An Overview Of Communicative Approaches To Teaching English As a Foreign Language

Chapter 1. An Overview of Communicative Approaches to Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Methods of teaching English as a Foreign Language

Teaching is a complex set of specific teaching actions and behaviors meant for learning.

Teaching and learning cannot be seen in isolation but as a whole, being complementary.

Modern teaching insists on improving the teaching-learning-assessment relationship because only in this way the content- objectives- methodology –results relationship becomes logical, consistent and perfectible.

If in traditional school, the emphasis was on the action of teaching, the teacher playing the central role, modern school places in the center the student who enriches, corrects and transforms the cognitive experience in order to improve. The teacher has the role of activating the student cognitive, motivational and attitudinal, thus having a balance between teaching and learning.

Modern teachers work together with their students, cooperating in order to accomplish learning success. The roles are well established: the teacher stimulates the search and discovery, and students will deal with search and discovery activities, they participate actively and consciously at assimilating the knowledge and forming their personality. This creates a partnership to achieve the objectives of a high standard in education. Working with his students, the teacher can adjust and improve the activity during the process of teaching and learning and, not least, can truly appreciate the value of learning efforts made by students during the activities. Very important in the education process is the training strategy because it is how the teacher manages to choose the most appropriate methods, materials and resources, combine them and organize them in a whole in order to achieve the objectives.

A variant of classification of teaching methods may be related to their background in teaching, namely traditional methods and modern methods. 

Traditional methods may be used reconsidering and adapting them to the requirements of modern education. They can develop into modernity insofar as the procedural sequences that compose them permit restructuring or the application circumstances of that method are completely new. The main method of educating thinking in traditional education is the teacher’s presentation, completed by the student's independent study. This method has been criticized, arguing that it does not favor the connection with practice. Lack of connection with reality comes from students' attitude: they assist passively at the exposure, that they know they have to repeat afterwards. The other traditional method, the conversation with the whole class, involves more participation of students, but students are guided, they do not know what is intended. Thus, the classical form of education develops very little students' thinking.

The early twentieth century offered various ways of organizing education, by active schools, the emphasis being on independent study conducted by students. The new active way of organization proves superior, but takes much time. With the easing of syllabus in education reform, teaching activation will begin in Romanian schools.

Active and participative methods focus on cooperative learning, being in contrast to traditional methods of learning. By participating, students can express their choices in education and culture, they can become co-participants in their own development. Students are not only a receiver of information but also an active participant in the educational process, that is preparing to cope, gaining employment desire and action. The main advantage of active-participatory methods is to involve students in the act of teaching and training their ability to express opinions and assessments of the studied subjects. In this way, students will have developed a type of cognitive thinking skills, the critical thinking. Critical thinking means to have valuable and useful knowledge, to have rational beliefs, to propose personal views, to accept that their ideas can be discussed and evaluated, to build sufficient arguments of their own opinions, to actively participate and collaborate in finding solutions. The main methods of developing critical thinking are thinking, teamwork, communicating.

Thus, the teacher should change the concept and methodology of training and education, to work with students, to become a real model of social and professional integration and education, to be involved in the educational decisions, ensuring quality in education .

Traditional Versus Modern Teaching Methods

In teaching English there are many methods that have been used, some more efficient, others less effective. This paper attempts an overview of the most commonly used methods. Of the traditional I present the Grammar Translation Method, the Audio-Lingual Method and Presentation, Practice, Production. From the modern methods I present the Direct Method, the Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Community Language Learning, the Total Physical Response Method, the communicative Language Teaching.

Traditional methods

In his book “Communicative Language Teaching Today”, Jack C.Richards (2006: 4) highlights that in traditional methodology “learning was very much seen as under the control of the teacher”. A very typical feature of traditional methodology is that teaching is deeply teacher-centered. It is based on the view that teachers are the source of knowledge while learners are passive receivers. In teaching, the emphasis was placed on the formal side of the language. Richards (2006:6) adds that “it was assumed that language learning meant building up a large repertoire of sentences and grammatical patterns and learning to produce these accurately and quickly in the appropriate situation”

Traditional methodology does not present the language as a means of communication. It shows language primarily from the rule-governed point of view and concentrates on the knowledge of grammar and items of vocabulary. It is supposed that a person who knows the rules and the lexis is able to understand and speak the target language. Because of these facts, the teaching also focuses on the grammatical rules and items of lexis. As stated by Richards, “earlier views of language learning focused primarily on the mastery of grammatical competence”. (Richards, 2006: 4) The same author offers a definition of this term:

Grammatical competence refers to the knowledge we have of a language that accounts for our ability to produce sentences in a language. It refers to knowledge of building blocks of sentences (e.g. parts of speech, tenses, phrases, clauses, sentence patterns) and how sentences are formed. (Richards, 2006:3)

The Grammar-Translation Method

The Grammar-Translation Method was developed in the 18th century and was introduced as a way of teaching modern languages by studying grammar in detail and translating texts from the original into the learner’s own language. Its main objectives are the study of grammar, vocabulary and literature. The students’ mother tongue is much used. The students were expected to memorize the grammatical rules and to practice using them while translating sentences and analyzing texts.

The approach is deductive, focusing on conscious learning. Reading and writing are the most practiced skills. Students' native language is widely used, the techniques that are used include translations, reading texts, vocabulary and grammar exercises. There is little attention paid to the ability to communicate, students having little opportunity to develop listening and speaking skills. The literary language is seen as superior to the spoken language. Emphasis is placed on vocabulary and grammar rules, especially word endings and sentence formation, grammatical competence being the highest priority.

The teacher manages, coordinates and evaluates students. The interaction in the classroom is frontal, it takes place mainly between the teacher and students. Correcting students is very important because accuracy is of high importance..

The Audio-lingual Method

This method was developed in the US during the Second World War. It was believed that learning a new language was similar to learning new habits. The main objective is that students learn to use language automatically in a communicative way.

Vocabulary and grammar are presented under the form of dialogues that are learned through repetition and imitation. Language was described in terms of the way it was structured – individual sounds and letters, words, structures, and sentence types. Grammar is taught inductively. Exercises that develop reading and writing are based on communicative activities. The techniques used are: dialogues, role plays, rehearsals, grammar and vocabulary exercises. The common feature of the audio- lingual classroom was the drill – the activity where the teacher provided prompts and the learners would produce a sentence using the appropriate grammatical structure. Speaking and listening were seen as the basis of language learning, with reading and writing coming later. The mother tongue of students is not used, being considered as interfering.

It is the teacher who controls the students and provides model language that students are to imitate. There is interaction between teacher and students and also between students. Teachers try to prevent errors by predicting problems and by controlling what they teach students to say. The evaluation is mainly oral.

Presentation, Practice, Production (Presentation, Practice, Production)

This is the British version of audio-lingual method, notes Jeremy Harmer (2004: 80). It consists of three stages. In the first stage the teacher introduces the language elements to be assimilated. In the second stage students practice using techniques of reproduction and repetition. The third stage concerns the students’ use of the acquired language in an original and authentic way.

Like the audio-lingual method, vocabulary and grammar are taught inductively. Communication prevails, the mother tongue is not used. The teacher is the model and he coordinates the activity. Because it is a method based on communication, assessment is also that way.

Modern methods

Unlike traditional methodology, modern methodology is much more student-centered. According to Jim Scrivener, the teacher’s main role is to “help learning to happen”, which includes involving students in what is going on “by enabling them to work at their own speed, by not giving long explanations, by encouraging them to participate, talk, interact, do things, etc”. (Scrivener, 2005: 18, 19) The students are the most active element in the teaching process, the teacher is there not to explain but to encourage and help students, making learning interesting.

In his book “Learning Teaching”, Jim Scrivener (2005: 31) claims that nowadays a great emphasis is put on “communication of meaning”. Instead of grammatical competence, communicative competence became the priority. Jack C. Richards (2006: 4) also highlights the communicative competence, which is “being able to use the language for meaningful communication”. As pointed out by Richards (2006: 8), “attention shifted to the knowledge and skills needed to use grammar and other aspects of language appropriately for different communicative purposes such as making requests, giving advice, making suggestions, describing wishes and needs and so on”.

Modern methods are based on student-centered interaction which is connected to the involvement of the students in everything going on during the lesson. The teacher’s role shifts from causing the learning to helping learning to happen. The teacher’s task is to choose activities suitable for the learners, to guide them in the lessons and to encourage them to experiment with the language, activities involving students and close to the real-life situations.

The Direct Method

The Direct Method was developed in the early 20th century. The inventor of this method is C. Berlitz. Its main objective is to teach students to communicate in a foreign language. It was an important step forward, it moved away from translation and introduced the idea of lessons conducted exclusively in the target language. Translation is not allowed, the teacher using the real world, images, pantomime to suggest meaning. Mime and gestures began to be used in order to communicate the meaning of words and structures. Afterwards, they were practised through question-and-answer exchanges between the teacher and the learners. The native language is not used at all.

Grammar is taught inductively. Students practice vocabulary in context. All four skills are developed: listening, reading, speaking and writing. The techniques used are: conversation, reading aloud, exercises, essays, rehearsals.

The teacher's role is to be a partner of the student. Interaction takes place between teacher and students and between students and students. Self-evaluation is often used, self-correction is encouraged whenever possible. There is no formal assessment; it takes the form of an interview and assigned written texts.

The Silent Way

It is a method introduced by C. Gattengo. The basic principle states that teaching must be subordinated to learning. Students have an active role, being responsible for their own learning. They practice more, the main areas are pronunciation and grammar.

All four skills are developed: listening, reading, speaking and writing. Native language is used only when necessary.

The teacher's role is to help students. The teacher is silent, but very active; speaking only to give some suggestions. The teacher sets up situations and the students do most of the talking. There is much interaction between students. Mistakes are considered as normal; students are encouraged to be self-correcting. Emphasis is placed on continuous assessment in order to determine the changing learning needs.

Suggestopedia

Inventor of the method is G. Lozanov. The method consists in applying the study of suggestion in pedagogy, developed in order to help students overcome learning barriers. The main objective is to accelerate the learning process using mental powers. Students stay as comfortable as possible, on soft chairs, with soft music in the background, in a nice atmosphere. They get new names and new occupations, along the course even creating new biographies.

There are two stages of the lesson: a receptive one and an active one. Students participate at various activities like reading, interpreting dialogues, practicing various games, dramatizations. The focus is on vocabulary, speaking, reading and writing. Grammar is not considered very important. The mother tongue of students is used if necessary.

Mistakes are not corrected immediately, focusing on fluency. The teacher models correct forms later during class. There are no formal tests, students being evaluated through their activity in the classroom.

Community Language Learning

The method comes from learning counseling, developed by C.A.Curren that sees teachers as linguistic counselors. The main objectives are learning the language in a communicative way and learning about their own learning. Students choose what they want to learn to say. The focus is on communication, developing pronunciation, listening, reading and discussing some grammar elements. Students' native language is used so that they feel safe.

Interaction takes place both between teacher and students and among students. The teacher's role is similar to that of a counselor who encourages and supports students. Mistakes are corrected by the teacher modeling correct forms. Evaluation consists of an oral or written test at the end of the course.

Total Physical Response The Method

This method is introduced by J. Asher. The method places great importance on developing listening comprehension. One of the most important goals is for students to enjoy the learning experience. The method aims to reduce stress in learning a foreign language. The initial part of the lesson lies in modeling, the teacher giving orders, performing actions together with the students. In the second phase of the lesson students demonstrate that they understood the orders.

In the initial phase the teacher talks and the students respond nonverbally; the roles are changing later. Native language is used only at the beginning, under the guidance of the teacher, the students being imitators. Students will talk when they feel they are ready. The teacher is tolerant with students’ mistakes, correcting major errors. Assessment involves checking understanding by performing a series of actions.

The Communicative Language Teaching Method (CLT)

CLT started in the late 1960s and continues to evolve. It is based on the view that learning a language means learning how to communicate effectively in the world outside the classroom. It developed mainly as a reaction to the limitation of the previous methods which put little, if any, emphasis on the ability to communicate or interact. It was also influenced by developments in the way the language was described, namely taking into account the communicative function of the language: people use language to do things like agree, criticize, invite, predict, request, suggest, etc. The main role of the language teacher is that of facilitator, his tasks being: help learners to communicate in English and struggle to motivate them to work with the language. As a result, learners often interact with each other through pair or group work and the four language skills are developed simultaneously.

The main goal is students’ fluency. The focus is on communicating the "real" (Harmer, 2004: 85). All four skills are developed: listening, reading, speaking and writing. Grammar is learned through practice. The native language of students is not used.

The roles of the teacher are those of facilitator and manager of student activity, but also of partner. The interaction takes place especially among students. Materials are authentic and interesting. Errors are tolerated especially during communicative activities when the emphasis is on fluency. Students are assessed both orally and in writing.

To conclude, I will highlight the main differences between traditional and modern methods.

Traditional methods have the following characteristics:

• focus on content acquisition, targeting mainly the informative aspect of education;

• are centered on teaching, the student is seen as an object of instruction;

• are predominantly verbal and bookish;

• are oriented primarily to the final product;

• have a formal, rigid character and stimulate competition;

• stimulate extrinsic learning motivation;

• teacher-student relationship is autocratic, school discipline being imposed.

In contrast, modern methods are characterized by the following notes:

• prioritize students' personality development, targeting the developmental aspect of education;

• are centered on student learning activity, making it subject to the educational process;

• are centered on action, on learning through discovery;

• are oriented on process;

• are flexible, encourage cooperative learning and student self-evaluation capacity;

• stimulate intrinsic motivation;

• teacher-student relationship is democratic, based on respect and collaboration and discipline derives from the organization of the lesson.

Traditional methods focus on teaching rules and practicing them in translating, they prefer routines and rely on memorizing rules and isolated items of lexis, claim that students learn well if they listen to the teacher and do not make mistakes.

In contradiction to that, modern methods aim to teach the learner to communicate getting the message through, they include a great number of balanced activities, employ more contextualized information and practice similar to real-life situations, suggesting that students have to experiment with the language, to learn using it.

1.1.2 The Communicative Approach

According to Harmer, the approach has been called this way “because of the focus on communicative activities and the concentration on language as a means of communication”, “because its aims are overtly communicative and great emphasis is placed on training students to use language for communication”. (1994: 41)

As Richards (2006:10,11) pointed out in his book “Communicative Language Teaching Today“,

it was argued that a syllabus should identify the following aspects of language use in order to be able to develop the learner’s communicative competence:

As detailed a consideration as possible of the purposes for which the learner wishes to acquire the target language; for example, using English for business purposes, in the hotel industry, or for travel

Some idea of the setting in which they will want to use the target language; for example, in an office, on an airplane, or in a store

The socially defined role the learners will assume in the target language, as well as the role of their interlocutors; for example, as a traveler, as a salesperson talking to clients, or as a student in a school

The communicative events in which the learners will participate: everyday situations, vocational or professional situations, academic situations, and so on; for example, making telephone calls, engaging in casual conversation, or taking part in a meeting

The language functions involved in those events, or what the learner will be able to do with or through the language; for example, making introductions, giving explanations, or describing plans

The notions or concepts involved, or what the learner will need to be able to talk about; for example, leisure, finance, history, religion

The skills involved in the “knitting together” of discourse: discourse and rhetorical skills; for example, storytelling, giving an effective business presentation

The variety or varieties of the target language that will be needed, such as American, Australian, or British English, and the levels in the spoken and written language which the learners will need to reach

The grammatical content that will be needed

The lexical content, or vocabulary, that will be needed

The Communicative Approach is also known as communicative language teaching (CLT). The approach was invented in England in the 1960s as an alternative to the traditional structural method and was known as a situational approach. It stressed the need to teach communicative competence because mastering grammatical forms and structures was not sufficient to use the language when communicating with others. According to Harmer, “knowing a language is not just a matter of having grammatical competence […] we also need to add communicative competence – that is the understanding of what language is appropriate in certain situations”. (1994: 18)

This method makes it possible to focus the teaching on the work of the students. It assumes that language learning is not abstract but situational. Therefore are added situations that students know from daily life. This makes it significantly easier to remember the new lesson, because the memory gets offered necessary and useful compounds. CLT is interested in providing students the skills to be able to communicate under different circumstances. The approach emphasizes interaction and problem solving, pair work and group work activities.

The main objective of CLT is to overcome the psychological barrier against foreign languages and enable real communication in real life. This means that students can use the acquired knowledge regarding different conversational topics not only in the classroom, but also in real life, after a few initial steps.

Many people who have learned a foreign language by the old traditional methods have mastered complicated language structures in theory, but are not often able to deal linguistically correct with the simple everyday situations.

In her book “Interpreting Communicative Language Teaching: Contexts and Concerns in Teacher Education” Savignon presents a summary of the eight characteristics of CLT by the linguist M. Berns:

1) Language teaching is based on a view of language as communication. That is, language is seen as a social tool that speakers use to make meaning; speakers communicate about something to someone for some purpose, either orally or in writing.

2) Diversity is recognized and accepted as part of language development and use in second language learners and users, as it is with first language users.

3) A learner’s competence is considered in relative, not in absolute, terms.

4) More than one variety of the language is recognized as a viable model for learning and teaching.

5) Culture is recognized as instrumental in shaping speaker’s communicative competence, in both their first and subsequent languages.

6) No single methodology or fixed set of techniques is prescribed.

7) Language use is recognized as serving ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions and is related to the development of learner’s competence in each.

8) It is essential that learners be engaged in doing things with language – that is, that they use language for a variety of purposes in all phases of learning.

(2002: 6).

According to Richards & Rodgers, the approach has two main goals: “to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching” and “to develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication” (2001: 155).

The central concept in communicative language teaching is communicative competence, including both the spoken and written language and all four language skills: speaking, writing, listening and reading.

In his book “Communicative Language Teaching Today“, Richards presents the aspects of language knowledge that are included in communicative competence:

Knowing how to use language for a range of different purposes and functions

Knowing how to vary our use of language according to the setting and the participants (e.g., knowing when to use formal and informal speech or when to use language appropriately for written as opposed to spoken communication)

Knowing how to produce and understand different types of texts (e.g., narratives, reports, interviews, conversations)

Knowing how to maintain communication despite having limitations in one’s language knowledge (e.g., through using different kinds of communication strategies) (Richards, 2006: 3)

The activities used are communicative, based on pair and group work, “to encourage students to use and practice functions and forms” in order to become more independent. (Richards& Rodgers, 2001: 171) The techniques used are: discussions, debates, role plays, written communicative activities, drama etc.

Teachers require the students to negotiate meaning and to interact meaningfully in the new language. The activities are interactive, based on a cooperative approach to learning; they represent an information gap that needs to be filled.

Teachers adopts different roles, they are facilitators and helpers, they initiate the interactions between students, coordinate and sometimes participate. The teacher is no longer a person of authority, he/she is a communicative activator giving guidance and advice when necessary. Assessment is continuous, relying on the teacher’s observations. Student self-evaluation is also encouraged and relevant.

The materials used in language teaching provide the basis for communication among the learners. According to Richards & Rodgers (2001:168), there are three basic types of material: text-based materials, task-based materials and realia.

Text-based material like textbooks offer the learners many kinds of prompts on which they can build up conversations. They contain visual cues, pictures and sentence fragments which the learners can use as a starting point for conversation. Other books consist of different texts the teacher can use for pair work. Both learners get texts with different information and the task is to ask each other questions to get to know the content of the missing piece.

Task-based material consists of exercise handbooks, cue cards, activity cards, pair-communication practice materials and student-interaction practice booklets.

Pair-communication practice material contains two sets of material for a pair of students. It is similar to a task using text-based material. Both students have different kinds of information and through communication they need to put the parts together. Other pair-work tasks involve one student as an interviewer and the other one the interviewee. Topics can range from personal experience and telling the other person about one’s own life and preferences to talking about a topic that was discussed in the news recently or is still up-to-date.

Using realia in communicative language teaching means using authentic material, for example newspaper articles, photos, maps, symbols, and many more. Material which can be touched and held makes speaking and learning more concrete and meaningful. Maps can be used to describe the way from one point to another and photos can be used for describing where things are placed, in front of, on top of or underneath something, and so on.

As Richards (2006: 4) pointed out, language learning has been viewed from a very different perspective in recent years. It is seen as resulting from processes such as:

Interaction between the learner and users of the language

Collaborative creation of meaning

Creating meaningful and purposeful interaction through language

Negotiation of meaning as the learner and his or her interlocutor arrive at understanding

Learning through attending to the feedback learners get when they use the language

Paying attention to the language one hears (the input) and trying to incorporate new forms into one’s developing communicative competence

Trying out and experimenting with different ways of saying things .

Language Skills

Among skills we mean in general basic knowledge or techniques that we acquire in one area and that are developed and strengthened through practice.

In foreign language teaching this term refers in an older, more technical sense to the isolated basic skills that will enable learners to understand sentences and to form and identify structures. They are traditionally divided into listening, speaking, reading, writing; with respect to the audio-visual media, we now speak also of visual comprehension and visual auditory comprehension.

Because speaking and writing “involve language production” they are referred to as “productive skills”, while listening and reading “involve receiving messages and are therefore often referred to as receptive skills”. (Harmer, 1994: 16)

These four main skills are, however, closely related in language use. Listening and speaking usually happen at the same time and also one may read and write simultaneously. Practicing individual linguistic skills is not sufficient for dealing with the concrete linguistic situations. The four skills have to be trained as part of communication, they have to be taught regarding students’ needs and interests.

Introduction

The teaching of English as a foreign language is now one of the most important subjects in most European primary schools. The implementation of English has brought along the need to establish clear objectives that are different to the ones traditionally assigned to secondary schools. While in secondary schools we still find, in many cases, a teaching based in the formal aspects of the language, i.e. grammar; primary school teachers have had to adopt a different approach as the age of the children make the teaching of formal aspects not advisable. As a result of this point of view, the different Educational Departments have decided to establish, as the main purpose of the EFL teaching, the development of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, the implementation of this approach has not been trouble-free as many teachers insist on asking their children to understand every single word they listen to or read, or expect their pupils to write or speak without making the mistakes normally found in the process of acquiring any language.

The main purpose of this paper is to provide some guidelines that we hope can be useful to teachers of English as a foreign language in primary schools.

1.2.1 Receptive Skills

Listening

Listening is the language skill which learners usually find the most difficult. This often is because they feel under unnecessary pressure to understand every word. To achieve the aims related to this skill, the teacher plays an important role that is defined in the following steps.

It is important to help pupils prepare for the listening task well before they hear the text itself. First of all the teacher must ensure that the pupils understand the language they need to complete the task and are fully aware of exactly what is expected of them. Reassure the pupils that they do not need to understand every word they hear.

The next important step is to encourage pupils to anticipate what they are going to hear. In everyday life, the situation, the speaker, and visual clues all help us to decode oral messages. A way to make things a bit easier to the pupils is to present the listening activity within the context of the topic of a teaching unit. This in itself will help pupils to predict what the answers might be. The teacher can help them further by asking questions and using the illustrations to encourage pupils to guess the answers even before they hear the text.

During the listening the pupils should be able to concentrate on understanding the message so make sure they are not trying to read, draw, and write at the same time. Always give a second chance to listen to the text to provide a new opportunity to those who were not able to do the task.

Finally, when pupils have completed the activity, invite answers from the whole class. Try not to put individual pupils under undue pressure. Rather than confirming whether an answer is correct or not, play the cassette again and allow pupils to listen again for confirmation. You may be given a variety of answers, in which case list them all on the board and play the text again, so that the class can listen and choose the correct one. Even if the pupils all appear to have completed the task successfully, always encourage them to listen to the text once more and check their answers for themselves.

Reading

In order to make reading an interesting challenge as opposed to a tedious chore, it is important that pupils do not labour over every word, whether they are skimming the text for general meaning or scanning it to pick out specific information. Other things to keep in mind are:

When choosing texts consider not only their difficulty level, but also their interest or their humour so that children will want to read for the same reasons they read in their own language: to be entertained or to find out something they do not already know.

As with listening activities, it is important to spend time preparing for the task by using the illustrations (a usual feature in reading activities for children), pupils' own knowledge about the subject matter, and key vocabulary to help the pupils to predict the general content of the text. Discuss the subject and ask questions to elicit language and to stimulate the pupils' interest in the text before they begin reading. Also make sure that the pupils understand the essential vocabulary they need to complete the task before they begin to read.

While the children are reading the text, move around the class providing support if pupils need it. Where possible, encourage pupils to work out the meaning of vocabulary as they come across it, using the context and the supporting illustrations.

Do not encourage pupils to read texts aloud unless this is to learn a play or recite a poem. Reading aloud inhibits most pupils and forces them to concentrate on what they are saying as opposed to what they are reading and the meaning is very often lost.

1.2.2. Productive Skills

Speaking

First of all, we must take into account that the level of language input (listening) must be higher than the level of language production expected of the pupils. So we have many speaking activities used in the first levels that enable pupils to participate with a minimal verbal response. However in the last levels, pupils are encouraged to begin to manipulate language and express themselves in a much more personal way.

In primary schools two main types of speaking activities are used. The first type, songs, chants, and poems, encourages pupils to mimic the model they hear on the cassette. This helps pupils to master the sounds, rhythms, and intonation of the English language through simple reproduction. The games and pair work activities on the other hand, although always based on a given model, encourage the pupils to begin to manipulate the language by presenting them with a certain amount of choice, albeit within a fairly controlled situation.

In order for any speaking activity to be successful children need to acknowledge that there is a real reason for asking a question or giving a piece of information. Therefore, make sure the activities you present to the pupils, provide a reason for speaking, whether this is to play a game or to find out real information about friends in the class.

Once the activity begins, make sure that the children are speaking as much English as possible without interfering to correct the mistakes that they will probably make. Try to treat errors casually by praising the utterance and simply repeating it correctly without necessarily highlighting the errors. And finally, always offer praise for effort regardless of the accuracy of the English produced.

Writing

In primary schools, EFL pupils progress from writing isolated words and phrases, to short paragraphs about themselves or about very familiar topics (family, home, hobbies, friends, food, etc.)

Since many pupils at this level are not yet capable either linguistically or intellectually of creating a piece of written text from scratch, it is important that time is spent building up the language they will need and providing a model on which they can then base their own efforts. The writing activities should therefore be based on a parallel text and guide the pupils, using simple cues. These writing activities generally appear towards the end of a unit so that pupils have had plenty of exposure to the language and practice of the main structures and vocabulary they need.

At this stage, the pupils' work will invariably contain mistakes. Again, the teacher should try to be sensitive in his/her correction and not necessarily insist on every error being highlighted. A piece of written work covered in red pen is demoralizing and generally counter-productive. Where possible, encourage pupils to correct their own mistakes as they work. If there is time, encourage pupils to decorate their written work and where feasible display their efforts in the classroom.