give them voice by focusing on their basic, human needs. Unless students are given power, they may exert what little power they have to thwart learning and achievement through inappropriate behavior and mediocrity. Thus, it is important for teachers to give students voice, especially in the current educational climate, which is dominated by standardization and testing (Simmons and Page, 2010).

The role of grammar in English language teaching

Grammar is fundamental to language. Without grammar, language does not exist. However, nothing in the field of language pedagogy has been as controversial as the role of grammar teaching.

The controversy has always been whether grammar should be taught explicity through a formal presentation of grammatical rules or implicitly through natural exposure to meaningful language use. According to Kelly (1969), this controversy has existed since the beginning of language teaching.

Historically, approaches to grammar teaching have undergone many changes. These changes, which have been due to a number of theoretical and empirical developments in the field, have not been regular and have been characterized by many pendulum swings. They can be viewed in terms of three general instructional approaches, beginning with those that conceptualized teaching in terms of methods with an exclusive focus on grammar, continuing later as types of exposure to meaningful communication, and emerging more recently as a set of instructional options with a focus on both grammar and meaning.

During the Middle Ages it was believed that the best way of learning a second language was through studying first language grammar. A model of language instruction is Presentation-Practice-Production. According to D. Willis (1996) this approach is „so widely accepted that it now forms the basis of many teacher trening courses.” In my textbooks I can see different versions of the PPP model, in various language teaching and teacher training textbooks for foreign and second language teachers (e.g. Celce-Murcia & Hilles, 1988; Harmer, 1996; Ur, 1998). The PPP is what many teachers conceive of as a basic lesson structure in many current second language classrooms (Crookes & Chaudron, 2001).

In the PPP model, grammar instruction consists of a structured three-stage sequence: a presentation stage, a practice stage and a productio stage. In the presentation stage, the new gramar rule or structure is introduced, usually through a text, a dialogue, or a story that includes the structure. The students listen to the text or read it loud. The main purpose of this stage ist o help students become familiar with the new grammatical structure and keep it in their short-term memory (Ur, 1988).

The presentation stage is followed by a practice stage, in which students are given various kinds of written and spoken exercises to repeat, manipulate. Or reproduce the new forms.

The practice stage usually begins with controlled practices that focus learners’ attention on specific structures and then moves to less controlled practices with more open-ended activities.

The aim of the practice stage is to help students gain control of the knowledge introduced in the presentation stage, to take it in, and to move it from their short-term memory to their long-term memory (Ur, 1998). Finally, in the production stage, learners are encouraged to use the rules they have learnt in the presentation and practice stages more freely and in more communicative activities. The aim of this last stage ist o fully master the new form by enabling learners to internalize the rules an duse them automatically and spontaneously. In a sense, the aim here ist o develop fluency.

PART II

CHAPTER II

METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF INTRODUCING AND PRACTISING DIFFERENT TOPICS

CHAPTER III

COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM

What are communicative activities?

How do I know to what degree an activity is communicative?

What are the benefits and challenges of using communicative activities?

Types of communicative activities

CHAPTER IV

COMMUNICATION GAMES IN THE CLASSROOM

CHAPTER V

LESSON PLANS- FOCUS ON COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

CHAPTER II

METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF INTRODUCING AND PRACTISING DIFFERENT TOPICS

”Language is a living body that adapts itself to the communicative context and situation so that the teacher who wants to procedure competent users of the language must target the students communicative competence, for example their capacity to interac with the other memebrs of the social group, to share information, to use the langiuage functionally to achieve the desired effect.” (Bruner, 1893:50).

The textbooks are generally organized into units, each unit into lessons, each lesson with its text and activities.

Taking into consideration the specific moment in the lesson, there are three main types of activities:

Pre-listenig/reading activities

While-listenig/reading activities

Post-listening/reading activities

Pre-listening/reading activities

This is an introductory section. This section illustrates the new vocabuary both linguistically and visually. For instance, the matching exercise aims to introduce and drill a number of verbs (to go, to do, to sing) and adverbs (usually, often, seldom).

Classroom activities becme efficient only if the students are involved in interaction and participate actively. They must express opinions and discover meanings.

The learning material must be interesting and the classroom activities dynamic. The teacher needs to enrich the lesson with whatever visual or audito materials he/she can lay hands on and should make the students curious.

Among the pre-listening/reading activities the most widely used are:

-objective tasks, used to intorduce the new vocabulary:

Matching words with their definitions:

Filling in the blanks, continuing sentences

Sentence completion is an activity where the spirit of competiotion plays an important role. The children are motivated.

Procedure:

Age: 9 and above

Players: individually

Time: 15 minutes

Place: the classroom

The teaches gives the students half part of a sentence and asks the students to fill in the sentences as they want to. Those who write he funniest sentences as quickly as possible will be rewarded by the teacher.

Materials: paper, pencils

Example:

I like………………………………

I don’t like………………………….

I hate………………………………

I love………………………………….

I like playing tennis.

I don’t like listening classical music.

I hate walking.

I love playing computer games.

THE UNEXPECTED STORY

The activity can be used when the students learn the objectives and their position before the nouns.

Procedure:

Age: 10 and above

Players: individually

Time: 15 minutes

Place: the classroom

Description: Each student has got a text with some free spaces where they have to fill in with an adjective. The most interesting sentences will be rewarded with a mark.

Materials: handouts

Example:

MY PET

I have a …………..cat. Her name is Kitty. She has ……….fur and……eyes. She eats……..food and drinks………..water.

The students have to fill in with the correct adjective.

Reading tasks

These are usually objective tasks (grids, questions to be answered according to the information in the text). The students must skim or scan the text. Such exrecises ensure active reading.

Different texts require different types of reading, so that the teacher can deal with the new text in many different ways. If the text is short, it is introduced with the help of a listening activity. If the text is too long, the teacher must use a different approach.

In a texbook I use there are many reading activities. The students enjoy the descriptive ones where they can obtain and get information.

This is an example of a lesson, London, VIIIth form, intermediate level.

Stage 1

Text: LONDON

Aim: reading in order to extract the main idea

Techniques: global silent reading, skimming

Time: 5 minutes

Procedure: Ss read the text silently, the summarize it in one sentence

Students’ possible answers:

London, the capital of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has gone through many changes throughout its history.

Stage 2:

The students are asked to scan the text and find specific information.

Aim: locating specific information

Techniques: silent reading, scanning

Time: 3 minutes

Then, the students are asked to fill in the grid, according to the information in it.

Stage 3:

The students are asked to use the new vocabulary and grammar structures they have learnt in different exercises.

Aim: to develop language

Technique: sentence-level reading

Jumbled texts are very funny for students and they like them a lot. I use this type of activity during my teachin process. Here is an example:

SORT IT OUT

Age: 9 years and above

Players: pair-work

Time: 25-30 min

Place: the classroom

Aim: to develop reading skills

Procedures:

The teacher writes on a piece of paper or n the blackboard the titles of two jumbled texts. Then she explains what they had to follow in order to understand the activity better:

note down the names of the characters

pay attention to the linking words (and, but, because, then)

The pupils are put into pairs and are given the pieces from the text. The first pairs which put in the correct order the texts will be rewarded.

Materials: worksheets with the jumbled texts or maybe some pictures that may help to understand what the text is about.

HANDOUT

Devi and Tree

The Thieves

The jumbled texts:

Five hundred years ago, a girl called Devi lived in a town in the mountains of India.

Taffy was a thief.

Her family’s house had a big garden.

Sometimes Devi and her friends had picnincs or played games together there.

Jake was a thief, too.

One day, Jake saw some pictures in the newspaper.

„ There are some diamonds in one of the rooms of the big house on the hill,” Jake said.

Sometimes she sat and read her book under the trees.

There were some beautiful trees in the garden, but ne was Devi’s special tree.

„ Good ideea!” said Taffy. We’re going to be rich!

To be creative is important when you are a teacher. That’s why a good ideea is to keep a picture file. We can collect pictures from newspapers and magazines. Our students can sort the pictures under different categories such as people, landscapes, food, clothing, animals, jobs. Visual aids and flashcards are very useful when students have to imagine a story according to the picture. They may be used in pair-work or group-work.

„A picture is worth a hundred words if you have it at hand, as it can generate a lot of language.” (Hadfield, 1984:25)

POEMS AND GAMES

The games and the poems have to be selected so as to correspond to the age of our students and learning level. All students enjoy playing. Students may also be challenged to make their own games: „They are fruitful when there is a link between the game and what the students have learnt or are about to learn.” (Hadfield, 1984:30).

Poems reconstruction is a funny and enjoyable activity. The activity mixes reading, listening and discussion.

Example of reconstruction activity:

Stage 1:

The students are put into groups

Stage 2:

In each group, each of the students is given one of the following cards and instructed not to show it to anyone else:

Stage 3:

The groups are told that they must reassemble the poem.

Stage 4:

The students are told that they must decide to put the poem a title.

Spot the difference A

Work in pairs. One student has Picture 1 and the other has Picture 2. There are 8 differences. Ask questions to fiind the differences.

Example:

Are there any birds in your picture?

Yes, there are.

How many birds are there in your picture?

Two.

Spot the difference B

Work in pairs. One student has Picture 1 and the other has Picture 2. There are 8 differences. Ask questions to fiind the differences.

Example:

Are there any birds in your picture?

Yes, there are.

How many birds are there in your picture?

Three.

Picture 1 Picture 2

Students have to ask each other questions in order to fiind the difference.

CHAPTER III

COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM

What are communicative activities?

How do I know to what degree an activity is communicative?

Types of communicative activities

What are the benefits and challenges of using communicative activities?

What are communicative activities?

Communicative activities include any activities that encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen to other learners, as well as with people in the program and community. Communicative activities have real purposes: to find information, break down barriers, talk about self, and learn about the culture. Even when a lesson is focused on developing reading or writing skills, communicative activities should be integrated into the lesson.

Furthermore, research on second language acquisition (SLA) suggests that more learning takes place when students are engaged in relevant tasks within a dynamic learning environment rather than in traditional teacher-led classes (Moss & Ross-Feldman, 2003).

Whether CLT should be considered an approach or a methodology is a more abstract debate and here I want to deal with its more practical aspects. In fact, it is those very elements, and the name itself, which have been used to challenge the future relevance of CLT. Firstly, the label implies a focus on communication and some might argue that this method can't be employed genuinely with low levels as there is no authentic communication, due to a limited vocabulary and restricted range of functions. Initially, many of a learner's utterances are very formulaic. As an aside, consider just what percentage of our own English expressions are unique, and how often we rely on a set phrase; just because it is delivered unselfconsciously and with natural intonation does not make it original.  The aim is that the length and complexity of exchanges, and confident delivery, will grow with the student's language ability.
With the emphasis on communication, there is also the implication that spoken exchanges should be authentic and meaningful; detractors claim that the artificial nature of classroom–based (i.e. teacher – created) interactions makes CLT an oxymoron. Nevertheless, a proficient teacher will provide a context so that class interactions are realistic and meaningful but with the support needed to assist students to generate the target language. We need to consider that producing language is a skill and when we learn a skill we practise in improvised settings. For example, before a nurse gives a real injection, they have punctured many a piece of fruit to hone their technique.

Accuracy as Well as Fluency

It might also be argued that the extent of some of the structures or functions may never be used in real life. One example is adjective order. I have given students an exercise where they have to produce a phrase with a string of adjectives, such as "a strong, orange, Norwegian, canvas tent."   This is very unnatural, as most times we only combine two or three adjectives. The other example is directions – we have students follow a map and negotiate exhaustive directions which suggest maze-like complexity. In reality, most of us probably are only involved in a three-phase set of directions. In fact, what we are doing with these exercises is exposing students to patterns which they can later activate. This focus on accuracy versus fluency is one of the issues not often considered in a discussion of CLT.

The teacher decides to pay attention to one or other end of this band, depending on the type of lesson, or the stage of a particular lesson, and accuracy is their choice if they want to deal with students getting things right, take an opportunity for correction, or gauge the success of their teaching, for example. Freer speaking involves more choice, therefore more ambiguity, and less teacher intervention. While CLT implies the lessons are more student-centred, this does not mean they are un-structured. The teacher does have a very important role in the process, and that is setting up activities so that communication actually happens. There is a lot of preparation; accuracy practice is the bridge to a fluency activity. By implication, CLT involves equipping students with vocabulary, structures and functions, as well as strategies, to enable them to interact successfully.
The reference to strategies introduces the matter of grammatical versus communicative competence.

If we view the two as mutually exclusive, then we are likely to champion one over the other, in terms of approach, curriculum or whatever else determines and defines our classroom teaching. In fact, Canale and Swain's model of communicative competence, referred to by Guangwei Hu, includes four sub-categories, namely grammatical, sociolinguistic discourse and strategic. They consider someone competent in English should demonstrate both rules of grammar and use.

Promoting Learning

This returns us to the consideration of who we are teaching, and why. Are our students aiming to learn or acquire English? Do they need to know lexical items and linguistic rules as a means of passing an exam, or do they want to be able to interact in English?  For those inclined to maintain the dichotomy between learning and acquisition, and who argue that our primary focus is learners, CLT still has relevance. It is timely to review an early definition of CLT. According to Richards and Rodgers, in Guangwei Hu, CLT is basically about promoting learning.
Then again, Mark Lowe suggests that we follow Halliday's lead and drop the distinction between learning and acquisition, and refer to language mastery instead. After all, if the students master the language, they will certainly be able to perform better in exams, if that is their goal. In addition, those who do see a purpose beyond classroom-related English will be better equipped for using the language socially.

Motivation

One of the constant discussions in all my teacher training groups was how to motivate students. This suggests that the focus on passing the exam was not always enough. Motivation relates to engaging students but also includes confidence building. If there is a climate of trust and support in the classroom, then students are more likely to contribute. One way of developing this is to allow pair-checking of answers before open-class checking occurs. Another way is to include an opportunity for students to discuss a topic in small groups before there is any expectation that they speak in front of the whole class. Evelyn Doman suggests that "The need for ongoing negotiation during interaction increases the learners' overt participation…" It is this involvement we need to harness and build on.
Sometimes the participation is hardly what we would define as 'negotiation', but merely a contribution. For a few students, just uttering a word or a phrase can be an achievement. Indeed, some of the teachers in the training sessions said this was the goal they set for their more reticent pupils. And I have had students who, after writing their first note or e-mail in English, expressed their pride at being able to do so.
If teachers consider an activity to be irrelevant or not engaging enough, there are many other tasks which may be more appropriate, such as surveys, using a stimulus picture and prompt questions (Who… Where… When…What…), or a series of pictures which need to be sequenced before a story is discussed. In this respect, CLT addresses another area which constantly challenges teachers, the mixed-ability class. When the lesson progresses to a freer-speaking activity, students can contribute according to their ability and confidence, although I acknowledge both need to be stretched. So there is a challenge for the more capable students, while those with an average ability still feel their effort is valid. This compares with the less creative opportunities offered by some textbooks, where students read a dialogue, perhaps doing a substitution activity, for example.
A basic responsibility is considering and responding to the needs of our students, so if the course book is inadequate we need to employ the following steps: select, adapt, reject and supplement.  Moreover, because each class we teach has its own characteristics and needs, CLT will vary each time we employ it.

How do I know to what degree an activity is communicative?

Many teachers make the mistake of thinking they are getting their learners to speak, when in fact, the learner is not. Consider the following questions. Are students speaking when they are:

Singing?

Reciting a memorized text?

Practicing pronunciation?

Reading aloud?

Describing an image?

Answering questions spontaneously?

What are the benefits and challenges of using communicative activities?

Types of communicative activities

Information-Gap Activities

An important aspect of communication in CLT is the notion of information gap. This refers to the fact that in real communication, people normally com- municate in order to get information they do not possess. This is known as an information gap. More authentic communication is likely to occur in the class- room if students go beyond practice of language forms for their own sake and use their linguistic and communicative resources in order to obtain information. In so doing, they will draw available vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies to complete a task. The following exercises make use of the informa- tion-gap principle: Students are divided into A-B pairs.

The teacher has copied two sets of pictures. One set (for A students) contains a picture of a group of people. The other set (for B students) contains a similar picture but it contains a number of slight differences from the A-picture. Students must sit back to back and ask questions to try to find out how many differences there are between the two pictures. Students practice a role play in pairs. One student is given the information she/he needs to play the part of a clerk in the railway station information booth and has information on train departures, prices, etc. The other needs to obtain information on departure times, prices, etc. They role-play the interaction without looking at each other’s cue cards.

Jigsaw activities

These are also based on the information-gap principle. Typically, the class is divided into groups and each group has part of the information needed to com- plete an activity. The class must fit the pieces together to complete the whole. In so doing, they must use their language resources to communicate meaning- fully and so take part in meaningful communication practice. The following are examples of jigsaw activities: The teacher plays a recording in which three people with different points of view discuss their opinions on a topic of interest. The teacher prepares three different listening tasks, one focusing on each of the three speaker’s points of view. Students are divided into three groups and each group listens and takes notes on one of the three speaker’s opinions. Students are then rearranged into groups containing a student from groups A, B, and C. They now role-play the discussion using the information they obtained. The teacher takes a narrative and divides it into twenty sections (or as many sections as there are students in the class). Each student gets one section of the story. Students must then move around the class and by listening to each section read aloud, decide where in the story their section belongs. Eventually the students have to put the entire story together in the correct sequence. Other Activity Types in CLT Many other activity types have been used in CLT, including the following: Task-completion activities: puzzles, games, map-reading, and other kinds of classroom tasks in which the focus is on using one’s language resources to complete a task. Information-gathering activities: student-conducted surveys, interviews, and searches in which students are required to use their linguistic resources to col- lect information. Opinion-sharing activities: activities in which students compare values, opin- ions, or beliefs, such as a ranking task in which students list six qualities in order of importance that they might consider in choosing a date or spouse. Information-transfer activities: These require learners to take information that is presented in one form, and represent it in a different form. For example, they may read instructions on how to get from A to B, and then draw a map showing the sequence, or they may read information about a subject and then represent it as a graph. Reasoning-gap activities: These involve deriving some new information from given information through the process of inference, practical reasoning, etc. For example, working out a teacher’s timetable on the basis of given class timetables.

Role plays

Activities in which students are assigned roles and improvise a scene or exchange based on given information or clues.

CHAPTER IV

COMMUNICATION GAMES IN THE CLASSROOM

A game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun.

According to Jill Hadfield there are two kinds of games: competitive games, in which players or teams race to be the first to reach the goal, and co-operative games, in which players or teams work together towards a common goal.

We must make a diffrenece between communicative games and linguistic games. There are activities with a non-linguistic goal. Successful completion of a game will involve the carrying aut of a task such as drawing a in a route on a map, filling in a chart, or finding two matching pictures, rather than the correct production of a structure. In order to carry aut this task it will be necessary to use language, and by areful construction of the task it will be possible to specify in advance exactly what language will be required.

The emphasis in the games is on successful communication rather than on corectness of language. Games are to be found at the fluency end of the fluency-accuracy spectrum. This raises the question of how and where they should be used in class. Games should be regarded as an integral part of the language syllabus, not as an amusing activity for the end of the term.

They provide as much concentrated practice as a traditional dril land they provide an opportunity for real commuinication and they constitute a bridge between the classroom and the real world.

This suggests that the most useful place for these games is at the free stage of the traditional progression from presentation through practice to free communication, to be used as a culmination of the lesson, as a chance for students to use the language they have learnts freely and as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. They can also serve as a diagnostic tool for the teacher, who can note areas of difficulty and take appropriate remedial action.

Variety is important in language teaching and a succession of games based on the same principles, though exciting and novel at first, would soon pall. Techniques used should include information gap, guessing, search, matching, exchanging and collecting, combining, card games, problems and puzzles, role play and simulation techniques.

The simplest activities are based on the information gap principle. In these activities Student A has access to some informationwhich is not held by Student B. student B must aquire this information to complete a task successfully.

Some examples of communicative games

Enquiry and elimination

Using two matching posters or a set of matching picture cards one student chooses a card or identifies an object on the poster (unseen by the other participants). The other students must guess what it is by asking yes/no questions, thus allowing them to eliminate certain characteristics.

Celebrity heads is another similar example of enquiry and elimination.

Barrier games

Otherwise known as information gap activities the aim is for each student to share their information with the other students in order to complete the task. This can be done in pairs or teams. By taking turns, students ask questions in order to obtain information and complete the task, e.g. spot the difference, crosswords with down clues on one and across clues on the other, matrices with different information on each, describe and draw where one student describes and the other must draw what is described, cloze passage where the students have different words missing.

Sorting and classifying

In pairs or groups, students sort objects into various categories (which may be determined by you or by the student) and justify their classification.

Sequencing

In pairs, students sequence a series of pictures, dialogue, life cycles, texts etc, and recount the events.

Matching

In large groups students must match sentence halves, picture halves, words and pictures.

Dictogloss

Students are read a short text and must listen for meaning. Students listen to the text a second time and note the key words and clauses. The text is read a third time for clarification and then the students reconstruct the text by talking in pairs or groups.

Enquiry and Elimination Games

Enquiry and elimination 1

Materials:

a. A picture or group of pictures which may be enlarged e.g. pictures from a book, wrapping paper or poster related to a particular theme. A completed matrix may also be used.

b. A second copy of the above cut into small cards.

(Where no poster is available two sets of matching cards may be used: one set is placed on the floor or table for the group to see, the other is used for selection)

Alternatively, two sets of real materials may be used e.g. shells, plastic farm animals etc.

During each of the above activities students should: be in pairs or small groups to facilitate discussion; be actively encouraged to discuss all parts of the activity in their first language or English as appropriate in order to develop an understanding of the activity; be asked to justify or give reason for their choice.

For students to develop the skills necessary for effective participation in enquiry and elimination games it is essential that they first build up familiarity with the picture in question. This can be achieved through a variety of strategies, some of which are listed below.Matching individual pictures to the big picture. Answering and making up riddles about items in the picture. Classifying the small cards allows children to develop ideas about the many different ways they can group and describe items in the pictures, e.g. by size, colour, use, habitat, likes, dislikes etc.

Enquiry and Elimination 2

Grouping: small group

Instructions: The poster or chart is placed where all members of the group can see it. The small cards are distributed evenly to all players. In turn players select a small card or pictures from their bundle. Other students ask questions to elicit information. The student holding the card may answer only ‘yes’ or ‘no’. By the process of elimination the questioners discover the identity of the chosen card.

Enquiry and Elimination 3

Grouping: small group

Instructions: The poster or chart is placed where all members of the group can see it. The small cards are distributed evenly to all players. In turn players select a small card or picture from their bundle and give a description as a clue to its identity. Other students ask questions to elicit further information. By the process of elimination they discover its identity. It may be necessary for teachers to model appropriate descriptions and questions.

Alternative 2 is easier for students with limited English since they may be able to understand questions being asked and respond with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ rather than having to produce language to describe the card.

Jigsaw

The main skills required in a jigsaw activity are:

Reading (extracting information)

Note taking

Summarising.

Listening for required information.

Preparation:

Choose text of appropriate level

Cut text into three discreet chunks

Devise focus questions for each chunk

Colour code chunks and focus questions.

Jigsaw Tasks – (from Friederike Klippel) Keep Talking “Communicative fluency activities for language teaching”

Part 1

Divide class into groups of three. Give each group a set of colour coded focus questions. Students join same colour group. Students read chunk and take relevant notes. Teacher collects chunks.

Part 2

Students return to original group.

Students report in turn.

Enquiry and Elimination: Go, ask and tell

Preparation

Choose text of appropriate level.

Cut and paste original text into two complementary texts.

Label complementary texts ‘text A’ and ‘text B’.

Devise and label comprehension questions for text A and text B (maximum 10 questions).

The lesson

Divide the class into groups A and B.

Distribute the same text both groups

Ask students to read the text and discuss.

Distributes copies of ‘A’ questions to all the students in group A and ‘B’ questions to all students in group B.

Students read questions, discuss and record answers on answer sheet provided. Teacher collects all copies of the text.

At this stage each ‘A’ group member should have all answers to ‘A’ questions and each ‘B’ group member should have all answers to ‘B’ questions.

Distribute copies of 'A' questions to group B members and 'B' questions to group A members. Now each ‘A’ group member will have answers to ‘A’ questions and a set of unanswered questions for the as yet unseen complementary ‘B’ text (and vice versa).

Form the class into pairs, each with an ‘A’ and ‘B’ group member facing each other.

‘A’ and ‘B’ students ask each other questions alternately to complete unanswered questions.

‘A’ and ‘B’ students should now have answers to both sets of questions.

Enquiry and Elimination: I Spy

A student selects an item from one of the pictures and says:

‘I spy with my little eye, something that…’ (gives a specific clue

to its identity) or ‘I’m thinking of something/someone that…’

Other members of group ask questions to enable them to guess the identity of the character or the item.

When giving clues about characters of a story, students may describe an action or characteristic

‘…something which hopped off…’ or ‘…something that had horrible fur…’

Barrier games

Barrier Game 1

Grouping: pairs or small group

Materials:

Two sets of information/pictures.

A barrier (may be physical e.g. a sheet of card board, or an information gap).

Instructions:

Students work in pairs.

Each student has information which the other must obtain in order to complete a task.

Taking turns, students ask questions in order to obtain information and complete tasks.

Barrier Game 2

Grouping: pairs or small group

Materials:

Two sets of materials: A completed information/picture is placed behind a screen at the front of the room. Another set is given to each pair.

Instructions:

One group member (the observer) is allowed to go and view the picture/information for 3 seconds and return to the group. The observer then describes the picture or information to the group (but must keep their hands behind their back at all times). Verbal clues only may be given. Observers may return several times to view the information or picture but only for three seconds each time. Once the observer believes the information/picture is complete and correct it may be shown to the judge and compared with the master copy. Where several groups are working at the same time, the winning team will not always be the first finished but rather the most observant and best at giving instructions.

Variation:

As above but using a different observer each time.

Barrier Game 3

Grouping: pairs or small group

Instructions: Students work in pairs. Distribute one set of picture cards to each partner. Place a barrier between the students. One partner arranges a set of cards into any sequence of two or three rows. They then give instructions to the other partner on how to order their set of cards into the same arrangement. Once completed, the students visually compare arrangements and discuss similarity.

Barrier Games are excellent for practising: ordinal position (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc) ; positional vocabulary (in, on, under etc)

Communicative Crossword

Grouping: pairs or small group

Materials:

Two crossword puzzles:

One with the down words filled in

The other with the across words filled in.

Instructions: Students work in pairs. One partner has the ‘across’ page and the other has the ‘down’ page. Partners are not to look at each other’s puzzle. Each partner reads their clues so that the other can work out their missing words. Partners can ask for clues (work a limit if necessary) Once all words on both puzzles have been completed partners check and discuss.

Variation: No clues required. Students make up their own clues to describe the words for each word.

Spot the Differences

Grouping: pairs or small group

Materials:

Two enlarged copies of picture cards.

Alter one of the copies by adding or deleting details. (Liquid paper is ideal for this)

Instructions: Students form pairs and are each given one of the pictures. Neither partner is to see the other’s picture. The two partners describe their pictures in turn and decide on the differences between them by asking and answering questions. When they agree on a difference it is recorded. When they have identified all the differences, students compare their pictures visually and discuss their results.

Paired Word Search

Grouping: pairs or small group

Materials:

One word search puzzle.

One list of words or a word puzzle showing the location of words.

Instructions: Students work in pairs. The student with the list of words gives the partner directions and clues to the location and identity of the words in the puzzle.

Sorting and classifying

Sorting and classifying: Matrix Activities

Grouping: pairs or small group

Materials:

A copy of a matrix or grid.

Instructions: In pairs or groups students consider information given along the top and side of the matrix and fill in the matrix squares appropriately. Information may be recorded in words, sentences or pictures. (NSW Department of Education, Science Learning and Language 1988 p. 45). A matrix is a way of providing visual and textual support for students. Spaces left for students’ own categories or questions also allows for their individual experiences and backgrounds to be recognised.

Sorting and classifying: Logic Matrix

Grouping: pairs or small group

Materials:

A copy of the logic matrix

Some logic matrix sentences

Instructions: Distribute a logic matrix to the students. Read all sentences through once to students. Read the first sentence again. Students listen to the sentence and decide what information can be used from the sentence to complete spaces on the matrix. Read each sentence in sequence. The completed matrix can be used as part of an enquiry and elimination activity.

E.g. All about us

All about us – Clues

Sorting and classifying: Structured Overview

This method serves as a means of organizing language items so that it may be easily understood by the students. This may be done in the form of webs, concept maps, or outlines. This method of instruction may be used in most curriculum areas.

Materials: Chart paper and markers

Grouping: pairs or small group

Instructions: Group members collaboratively organise the words in some way. The outcome is an overview of the topic or story. This may be used as a basis for writing.

Sorting and classifying: Vocabulary Cluster

Materials: Chart paper and markers

Grouping: pairs or small group

Instructions: Students brainstorm and write words associated with a selected theme, character, story or topic. Words are written in clusters around the topic e.g. Clusters may be displayed and words added by the group throughout the unit of work and may be used as stimulus for writing activities.

Sequencing: Sequencing and Retelling

Picture Sequencing

Picture sequencing may be done without the story being read aloud. However, teachers must ensure that: Students have heard the story several times and have participated in a range of activities related to the story; The actual book is available for reference and self checking; Students are working in pairs or groups and discussion is built into the task. Teachers increase number of cards according to students’ language competence.

The story is read or the taped story played.

Students listen to the story and in pairs put the pictures in order.

Oral Picture Sentence Match

Grouping: pairs or small group

Materials:

Uncut page of picture cards and a pencil for each pair of students.

Instructions: The teacher or capable reader reads, in the correct sequence, a sentence relating to each picture. Students number the matching picture as they hear the appropriate sentence. After all of the sentences have been read individually, the whole sequence is read through for re-checking. Students compare their sequence with those of other pairs.

Students can also use the numbered pictures to retell the story in sequence.

Sentence Sequencing

Grouping: pairs or small group

As for picture sequencing, but students sequence the sentence strips and match with the picture cards.

Students may prefer to sequence pictures first then add sentences;

or Sequence sentences first adding pictures;

or They may match pictures and sentences and then sequence.

An additional set of sentence strips for each sentence may be cut into word segments for further matching. (It is more difficult for students to sequence single words than it is to sequence whole sentences as sentences have more contextual cues).

e.g. Planting seeds

Cover the seeds with dirt. Put seeds in the holes. Get a small shovel to dig some holes. Water the seeds. Pick the flowers and put them in a vase. Go to the store to buy some flower seeds. Wait for the seeds to grow into flowers. Bring the seeds home and decide where to plant them.

Matching

Picture Sentence Match

Grouping: pairs or small groups

Student can: Students match words, phrases or sentences to pictures. Students are shown a picture with two possible captions and indicate which one is correct. Students are shown two or three pictures and a sentence, which relates to one picture where students must indicate which picture is referred to in the sentence. Students indicate with a yes/no or true/false card at the end of a simple statement.

During each of the above activities students should: be in pairs or small groups to facilitate discussion; have an opportunity to discuss and decide on their choice; be asked to justify or give reason for the choice.

Bingo

Grouping: pairs or small groups

Materials:

Bingo card, Single word or number cards, counters

Instructions: Choose 25 words from KLA or literacy text or related activity. Place them randomly on the bingo card with 9 squares, 16 squares or 25 squares (depending on age). Prepare enough of these cards for the students in the group, writing words in a different order on each. Select a ‘caller’ who places single word cards face down. The caller selects a word at a time and reads it aloud. Players place counters over the words on their bingo cards. The first player to have three complete lines is the winner. The winner reads the three winning lines of words and becomes the next caller.

Dictagloss

A dictagloss is an integrative teaching or testing device in which bursts of language are read out at normal speeds to language learners who attempt to write down what they hear as accurately as possible. The bursts are long enough so that learners cannot record or memorise what they hear word for word Learners are required to reconstruct sentences from their global understanding and from the memory cue that their notes provide and must bring their knowledge of grammar/the language into play. It is only superficially similar to dictation because here the learners try to semantically approximate the original text using their own grammatical and linguistic resources. (Ruth Wajnrybb: Grammar Workout)

There are four stages in the procedure:

1. Preparation: learners find out about the topic of the text and are prepared for some of the vocabulary.

2. Dictation: learners hear the text and listen only then they hear the text and take fragmentary notes then learners hear the text again (YES times!).

3. Reconstruction: learners reconstruct the text on the basis of the fragments recorded in the dictation

4. Analysis and correction: learners analyse and correct their texts.

Producing a sound English text

The text should be sound in three senses: It should be grammatically accurate. It should be textually cohesive. It should make logical sense in terms of our knowledge of the world.

CHAPTER V

LESSON PLANS- FOCUS ON COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

Lesson Plan

Name: Clonda Veronica-Claudia

Date: the 3rd of June, 2013

No. of Students: 16

School: Sîntandrei Middle School

Time of Lesson: 09:00-09:50

Grade: 7th

Textbook: HIGHFLYER INTERMEDIATE

Unit: 15

Lesson: Third Conditional

Lesson Aims: – to develop students’ productive and receptive skills

– to practice language in a particular context

– to use conditional sentences (type I, II, III)

– to ask and answer questions

Subsidiary aims: – to practice work in pairs;

– to use one’s intuition& imagination;

Skills: speaking, reading, writing, listening

Anticipated language problems: Pupils/students could become a bit noisy when working in pairs/groups; some of them (the dominant ones) may try to answer too often and exclude the others. In some cases, pupils may not understand the task given by the teacher.

Possible solutions: The teacher may ask pupils simultaneously to speak. She may repeat the task in order to be clear for everybody.

Teaching aids: the manual, pupil’s notebooks, the blackboard, dictionaries;

Modes of interaction: teacher-student, student-student, pair-work, class-work, individual work.

Materials: – the textbook

– the smartboard

– worksheets

– flashcards

Activity 1: Warm-up

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

to understand a short movie in English

to remember some words

Procedure: T. tells the students that they are going to watch an episode from Peppa Pig.

Interaction: S-S

Timing: 5 min.

Activity 2: Checking the previous knowledge

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

– to remember their previous lesson.

– to check the homework

Procedure: T. checks the homework. Ss had to answer the questions from The Flood, episode 6.

Question: “How did Lucy feel when she saw the water rising?”

Ss’ possible answer: “When she saw the water rising, Lucy felt horrible.”

Question: “What did she and Tom decide to do?”

Ss’ possible answer: “They decided to rescue what they could and to take the things upstairs.”

Question: “What made their work difficult?”

Ss’ possible answer: “Their work was difficult because the electricity had cut off and it was difficult to work in the dark.”

Question: “Why did Lucy feel selfish?”

Ss’ possible answer: “Lucy felt selfish because they rescued only her things and they didn’t rescue Tom’s things.”

Question: “What do Tom and Lucy have for supper?”

Ss’ possible answer: “Tom and Lucy have for supper four bananas, some cheese and biscuits.”

T. checks the previous knowledge.

Ss. had to learn conditional clauses (first and second conditional).

T. gives them worksheets. They have to put the verbs in brackets and form Conditional sentences type I or type II.

Put the verbs in brackets in the correct form in order to form Conditional sentences. Pay attention to the verb given!

If it……………(rain), I will stay at home.

Our teacher will be happy if we………….(learn) the poem by heart.

If they had enough money, they…………(buy) a new car.

We……….(pass) the exam if we studied harder.

If I were you, I……………(invite) Jack to the party.

If the weather…………….(be) fine, the children will walk to school.

If he………………(not fail) his driving test, his parents will lend him their car.

If you……………..(drop) this bottle, it wouldn’t break.

If we………………(not visit) the museum, you wouldn’t write a good report.

If Jeff didn’t like Jessica, he …………(not buy) her an ice-cream.

Ss’ possible answers:

If it…rains…………(rain), I will stay at home.

Our teacher will be happy if we……learn…….(learn) the poem by heart.

If they had enough money, they…would buy………(buy) a new car.

We …would pass……….(pass) the exam if we studied harder.

If I were you, I……would invite………(invite) Jack to the party.

If the weather…is………….(be) fine, the children will walk to school.

If he………doesn’t fail………(not fail) his driving test, his parents will lend him their car.

If you…dropped…………..(drop) this bottle, it wouldn’t break.

If we……didn’t visit…………(not visit) the museum, you wouldn’t write a good report.

If Jeff didn’t like Jessica, he …wouldn’t buy………(not buy) her an ice-cream.

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 8 min.

Activity 3: Lead-in

Aim: By the end of the activity the Ss will be able:

– to answer some questions

– to observe some pictures

– to raise students’ interest for the new lesson

Procedure: T. tells the students to have a look at the smart board. They see some pictures. They have to read the dialogue.

They are noticing an unreal past condition.

“If he hadn’t been so naughty, I wouldn’t have shouted at him.”

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 2 min.

Activity 4: Teaching the new topic

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

to form unreal past conditional sentences

to practice past perfect and past conditional

Procedure:

T: Today we are speaking about unreal past conditional sentences.

T. writes the title on the blackboard:

If Clause (III)

If it had rained, we would have stayed at home.

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 3 min

Activity 5: Practice activity

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

– to form conditional sentences

– to write unreal past conditionals

Procedure: T: “Let’s have a look at exercise 182 page 99 from Round-Up. Let’s put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense.”

If John hadn’t overslept, he ………….. (not/be) late for work. If he……….(not/be) late for work, his boss………..(not/fire) him. If John………..(not/lose) his job, he………….(not/need) money and he……………….(not/rob) the bank. If he …………..(not/rob) the bank, the police…………………..(not/arrest) him.

Ss’ possible answers:

If John hadn’t overslept, he ………wouldn’t have been……….. (not/be) late for work. If he……hadn’t been…..….(not/be) late for work, his boss…wouldn’t have fired……..(not/fire) him. If John…hadn’t lost……..(not/lose) his job, he…wouldn’t have needed…………….(not/need) money and he……wouldn’t have robbed………….(not/rob) the bank. If he …hadn’t robbed………..(not/rob) the bank, the police…wouldn’t have arrested………………..(not/arrest) him.

T: “Let’s have a look at exercise 183 page 99 from Round-Up. Write unreal past conditionals as in the example.”

(climb ladder/break his leg)

If he hadn’t climbed the ladder, he wouldn’t have broken his leg.

(drive carefully/avoid the accident)

If he had driven carefully, he would have avoided the accident.

(John run faster/win the race)

If John had run faster, he would have won the race.

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 6 min

Activity 6: Reading activity

Aim: By the end of activity Ss will be able:

– to read a text about Romeo and Juliet

– to read aloud the conditional sentences

Procedure: T: “Open your books page 64. Read the story. The paragraphs are jumbled up. Put them in correct order. Read the conditional sentences. Work in pairs.”

Ss read the text. They put the paragraphs in correct order.

1-A; 2-H; 3-E; 4-B; 5-D; 6-D; 7-F; 8-G

Interaction: T-S, S-S, Pair-Work

Timing: 6 min.

Activity 7: Writing activity

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

– to transform some pairs of sentences into conditional sentences

– to link sentences

Procedure: T: “Let’s have a look at exercise 12 page 65 in your textbook. You have to transform the pairs of sentences into conditional sentences.”

Interaction: Individual work

Timing: 10 min.

Activity 8: Giving feedback

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

to perform well third conditional

Procedure: The teacher gives the students some worksheets. They have to match the parts of the sentences.

Match the parts of the sentences:

If I hadn’t missed the bus,

If she hadn’t felt ill this morning,

If the food hadn’t been awful,

If he had passed his exams,

If the salary had been good,

If it hadn’t been my birthday,

he would have gone to university.

Chris wouldn’t have given me flowers.

she would have gone to school.

I would have accepted the job.

I wouldn’t have been late for work.

we would have eaten it.

Ss’ possible answers:

1-E; 2-B; 3-F; 4-A; 5-D; 6-B

Interaction: Individual work, T-S

Timing: 8 min

Homework assignment:

Procedure: Teacher asks students to do exercises 5 and 6 page 76.

Timing: 2 min.

Lesson Plan

Name: Clonda Veronica-Claudia

Date: June, 3rd, 2013

No. of Students: 16

School: Sîntandrei Middle School

Time of Lesson: 10:10-11:00

Grade: 8th

Textbook: HIGHFLYER INTERMEDIATE

Unit: 19

Lesson: Passive Voice

Lesson Aims: – to develop and practice students’ productive and receptive skills

– to talk about a scene or a situation

– to use passive voice

– to practice language in a particular context

– to ask and answer questions

Subsidiary aims: – to practice work in pairs;

– to use one’s intuition& imagination;

Skills: speaking, reading, writing, listening

Anticipated language problems: Pupils/students could become a bit noisy; some of them (the dominant ones) may try to answer too often and exclude the others. In some cases, pupils may not understand the task given by the teacher.

Possible solutions: the teacher may ask pupils simultaneously to speak. She may repeat the task in order to be clear for everybody;

Teaching aids: round-up, internet, the manual, pupil’s notebooks, the smart board, dictionaries, the computer, worksheets.

Modes of interaction: class-work, teacher-student, student-student, pair-work, individual work.

Materials: – the textbook

– the smartboard

– worksheets

– flashcards

Activity 1: Warm-up

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

to discover some words

Procedure: T. gives the students some words which have jumbled letters. They have to discover the words.

Souhe––house

Mptreuco–-computer

Ntedust –-student

Ovel –-love

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 2 min.

Activity 2: Checking the previous knowledge

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

– to remember their previous lesson.

– to check the homework

Procedure: T. checks the homework. Ss had to solve exercises 114, 115 and 116 page 64 from Round-Up.

Ss. possible answers:

114.

2) They’ve bought a lovely old-fashioned two storey-house in London.

3) He walked slowly up to the hill in the rain.

4) Every Monday they go to the gym by car.

5) He’s built a beautiful wooden bookcase.

6) She was wearing an elegant long white wedding dress.

115. 2) terrible; 3) well; 4) unusual; 5)quickly

6) sleepy

7) rudely

8) easy

9) strange

10) hard

116.

2) left

3) went

4) was studying

5) offered

6) was trying

7) turned down

8) has done

9) has also run

10) didn’t like

11) has been trying

12) has not had

T. checks the previous knowledge.

Ss had to learn vocabulary related to clothes and weather.

T. gives them worksheets. They have to match the words to their definition.

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 10 min.

Activity 3: Lead-in

Aim: By the end of the activity the Ss will be able:

– to observe some actions

– to answer some questions

– to form simple sentences in active and passive voice

– to raise their interest for the lesson

Procedure: T. will start by dropping a book on the floor.

T: “Tell me about the teacher.”

Ss: “The teacher dropped a book.”

Teacher writes the active sentences on the blackboard.

Teacher will drop the book again.

T: “Now tell me about the book.”

Ss: “The book was dropped by teacher.”

The teacher will write the passive voice sentence on the blackboard.

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 2 min.

Activity 4: Teaching the new topic

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

to form sentences in passive voice

to practice passive voice

to practice writing skills

Procedure:

T: „Today we speak about passive voice.”

T. writes the title on the blackboard:

PASSIVE VOICE

The book was dropped.

↓

past simple tense- passive voice

The passive is formed with the appropriate tense of the verb

to be+past participle

e.g. The letter is written by the student.

The passive is used when the agent (the person who does the action) is unknown, unimportant or obvious.

Jane was shot.

The school was built in 1815.

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 10 min.

Activity 5: Practice activity

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

– to form passive voice sentences

– to put some verbs in the present simple passive

– to put some verbs in the past simple passive

Procedure: T: “Let’s have a look at exercises 156, 157 and 158 page 89 from Round-Up. Let’s put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense.”

Ss’ possible answers:

156.

2. is owned

3. is kept

4. is fed

5. is always dressed

6. is said

157.

2. Dinner is served in Main Restaurant between 8 and 10 pm.

3. Newspapers are sold at the Reception Desk.

4. Telephone calls can be made at the Reception Desk.

5. Rooms are cleaned by maids daily.

6. Hot water is supplied 24 hours a day.

7. Films are shown in the hotel cinema every night at 10 pm.

158.

2. were called

3. was caught

4. was found

5. were taken

6. were questioned

7. were charged

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 6 min.

Activity 6: Writing activity

Aim: By the end of activity Ss will be able:

– to fill in the blanks with the words given

– to observe passive constructions

Procedure:

T: You have to fill in the blanks with the words given:

This is a true life anecdote about Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity.

snooze attend delivering place

perfection just calculations accompanied

chauffeur out opportunity on row

vehicle deliver

Einstein's Chauffeur!

This is a true life anecdote about Albert Einstein, and his theory of relativity.

After having proposed his famous theory, Albert Einstein would tour the various Universities in the United States, …………… lectures wherever he went. He was always ……………..by his faithful chauffeur, Harry, who would……….. …each of these lectures while seated in the back……….! One fine day, after Einstein had finished a lecture and was coming out of the lecture theatre into his…………….., Harry addresses him and says, "Professor Einstein, I've heard your lecture on Relativity so many times, that if I were ever given the………….., I would be able to deliver it to ……………. myself!"

"Very well," replied Einstein, "I'm going to Dartmouth next week. They don't know me there. You can ……………. the lecture as Einstein, and I'll take your ………… as Harry!"

And so it went to be… Harry delivered the lecture to perfection, without a word ………….. of place, while Einstein sat in the back row playing "chauffeur", and enjoying a ………………….for a change. ………….. as Harry was descending from the podium, however, one of the research assistants stopped him, and began to ask him a question ……….. the theory of relativity…. one that involved a lot of complex………… .and equations. Harry replied to the assistant "The answer to this question is very simple! In fact, it's so simple, that I'm going to let my ………………answer it!"

Einstein's Chauffeur!

This is a true life anecdote about Albert Einstein, and his theory of relativity.

After having proposed his famous theory, Albert Einstein would tour the various Universities in the United States, delivering lectures wherever he went. He was always accompanied by his faithful chauffeur, Harry, who would attend each of these lectures while seated in the back row! One fine day, after Einstein had finished a lecture and was coming out of the lecture theatre into his vehicle, Harry addresses him and says, "Professor Einstein, I've heard your lecture on Relativity so many times, that if I were ever given the opportunity, I would be able to deliver it to perfection myself!" "Very well," replied Einstein, "I'm going to Dartmouth next week. They don't know me there. You can deliver the lecture as Einstein, and I'll take your place as Harry!" And so it went to be… Harry delivered the lecture to perfection, without a word out of place, while Einstein sat in the back row playing "chauffeur", and enjoying a snooze for a change.

Just as Harry was descending from the podium, however, one of the research assistants stopped him, and began to ask him a question on the theory of relativity…. one that involved a lot of complex calculations and equations. Harry replied to the assistant "The answer to this question is very simple! In fact, it's so simple, that I'm going to let my chauffeur answer it!"

Interaction: T-S, S-S

Timing: 8 min.

Activity 7: Giving feedback

Aim: By the end of activity Ss will be able:

– to fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb in brackets

Procedure: T: “Open your books page 79! Look at exercise 4! You have to fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb in brackets (passive or active).

Ss read the text. They fill in the blanks.

When wrist watches first……..…. (appear) at around the turn of the century, ………..….(people in general-think) they were ridiculous. Less resistant to shock and humidity than the old chain watches, they…….…… (consider) wholly unreliable. …………….. (people in general-believe) they had little future.

During the Napoleonic wars, the French…….……….. (need) to feed their army. Napoleon offered a prize of 12,000 francs for a solution. That is when the tin can…………………. (invent).

Tin cans ………..………. (send) to battlefield. But the problem was then how to open them. This proved very difficult. Many of Napoleon’s soldiers…………..…… (go) into battle with only nine fingers! This went on for some time until finally the tin opener ……………….…. (invent).

The first waterproof watch, the Rolex Oyster, ……………….. (make) by the Rolex company of Geneva. To test the first batch of watches, they ……………….. (immerse) in water for three weeks. ……….……….…. (people in general-think) the time-keeping would be affected but it did not show the slightest variation.

Ss’ possible answers:

When wristwatches first…appeared.. (appear) at around the turn of the century, …it was thought.….(people in general-think) they were ridiculous. Less resistant to shock and humidity than the old chain watches, they…were considered…… (consider) wholly unreliable. …it was believed…….. (people in general-believe) they had little future.

During the Napoleonic wars, the French……needed….. (need) to feed their army. Napoleon offered a prize of 12,000 francs for a solution. That is when the tin can…was invented…. (invent).

Tin cans …were sent.………. (send) to battlefield. But the problem was then how to open them. This proved very difficult. Many of Napoleon’s soldiers……went……..…… (go) into battle with only nine fingers! This went on for some time until finally the tin opener ……was invented.…. (invent).

The first waterproof watch, the Rolex Oyster, …was made….. (make) by the Rolex company of Geneva. To test the first batch of watches, they ……immersed….. (immerse) in water for three weeks. …It was thought…. (people in general-think) the time-keeping would be affected but it did not show the slightest variation.

Interaction: T-S, S-S

Timing: 10 min.

Homework assignment:

Procedure: Teacher asks students to do exercise 5 page 79.

Timing: 2 min.

Lesson Plan

Name: Clonda Veronica-Claudia

Date: April, 30th, 2010

No. of Students: 16

School: Scoala cu clasele I-VIII Sîntandrei

Time of Lesson: 10:10-11:00

Grade: 4th

Textbook: Way Ahead 2

Unit: 18

Lesson: It is quarter to eight

Lesson Aims: – to develop students’ reading, writing and speaking skills

– to talk about a scene or a situation

– to tell the time

– to talk about school subjects

Materials: – the textbook

– the blackboard

– the workbook

– worksheets

– flashcards

– realia (a clock)

Activity 1: Warm-up

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

to sing a song

Procedure: The teacher tells the pupils to sing the song: “1, 2, 3, 4, 5”

Interaction: S-S

Timing: 5 min.

Activity 2: Checking the previous knowledge

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

– to remember their previous lesson.

– to check the homework

Procedure: T. checks the homework. Ss had to make ex 1 page 102.

They had to have a look at some pictures, say yes or no and circle the letters. After that they had to write a word and to correct the sentences.

Ss’ possible answers:

The sun is shining. No

He is hiding. Yes

They are riding horses. No

She is speaking English. No

It is snowing. Yes

They are carrying flowers. No

He is sitting in a car. No

The word is: HOLIDAY

The sun is not shining. It is raining.

They are not riding horses. They are riding camels.

She is not speaking English. She is speaking Arabic.

They are not carrying flowers. They are carrying umbrellas.

He is not sitting in a car. He is sitting in a boat.

Ss. had to make exercise 1 page 103. They had to write about the pictures.

John’s afternoon

What is the weather like? Where is John going? How is he going there?

It’s sunny. John is going in the park. He is going there by bike.

Where is John? What is he sitting on?

John is in the park. He is sitting on a swing.

Who is John playing with? What are they playing?

John is playing with a boy. They are playing football.

Where are the children? What are they doing?

The children are in front of the café. They are eating ice cream.

What is the time? Where is John going?

It’s noon. John is going home.

Where is John? Who is he with? What are they doing?

John is at home. He is with his parents. They are watching TV.

Teacher asks the students to close their books and notebooks. Teacher gives them some worksheets. They have to make sentences using present continuous tense.

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 5 min.

Activity 3: Lead-in

Aim: By the end of the activity the Ss will be able:

– to answer some questions related to time

– to form sentences expressing time

Procedure: T. shows students a clock.

T. asks: “What’s the time?”

Ss. answer: “It’s eight o’clock.”

T. says: “Now it’s quarter past eight.”

Children repeat.

T. says: “Now it’s half past eight”

Children repeat.

T. says: “Now it’s quarter to nine.”

Children repeat.

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 2 min.

Activity 4: Reading and writing activity

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

to improve their reading skills.

to explain the new words

to practice the new words

to tell the time

Procedure: T: “Open your books on page 91”. The teacher writes the title of the new lesson on the blackboard:

It is quarter to eight

The teacher reads the text of the lesson. The teacher designates student A for Andy’s mother, student B for Andy and student C for the twins.

Ss read the text of the lesson.

The teacher writes the times on the table.

7:00 It’s quarter past seven.

7:15 It’s half past seven.

7:45 It’s quarter to eight.

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 5 min.

Activity 5: Practice activity

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

– to tell the time

Procedure: T: “Let’s have a look at exercise 1 and exercise 2 page 91 from your textbook. Let’s read and tell the time.”

Ss’ possible answers:

10:15 It’s quarter past ten.

2:30 It’s half past two.

5:45 It’s quarter to six.

3:00 It’s three o’clock.

4:15 It’s quarter past four.

7:45 It’s quarter to eight.

12:30 It’s half past twelve.

8:00 It’s eight o’clock.

7:30 It’s half past seven.

7:00 It’s seven o’clock.

7:15 It’s quarter past seven.

7:45 It’s quarter to eight.

Interaction: T-S

Timing: 10 min

Activity 6: Speaking activity

Aim: By the end of activity Ss will be able:

to talk about school subjects

Procedure: T: “Let’s look at ex 4 page 92 from your textbook.

It’s Monday. It’s nine o’clock. What lesson are they having?”

Ss’ possible answers: “They’re having Maths”

The teacher writes Maths on the blackboard.

“It’s quarter to ten. What lesson are they having?”

Ss’ possible answers: “They’re having English”

The teacher writes English on the blackboard.

“It’s half past ten. What lesson are they having?”

Ss’ possible answers: “They’re having Science.”

The teacher writes Science on the blackboard.

“It’s twelve o’clock. What lesson are they having?”

Ss’ possible answers: “They’re having Art.”

The teacher writes Art on the blackboard.

“It’s quarter to one. What lesson are they having?”

Ss’ possible answers: “They’re having Music.”

The teacher writes Music on the blackboard.

“It’s half past one. What lesson are they having?”

Ss’ possible answers: “They’re having Sport.”

The teacher writes Sport on the blackboard.

Ss point to the pictures, ask and answer.

S1: “What’s the time?”

S2: “It’s half past nine.”

S1: “What lesson are they having?”

S2: “They’re having Maths.”

S1: “What are they doing?”

S2: “They’re counting.”

S3: “What’s the time?”

S4: “It’s quarter past ten.”

S3: “What lesson are they having?”

S4: “They’re having English.”

S3: “What are they doing?”

S4: “They’re reading.”

S5: “What’s the time?”

S6: “It’s quarter to eleven.”

S5: “What lesson are they having?”

S6: “They’re having Science.”

S5: “What are they doing?”

S6: “They are looking at flowers.”

S7: “What’s the time?”

S8: “It’s quarter past twelve.”

S7: “What lesson are they having?”

S8: “They are having Art.”

S7: “What are they doing?”

S8: “They are drawing.”

S9: “What’s the time?”

S10: “It’s one o’clock.”

S9: “What lesson are they having?”

S10: “They’re having Music.”

S9: “What are they doing?”

S10: “They are singing.”

S11: “What’s the time?”

S12: “It’s quarter to two.”

S11: “What lesson are they having?”

S12: “They are having Sport.”

S11: “What are they doing?”

S12: “They are playing basketball.”

Interaction: T-S, S-S

Timing: 10 min.

Activity 7: Matching activity

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

– to match some clocks with the times

Procedure: T: “Let’s have a look at exercise 1 page 104 in your workbook. You have to read the sentences and match them with the clocks.”

Interaction: Individual work

Timing: 2 min.

Activity 8: Giving feedback

Aim: By the end of the activity Ss will be able:

to tell the time

to make sentences looking at some pictures

to write some sentences using present continuous

Procedure: The teacher tells students to have a look at exercise 2 page 104 in their workbook, to ask and answer.

T: “Write some sentences about the people in the picture.”

Ss’ possible answers:

“He is going to school.”

She is going to school.

They are going fishing.

He is going on holiday.

She is going shopping.

They are going swimming.”

T: “Let’s look at exercise 1 page 105 from your workbook. Write the names of the school subjects.”

Ss’ possible answers: Maths, Music, Art, English, Sport, Science.”

T: “Let’s do exercise 2 page 105 from your workbook. Look at the pictures, ask questions and write answers.”

Ss’ possible answers:

“What lesson are they having?

They are having Music.

What are they doing?

They are singing.

What lesson are they having?

They are having Maths.

What are they doing?

They are counting.

What lesson are they having?

They are having Sport.

What are they doing?

They are playing football.

What lesson are they having?

They are having Art.

What are they doing?

They are making houses.”

Interaction: Individual work, T-S

Timing: 9 min

Homework assignment:

Procedure: Teacher asks students to do exercises 1 and 2 page 108.

Timing: 2 min.

PART III

CHAPTER VI

THE DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANNEXES

CHAPTER VI

THE DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH

The Survey

The survey I have proposed focuses o the importance of communicative activities during the teaching process. The questions were adressed to teachers of English.

How often do you use communicative activities in the teaching process?

Never

Once a month

At the end of a chapter/unit

At each lesson as warm-up activities

Most of the respondents use communicative activities, in the teaching process, as warm-up activities at the beginning of each lesson. Some of them use the communicative activities at the end of a chapter or a unit and few once a month. There aren’t teachers who never use communicative activities.

What kind of materials do you use?

Cassettes

Handouts

Smart board/CD/DVD

Realia

The materials used for the communicative activities are mainly the handouts, after that the cassettes, the smart board/CD/DVD and finally the realia.

What are the students’ reactions when they use communicative activities?

Bored

Noisy

Excited

Fun

The teachers declare that students are most of the times excited when they use communicative activities, they also have fun during these activities but that involves noise as well. The teachers notice that students are never bored when using these types of activities.

What kind of communicative activities do your students prefer?

Jigsaw activities

Information gap activities

Role plays

Matching

Students prefer information gap activities,

How much time do you give for communicative activities in a lesson?

Just a few minutes

The whole lesson

Half an hour

As musch as the students need to

What do you do to motivate your students to communicate and use communicative activities in class?

Compete

Reword with marks

Small gifts

Points

Did you observe that your students have much more courage when they used communicative activities?

Yes, much more

Not exactly

Feel free to express themselves

Motivated

What kind of progress have you observed?

In communication

Spelling

Reading

Listening

What kind of problems do you have with your students when you use communicative activities?

Noise

Lack of interest

Not always understand what they have to do

Boredom

What do you suggest to other teachers according to communicative activities?

Use them during the teaching process

Not to use them because it’s a waste of time

To create new activities to motivate students

To use different communicative activities so they will become closer to their students

During this survey I have realized how important is to do a few minutes of communicative activities in the classes, to cheer up your students, to involve them actively in communicative activities.

CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION

Since its inception in the 1970s, communicative language teaching has passed through a number of different phases. In its first phase, a primary concern was the need to develop a syllabus and teaching approach that was compatible with early conceptions of communicative competence. This led to proposals for the organization of syllabuses in terms of functions and notions rather than gram- matical structures.

Later the focus shifted to procedures for identifying learners’ communicative needs and this resulted in proposals to make needs analysis an essential component of communicative methodology. At the same time, methodologists focused on the kinds of classroom activities that could be used to implement a communicative approach, such as group work, task work, and information-gap activities. Today CLT can be seen as describing a set of core principles about language learning and teaching, as summarized above, assumptions which can be applied in different ways and which address different aspects of the processes of teaching and learning. Some focus centrally on the input to the learning process. Thus con- tent-based teaching stresses that the content or subject matter of teaching drives the whole language learning process. Some teaching proposals focus more directly on instructional processes. Task-based instruction for example, advocates the use of specially designed instructional tasks as the basis of learn- ing. Others, such as competency-based instruction and text-based teaching, focus on the outcomes of learning and use outcomes or products as the starting point in planning teaching. Today CLT continues in its classic form as seen in the huge range of course books and other teaching resources that cite CLT as the source of their methodology. In addition, it has influenced many other language teaching approaches that subscribe to a similar philosophy of language teaching.

Too often, a 'new' approach appears to completely dismiss the previous one. This is not always the intention, but probably more a result of the enthusiasm of practitioners exploring and implementing fresh activities or opportunities. Also, throughout the CLT debate, there seem to be dichotomies which are employed to argue for its irrelevance. It is evident that CLT has gathered a range of characteristics, perhaps more through misunderstanding or by association, but it is actually not as incompatible with other valued practices as it is sometimes made to appear. In practical terms, whether assisting mixed-ability classes, aiding motivation, leading from a focus on form to one of fluency, or supporting learning, it has a lot to offer the EFL teacher.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Auerbach, E. R. (1986). Competency-Based ESL: One Step Forward or Two Steps Back? TESOL Quarterly, 20 (3).

Beglar, David, and Alan Hunt (2002). Implementing task-based language teaching. In Jack Richards and Willy Renandya (eds). Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Brumfit, Christopher (1984). Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Clarke, M., and S. Silberstein (1977). Toward a realization of psycholinguistic principles in the ESL reading class. Language Learning, 27 (1), 48–65.

Feez, S., and H. Joyce (1998). Text-Based Syllabus Design. Australia: Macquarie University

Krahnke, K. (1987). Approaches to Syllabus design for Foreign Language Teaching. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Littlejohn, A., and D. Hicks (1996). Cambridge English for Schools. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Prabhu, N. S. (1987). Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Richards, Jack C., and Theodore Rodgers (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Second Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Richards, Jack C., and Charles Sandy (1998). Passages. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Skehan, P. (1996). Second language acquisition research and task-based instruction. In J. Willis and D. Willis (eds). Challenge and Change in Language Teaching. Oxford: Heinemann.

Van Ek, J., and L. G. Alexander (1980). Threshold Level English. Oxford: Pergamon.

Widdowson. H. (1987). Aspects of syllabus design. In M. Tickoo (ed). Language Syllabuses: State of the Art. Singapore: Regional Language Centre.

Willis, Jane (1996). A Framework for Task-Based Learning. Harlow: Longman

Andrewes, Simon (2005) The CLT Police: Questioning the communicative approach. Modern English Teacher  Vol 14. No 2.

Doman, Evelyn (2005) Current Debates in SLA.  Asian EFL Journal Vol 7. Issue 4.  Article 8 Retrieved October 20, 2006 from http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/ December_05_ed.php

Hu, Guangwei (2002) Potential Cultural Resistance to Pedagogical Imports: The Case of Communicative Language Teaching in China. Language, Culture and Curriculum Retrieved October 20, 2006 from http://www.multilingual-matters.net/lcc/015/0093/lcc0150093.pdf

Lowe, Mark (2005) The Shibboleths of TEFL: Straightening out our thinking Modern English Teacher  Vol 14, No 1.

ANNEXES

ROLE-PLAYS

At a party

Students imagine that they are at a party. By means of cards they have a new identity. Questions help them to be confident while having conversations. Their new images are funny and I'm sure students will get pleasure from this role-play. Stand up and practice it.

Business telephone conversation role-play

This is a business telephone role-play with eight situations where one of the students will have to act as a business client and another one a secretary. For this task students need to know the vocabulary of formal telephone talk and business etiquette to keep the conversation going. 

What would you like to order?

Variety of items to choose from the menu created for improvement of students' speaking skills. Excellent to practice modals and food while role playing the restaurant scene. One student can be the waiter,the other could be the guest. One places the order,the other one takes and repeats it. Then, they can switch roles, or even partners can be changed. It is accompanied by the order pad which is submitted as another worksheet.

Play Cinderella

A simple play for Primary school children between nine and eleven years old. The play is for seven to nine characters and is mainly in the present simple, though there are some uses of the future. It can be typically practised and carried out in a classroom in two or three lessons of 50 miniutes each.

Jigsaw activities

Information gap activities

Worksheet

Countable and uncountable nouns

Are these nouns countable or uncountable?

Water;

Meat;

Pen;

Milk;

Chair;

Apple;

Money;

Desk;

Book;

Gas

A or AN(Countable nouns):

……dress

……uncle

…….orange

……..umbrella

………taxi

……..mother

`A / An´, `Some´ and `Any´.

1. Lisa´s got a / an towel.

2. Ana´s got a / some rucksack.

3. Lucia’s got an / some insect repellent.

4. Javi hasn´t got some / any sunglasses.

5. Antonio´s got a / some swimming costume.

6. Ignacio hasn´t got any / some sandwiches.

7. Angeles has got an / a apple.

8. There aren´t any / some cafés in the city.

9. I haven´t got any / some money.

CROSSWORDS

Complete these sentences and discover the name of a holiday we celebrate in December.

At Christmas we sing songs called…………………………. .

At Christmas we celebrate Jesus ……….. 's birth.

Rudolph is Santa's ………………………. .

Santa travels around the world in a …………………… .

We love Christmas because we get a lot of ………………………. .

Santa Claus puts the presents under the Christmas …………………. .

Christmas is celebrated in …………………………………… .

We open the presents on Christmas …………………. .

We love winter because we play in the ………………….. .

Household Items

Worksheet

Write the names of the machines under the pictures:

1………………… 2………………. 3………………………… 4………………

5………………… 6………………… 7…………………………… 8……………….

9……………….. 10…………………. 11……………………… 12………………

13………………… 14………………….. 15……………………………16………………

1. WRITE SENTENCES ABOUT WHAT THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURES ARE GOING TO DO:

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. During the holiday, your class is going to have an exchange visit in a German partner school. Say what are you and your colleagues going to do:

We ……………………………………………….(leave) early in the morning to catch the plane. We ……………..

………………………….. (fly) there. They ………………………………………….. (wait) for us at the airport. We ..

…………………………………………..(stay) in a very cozy and elegant hotel. Our teacher ……………………

……………………………………. (give) responsibilities to each one of us. I ……………………………………..(be)

responsible for planning the trips. Our partners …………………………………….(help) me to do the plans

because they know the surroundings and the landmarks that a visitor should see.

I’m sure we…………………………………………………..(have) a great time!

Some students from the partner school ………………………………………………….(visit) us the next

holiday, so we all …………………………………………………(become) very good friends!