A true communicative activity

Record a group of students performing a communicative activity. Listen to the recording and try to decide on the following:

(a) To what extent does the activity encourage or oblige participation from all of the students? The activity is connected to student's experiences so they both (because it was pair work) were involved in the activity. First St A asks St B and then St B asks St A so they equally participate and are encouraged to do so (information gap)

(b) What examples can you find of conversational adjustments as students try to negotiate meaning, for example, asking for and giving clarification, repetition, further explanation through paraphrasing? One of the students needed to know what "waste" meant and the other student explained to the first one that it meant "throwing the money" and then as Student A kept on asking, Student B told her it meant "desperdiciar"= students negotiated meaning by paraphrasing and then resorting to their mother tongue.

Students also tried to find the right word for "Shop which sells CDs" = they came up with different names such as "record shop", and "musical store" and in the end they could understand each other.

(c) What examples can you find of students correcting each other? "Disparó" (St A) = "shot" (St B)

(d) How would you comment on the general level of accuracy in the students' language? As it was a fluency-oriented activity, the level of accuracy was not so accurate. Students were involved in getting across their message, not that much on accuracy. E.g: "I've wast my money on trainers because I bought it to go to the gym and I never went to the gym". Another example: Have you ever lose a credit card or a wallet? I've losted my wallet on the bus.

(e) If the activity had a focus on some area of grammar or use of vocabulary, to what extent did this appear in the students' language? cStudents were practicing "Present Perfect" with "have you ever..." and contrasting it with Simple Past. Students almost never resorted to their mother tongue. They resorted to L1 when they didn't know a word, for example "disparar", however, Student B said "shot". This grammar appears in students' every day life, maybe Present Perfect not that much (here in Buenos Aires) but Simple Past is used worldwide. Finally:Have you ever been robbed? Yes, in the shop of my father. Five years ago and I working there with my father, he had a shop of CDs. He taked the cash and they pointed with the gun... and "disparó".

Anyway, this activity, as I said, was aimed at fluency (or at least when the girl started telling the story when she was robbed) and the message was more important than accuracy.

When you have considered these points, decide whether you think it was an activity worth doing, and why. Would you change anything in a re-run of it? I think the activity was worth doing because it was a real communication activity and students were engaged in it because they had to tell each other about their experiences. If I were to do the activity again I would let them speak and then correct some mistakes that I would jot down while they are working so as to check them later on (deferred correction).

Let's see if you agree or not. You are welcomed to comment on anything you want to. See you,

Lore

Bibliography

HEDGE, Tricia (2000), Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom, UK, OUP; Chapter 8 "Speaking" (Discussion Topics and Projects # 8- p. 295)

Recording made by Alejandro J. and Paula V. students of intermediate level. Teacher: Gladys Baya (thank you)

Aims for a speaking course

Review the list of skills and set of questions below and use them to formulate a list of possible aims for the speaking component of a course book. Then look at a contemporary course book for intermediate students and review the extent to which it tries to incorporate your set of aims.

Pronunciation Aims:

• Learners identify and produce the difference between several pair sounds, such as /I/ /i:/ - /U/ /u:/; and different sounds.
• Learners recognize and produce stress in words, rhythm in sentences and intonation patterns.

Skill Aims:

• Learners learn strategies for managing turn-taking in conversation, including taking a turn, holding a turn, and relinquishing a turn
• Learners learn how to interact and negotiate meaning
• Learners learn how to negotiate purposes for conversations
  
• Learners learn strategies for opening and closing conversations
• Learners learn how to initiate and respond to talk on a broad range of topics, and how to develop and maintain talk on these topics
• Learners learn how to use both a casual style of speaking and a neutral or more formal style
• Learners learn strategies for repairing trouble spots in conversation, including communication breakdown and comprehension problems
• Learners learn how to maintain fluency in conversation, through avoiding excessive pausing, breakdowns, and errors of grammar or pronunciation

Communicational Aims:

• Learners learn how to interact and negotiate meaning
• Learners learn how to use conversation for both transactional and interactional purposes
• Learners learn how to produce both short and long turns in conversation
• Learners learn how to use conversational in different social settings and for different kinds of social encounters, such as on the telephone, at informal and formal social gatherings.
• Learners learn how to produce conversational fillers and small talk
• Learners learn how to use conversational routines

I've browsed through Adventures Intermediate and learnt that the book covers almost all of the aims I had thought taking into account the list. The only aims that the book didn't cover are the ones in italics. As you can see they are not many, and can be taught anyway by changing some activities.

Bibliography

HEDGE, Tricia (2000), Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom, UK, OUP; Chapter 8 "Speaking" (Discussion Topics and Projects # 8- p. 296)

WETZ and GAMMIDGE (2005), Adventures Intermediate Student's Book, UK, OUP