UNIVERSITATEA BABEŞ-BOLYAI CLUJ-NAPOCA

DEPARTAMENTUL PENTRU PREGĂTIREA PERSONALULUI

DIDACTIC
FACULTATEA DE LITERE

LUCRARE METODICO-ŞTIINŢIFICĂ
pentru obţinerea gradului didactic I

COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN DEVELOPING THE FOUR

SKILLS

ACTIVITATI COMUNICATIVE IN SCOPUL DEZVOLTARII

CELOR PATRU DEPRINDERI

Coordonator ştiinţific,
prof.univ.dr.Mihai M.Zdrenghea
Candidat,
prof.Eszter Vadasz
Liceul de Muzica”S.Toduta”
Cluj-Napoca

Cluj Napoca
Seria 2009-2011
 CONTENTS

CHAPTER I : MAJOR LANGUAGE TRENDS IN TWENTIETH-

CENTURY LANGUAGE TEACHING 1
1. A brief history of language teaching 1
2. The Grammar Translation Method 3
3. The Direct Method 5
4. The Audio-lingual Method 6
5. Approach, method, design and procedure 8

CHAPTER II : ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES AND METHODS

1. Total Physical Response 9
2. The Silent Way 12
3. Suggestopedia 13
4. Multiple Intelligences 14
5. The Lexical Approach 16
6. Competency-Based Language Teaching 17

CHAPTER III COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHES AND METHODS

1. The Communicative Approach 18
1.1 Communicative competence
1.2 The heart of language
1.3 Language content
1.4 Language behaviour
2. The Natural Approach 23
2.1 The acquisition-learning distinction
2.2 The Natural Order Hypothesis
2.3 The Monitor Hypothesis
2.4 The Input Hypothesis
2.5 The Affective Filter Hypothesis
2.6 Providing input for acquisition
2.7 The role of grammar
3. Community Language Learning 29
4. Cooperative Language Learning 30
5. Content-Based Language Teaching 33
6. Task-Based Instruction 34

CHAPTER IV : COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 36

1. Questions and Answers 37
1.1 Warming-up exercises
1.1.1. Names
1.1.2. Name circle

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 1.1.3. Three adjectives
1.1.4. Stem sentences
1.1.5. Choosing pictures
1.1.6. Clusters
1.1.7. Groupings
1.2. Interviews 41
1.2.1. Self-directed interviews
1.2.2. Group interviews
1.2.3. Guided interviews
1.3. Guessing games 43
1.3.1. What is it?
1.3.2. Coffeepotting
1.3.3. What’s in the box?
1.3.4. Lie detector
1.4. Jigsaw Tasks 45
1.4.1. The same or different?
1.4.2. Twins
1.4.3. What are the differences?
1.4.4. Ordering
1.4.5. Town plan
1.4.6. Strip story
1.4.7. Jigsaw guessing
1.4.8. Partner puzzle
1.5. Questioning activities 49
1.5.1. What would happen if?
1.5.2. Question game
1.5.3. Find someone who
1.5.4. Something else
1.5.5. Question and answer cards
1.5.6. Go and find out
2. Discussions and Decisions
2.1. Ranking exercises 53
2.1.1. Rank order
2.1.2. Qualities
2.1.3. Desert island
2.1.4. NASA game
2.1.5. Personalities
2.1.6. Job prestige
2.2. Discussion games 57
2.2.1 What is being advertised?
2.2.2. Mad discussions
2.2.3. Secret topic
2.2.4. Word wizard
2.2.5. Uses and abuses
2.2.6. Shrinking story
2.2.7. Magic shop

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 2.2.8. Pink versus brown
2.2.9. Optimists and pessimists
2.2.10. People
2.2.11. Discussion wheel
2.3. Values and clarification techniques 63
2.3.1. Lifestyle
2.3.2. Aims in life
2.3.3. Twenty things I’d like to do
2.3.4. Spending money
2.3.5. Unfinished sentences
2.3.6. I’d rather be
2.3.7. Ideal day
2.4. Thinking strategies 67
2.4.1. PMI
2.4.2. Consequences
2.4.3. Alternatives
2.4.4. View points
2.5. Problem solving exercises 70
2.5.1. Rescue
2.5.2. Desperate decisions
2.5.3. One day in London
2.5.4. Treasure hunt
2.5.5. Group holiday
2.5.6. Everyday problems
2.5.7. Baker Street
3. Stories and Scenes
3.1. Miming 74
3.1.1. Adverb charade
3.1.2. Miming people and objects
3.1.3. Daily life
3.1.4. Hotel receptionist
3.1.5. Messages
3.2. Role play and simulations 78
3.2.1. Telephoning
3.2.2. TV interview
3.2.3. Controversy in the school
3.2.4. Swap shop
3.2.5. Making a radio program
3.3 Stories 81
3.3.1. Chain story
3.3.2. Newspaper report
3.3.3. Picture stories
3.3.4. Letter and telegrams
3.3.5. Keep talking

CHAPTER V :WORKSHEETS OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

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 1. 1.1.4. Stem sentences 86
2. 1.1.7. Groupings A
3. Groupings B
4. Groupings C
5. 1.2.3. Guided interviews
6. 1.3.1. What is it?
7. 1.4.4. The same or different?
8. 1.4.2. Twins A
9. Twins B
10 1.4.3 What are the differences?
11. 1.4.4 Ordering
12. 1.4.5. Town plan
13. 1.4.7. Jigsaw guessing
14. 1.4.8. Partner puzzle
15. 1.5.2. Question game
16. 1.5.3. Find someone who
17. 1.5.5. Question and answer cards
18. 1.5.6. Go and find out
19. 2.1.1. Rank order
20. 2.1.4. NASA game
21. 2.2.6. Shrinking story
22. 2.2.11. Discussion wheel
23. 2.3.2. Aims in life
24. 2.3.5. Unfinished sentences
25. 2.4.4. View points
26. 2.5.2. Desperate decision
27. 2.5.5. Group holiday
28. 2.5.7. Baker Street
29. 3.2.1. Telephoning
30. 3.2.3. Controversy in the school
31. 3.3.4. Letter and telegrams

BIBLIOGRAPHY 117

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 I. MAJOR LANGUAGE TRENDS IN TWENTIETH-
CENTURY LANGUAGE TEACHING

As a language teacher you must make decisions all the time. Some of your decisions are
relatively minor ones: should homework be assigned that particular day, for instance.
Other decisions have more profound implications: what should be the goal of language
instruction? Which language teaching method will be the most effective in reaching it?
What is the best means of evaluation to see if it has been reached? I think there is no
single correct answer to questions like these. Each of us has to answer them for ourselves.
I believe, however, that a teacher informed about some of the possibilities will make
better decisions .Making informed choices is, after all, what teaching is all about.

Telling some of the story of teaching methods I will begin with the tale of language
teaching . Then I will describe the two bêtes noires - “black sheep” of language teaching
methods– grammar translation and audio-lingualism – between which I will insert the
direct method. After presenting the alternative methods that have tried to reform the
teaching of foreign languages, I will land on the communicative approaches. Finally I
will conclude with a few communicative activities and their worksheets hoping that they
will awaken even the interest of those in the deepest slumber.

1. A BRIEF HISTORY OF LANGUAGE TEACHING

The history of language teaching has been characterized by a search for more effective
ways of teaching second and foreign languages. For more than a hundred years, debate
and discussion have often centered on issues such as the role of grammar in the language
curriculum, the development of accuracy and fluency in teaching, the choice of syllabus

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framework in course design, the role of vocabulary in language learning, teaching
productive skills and receptive skills, learning theories and their application in teaching,
memorization and learning, motivating learners, effective learning strategies, techniques
for teaching the four skills, and the role of materials and technology. Although much has
been done to clarify these and other important questions in language teaching, the
teaching profession is continually exploring new options for addressing these and other
basic issues and the effectiveness of different instructional strategies and methods in the
classroom.
The teaching of any subject matter is usually based on an analysis of the nature of the
subject itself and the application of teaching and learning principles drawn from the
research and theory in educational psychology. The result is generally referred to as a
teaching method or approach by which we refer to a set of core teaching and learning
principles together with a body of classroom practices that are derived from them. The
same is true for language teaching, and the field of teaching methods has been a very
active one in language teaching since the 1900s. New approaches and methods
proliferated throughout the 20th century. Some achieved wide levels of acceptance and
popularity at different times but were then replaced by methods based on newer or more
appealing ideas and theories. Examples of this kind include the Direct Method and
Audio-lingualism. Some, such as the Communicative Approach were adopted almost
universally and achieved the status of acknowledged methodology. At the same time,
alternatives to mainstream approaches have always found some level of support within
language teaching, although often this has not led to wider acceptance or use. Methods in
this category include those from the 1970s such as the Silent Way, Community Learning,
Suggestopedia, and Total Physical Response, as well as more recent alternative methods
such as Multiple Intelligences and the Lexical Approach.

From a historical perspective we are able to see that the concerns that have prompted
modern method innovations were similar to those that have always been at the center of
discussions on how to teach foreign languages. Changes in language teaching methods
throughout history have reflected recognition of changes in the kind of proficiency
learners need, such as a move toward oral proficiency rather than reading comprehension
as the goal of language study; they have also reflected changes in theories of the nature of
language and of language learning. Kelly (1969) and Howatt (1984) have demonstrated
that many current issues in language teaching are not particularly new. Today’s
controversies reflect contemporary responses to questions that have been asked often
throughout the history of language teaching. It has been estimated that some 60 percent
of today’s world population is multilingual. From both a contemporary and a historical
perspective, bilingualism or multilingualism is the norm rather than the exception. It is
fair, then, to say that throughout history foreign language learning has always been an
important practical concern. Whereas today English is the world’s most widely studied
foreign language, 500 years ago it was Latin, for it was the dominant language of
education, commerce, religion, and government in the Western world. In the sixteenth
century, however, French, Italian, and English gained in importance as a result of political
changes in Europe, and Latin gradually became displaced as a language of spoken and
written communication. As the status of Latin diminished from that of a living language
to that of an “occasional” subject in the school curriculum, the study of Latin took on a

7
different function. The study of classical Latin became the model for foreign language
study from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Once basic knowledge was
established, students were introduced to grammar and rhetoric. School learning must
have been a deadening experience, as lapses of knowledge were often met with brutal
punishments. There were occasional attempts to promote alternative methods to
education: Roger Ascham and Montaigne in the 16th century and Comenius and John
Locke in the 17th tried to reform the whole system but with little success.
The decline of Latin also brought with it a new justification for teaching Latin.
“Modern” languages began to enter the curriculum of European schools in the 18 th
century and they were taught using the same procedures that were used for teaching
Latin. Textbooks consisted of statements of abstract grammar rules, lists of vocabulary,
and sentences for translation. Speaking the foreign language was not the goal and oral
practice was limited. The sentences were constructed to illustrate the grammatical system
of the language. By the 19th century this approach based on the study of Latin became the
standard way of studying foreign languages in schools. Textbooks consisted of lessons
organized around grammar points. This method became known as the Grammar
Translation method.

2. THE GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD

The grammar translation method emerged when people of the Western world wanted to
learn such foreign languages as Latin and Greek. The focus was on learning grammatical
rules and memorising vocabulary and language declensions and conjugations. It was
hoped that, through the study of the grammar of the target language, the students would
become more familiar with the grammar of their native tongue. Finally, it was thought
that foreign language learning would help students grow intellectually; it was recognized
that students would probably never use the target language, but the mental exercise of
learning would be beneficial anyway. Typical classroom activities and homework include
text translations and written exercises. Its leading exponents were: Johann Seidenstucker,
Karl Plotz, H.S.Ollendorf, and Johann Meidinger. As their names suggest they were
representatives of the German School as in some parts of the world (in the USA for
example) the Grammar Translation Method was known as the Prussian Method
(Kelly,1969) . As its later critics put it, the method’s objective was :”to know everything
about something, rather than the thing itself”.(W.H.D. Rouse, quoted in Kelly 1969:53).
The principle characteristics of the grammar translation method were the following:
1. The goal of the foreign language was to read its literature or to benefit from the
intellectual development that resulted from foreign language study. “The first language is
maintained as the reference system in the acquisition of the second language.”(Stern
1983:455)
2. Reading and writing were the main focus; little or no attention was paid to listening or
speaking.
3. The vocabulary selection was based only on the reading texts used and words were
taught through bilingual word lists.

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4. The sentence was the basic unit of teaching and language practice. Much of the lesson
was devoted to translating sentences into and out of the target language.
5. Accuracy was emphasized and the students were expected to attain high standards in
translation.
6. Grammar was taught deductively, by presentation and study of the grammar rule.
7. The students’ native tongue was always used to explain new items or present
comparisons with the studied language.
In a grammar translation class the teacher presents the lesson in the student’s native
tongue, and students are not actively encouraged to use the target language in class. The
teacher provides elaborate explanations of the grammatical rules of the target language,
and often focuses on the form and inflection of words. Accuracy receives a great deal of
stress. Vocabulary study takes the form of learning lists of often isolated words, and the
rules of grammar provide the blueprint for putting words together. Students begin early to
read classical texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis. There is little
stress on the content of those texts. Some other techniques that are used beside the
translation of the text are the following: reading comprehension questions,
antonyms/synonyms, cognates, deductive application of rules, fill in the blanks,
memorization, words used in sentences, compositions.
Grammar translation dominated European and foreign language teaching until the 1940s
and in modified forms it continues to be widely used in some parts of the world today. In
the mid and late 19th century opposition to this method gradually developed in Europe.
This Reform Movement as it was referred to, laid the foundations for the development of
new ways of teaching languages and raised controversies that have continued to the
present day.
Educators started to realize the need for speaking proficiency rather than reading
comprehension, grammar or literary appreciation as the goal of the foreign language.
Language teaching specialists such as Marcel, Prendergast and Gouin had done much in
promoting alternative approaches, but their ideas failed to receive widespread attention
and support. From the 1880s, however, practical-minded linguists such as Henry Sweet in
England, Wilhelm Victor in Germany and Paul Passy in France began to provide the
intellectual leadership needed to give reformist ideas greater credibility and acceptance.
Phonetics- the scientific analysis and description of the sound systems of languages was
established, giving new insights to the speech process. Controversies emerged about the
best way to teach foreign languages and ideas appeared in books, articles and pamphlets.
The principles of teaching were the following:
-the spoken language is primary
-learners should hear the language first, before seeing it in written form
-words should be presented in sentences, and sentences should be practiced in meaningful
context
-rules of grammar should only be taught after practicing them in context inductively
-translation should be avoided.

This led to what has been termed “natural method” and ultimately led to the development
of what came to be known the Direct Method.

9
3. THE DIRECT METHOD

The Direct method originated in the 19th century through the work of a number of
important thinkers, notably Lambert Sauveur – a Frenchman who opened a language
school in Boston in 1869. His system of teaching French became known as the natural
method. The direct method is its offshoot.
The basic premise of the direct method is that second language learning should be more
like first language learning. The method includes lots of oral interaction and the
spontaneous use of language. The teacher discourages translation between first and
second languages, and puts little emphasis on the rules of grammar.
The direct method classroom should be one of small, intensive classes which stressed
both speech and listening comprehension. The teacher gives instruction exclusively in the
target language, teaching everyday vocabulary and sentences. The teacher develops oral
communication skills in a careful progression that she frequently organizes around
questions-and-answers exchanges. The teacher explains new teaching points through
modelling and practice.
A direct approach instructor emphasizes correct pronunciation and grammar, which she
teaches inductively. She presents concrete vocabulary through demonstration, realia and
pictures, for example, and teaches abstract vocabulary through association of ideas. This
method was the first to catch “the attention of both language teachers and language
teaching specialists, and it offered a methodology that appeared to move language
teaching into a new era.” Techniques used in this area are: reading aloud, question-answer
practice, getting students to self-correct, conversation practice, fill in the blanks,
dictation, map drawing, paragraph writing, etc.
The Direct Method was quite successful in private language schools such as the Berlitz
chain where the paying students had high motivation in practising the language in small
intensive classes. But in public schools it was difficult to implement this method. By the
1920s it started to decline. In France and Germany they started to use a modified version
combining the Direct Method with more controlled grammar-based activities.
The popularity of this method made language specialists from the US to try to implement
it in the United States, too. A study begun in 1923 stated that no single method could
guarantee successful results. The goal of trying to teach conversational skills was
considered impractical because of the restricted time available for language teaching,
because of the limited skills of the teachers, and because they considered that
conversational skills were irrelevant for college students. The main result of all this was
that reading became the main goal of most modern language programs in the U.S and
remained so until World War II.
As linguists recognized the limitations of the Direct Method, the representatives of the
Reform movement laid the foundations of a new method, which led to Audio-lingualism
in the United States and the Oral Approach or Situational Language Teaching in Britain.
One of the lasting legacies of the Direct Method was the notion of “method itself. The
controversy over it was the first of many debates over how second and foreign languages
should be taught.

10
4. THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

Also called the “aural-oral” method, the audio-lingual method got its name from the Latin
roots for hearing and speaking. Audio-lingualism emphasizes pattern drills and
conversation practice.
In the audio-lingual classroom, the teacher generally presents new material in dialogue
form, and students are expected to mimic her pronunciation and intonation, which receive
a great deal of emphasis. There is a great deal of stress on memorizing set phrases and
over learning; learners acquire language patterns through repetitive drills. There is little
grammatical explanation; the student learns grammar through analogy rather than
explanation.
Audio-lingual teachers place great importance on getting students to produce error-free
speech. They immediately reinforce successful speech, and quickly correct errors. They
teach vocabulary through pronunciation (not the written word), and they make regular
use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids. In the classroom, the teacher strongly
discourages the use of the student’s mother tongue. The techniques used in this method
are: dialogue memorization, backward build -up drill, repetition drill, chain drill, single
slot substitution drill, multiple slot repetition drill, question-answer drill, use of minimal
pairs, complete the dialogue, grammar game.

The most important learning principles of this method are the following:

1. Foreign language learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation. Good

habits are formed by giving correct responses rather than by making mistakes. By
memorizing dialogues and performing pattern drills the chances of producing mistakes
are minimized. Language is verbal behaviour – that is, the automatic production and
comprehension of utterances – and can be learned by inducing the students to do
likewise.
2. Language skills are learned more effectively if the items to be learned in the target
language are presented in spoken form before they are seen in written form. Aural-oral
training is needed to provide the foundation for the development of other language skills.
3. Analogy provides a better foundation for language learning than analysis. Analogy
involves the processes of generalization and discrimination. Explanations of rules are
therefore not given until students have practiced a pattern in a variety of contexts and are
thought to have acquired a perception of the analogies involved. Drills can enable
learners to form correct analogies. Hence the approach to the teaching of grammar is
essentially inductive rather than deductive.
4. The meanings that the words of a language have for the native speaker can be learned
only in a linguistic and cultural context and not in isolation. Teaching a language thus
involves teaching aspects of the cultural system of the people who speak the language.
(Rivers 1964: 19–22)

In a typical audio-lingual class the following procedures could be observed.

Students first hear a model dialogue (either read by the teacher or on tape) containing the
key structures that are the focus of the lesson. They repeat each line of the dialogue,
individually or in chorus. The teacher pays attention to pronunciation, intonation and

11
fluency. Correction of mistakes is direct and immediate. The dialogue is memorised
gradually, line by line. A line may be broken down into several phrases if necessary. The
dialogue is read in chorus, one half saying one speaker’s part, the other half the other
speaker’s part.
The dialogue is adapted to the students’ interest or situation, through changing certain key
words and phrases. It is acted out by the students.
Certain key structures are selected and used as the basis for pattern drills of different
kinds. These are first practiced in chorus and then individually. Some grammatical
explanation may be offered at this point, but this is kept to an absolute minimum.
The students may refer to their textbook, and follow-up reading, writing, or vocabulary
activities based on the dialogue may be introduced. At the beginning level, writing is
purely imitative and consists of little more than copying out sentences that have been
practiced or write short compositions on given topics.
Follow-up activities may take place in the language laboratory, where further dialogue
and drill work is carried out.
In the 1960s the whole audio-lingual paradigm was called into question: pattern practice,
drilling, memorization. These might lead to language-like behaviours but they were not
resulting in competence. Linguists claimed that practice activities should involve
meaningful learning and language use.

The lack of an alternative to audio-lingualism led in the 1970s and 1980s to a period of
adaptation, experimentation, and some confusion. Several alternative methods appeared
in the 1970s that made no claims to any mainstream language teaching method. These
included Total Physical Response, the Silent Way, and Counseling- learning. These
methods have attracted some interest at first, but have not continued to attract significant
level of acceptance. Other proposals since then have reflected developments in general
education and other fields outside the second language teaching community, such as
Whole Language, Multiple Intelligences, Neurolinguistic Programming, Competency-
Based Language Teaching, and Cooperative Language Learning. Mainstream language
teaching since the 1980s, however, has generally drawn on contemporary theories of
language as a basis for teaching proposals. The Lexical Approach, Communicative
Language Teaching, the Natural Approach, Content-Based Teaching and Task-Based
Teaching are representatives of this last group. The concern for grammatical accuracy
that was a focus of Audio-Lingualism has not disappeared, however, and continues to
provide a challenge for contemporary applied linguistics.(see Doughty and William
1998).

The most active period in the history of approaches and methods was from the 1950s to
the 1980s. The 1950s saw the emergence of the Audio-lingual Method and the Situational
Method, which were both superseded by the Communicative Approach. During the same
period, other methods attracted smaller but equally enthusiastic followers, including the
Silent Way, the Natural Approach, and Total Physical Response. In the 1990s, Content-
Based Instruction and Task Based Language Teaching appeared. Other approaches, such
as Cooperative Learning, Whole Language Approach, and Multiple Intelligences,
originally developed in general education, have been extended to language teaching.

12
The different teaching approaches and methods that have emerged in the last 60 or so
years, while often having very different characteristics in terms of goals, assumptions
about how a language is learned, and preferred teaching techniques, have in common the
belief that if language learning is to be improved, it will come about through changes and
improvements in teaching methodology.

5. APPROACH, METHOD, DESIGN AND PROCEDURE

In 1963, applied linguist Edward Anthony defined the terms “approach,” “method” and
“technique” as they apply to language teaching and his ideas had a great impact on
teachers and those who guide them. In his ground-breaking work “Approach, Method and
Technique” Anthony suggested that an approach is the large system of ideas and thoughts
behind a teacher’s lesson plans. Method refers to specific ways to teach English, and each
method uses a variety of specific techniques.
Here is what Anthony actually said: “The arrangement is hierarchical. The organizational
key is that techniques carry out a method which is consistent with an approach….”
• “…An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language
teaching and learning. An approach is axiomatic. It describes the nature of the subject
matter to be taught….”
• “…Method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part
of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected approach. An approach
is axiomatic, a method is procedural…..Within one approach, there can be many
methods….”
• “A technique is implementational – that which actually takes place in a classroom. It is
a particular trick, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective.
Techniques must be consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an approach
as well.”(Anthony 1963:63-67)
In a review of Anthony’s ideas, two later thinkers – Jack C. Richards and Theodore
Rodgers– suggest a rethinking of this hierarchy. Anthony’s package can be improved,
they suggest, by eliminating the notion of technique from the pyramid, and adding design
and procedure. The following two categories replaced technique at the bottom of their
hierarchy.
• Design: The two thinkers propose that design is “that level in which objectives,
syllabus, and content are determined, and in which objectives, the roles of teachers,
learners and instructional materials are specified.”
• Procedure: The implementation phase of language classes is where the “rubber hits the
road”– the activities that help language learning occur. Rather than use the term
implementation, they prefer the “slightly more comprehensive term procedure.”
The two men sum up their revised model with the words: “…a method is theoretically
related to an approach, is organizationally determined by a design, and is practically
realized in a procedure.”(Richards and Rodgers 2001:24-30)

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 II. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES AND METHODS
The period from the 1970s through the 1980s witnessed a major paradigm shift in
language teaching. The quest for alternatives to grammar-based approaches and methods
led in several different directions. Mainstream language teaching embraced a growing
interest in communicative approaches to language teaching. The communicative
movement sought to move away the focus from grammar as the core component of
language, to a different view of language, of language learning, of teachers, and of
learners, one that focused on language as communication and on making the classroom
an environment for authentic communication. This “communicative movement” and
related approaches are discussed in Chapter III.
However, other directions for language teaching have also appeared during this period,
and these are the focus of this chapter. The alternative approaches and methods developed
outside of mainstream language teaching or represent an application in language teaching
of educational principles developed elsewhere. Rather than starting from a theory of
language and drawing on research and theory in applied linguistics, such innovative
methods as Total Physical Response, Silent Way, Suggestopedia and Multiple
Intelligences are developed around particular theories of learners and learning, sometimes
the theory of a single theorizer or educator. These methods are consequently relatively
underdeveloped in the domain of language theory. One exception is the Lexical
Approach, which is based on an alternative syllabus model to that found in grammar-
based methodologies, one that gives priority to vocabulary and lexical phrases.
Alternative approaches and methods of the 1970s and 1980s have had a somewhat varied
history. Although TPR, Suggestopedia and Silent Way did not succeed in attracting the
support of mainstream language teaching, each can be seen as stressing important
dimensions of the teaching-learning process. They have offered particular insights and
have attracted the interest and allegiance of some teachers and educators. The fate of
others, such as the Lexical Approach and Multiple Intelligences has yet to be fully
determined. Competency-Based Instruction has a different status, since it is used as the
framework for the design of national curricula in English as well as other subjects in
some countries.

1. TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE

Total physical response is a method developed by Dr. James J. Asher, a professor

emeritus of psychology at San José State University, to aid learning second languages.
The method relies on the assumption that when learning a second or additional language,
language is internalized through a process of code breaking similar to first language
development and that the process allows for a long period of listening and developing
comprehension prior to production. Students respond to commands that require physical
movement. TPR is primarily intended for ESL/EAL teachers although the method is used

14
in teaching other languages as well. The method became popular in the 1970s and
attracted the attention or allegiance of some teachers, but it has not received generalized
support from mainstream educators.

Dr. Asher has demonstrated how to apply TPR for best results at more than 500
elementary, secondary schools and universities around the world, including a 1983
lecture tour in Japan . He is the recipient of many awards for excellence in teaching and
research. He is an emeritus professor of psychology and former associate dean at San
Jose State University in San Jose, California.

Way back in 1965, he demonstrated a powerful linguistic tool in a pioneer experiment

using the Japanese language with his research associate, Dr. Shirou Kunihira. That tool is
the Total Physical Response, now known worldwide as simply, TPR. Since that time,
scores of language classes using TPR in countries around the world have enjoyed
successful results for students acquiring European, Asian, Indian and Semitic languages.
TPR research opened up the concept that for children and adults acquiring another
language in school, success can be assured if comprehension is developed before
speaking. One important reason, Asher states: everywhere on earth in all languages
throughout history, there is no instance of infants acquiring speaking before
comprehension. Comprehension always comes first with speaking following perhaps a
year later.
A second reason is that talking and comprehension are located in different parts of the
brain. Talking comes from Broca’s area located in the frontal lobe of the left brain. If
there is damage in Broca’s area, one may understand what people are saying but the
person is unable to speak.
Understanding or comprehension takes place in Wernicke’s area located in the temporal
lobe. If there is damage to Wernicke’s area, one can speak but has difficulty
understanding what others are saying.
When the instructor in traditional classes asks students to “Listen and repeat after me!”
this may be brain overload because both the frontal lobe and the temporal lobe in the
brain light up at the same time resulting in slow-motion learning with short-term
retention. (Noted educator, Leslie Hart, calls “brain overload” a type of brain antagonistic
instruction.) (Asher 1965, TPR World:1-2).
Unfortunately, translation does not help either most students because there is no long-
term understanding. When students translate, there is short-term comprehension which is
erased the moment the student leaves the classroom, if not sooner. The problem with
translation is that the instructor has made an assertion, which the critical left-brain of the
student perceives as a “lie.”
TPR is a powerful alternative to translation because we create experiences in the
classroom that are “believable.” If we ask students to be silent, listen to a direction and do
exactly what the instructor does, we have created a “fact” which cannot be dismissed by
the critical side of the student’s brain.
Here is an example of how the student’s brain is processing information at lightning
speed: If “stand” does not mean to rise up from my chair, why did my body actually go
from sitting to standing when I heard the instructor say, “Stand”? If “walk” does not

15
mean to move forward, why did my body walk forward when the instructor said, “Walk”?
These strange utterances must be valid.
TPR creates facts, which make for long-term comprehension. At lightning velocity, the
student’s brain processes information like this: “I actually stood up when the instructor
uttered the alien direction: ‘Stand.’ It is a fact. It is true. It actually happened; therefore, I
can store this in long-term memory.” The result is TPR can achieve long-term retention in
a few trials, often in one- trial.
Once the students understand the language, you can then use this skill to move over into
Broca’s area of the left brain with traditional exercises in speaking, reading, and writing.
Then return to the right brain with more TPR to understand another sample. Then use that
understanding to switch to speaking, reading, and writing.
The first objective in any excellent language program is enabling students to be
comfortable and confident with the sounds, the grammatical patterns, and semantics of
the new language.
That can be accomplished with students of all ages including adults using concrete nouns,
adjectives, verbs, prepositions, and adverbs.
“Do not underestimate the power of the concrete in acquiring another language. Every
one of us did it with our native language. One can acquire true fluency at a concrete
level.”
Abstractions may follow later, not necessarily by direct instruction but in the context of
discourse. Traditional textbooks, in Asher’s opinion, are notorious for trying
unsuccessfully to force understanding of abstractions before students are ready.
When children acquire their first language, they become fluent native speakers at a
concrete level of discourse; then gradually acquire abstractions in context or by asking
direct questions such as: “Mother, what does ‘government’ mean?” Mother then explains
using simple language that the child understands.
“To break language apart into artificial categories such as phonology, vocabulary,
grammar and semantics is of keen interest to teachers, but of no concern to students”—
because in the process of achieving fluency with TPR, they internalize everything
simultaneously with no analysis, in the same way that children acquire their first
language. Analysis into artificial categories is fine to “polish” the target language for
advanced students who are already fluent, but not for beginners or even intermediate
students. Asher recommends, however, that five or ten minutes at the end of a session be
open to curious students who prefer to ask questions about pronunciation or grammar.
After ten to twenty hours of TPR instruction, role reversal is one way to make the
transition (students assume the role of instructor to direct you and other students).
Student-created skits, which they write and act out, are another way. Storytelling is a
third option along with traditional pattern drills, and dialogues.
Most studies converge on this conclusion: If you start a second language program before
puberty, children have a high probability of achieving a near-native or even native accent.
After puberty, students can still acquire another language but most all will have some
accent even if they live for fifty years in another country where the language is spoken.
There is another intriguing fact about the right side of the brain: The right brain can
process information coming in on parallel tracks while the left brain is limited to one
track. This has profound implications for acquiring other languages in school. If we use
the powerful tool of TPR for understanding on the right side of the brain, then it makes

16
sense to start students in elementary school with several languages, which the right brain
can easily handle without interference.
Asher considers that, if elementary school teachers apply TPR skillfully, students can
graduate from the 8th grade understanding with two, three, or four languages, which can
be further “polished” in high school bringing students to fluency. Remember, the earlier
we start internalizing other languages, the higher the chances of acquiring a near native or
even a native accent in each of those languages.(Asher 1965:3-6)

2. THE SILENT WAY

Although people did learn languages through the previously mentioned methods and
indeed some are still in use today, the idea that learning a language means forming a set
of habits was seriously challenged in the early 1960s. Cognitive psychologists and
transformational-generative linguists argued that language learning does not take place
through mimicry; since people can create utterances they have never heard before, they
therefore cannot learn a language simply by repeating what they hear spoken around
them. These psychologists and linguists argued that speakers form rules, which allow
them to understand and create new utterances. Thus, language must not be considered a
product of habit formation, but rather of rule formation. Accordingly, language
acquisition must be a procedure whereby people use their own thinking process, or
cognition, to discover the rules of the language they are acquiring.

The emphasis on human cognition led to the name “cognitive code” being applied to a
new general approach to language teaching. Rather than simply being responsive to
stimuli in the environment, learners are seen to be much more actively responsible for
their own learning, engaged in formulating hypotheses in order to discover the rules of
the target language. Their errors are inevitable and are signs to the teacher that the
students are actively testing their hypotheses. Student progress is accomplished little by
little, with a lot of imperfection expected in the beginning. All four skills (reading,
writing, speaking and listening) are worked on from the beginning, and meaning is
thought to be at least as important as form.

Although Caleb Gattegno’s Silent Way didn’t emerge from the cognitive code approach,
it shares certain principles with it. For example, one of the basic principles of the Silent
Way is that “teaching should be subordinated to learning”. This principle is in keeping
with the active role ascribed to the learner in the cognitive approach.
The teacher is a technician or engineer “Only the learner can do the learning,” but the
teacher, relying on what his students already know, can give help if necessary, focus the
students’ perceptions, “force their awareness, and provide exercises to insure their
facility” with language. The role of the students is to make use of what they know, to
free themselves of any obstacles that would interfere with giving their utmost attention to
the learning task, and to actively engage in exploring the language.

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As Gattegno says: ”The teacher works with the student; the student works with the
language.”(Gattegno quoted in Larsen-Freeman et al 1986:51)
Students begin their study of the language through its basic building blocks, its sounds.
These are introduced through a language specific sound-color chart. Relying on what
sounds students already know from their knowledge of their native language, teachers
lead them to associate the sounds of the target language with particular colors. Later,
these same colors are used to help students learn the spellings that correspond to the
sounds (through the colour-coded Fidel Charts) and how to read and pronounce words
properly (through the colour-coded word charts). The teacher sets up situations that focus
student attention on the structures of the language. The situations provide a vehicle for
students to perceive meaning. The situations sometimes call for the use of rods; with
minimal spoken cues, the students are guided to produce structures.
The techniques and materials used are the following: sound-color chart, teacher’s silence,
peer correction, rods, self-correction gestures, word chart, Fidel charts, structured
feedback, etc.

3. SUGGESTOPEDIA

The originator of this method was Georgi Lozanov, who believed as did Caleb Gattegno,
that language learning can occur at a much faster rate than what ordinarily transpires. The
reason for our inefficiency, Lozanov asserts, is that we set up psychological barriers to
learning: we fear that we will be unable to perform, that we will be limited in our ability
to learn, that we will fail. One result is that we do not use the full mental powers that we
have. According to Lozanov and others, we may be using only five to ten percent of our
mental capacity. In order to make better use of our mental reserves, the limitations we
think we have need to be “desuggested”(Larsen-Freeman et al.1986:72). Suggestopedia,
the application of the study of suggestion to pedagogy, has been developed to help
students eliminate the feeling that they cannot be successful and, thus, to help eliminate
them overcome the barriers to learning.

First of all learning is facilitated in a relaxed, comfortable environment. A student can

learn from what is present in the environment, even if his attention is not directed to it
(posters hanging on the wall). The teacher should speak reassuringly thus the student will
accept and retain information better,” desuggesting the students’ psychological barriers.
The more confident they will feel, the more they will learn. The teacher initiates
interaction with the whole group of students and with individuals right from the
beginning of a language course in various activities. A great deal of attention is given to
students’ feelings. One of the fundamental principles of this method is that if the students
are relaxed and confident, they will not need to try hard to learn the language, it will just
come naturally and easily. Direct and indirect positive suggestions are made to enhance
students’ self-confidence and to convince them that success is obtainable. Vocabulary is
emphasized. Claims about the success of the method often focus on the large number of
words that can be acquired. Grammar is dealt with explicitly but minimally. In fact, it is

18
believed that students will learn best if their conscious attention is focused, not on the
language forms, but on using the language. Speaking communicatively is emphasized.
Students also read the target language (dialogues) and write (compositions). Mother
tongue is used when necessary for understanding. Errors are not corrected immediately,
since the emphasis is on students communicating their intended meaning. When errors of
form do occur, the teacher uses the form correctly later in class. The techniques used with
this method are: classroom set up, peripheral learning, positive suggestion, visualization,
choose a new identity, role-play, first concert, second concert, primary activation,
secondary activation.

Suggestopedia classes are small and intensive, and focus on providing a very low-stress,
attractive environment (partly involving active and passive "seances" complete with
music and meditation) in which acquisition can occur. Some of the students' first
language is used at the beginning, but most in the target language. The role of the teacher
is very important in creating the right atmosphere and in acting out the dialogues that
form the core of the content. Suggestopedia seems to provide close to optimal input while
not giving too much emphasis to grammar.

4. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Multiple Intelligences refers to a learner-based philosophy that characterizes human

intelligence as having multiple dimensions that must be acknowledged and developed in
education. Traditional IQ tests are based only on logic and language, yet the brain has
other equally important types of intelligence. The MI movement is based on Howard
Gardner’s ideas according to which humans have different types of intelligences, but each
of us differ in the strength and combinations of intelligences. Gardner (1983) proposed a
natural view of human talents labelled “The Multiple Intelligences Model”, which is one
of a variety of learning styles that have been proposed in general education and have
subsequently been proposed to language education (see e.g., Christison 1998).

Gardner points out eight native intelligences:

1. Linguistic: the ability to use language in a creative way
2. Logical/mathematical: the ability to think rationally
3. Spatial: the ability to form mental models of the world
4. Musical: to have a good ear
5. Bodily/kinesthetic: having a well-coordinated body
6. Interpersonal: to be able to work well with people
7. Intrapersonal: to understand oneself and apply one’s talent well
8. Naturalistic: to understand and organize the patterns of nature
According to Gardner multiple intelligences can be well coordinated with activities in a
language class.
The following table presents it how:

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TAXONOMY OF LANGUAGE-LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR MULTIPLE
INTELLIGENCES

1.Linguistic Intelligence
lectures student speeches
small/large group discussions storytelling
books debates
worksheets journal keeping
word games memorizing
listening to tapes using word processors
publishing

2. Logical/Mathematical Intelligence
scientific demonstrations creating codes
logic problems and puzzles story problems
science thinking calculations
logical-sequential presentation of subject matter

3.Spatial Intelligence
charts, diagrams, maps visualization
videos, slides, movies photography
art and other pictures using mind maps
imaginative storytelling painting or collage
graphic organizers optical illusions
telescopes, microscopes students drawings
visual awareness activities

4. Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence
creative movement hands-on activities
Mother-may-I field trips
cooking and other “mess” activities mime
role play

5. Musical Intelligence
playing recorded music singing
playing live music group singing
music appreciation mood music
student-made instruments

6.Interpersonal Intelligence
cooperative groups conflict mediation
peer teaching board games
group brainstorming pair work

7. Intrapersonal Intelligence
independent student work reflective learning

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individualized learning journal keeping
options for homework interest centers
inventories and checklists self-esteem journals
personal journal keeping goal setting
self-teaching/programmed instruction
(Richards and Rodgers 2001:121)

Multiple Intelligences is an increasingly popular approach to characterizing the ways in

which learners are unique and to developing instruction to respond to their uniqueness. In
a low level class where students have to describe objects focus is put on “their linguistic
intelligence (for example, describe objects), logical intelligence ( for example,
determining which object is being described), visual/spatial intelligence(for example,
determining how to describe things), interpersonal intelligence (working in groups),
intrapersonal intelligence (reflecting on one’s own involvement in the lesson)”
(Christison1997 10 -12). The literature on MI provides a rich source of classroom ideas
regardless of one’s theoretical perspective and can help teachers think about instruction in
their classes in unique ways.

5. THE LEXICAL APPROACH

This approach starts from the belief that the building blocks of a language are not
grammar, functions, notions, or some other unit of planning and teaching but lexis, that is
words and word combinations. Lexical approaches in language teaching reflect a belief in
the centrality of the lexicon to language structure, second language learning, and
language use, and in particular to multiword lexical units or “chunks” that are learned and
used as single items.
Chomsky, the father of contemporary studies in syntax, has recently adopted a “lexicon-
is-prime” position in his “Minimalist Linguistic Theory”. The role of lexical units has
been stressed in both first and second language acquisition research. Several approaches
to language learning have been proposed that view vocabulary and lexical units as central
in learning and teaching. In Richards and Rodgers’ opinion these include “The Lexical
Syllabus”(Willis 1990), Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching (Nattinger and
DeCarrico 1992, and The Lexical Approach”(Lewis 1993).
All linguists agree that the learner must take on the role of “discourse analyst”, with the
discourse being either packaged data or data found via one of the text search computer
programs. Classroom procedures typically involve the use of activities that draw students’
attention to lexical collocations and seek to enhance their retention and use of
collocations. Woolard (2000) suggests that teachers should reexamine their course books
for collocations, adding exercises that focus explicitly on lexical phrases. They should
also develop activities that enable learners to discover collocations themselves, both in
the classroom and in the language they encounter outside the classroom.
Hill suggests that classroom procedures involve teaching individual collocations,
extending what students already know by adding knowledge of collocation restrictions to

21
known vocabulary and storing collocations through encouraging students to keep a
lexical notebook.
The status of lexis in language teaching has been considerably enhanced by developments
in lexical and linguistic theory, by work in corpus analysis, and by recognition of the role
of multiword units in language learning and communication. However, the lexical
approach still refers to only one component of communicative competence. Such
proposals lack the full characterization of an approach or method. It remains to be
convincingly demonstrated how a lexically based theory of language can be applied at the
levels of procedures and design in language teaching, suggesting that it is still an idea in
search of an approach and a methodology.

6. COMPETENCY-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING

Competency Based Education is an educational movement that focuses on the outcomes

or outputs of learning in the development of language programs. CBE addresses what the
learners are expected to do with the language, however they learned to do it.
Competency- Based Language Teaching is an application of the principles of CBE to
language teaching. Such an approach had been widely adopted by the end of the 1970s,
particularly as the basis for the design of work-related and survival oriented language
teaching programs for adults. It has recently re-emerged in some parts of the world, for
example in Australia, as a major approach to the planning of language programs.
CBLT is based on a functional and interactional perspective on the nature of language. It
seeks to teach language in relation to the social context in which it is used. Language
always occurs as a medium of interaction and communication between people for the
achievement of specific goals and purposes.
Designers of CBLT competencies can accurately predict the vocabulary and structures
likely to be encountered in those particular situations that are central to the life of the
learner and can state these in ways that can be used to organize teaching/learning units.
Central to both language and learning theory is the view that language can be functionally
analyzed into appropriate parts and subparts. CBLT is also built around the notion of
communicative competence and seeks to develop functional communication skills in
learners. These skills are generally described in only the most general terms, however,
rather than being linked to the performance of specific real-world tasks. CBLT thus
shares some features with Communicative Language Teaching.
Competencies consist of a description of the essential skills, knowledge, attitudes, and
behaviours required for effective performance of a real-world task or activity. These
activities may be related to any domain of life, though have typically been linked to the
field of work and to social survival in a new environment. For example, areas for which
competencies have been developed in a vocationally oriented ESL curriculum for
immigrants and refugees include:
Task Performance
Safety
General Word-Related

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Work Schedules, Time Sheets, Paychecks
Social Language
Job Application
Job Interview
Although CBLT has been embraced with enthusiasm by large sections of the ESL
profession, it is not without its critics. These criticisms are both practical and
philosophical suggesting that there are in fact no valid procedures available to develop
competency lists for most programs.

III. COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHES AND METHODS

1. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

The ever-growing need for good communication skills in

English has created a huge demand for English teaching around the world. Millions of
people today want to improve their command of English or to ensure that their children
achieve a good command of English. Opportunities to learn English are provided in many
different ways such as through formal instruction, travel, study abroad, as well as through
the media and the internet. The world-wide demand for English has created an enormous
demand for quality language teaching and language teaching materials and resources.
Learners set themselves demanding goals. They want to be able to master English to a
high level of accuracy and fluency. Employers too insist that their employees have good
English language skills, and fluency in English is a pre-requisite for success and
advancement in many fields of employment in today’s world. The demand for an
appropriate teaching methodology is therefore as strong as ever.
Perhaps the majority of language teachers today, when asked to identify the methodology
applied in their classrooms, identify “communicative” as the language of their choice.
However, when giving details about what they mean “communicative”, their answers
vary widely.
Communicative language teaching or CLT has its roots in the idea that the goal of
language learning is to become good at using language for communication. That simple
notion is surprisingly profound.
Although languages have been taught around the world for many centuries, this
seemingly obvious idea is fairly recent. Beginning in the 1960s, British applied linguists
developed the communicative approach as a reaction away from grammar-based
approaches such as the aural-oral (audio-lingual) approach. CLT didn’t take the teaching

23
world by storm for another 20 years, however. CLT sets as its goals the teaching of
communicative competence.

1.1. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Communicative language teaching enables learners to acquire a language by focusing on

the development of communicative competence. To do this, communicative language
teachers use materials that focus on the language needed to express and understand
different kinds of functions. (Examples include asking for things, describing people,
expressing likes and dislikes and telling time.)
CL teachers also emphasize the processes of communication – for example, using
language appropriately in different types of social situations. They encourage students to
use their second language to perform different kinds of tasks, like solving puzzles and
getting information. They also stress using language to interact with other people. The
following Venn diagram helps explain.

The theory behind CLT suggests that

we learn language by using it. However, we use language in four different ways, which
we can think of as competencies. The best way to develop communicative competence is
for learners to strengthen these areas of competence. In the diagram, the learner’s
discourse, grammatical, sociolinguistic and strategic competencies overlap in areas high
in communicative competence.

• Discourse competence refers to the learner’s ability to use the new language in spoken
and written discourse, how well a person can combine grammatical forms and meanings
to find different ways to speak or write. How well does the student combine the
language’s elements to speak or write in English? Teachers often call this ability the
student’s fluency.

24
• Grammatical competence refers to the ability to use the language correctly, how well a
person has learned features and rules of the language. This includes vocabulary,
pronunciation, and sentence formation. How well does the learner understand the
grammar of English? Teachers call this accuracy in language use.
Fluency and accuracy are traditional measures of effective language learning. The other
two competencies are less obvious.

• Sociolinguistic competence refers to the learner’s ability to use language correctly in

specific social situations – for example, using proper language forms at a job interview.
Socio-linguistic competence is based upon such factors as the status of those speaking to
each other, the purpose of the interaction, and the expectations of the players. How
socially acceptable is the person’s use of English in different settings? This competency is
about appropriacy in using language.

• Strategic competence refers to strategies for effective communication when the

learner’s vocabulary proves inadequate for the job, and his or her command of useful
learning strategies. Strategic competence is how well the person uses both verbal forms
and non-verbal communication to compensate for lack of knowledge in the other three
competencies. Can the learner find ways to compensate for areas of weakness? If so, the
learner has communicative efficacy.

CLT has its critics. For example, an early critic of the approach, Michael Swann, pooh-
poohed the approach brilliantly in a pair of academic essays. His critique seems to be
aimed at early dogmatic, almost evangelical, writings on CLT. In the early days many
true believers seem to have failed to appreciate that non-CLT language teaching can also
be effective.
The non-dogmatic approach I advocate seems less open to criticism, since it happily
accepts methods and techniques from other approaches, as long as they work. One of
Swann’s criticisms, however, still rankles. He said, “language learners already know, in
general, how to negotiate meaning. They have been doing it all their lives. What they do
not know is what words are used to do it in a foreign language. They need lexical items,
not skills….” (Swann 1985,2-3). Many CL teachers believe vocabulary acquisition is the
most important part of language learning, and that the most important lexical items to
learn are verbs.

1.2. THE HEART OF LANGUAGE

The rest of language learning can be illustrated in a parallel diagram, shown below. This
model applies to all languages, regardless of the method or approach the teacher uses, and
it is relevant irrespective of your approach to language teaching.

25
 In the heart of this diagram lie the three
components of language: phonology, lexis and structure. Together, they comprise the
content of language.
Around the periphery of the graphic are the four language skills. These are speaking and
writing, the productive or active skills; and listening and reading, the receptive or passive
skills.

1.3. LANGUAGE CONTENT

Let’s begin with language content.

• Phonology refers to new features of the sound system of the language. For example,
focusing on the difference between the words “rip” and “lip” is a phonological exercise.
A more common way to teach phonology is simply to have students repeat vocabulary
using proper stress and pronunciation.
• Structure refers to the rules we use to make correct sentences. For most purposes, we
can think of structure as being the same as grammar. When we teach language structure,
we almost always introduce these as examples or model sentences, and they are often
called “patterns”.
• Lexis is about words. When we say we are introducing a new “lexical item” in a lesson,
we usually mean a new bit of vocabulary. It is sometimes difficult to decide whether an
item is structural or lexical. For example, when we study phrasal verbs like “chop down”
or “stand up” in a class, we can address the topic lexically or structurally.

Every language, including sign language, has these components. Lexical, structural and
phonological content lie at the heart of the language. But to make the language come
alive requires the behaviours related to listening, speaking, reading and writing.

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1.4. LANGUAGE BEHAVIOUR

In language teaching, the term “language skills” refers to the mode or manner in which
language is used. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are generally called the four
language skills.
Speaking and writing are sometimes called the active or productive skills, while reading
and listening are called the passive or receptive skills. It is possible to consider thinking
in the second language as another highly desirable ability. Some call it the fifth skill.
What defines CLT is its focus on the need to develop communicative competence. Like
all language teaching systems, however, it can only be judged by its ability to help
learners practice using the content of language – phonology, lexis and structure. And that
content can only be practiced through the behaviours known as listening and speaking,
reading and writing.
In Western countries, at least, communicative language teaching is the generally accepted
norm in the field of second language teaching. It is state-of-the-art.
CLT is based on theories about language acquisition, especially those developed by
Stephen Krashen. At the considerable risk of oversimplification, here is a nutshell
perspective on the fit between theory and practice. Krashen suggests that learners acquire
language through using it for communication. Since most learners study language to use
it for communication, this discovery represents a tidy fit between what works and what
learners want. Krashen’s natural approach will be analysed in detail in the next
subchapter.
The teacher’s job is to help his students develop communicative skills by experimenting
with the second language in class and beyond. In the classroom, the CL teacher creates
activities which simulate communication in real-world situations. His activities
emphasize learning to communicate through interaction in the target language, and
generally use a mix of the four language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing.
These activities enable his learners to internalize and activate their second or foreign
language.
The communicative language teacher uses authentic materials and exercises in the
classroom, since this enables his students to more easily take their language learning into
the real world. The teacher provides opportunities for learners not only to activate the
second language, but also to better understand the learning process. He might do this, for
example, by helping his learners develop strategies that will speed up the learning
process.
In a well-designed lesson, his efforts work together to improve his students’
communicative competence. He has a clear sense of the thinking behind the
communicative approach, and the planning cycle enables him to integrate design and
procedure into a master class.
Traditional language syllabus usually specified the vocabulary students needed to learn
and the grammatical items they should master, normally graded across levels from
beginner to advanced levels. What would a communicative syllabus look like? Several
new syllabus types were proposed by advocates of CLT. But what they all agreed on was
a skills-based syllabus focusing on the four skills of reading , writing , listening and
speaking, at the same time breaking each skill down into its component micro skills.

27
In recent years language learning has been viewed from a very different perspective. It is
seen as resulting from processes of the following kind:
- Interaction between the learner and the 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 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

With CLT began a movement away from traditional lesson formats where the focus was
on mastery of different grammar items and practice through controlled activities such as
memorization of dialogues and drills, toward the use of pair work activities, role plays,
group work activities and project work.

2. THE NATURAL APPROACH

In 1977 Tracy Terrell, a teacher of Spanish, outlined a proposal for a new philosophy of
language teaching called “The Natural Approach”. This was an attempt to develop a
language teaching proposal that incorporated the “naturalistic” principles researchers had
identified in studies of second language acquisition. At the same time he joined forces
with Stephen Krashen, an applied linguist, in elaborating a theoretical rationale for the
Natural Approach, drawing on Krashen’s influential theory of second language
acquisition. Krashen and Terrell’s combined statement of the principles and practices of
the Natural Approach appeared in their book “The Natural Approach“ published in 1983.
They see communication as the primary function of language, and since their approach
focuses on teaching communicative abilities, they refer to the Natural Approach as an
example of a communicative approach. Language is viewed as a vehicle for
communicating meanings and messages.

"Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules,
and does not require tedious drill. Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the
target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the
form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding..
The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety
situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not
force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they
are 'ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and
comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production. In the real world,

28
conversations with sympathetic native speakers who are willing to help the acquirer
understand are very helpful." Stephen Krashen. (1994, 47)

Stephen Krashen, (University of Southern California), the follower of Asher’s theory is

an expert in the field of linguistics, specializing in theories of language acquisition and
development. Much of his recent research has involved the study of non-English and
bilingual language acquisition. During the past 20 years, he has published well over 100
books and articles and has been invited to deliver over 300 lectures at universities
throughout the United States and Canada. Krashen's widely known and well accepted
theory of second language acquisition has had a large impact in all areas of second
language research and teaching since the 1980s.

Krashen's “Theory of Second Language Acquisition” consists of five main hypotheses:

 the Acquisition-Learning hypothesis

 the Monitor hypothesis
 the Natural Order hypothesis
 the Input hypothesis
 and the Affective Filter hypothesis

A quote that captures the essence of the book:

"What theory implies, quite simply, is that language acquisition, first or second, occurs
when comprehension of real messages occurs, and when the acquirer is not 'on the
defensive'... Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious
grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill. It does not occur overnight,
however. Real language acquisition develops slowly, and speaking skills emerge
significantly later than listening skills, even when conditions are perfect. The best
methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations,
containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early
production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready',
recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible
input, and not from forcing and correcting production." (Krashen 1982,16)

In deciding how to develop language teaching methods and materials, one can take three
approaches: make use of second language acquisition theory, make use of applied
linguistics research, and make use of ideas and intuition from experience. These
approaches should in fact support each other and lead to common conclusions. This book
incorporates all three approaches, with a hope of reintroducing theory to language
teachers.

2.1. THE ACQUISITION-LEARNING DISCTINCTION

Adults have two different ways to develop competence in a language: language

acquisition and language learning. Language acquisition is a subconscious process not
unlike the way a child learns language. Language acquirers are not consciously aware of

29
the grammatical rules of the language, but rather develop a "feel" for correctness. "In
non-technical language, acquisition is 'picking-up' a language. "Language learning, on the
other hand, refers to the "conscious knowledge of a second language, knowing the rules,
being aware of them, and being able to talk about them."(Krashen 1987, 10-12) Thus
language learning can be compared to learning about a language. The acquisition-
learning distinction hypothesis claims that adults do not lose the ability to acquire
languages the way that children do. Just as research shows that error correction has little
effect on children learning a first language, so too much error correction has little affect
on language acquisition.

2.2. THE NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS

The Natural Order hypothesis is based on research findings (Dulay & Burt, 1974);
Fathman, (1975); Makino, (1980) cited in Krashen, (1987, 12-14) which suggested that
the acquisition of grammatical structures follows a 'natural order' which is predictable.
For a given language, some grammatical structures tend to be acquired early while others
late. This order seemed to be independent of the learners' age, L1 background, conditions
of exposure, and although the agreement between individual acquirers was not always
100% in the studies, there were statistically significant similarities that reinforced the
existence of a natural order of language acquisition. The natural order hypothesis states
that "the acquisition of grammatical structures proceeds in a predictable order." For a
given language, some grammatical structures tend to be acquired early, others late,
regardless of the first language of a speaker. However, this does not mean that grammar
should be taught in this natural order of acquisition.

2.3. THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS

The language that one has subconsciously acquired "initiates our utterances in a second
language and is responsible for our fluency," whereas the language that we have
consciously learned acts as an editor in situations where the learner has enough time to
edit, is focused on form, and knows the rule, such as on a grammar test in a language
classroom or when carefully writing a composition. This conscious editor is called the
Monitor. Different individuals use their monitors in different ways, with different degrees
of success. Monitor Over-users try to always use their Monitor, and end up "so concerned
with correctness that they cannot speak with any real fluency." Monitor Under-users
either have not consciously learned or choose to not use their conscious knowledge of the
language. Although error correction by others has little influence on them, they can often
correct themselves based on a "feel" for correctness. Teachers should aim to produce
Optimal Monitor users, who "use the Monitor when it is appropriate and when it does not
interfere with communication." They do not use their conscious knowledge of grammar
in normal conversation, but will use it in writing and planned speech. "Optimal Monitor
users can therefore use their learned competence as a supplement to their acquired
competence."(Krashen 1987,14-19)

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2.4. THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS

The input hypothesis answers the question of how a language acquirer develops
competency over time. It states that a language acquirer who is at "level i" must receive
comprehensible input that is at "level i+1." "We acquire, in other words, only when we
understand language that contains structure that is 'a little beyond' where we are now."
This understanding is possible due to using the context of the language we are hearing or
reading and our knowledge of the world. However, instead of aiming to receive input that
is exactly at our i+1 level, or instead of having a teacher aim to teach us grammatical
structure that is at our i+1 level, we should instead just focus on communication that is
understandable. If we do this, and if we get enough of that kind of input, then we will in
effect be receiving and thus acquiring out i+1. "Production ability emerges. It is not
taught directly." Evidences for the input hypothesis can be found in the effectiveness of
caretaker speech from an adult to a child, of teacher-talk from a teacher to a language
student, and of foreigner-talk from a sympathetic conversation partner to a language
learner/acquirer.
One result of this hypothesis is that language students should be given an initial "silent
period" where they are building up acquired competence in a language before they begin
to produce it. Whenever language acquirers try to produce language beyond what they
have acquired, they tend to use the rules they have already acquired from their first
language, thus allowing them to communicate but not really progress in the second
language.(Krashen 1987, 20-30)

2.5. THE AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS

Finally, the fifth hypothesis embodies Krashen's view that a number of 'affective
variables' play a facilitative, but non-causal, role in second language acquisition. These
variables include: motivation, self-confidence and anxiety. Krashen claims that learners
with high motivation, self-confidence, a good self-image, and a low level of anxiety are
better equipped for success in second language acquisition. Low motivation, low self-
esteem, and debilitating anxiety can combine to 'raise' the affective filter and form a
'mental block' that prevents comprehensible input from being used for acquisition. In
other words, when the filter is 'up' it impedes language acquisition. On the other hand,
positive affect is necessary, but not sufficient on its own, for acquisition. Motivation, self-
confidence, and anxiety all affect language acquisition, in effect raising or lowering the
"stickiness" or "penetration" of any comprehensible input that is received. These five
hypotheses of second language acquisition can be summarized: "1. Acquisition is more
important than learning. 2. In order to acquire, two conditions are necessary. The first is
comprehensible (or even better, comprehended) input containing i+1, structures a bit
beyond the acquirer's current level, and second, a low or weak affective filter to allow the
input 'in'."(Krashen 1987, 30-33)

In view of these findings, a question is raised: does classroom language teaching help?
Krashen answers that classroom teaching helps when it provides the necessary
comprehensible input to those students who are not at a level yet which allows them to
receive comprehensible input from "the real world" or who do not have access to "real

31
world" language speakers. It can also help when it provides students communication tools
to make better use of the outside world, and it can provide beneficial conscious learning
for optimal Monitor users. Various research studies have been done comparing the
amount of language competence and the amount of exposure to the language either in
classroom-years or length of residence, the age of the language acquirer, and the
acculturation of the language acquirer. The results of these studies are consistent with the
above acquisition hypotheses: the more comprehensible input one receives in low-stress
situations, the more language competence that one will have. Once it is realized that
receiving comprehensible input is central to acquiring a second language, questions are
immediately raised concerning the nature and sources of this type of input and the role of
the second language classroom.

2.6. PROVIDING INPUT FOR ACQUISITION

“To what extent is the second language classroom beneficial?” asks Krashen. Classrooms
help when they provide the comprehensible input that the acquirer is going to receive. If
acquirers have access to real world input, and if their current ability allows them
understand at least some of it, then the classroom is not nearly as significant. An
informal, immersion environment has the opportunity to provide tons of input; however,
that input is not always comprehensible to a beginner, and often for an adult beginner the
classroom is better than the real world in providing comprehensible input. However, for
the intermediate level student and above, living and interacting in an environment in
which the language is spoken will likely prove to be better for the student, especially
considering the fact that a language classroom will not be able to reflect the broad range
of language use that the real world provides. The classroom's goal is to prepare students
to be able to understand the language used outside the classroom.

What role does speaking (output) play in second language acquisition? It has no direct
role, since language is acquired by comprehensible input, and in fact someone who is not
able to speak for physical reasons can still acquire the full ability to understand language.
However, speaking does indirectly help in two ways: 1) speaking produces conversation,
which produces comprehensible input, and 2) your speaking allows native speakers to
judge what level you are at and then adjust their speak downward to you, providing you
input that is more easily understood. What kind of input is optimal for acquisition? The
best input is comprehensible, which sometimes means that it needs to be slower and more
carefully articulated, using common vocabulary, less slang, and shorter sentences.
Optimal input is interesting and/or relevant and allows the acquirer to focus on the
meaning of the message and not on the form of the message. Optimal input is not
grammatically sequenced, and a grammatical syllabus should not be used in the language
classroom, in part because all students will not be at exactly the same level and because
each structure is often only introduced once before moving on to something else. Finally,
optimal input must focus on quantity, although most language teachers have to date
seriously underestimated how much comprehensible input is actually needed for an
acquirer to progress. In addition to receiving the right kind of input, students should have
their affective filter kept low, meaning that classroom stress should be minimized and
students "should not be put on the defensive." One result of this is that student's errors

32
should not be corrected. Students should be taught how to gain more input from the
outside world, including helping them acquire conversational competence, the means of
managing conversation. (Krashen,1987, 57-81)

2.7. THE ROLE OF GRAMMAR, OR PUTTING GRAMMAR IN ITS PLACE

"As should be apparent by now, the position taken in this book is that second language
teaching should focus on encouraging acquisition, on providing input that stimulates the
subconscious language acquisition potential all normal human beings have. This does not
mean to say, however, that there is no room at all for conscious learning. Conscious
learning does have a role, but it is no longer the lead actor in the play."
For starters, we must realize that learning does not turn into acquisition. While the idea
that we first learn a grammar rule and then use it so much that it becomes internalized is
common and may seem obvious to many, it is not supported by theory nor by the
observation of second language acquirers, who often correctly use "rules" they have
never been taught and don't even remember accurately the rules they have learned.
However, there is a place for grammar, or the conscious learning of the rules of a
language. Its major role is in the use of the Monitor, which allows Monitor users to
produce more correct output when they are given the right conditions to actually use their
Monitor, as in some planned speech and writing. However, for correct Monitor use the
users must know the rules they are applying, and these would need to be rules that are
easy to remember and apply--a very small subset of all of the grammatical rules of a
language. It is not worthwhile for language acquisition to teach difficult rules which are
hard to learn, harder to remember, and sometimes almost impossible to correctly apply.
For many years there was controversy in language-teaching literature on whether
grammar should be deductively or inductively taught. However, as both of these methods
involve language learning and not language acquisition, this issue should not be central
for language teaching practice. There has similarly been controversy as to whether or not
errors should be corrected in language learners' speech. Second language acquisition
theory suggests that errors in ordinary conversation and Monitor-free situations should
not be corrected, and that errors should only be corrected when they apply to easy to
apply and understand grammatical rules in situations where known Monitor-users are
able to use their Monitor. There is a second way in which the teaching of grammar in a
classroom can be helpful, and that is when the students are interested in learning about
the language they are acquiring. This language appreciation, or linguistics, however, will
only result in language acquisition when grammar is taught in the language that is being
acquired, and it is actually the comprehensible input that the students are receiving, not
the content of the lecture itself, that is aiding acquisition. "This is a subtle point. In effect,
both teachers and students are deceiving themselves. They believe that it is the subject
matter itself, the study of grammar, that is responsible for the students' progress in second
language acquisition, but in reality their progress is coming from the medium and not the
message. And subject matter that held their interest would do just as well, so far as
second language acquisition is concerned, as long as it required extensive use of the
target language." And perhaps many students would be more interested in a different
subject matter and would thus acquire more than they would in such a grammar-based
classroom. (Krashen 1987, 83-124).

33
What does applied linguistics research have to say about these methods? Applied research
has examined the older methods of grammar-translation, audio-lingual, and cognitive-
code much more than it has looked at the newer methods. There seems to be only small
differences in the results of the older methods. While much research remains to be done,
Total Physical Response and the other newer approaches "produce significantly better
results than old approaches."
So what is better, the classroom or the real world? "Quite simply, the role of the second or
foreign language classroom is to bring a student to a point where he can begin to use the
outside would for further second language acquisition.... This means we have to provide
students with enough comprehensible input to bring their second language competence to
the point where they can begin to understand language heard 'on the outside'.... In other
words, all second language classes are transitional." In the real world, conversations with
sympathetic native speakers who are willing to help the acquirer understand are very
helpful. These native speakers engage in what is called "foreigner talk," not very different
from the way that a parent would talk to a child. Voluntary pleasure reading is also
beneficial for second language acquisition, especially as the reader is free to choose
reading material that is of interest and the proper level in order to be understood. Taking
content classes in the language that is being acquired can also be helpful to the more
advanced learner, especially when the class is composed of students who are all acquiring
the second language.(Krashen,1987, 145-188).

3. COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING

This method advises teachers to consider their students as “whole persons”(Moskowitz

1978). Whole-person learning means that teachers consider not only their students’
feelings and intellect, but also have some understanding of the relationship among
students’ physical reactions, their instinctive protective reactions and their desire to learn.
The Community Language Learning Method takes its principle from the more general
Counseling-Learning approach developed by Charles A. Curran and his associates.
Curran studied adult learning for many years. He discovered that adults often feel
threatened by a new learning situation. They are threatened by the change inherent in
learning and by the fear they would appear foolish. Curran believed that a way to deal
with the fears of students is for teachers to become “language counselors”. A language
counselor does not mean someone trained in psychology; it means someone who is a
skillful understander of the struggle students face as they attempt to internalize another
language. The teacher who “can understand” can indicate his acceptance of the student.
By understanding students’ fears and being sensitive to them, he can help students
overcome their negative feelings and turn them into positive energy to further their
learning.(Curran 1976)
Teachers who use this method want their students to use the target language
communicatively. In addition, they want their students to learn about their own learning,
to take increasing responsibility in it. Both of these are to be accomplished in a non-
defensive manner. Non-defensive learning can result when teacher and learner treat each
other as a whole person, and do not separate each other’s intellect from his or her
feelings. The teacher’s initial role is that of a counselor. Initially the student is very
dependent on the teacher. He is a “client” of the counselor’s. It is recognized, however,

34
that as a learner continues to study, he becomes increasingly independent. Methodologists
have identified five stages in this movement from dependency to independency. During
Stage 4, roles switch. The student no longer needs the teacher’s encouragement and
absolute sense of security.
In a Stage 1 class students typically have a conversation in their native language. The
teacher helps them express what they want to say by giving them the target language
translation in chunks. These chunks are recorded, and when they are replayed, it sounds
like a fairly fluid conversation, and mother tongue equivalents are written beneath the
target language words. The transcription of the conversation becomes a “text”, with
which students work in various activities: pronunciation drills, grammar exercises,
creating new sentences, etc. During the course the students are invited to say how they
feel and the teacher understands them.
According to Curran there are six elements necessary for non-defensive learning. The
first is security. Next is aggression, by which Curran means that students should be given
the opportunity to express themselves, to get involved and invest themselves in the
process of learning. The third element is attention, students must directly focus on one
task at a time. The next is reflection, students reflecting on the target language. Retention
is the fifth, the integration of the new material that takes place within your whole self.
The last element is discrimination, sorting out the differences among target language
forms. As time goes by the teacher removes himself from the circle of learning,
encouraging students to interact with one another. According to Rardin (1977), this
method is teacher-student centered, with both being decision makers in the class.
Building a relationship with and among students is very important. In a trusting
relationship the threat that students feel is reduced, non-defensive learning is promoted.
Students can learn from their interaction with each other, as well as their interaction with
the teacher.
However, critics of CLL question the appropriateness of the counseling metaphor on
which it is built. Questions also arise whether teachers should attempt special training.
Other concerns have been regarding the lack of syllabus, which makes objectives unclear
and evaluation difficult to accomplish, and the focus on fluency rather than accuracy,
which may lead to inadequate control of the grammatical system of the target language.

4. COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING

Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) is part of a more general instructional approach

also known as Collaborative Learning (CL). Cooperative Learning is an approach to
teaching that makes maximum use of cooperative activities involving pairs and small
groups of learners in the classroom.
It has been defined as follows: “Cooperative learning is group learning activity organized
so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between
learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own
learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others” (Olsen and Kagan 1992: 8).
Cooperative Learning has antecedents in proposals for peer-tutoring and peer-monitoring
that go back hundreds of years and longer. The early twentieth century U.S. educator

35
John Dewey is usually credited with promoting the idea of building cooperation in
learning into regular classrooms on a regular and systematic basis (Rodgers 1988). It was
more generally promoted and developed in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s as a
response to the forced integration of public schools and has been substantially refined and
developed since then. Educators were concerned that traditional models of classroom
learning were teacher fronted, fostered competition rather than cooperation, and favored
majority students. They believed that minority students might fall behind higher-
achieving students in this kind of learning environment.
Cooperative Learning in this context sought to do the following:
–raise the achievement of all students, including those who are gifted or academically
handicapped
–help the teacher build positive relationships among students
–give students the experiences they need for healthy social, psychological, and cognitive
development
–replace the competitive organizational structure of most classrooms and schools with a
team-based, high-performance organizational structure (Johnson, et al. 1994). In second
language teaching, CL (where it is often referred to as Cooperative Language Learning–
CLL) has been embraced as a way of promoting communicative interaction in the
classroom and is seen as an extension of the principles of Communicative Language
Teaching. It is viewed as a learner-centered approach to teaching held to offer advantages
over teacher-fronted classroom methods.
In language teaching its goals are:
–to provide opportunities for naturalistic second language acquisition through the use of
interactive pair and group activities
–to provide teachers with a methodology to enable them to achieve this goal and one that
can be applied in a variety of curriculum settings (e.g., content-based, foreign language
classrooms; mainstreaming)
–to enable focused attention to particular lexical items, language structures, and
communicative functions through the use of interactive tasks
–to provide opportunities for learners to develop successful learning and communication
strategies
–to enhance learner motivation and reduce learner stress and to create a positive affective
classroom climate CLL is thus an approach that crosses both mainstream education and
second and foreign language teaching.

Cooperative Language Learning is founded on some basic premises about the

interactive/cooperative nature of language and language learning and builds on these
premises in several ways.
Premise 1 mirrors the title of a book on child language titled “Born to Talk” (Weeks
1979). The author holds (along with many others) that “all normal children growing up in
a normal environment learn to talk. We are born to talk ... we may think of ourselves as
having been programmed to talk ... communication is generally considered to be the
primary purpose of language” (Weeks 1979: 1).
Premise 2 is that most talk/speech is organized as conversation. “Human beings spend a
large part of their lives engaging in conversation.”(Richards and Schmidt 1983:117)

36
Premise 3 is that conversation operates according to a certain agreed-upon set of
cooperative rules.(Grice 1975)
Premise 4 is that one learns how these cooperative maxims are realized in one’s native
language through casual, everyday conversational interaction.
Premise 5 is that one learns how the maxims are realized in a second language through
participation in cooperatively structured interactional activities. This involves using a
progressive format or sequencing of strategies in the conversation class which carefully
prepares students, that systematically breaks down stereotypes of classroom procedure
and allows them to begin interacting democratically and independently.
Through this approach, students learn step-by-step, functional interaction techniques at
the same time the group spirit or trust is being built. (Christison and Bassano 1981: xvi).
Practices that attempt to organize second language learning according to these premises,
explicitly or implicitly, are jointly labeled Cooperative Language Learning. In its
applications, CLL is used to support both structural and functional models as well as
interactional models of language, since CLL activities may be used to focus on language
form as well as to practice particular language functions.
Cooperative learning advocates draw heavily on the theoretical work of developmental
psychologists Jean Piaget (e.g., 1965) and Lev Vygotsky (e.g., 1962), both of whom
stress the central role of social interaction in learning. As I have indicated, a central
premise of CLL is that learners develop communicative competence in a language by
conversing in socially or pedagogically structured situations. CLL advocates have
proposed certain interactive structures that are considered optimal for learning the
appropriate rules and practices in conversing in a new language. CLL also seeks to
develop learners’ critical thinking skills, which are seen as central to learning of any sort.
Some authors have even elevated critical thinking to the same level of focus as that of the
basic language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking (Kagan, 1992).
The word cooperative in Cooperative Learning emphasizes another important dimension
of CLL: It seeks to develop classrooms that foster cooperation rather than competition in
learning.
From the perspective of second language teaching, Mc Groarty (1989) offers six learning
advantages for ESL students in CLL classrooms:
1. increased frequency and variety of second language practice through different types of
interaction
2. possibility for development or use of language in ways that support cognitive
development and increased language skills
3. opportunities to integrate language with content-based instruction
4. opportunities to include a greater variety of curricular materials to stimulate language
as well as concept learning
5. freedom for teachers to master new professional skills, particularly those emphasizing
communication
6. opportunities for students to act as resources to each other, assuming a more active role
in their learning
The role of the teacher differs considerably from their role in a traditional classroom. The
teacher has to create a highly structured and well-organized learning environment in the
classroom, setting goals, planning and structuring tasks, establishing the physical
arrangement of the classroom, assigning students to groups, selecting materials and time.

37
The teacher is a facilitator of learning, they move around the class helping students as
needs arise.
CLL is not without its critics, however. Some have questioned its use with learners of
different proficiency levels, suggesting that some groups of students ( e.g., intermediate
and advanced learners) may obtain more benefits from it than others. In addition it places
considerable demand on teachers, who may have difficulty adapting to the new roles
required of them.

6. CONTENT-BASED TEACHING

Content-Based Teaching or CBT refers to an approach in which teaching is organized

around the content or information that students will acquire, rather than around a
linguistic or other type of syllabus. Krahnke offers the following definition:
“It is the teaching of content or information in the language being learned with little or
direct or explicit effort to teach the language itself separately from the content being
taught. (Krahnke,1987:65)
The term ‘content’ has become a popular one both within language teaching and in the
popular media. “New York Times” columnist and linguist pundit William Safire
addressed it in one of his columns in 1998 and noted:
“If any word in English language is hot, buzzworthy and finger snappingly with it,
surpassing even millennium in both general discourse and insiderese, that word is
content. Get used to it because we won’t soon get over it.”(New York Times, August 19,
1998, 15)
Although content is used with a variety of different meanings in language teaching, it
most frequently refers to the substance or subject matter that we learn or communicate
through language rather than the language used to convey it. Attempts to give priority to
meaning in language teaching are not new. Approaches encouraging demonstration,
imitation, miming, those recommending the use of objects, pictures and audio-visual
presentation, and proposals supporting translations , explanation and definition as aids to
understanding meaning have appeared at different times in the history of language
teaching. Brinton, Snow and Wesche (1989) propose that Saint Augustine was an early
proponent of Content-Based Teaching and quote his recommendations regarding focus on
meaningful content in language teaching.
Content-based approaches have been widely used in a variety of different settings since
the 1980s. From its earliest applications in ESP, EOP and immersion programs, it is now
widely used in K-12 programs, in university foreign language programs, and in business
and vocational courses in EFL settings. Its advocates claim that it leads to more
successful program outcomes than alternative language teaching approaches. As it offers
unlimited opportunities for teachers to match students’ interests and needs with
interesting and meaningful content, it offers many practical advantages for teachers and
course designers. Brinton et al., (1989:2) observe:
“In a content-based approach, the activities of the language class are specific to the
subject being taught, and are geared to stimulate students to think and learn through the
target language. Such an approach lends itself quite naturally to the integrated teaching of

38
the four traditional language skills. For example, it employs authentic reading materials
which require students not only to understand information but to interpret and evaluate it
as well. It provides a forum in which students can respond orally to reading and lecture
materials. It recognizes that academic writing follows from listening, and reading, and
thus requires students to synthesize facts and ideas from multiple sources as preparation
for writing. In this approach, students are exposed to study skills which prepare them for
a range of academic tasks they will encounter.”
Critics have noted that most language teachers have been trained to teach language as a
skill rather than to teach a content subject. Thus, language teachers may be insufficiently
grounded to teach subject matter in which they have not been trained. Team-teaching
proposals involving language teachers are often considered unwieldy and likely to reduce
the efficiency of both. However, because CBT is based on a set of broad principles that
can be applied in many different ways and is widely used as the basis for many different
kinds of successful language programs, we can expect to see CBT continue as one of the
leading curricular approaches in language teaching.

6. TASK – BASED INSTRUCTION

Task-Based Instruction refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of
planning and instruction in language teaching. Some of its proponents present it as a
logical development of Communicative Language Teaching since it draws on several
principles that formed part of the communicative language teaching movement from the
1980s. For example:
- Activities that involve real communication are essential to language teaching
- Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote
learning
- Language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process

Tasks are proposed as useful vehicles for applying these principles. Two early
applications of a task-based approach within a communicative framework for language
teaching were the Malaysian Communicational Syllabus (1975) and the Bangalore
Project (Beretta and Davies 1985), both of which were relatively short-lived.
The role of tasks have received further support from some researchers in second language
acquisition, who are interested in developing pedagogical applications of second
language acquisition theory.(e.g. Long and Crookes 1993).In their view language learning
is believed to depend on immersing students not merely in “comprehensible input”, but
also in tasks that require them to negotiate meaning and engage in naturalistic and
meaningful communication.

The key assumptions of task-based instruction are summarized by Feez (1998) in his
work on a task-based syllabus:
- The focus is on process rather than on product
- Basic elements are purposeful activities and tasks that emphasize communication
and meaning

39
 - Learners learn language by interacting communicatively and purposefully while
engaged in activities
- Activities and tasks can be:
those that learners might need to achieve in real life
those that have a pedagogical purpose specific for the classroom
- Activities and tasks of a task-based syllabus are sequenced according to difficulty
- The difficulty of a task depends on a range of factors including the previous
experience of the learner, the complexity of the task, the language required to
undertake the task, and the degree of support available.

Tasks are believed to foster processes of negotiation, modification, rephrasing, and

experimentation that are at the heart of second language learning. This view is part of a
more general focus on the critical importance of conversation in language acquisition.
(e.g. Sato 1988). TBLT proposes that the task is the pivot point for stimulation of input-
output practice, negotiation of meaning, and transactionally focused conversation. Tasks
should also improve learner motivation and therefore promote learning. Learners have to
use authentic language, they have well-defined dimensions and closure, they are varied in
format and operation, they typically include physical activity, they involve partnership
and collaboration, they may call on learners’ past experience, and they tolerate and
encourage a variety of communication styles.
Instructional materials play an important part in TBLT because it is dependent on a
sufficient supply of appropriate classroom tasks, some of which may require considerable
time, ingenuity and resources to develop. Materials that can be exploited are limited only
by the imagination of the task designer. A wide variety of realia, as popular media can
also be used as resource: newspapers, TV, Internet, etc.

Few would question the pedagogical value of employing tasks as a vehicle for promoting
communication and authentic language use in second language classrooms, and
depending on one’s definition of a task, tasks have long been part of the mainstream
repertoire of language teaching techniques for teachers of many different methodological
persuasions. However, many aspects of TBLT have yet to be justified, such as proposed
schemes for task types, task sequencing, and evaluation of task performance. And the
basic assumption of Task-Based Language Teaching- that it provides for a more effective
basis for language teaching than other language teaching approaches- remains in the
domain of ideology rather than fact.

40
 IV. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

For many years I have been teaching English as a foreign language teacher to different
age groups and at various levels of proficiency. Most of the activities presented have been
tried out in several forms, and the form described here is certainly not the final one.
Activities are invented by teachers, educators, or else, but we rarely know who exactly
invented them. Like games or folk songs they are handed on from teacher to teacher. It
has also happened that I have found activities described elsewhere which I thought I had
invented. I always try to find meaningful activities which should awaken students’
interest, and make them identify with the situation in which they are immersed.
Traditional textbook exercises – however necessary they may be for pre-communicative
grammar practice – do not as a rule forge a link between the learners and the foreign
language in such a way that the learners identify with it. Meaningful activities on a
personal level can be a step towards this identification, which improves performance and
generates interest. And, of course, talking about something which affects them personally
is eminently motivating for students.
Furthermore, learning a foreign language is not just a matter of memorizing a different set
of names for the things around us; it is also an educational experience. Since our
language is closely linked to our personality and culture, why not use the process of
acquiring a new language to gain further insights into our personality and culture? This
does not mean that students of a foreign language should submit to psychological
exercises or probing interviews, but simply that, for example, learning to talk about their
likes and dislikes may bring about a greater awareness of their values and aims in life.
Learning is more effective if the learners are involved in the process. The degree of
“learner activity”, among other things depends on the type of material they are working
on. The students’ curiosity can be aroused by texts or pictures containing discrepancies or
mistakes, or by missing or muddled information, and this curiosity leads to the wish to
find out, to put right or to complete. Learner activity in a more literal sense of the word
can also imply doing and making things; for example, producing a radio program forces
the students to read, write and talk in the foreign language as well as letting them “ play”
with CD players, sound effects and music. Setting up an opinion poll in the classroom is
also an ambitious vehicle for active learner participation; it makes students interview
each other, it literally gets them out of their seats and-this is very important-it culminates
in a group work, brainstorming and group puzzle.
Activities for practicing a foreign language have left the narrow path of purely structural
and lexical training and have expanded into the fields of values in education and
personality building. The impact of foreign language learning on the shaping of the
learner’s personality is slowly being recognized. That is why foreign language teaching –
just like many other subjects-plays an important part in education towards cooperation
and empathy. As teachers we would like our students to be sensitive towards the feelings
of others and share their worries and joy. A lot of teaching/learning situations, however,
never get beyond a rational and fact-oriented stage. Jigsaw tasks, in particular,
demonstrate to the learners that cooperation is necessary. Many of the following activities
focus on the participants’ personalities and help build an atmosphere of mutual
understanding.

41
1. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1.1 . WARMING-UP EXERCISES

When people have to work together in a group it is advisable that they get to know each
other a little at the beginning. Once they have talked to each other in an introductory
exercise they will be less reluctant to cooperate in further activities. One of the pre-
requisites of cooperation is to know the other people’s names. A second one is having
some idea of what individual members of the group are interested in. One important use
of warming-up exercises is with new classes at the beginning of the school year. If the
teacher joins in the activities and lets the class know something about herself, the
students are more likely to accept her as a person and not just as a teacher. A second
purpose of these activities is getting students into the right mood before starting on some
new task.

1.1.1. NAMES

Aims: Skills - speaking

Language - questions
Other - getting to know each other’s names
Level: Beginners
Preparation: As many small slips of paper as there are students
Time: 5-10 min

Procedure: Each student writes his full name on a piece of paper. All the papers are
collected and redistributed.
Everyone walks in the room asking questions to find the person. ”Are
you…? Is your name…?”
They introduce their partner to the group.

1.1.2. NAME CIRCLE

Aims: Skills - speaking

Language - statements (This is…., I’m…, That’s……)
Other - learning each other’s names, memory
Level Beginners
Groupings Class sitting in a circle (max 25)
Preparation: For variation 2: a toy animal
Time : 5-10 min

42
Procedure:
The teacher begins by giving her name. The student sitting to the left of the teacher
continues by pointing at the teacher and saying: ”This is Fred Smith, Mrs. Henderson…”
Variation: 1. Those students whose names have been forgotten have to stand up, when
their name is said correctly they can sit down
2. A toy animal can be used to relax the atmosphere handed from one
person to the other.
3. With more advanced students more complex statements can be used:
“The girl in the green pullover is Jane. The boy with glasses is Jim.”

1.1.3. THREE ADJECTIVES

Aims: Skills - speaking

Language - making conjectures, agreeing, disagreeing
Other - getting to know each other better
Level: Intermediate
Groupings Individuals, class
Preparation None
Time: 10-15 min

Procedure:
On a piece of paper each student writes down three adjectives which he feels describe
himself. Papers are collected.
The teacher reads out the papers. The group speculates who wrote them. It may be
advisable to revise suitable adjectives beforehand. The following adjectives should be
known after two or three years of learning English:
Active, alive, angry, awful, bad, beautiful, big, black, blond, blue, boring, brown, busy,
careful, cheap, clean, clever, cold, dangerous, dark, dead, deep, difficult, dirty, easy,
empty, exact, exciting, expensive, fair, famous, fantastic, far, fast, fat, fit, free, friendly,
funny, golden, good, great, green, grey, happy, hungry, ill, intelligent, interested,
interesting, international, jealous, late, left, little, lonely, loud, lucky, neat, new, noisy, old,
open, polite, pretty, quiet, ready, red, right, rude, short, special, strange, strong, sweet,
tall, terrible, thick, thirsty, tiny, unfair, warm, weak, wet, wild, wrong, young.

1.1.4. STEM SENTENCES

Aims: Skills - reading comprehension, writing, speaking

Language - basic grammatical structures, asking someone to do
something
Other - getting to know each other better
Level: Intermediate
Groupings: Individuals

43
Preparation: One handout for each student (see Chapter V)
Time: 15-20 min

Procedure: Each student fills out the handout.

Handouts are read loudly and they guess the writers.

1.1.5 CHOOSING PICTURES

Aims: Skills - speaking

Language - giving reasons, likes, dislikes
Other - fun
Level: Beginners/intermediate
Groupings: Individuals
Preparation: Collect about three times as many different pictures as there are
students
Time: 15-20 min

Procedure
All the pictures are put on a table. Each student chooses two: one of something he likes,
one of something he dislikes. They show the pictures to the class and explain why they
like or dislike them.

1.1.6. CLUSTERS

Aims: Skills - listening comprehension

Language - understanding
Other - cooperation, speed of reaction, relaxation
Level: Beginners/intermediate
Groupings: Class
Preparation: A list of commands for the teacher; a radio or CD for background
music
Time: 15-30 min

Procedure
The students walk around the room while the music is playing. As soon as the music is
switched off the teacher gives a command, e.g. ”Stand together in groups of five!” Those
who can’t join are out.
Possible commands: “Shake hands with as many people as possible”; “Form a group with
people of roughly the same height”; “Stand together in groups of four and agree on a

44
song you want to sing”; “Mime a scene with at least three other people”; Find people
whose birthday is in the same month as yours”.

1.1.7 GROUPINGS

Aims: Skills - listening or reading comprehension, speaking

Language - all elements
Level: Beginners/intermediate
Groupings: Class, groups
Preparation: See Chapter V
Time: 5-10 min

Procedure
1. Proverb matching
Each student receives half of a proverb card and has to find the student holding the other
half. Together they have to think of a story/situation which illustrates their proverb, so
that the others may guess the proverb.
1. Mini-dialogues (see Chapter V)
2. Word building
Six letter words are scrambled and three letters written on each card. The two partners
have to make up the word.
Ex. MMR SUE OMH TDE
3. Personality names matching:
Ex. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
ISAAC NEWTON
SHERLOCK HOLMES
4. Word matching:
Ex. BUTTER FLY
BIRTH DAY
ICE CREAM
5. Object matching
Ex. CAR LORRY BUS BICYCLE -means of transport
BOWL BASKET BOX BAG -containers
Other possibilities are: pets, furniture, drinks, clothes, buildings, flowers, etc.
6. Job and tools matching
Ex. DENTIST DRILL
GARDENER SPADE HOE
TEACHER CHALK TEXTBOOK
SECRETARY TYPEWRITER FILE
7. Families
Ex. MR.BAKER MRS.BAKER
JIM BAKER JANET BAKER

45
1.2. INTERVIEWS

We watch, read and listen to interviews every day. In the media the famous and not so
famous are interviewed on important issues and trivial subjects. For the advertising
industry and market research institutes, interviews are a necessity. The success of an
interview depends both on the skill of the interviewer, on her ability to ask the right
question, to insist and interpret, and on the willingness to talk on the part of the person
being interviewed.
In the foreign language classroom interviews are useful not only because they force
students to listen carefully but also because they are so versatile in their subject matter.
As soon as beginners know the first structures for questions (Can you sing an English
song? Have you got a car?) interviewing can begin. If everyone interviews his neighbour
all students are practicing the foreign language at the same time.

1.2.1 SELF - DIRECTED INTERVIEWS

Aims Skills - writing, speaking

Language - questions
Other - getting to know each other
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Time 10-30 min

Procedure
Each student writes down five to ten questions that he would like to be asked. The
general context of these questions can be left open, or the questions can be restricted to
areas such as personal likes and dislikes, opinions, information about one’s personal life,
etc.
The students choose partners, exchange question sheets and interview one another using
these questions.
It might be quite interesting to find out in a discussion with the whole class what kinds of
questions were asked and why they were chosen.

1.2.2 GROUP INTERVIEWS

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - asking for and giving information
Other - group interaction

46
Level Intermediate
Groupings Four to six students
Time 5-15 min

Procedure
In each group a volunteer is questioned by the whole group.
This activity is made more difficult and more interesting if the person interviewed is not
allowed to answer truthfully. After the questioning the students should discuss how much
these “lies” revealed and how the students felt during the questioning.

1.2.3 GUIDED INTERVIEWS

Aims Skills - all four skills

Language - all elements
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups or pairs
Preparation Handouts (see Chapter V)
Time 15-25 min

Procedure
Each group receives a handout of the answers and tries to work out the appropriate
questions.
Solutions are read out loud at the end.
Some examples of interview guiding worksheets are given in Chapter V.

Here are 12 answers given in an interview. Think of questions that fit the answers and
decide what the person who was interviewed is like.
1. Yes, I did.
2. This is quite true.
3. No. Gardening.
4. I can do either, but I prefer the first.
5. I can’t answer that question.
6. Frogs and snakes
7. New Zealand, Iceland or Malta.
8. As often as possible, but I’m not very good at it yet. I need to find someone to
practice with.
9. I don’t care which.
10. I wouldn’t be able to tell one from the other.
11. Never.
12. That was the nicest thing that ever happened to me.

Possible interview topics:

Smoking
Quality of life
Old and young under one roof

47
Single-parent families
Weather
Handicapped people
The best teacher I have ever had
Keeping fit
The right to die
Illness
Minorities
Changing jobs
Moving house
Letter-writing
Favourite films
Eating out
Clothes
Plans and ambitions
Pets
Saving things
Old and new things
Private and public transport
Wildlife protection
Hunger
Loneliness

1.3. GUESSING GAMES

Everybody knows guessing games. It is not only children who like guessing; adults like
guessing, too. The basic rule of guessing games is eminently simple: one person knows
something that another one wants to find out.

1.3.1 WHAT IS IT

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - questions, making associations, giving reasons
Level Intermediate
Groupings Class
Preparation A handout is given to each student
(see Chapter V)
Time 5-15 min

Procedure
The students guess what the drawing represents and write their answers down.

48
1.3.2 COFFEEPOTTING

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - questions, giving answers
Other - fun
Level Beginners/Intermediate
Groupings Two groups of different size (one group should have one third of
the total number of students, the other two thirds)
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
The groups sit down facing each other. The teacher shows the smaller group an activity
on a piece of paper (reading, skiing, etc).
The members of the bigger group have to guess the activity. In their questions they use
the substitute verb “to coffeepot”. For example: “Is coffeepotting fun in winter?” Each
person in the smaller group is questioned by two members from the other. As soon as one
member thinks he has found the answer, he whispers it to the teacher and if correct, he
joins the answering group.

1.3.3 WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - questions, explaining the use of an object
Other - fun, vocabulary building
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Preparation As many small containers as there are students; one little object
(safety-pin, stamp, rubber) in each
Time 10-30 min

Procedure
Each student works with a partner. One student from each pair fetches a box and looks
inside without letting his partner see what is in the box. The second student has to guess
the object.
If the students don’t know the names of the objects, a piece of paper with their name on it
should be also placed in the box.

49
1.3.4 LIE DETECTOR

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - asking questions, giving reasons
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups of six to seven students
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
The students are divided into groups. One member of each group leaves the room. In
their absence the groups decide on a set of five to eight questions they want to ask the
students. These can be either personal, or factual. They have to answer all questions
truthfully, except one. The rest of the group has to decide which was the lie.
The students who went outside now return to their group.

1.4. JIGSAW TASKS

Jigsaw tasks use the same basic principle as jigsaw puzzles with one exception. Whereas
the player doing a jigsaw puzzle has all the pieces he needs in front of him, the
participants in a jigsaw task have only one or a few pieces each. As in a puzzle the
individual parts, which may be sentences from a factual text, or parts of a picture or
comic strip, have to be fitted together to find the solution. In jigsaw tasks each participant
is equally important, because each holds part of the solution. That is why jigsaw tasks are
said to improve cooperation and mutual acceptance within the group. Participants have to
do a lot of talking before they are able to fit the pieces together in the right way. A
modified form of jigsaw tasks is found in “The same or different?” and “What are the
differences?” in which pictures have to be compared.
Jigsaw tasks practice two different areas of skill in the foreign language. Firstly, the
students have to understand the bits of information they are given (Listening or reading
comprehension) and describe them to the rest of the group. This makes them realize how
important pronunciation and intonation are in making yourself understood. Secondly, the
students have to organize the process of finding the solution; a lot of interactional
language is needed here. Because the language elements required by jigsaw tasks are not
available at beginners’ level, this type of activity is best used with intermediate and
advanced students.
Pair or group work is necessary for most jigsaw tasks.

50
1.4.1 THE SAME OR DIFFERENT

Aims Skills - speaking, listening comprehension

Language - exact description
Level Intermediate
Groupings Class, pairs

Procedure
Class divided into two halves, one copy of handout A for one part, handout B for the
other part; two circles of chairs, the inner circle facing outwards, the outer circle facing
inwards, the two circles facing each other.
Each handout contains 18 small drawings; some are the same in A and B, some are
different. By describing the two drawings, they have to decide if they are different of the
same. The student who has a cross next to the number of the drawing begins by
describing it to his partner. After discussing three drawings, all the students in the outer
circle move to the chair on their left and continue with a new partner.
When all the drawings have been discussed, the teacher tells the class the answers.
The materials can be varied in many ways. Instead of pictures, other things can be used,
e.g. synonymous and non-synonymous sentences, symbolic drawings, words and
drawings.

1.4.2 TWINS

Aims Skill - speaking, listening comprehension

Language

Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Time 5-10 min

Procedure
Each student works with a partner. One student receives handout A the other handout B.
They mustn’t let their partners see their sheets. They have to find out which is similar and
which is not.
If the teacher produces a number of cardboard folders which each contain a set of
instructions and picture sheets (A and B) in separate envelopes, all the students can work
on different tasks at the same time and exchange folders in order to work on more than
one set.

51
1.4.3 WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES?

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - exact description of a picture
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Preparation Handout A for half of students, handout B to the other half
Time 5- 10 min

Procedure
Each student works with a partner. One student receives a copy of the original picture, the
other a copy of the picture with minor alterations. By describing their pictures to one
another and asking questions they have to determine how many and what differences
there are between them.
When they think they have found all the differences, they compare pictures.

1.4.4 ORDERING

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - describing situations/actions shown in pictures,
making suggestions
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Preparation A comic strip (or picture story) of at least four pictures is cut up, and
the pictures pasted in random order on two pieces of paper, so that
each sheet contains half the pictures. Half the students receive one set
of pictures each, the other half the other.
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
The students work in pairs. Each partner has half the pictures from a comic strip. First,
each student describes his pictures. They do not show their pictures.
They decide on the content of the story and agree on a sequence for their total number of
pictures. Finally, both picture sheets are compared and the solution discussed.

1.4.5 TOWN PLAN

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - giving directions

Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Preparation One town plan in two versions giving different pieces of information
Time 10-15 min

52
Procedure
The students work in pairs. Each partner receives a copy of the town plan, version A for
the first student, version B for the second. The students ask each other for information
which is missing from their plan i.e. the names of some streets (A has to find London
Road, Aston Street, Rat Lane, Pen Street, Cocoa Lane, Station Square and Fair Fields; B
has to find Park Street, North Street, Nottingham Road, High Street, Milk Lane, Trent
Crescent, and River Drive. Then they write in eight other names of places, using the
spaces indicated by numbers 1 to 15. B does the same for his eight spaces, using numbers
16-30. The partners then have to find out which numbers refer to which places by asking
for directions, e.g. A: “Hoe do I get to the Chinese restaurant?” B: “You walk up Linklow
Hill and turn right into Ink Street. The restaurant is down the street to your left.

1.4.6 STRIP STORY

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - making suggestions, expressing one’s opinion,
Asking for confirmation
Level Intermediate
Groupings Class
Preparation A story with as many sentences as there are students. Each sentence
is written on a separate sheet of paper.
Time 15-30 min

Procedure
Each student receives a strip of paper with one sentence on it. He is asked not to show his
sentence to anybody else but to memorise it in two minutes. After two minutes all strips
are collected.
The teacher briefly explains the task: “All the sentences you have learned make up a
story. Work out the story without writing anything down.”
From now the teacher steps aside and refuses to give any help.
Variations:
A dialogue can be used instead of the text.

1.4.7 JIGSAW GUESSING

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - making suggestions
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups
Preparation One puzzle to each group, the solution to which makes a word
Time 5-15 min

53
Procedure
Each group receives a piece of paper with questions on it. The solution to each question is
a word.
All the students in the group try to make anew word out of the first letters of the
individual words they have found.
As soon as the group words have been formed, they are written on the blackboard. The
first letters of all the group words give the solution to the whole puzzle.
The puzzles in Chapter V are designed for seven groups of four students each.
The group solutions are: 1. YEAR (yawn, eat, accident, ride)
2. APPLE (afternoon, pear postman, like, elephant)
3. DESK (dear, eleven, song, knife)
4. INTO (Indian, name, tea, old)
5. LAMP (love, answer, moon, pen)
6. OVER (orange, valley, end, rich)
7. HAND (happy, Australia, new, difficult)
The first letters of the group words form HOLIDAY(read backwards from group 7 to 1).

1.4.8 PARTNER PUZZLE

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - describing the position of puzzle pieces
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Preparation As many copies of the picture as students (see Chapter V). Half
of the photocopies should be cut up as indicated and put in
separate envelopes
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
Each student works with a partner. One student in each pair receives the complete picture,
which he must not show to his partner; the other student gets the puzzle pieces. The first
student has to tell the second how to arrange the pieces; neither is allowed to see what the
other is doing.

1.5. QUESTIONING ACTIVITIES

As soon as students are able to produce yes/no and wh-questions most of these activities
can be used.

54
1.5.1 WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF?

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - if clauses, making conjectures, asking
for confirmation
Level Intermediate
Groupings Class
Preparation About twice as many slips of paper with an event/situation
written on them as there are students.
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
Every student receives one or two slips of paper with sentences like: “What would
happen if a shop gave away its goods free every Wednesday? What would you do if you
won a trip to a city of your choice?” One student starts by reading out his question and
then asks another student to answer it. The second student continues by answering or
asking a third student to answer the first student’s question. If he has answered the
question he may then read out his own question for somebody else to answer. The activity
is finished when all the questions have been read out and answered.

Preparation
The students can prepare their own questions. Some more suggestions:
What would happen
if everybody who told a lie turned green?
if people could get a driving license at 14?
if girls had to do military service?
if men were not allowed to become doctors or pilots?
if children over 10 were allowed to vote?
if gold was found in your area?
if a film was made in your school?
if headmasters had to be elected by teachers and students?

What would you do

if you were invited to the Queen’s garden party?
if a photo of yours won first prize at an exhibition?
if your little sister of 14 told you she was pregnant?
if you saw your teacher picking apples from your neighbour’s tree?
if it rained every day of your holiday?
if you got a love letter from somebody you did not know?
if you found a snake under your bed?
if you got lost on a walk in the woods?
if you were not able to remember numbers?
if you found a 100$ bill in a library book?
if you suddenly found out you could become invisible by eating spinach?
if a young man/woman came up to you, gave you a rose and said that you were the
loveliest person he had seen for a long time?

55
if you went to the restaurant and noticed you had forgotten your wallet at home?
if you could not sleep at night?

1.5.2 QUESTION GAME

Aims Skills - speaking, reading comprehension, listening

comprehension
Language - questions and answers
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups of six students
Preparation Two dice of different colours, a question board (see Chapter V), and
10(or 15) question cards (see Chapter V)for each group
Time 15-30 min

Procedure
Each group receives the dice, question board, and question cards. The question cards are
put in piles face down next to the numbers 1 to 5 on the question board. Each student in
the group is given a number from 1 to 6.
Taking turns, each student throws the dice. One die indicates the question to be asked(the
one on top of the pile),the other, the person who must answer the question. If the
“question-die” shows “6”, the person whose turn it is may ask a question of the student
whose number was thrown with the “student-die”. The exercise is finished when
everybody has answered every question.

1.5.3 FIND SOMEONE WHO

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - questions
Other - getting to know each other
Level Intermediate
Time 10-20 min
Groupings Individuals, class
Preparation Handout (see chapter V)

Procedure
Each student receives a handout. Everyone walks around the room and questions other
people about things on the handout. As soon as somebody finds another student who
answers “yes” to one of the questions, he writes his name in the space and goes on to
question someone else, because each name may only be used once. If a student overhears
somebody answering “yes” to another student he is not allowed to use that name. After a
given time (15 min.) or when someone finishes the handout the activity stops.
Students read out what they have found out. They can preface their report with :”I was
surprised that X liked…”, or “I never thought that Y liked…”.

56
1.5.4 SOMETHING ELSE

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - conditional
Other - thinking about oneself, getting to know each
other, imagination
Level Intermediate
Groupings Individuals or groups
Time 10-20 min

Procedure
The teacher presents the activity: “Suppose you were something else entirely, e.g. an
animal, or a musical instrument. Just think what you would like to be and why, when I
tell you the categories. Possible categories are: colours, day of the week, kinds of
weather, musical instruments, months, countries, cities, articles of clothing, songs, fruits,
flowers, kinds of literature, pieces of furniture, food, toys, etc.

Variations: It can also be played as a guessing game. Two students are asked to leave the
classroom while the rest of the class agree on a person to be guessed. When the two
students are called back in they ask questions such as: “What would the person be if he or
she were an animal? a colour? a building? a landscape? a piece of music? a flower? etc.
From the answers, characteristics of the person can be deduced and his or her identity
guessed. If the person to be guessed is present he can comment on the comparisons made,
e.g. “I was surprised, flattered, embarrassed etc”

1.5.5 QUESTION AND ANSWER CARDS

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - formulating questions
Other - learning something about English-speaking
countries
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Preparation One card per student
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
The students work in pairs. They question each other in turns about the things specified
on the card.
Variations
1. Each student receives a different card and has to find his partner before he can start
with the questions.

57
2. The students make up their own cards about subjects dealt with in the class. For this
they should use the second type of cards, where answers are not given.(see Chapter
V)

2. DISCUSSIONS AND DECISIONS

2.1. RANKING EXERCISES

These exercises require students to put a certain number of items from a given list into an
order of importance or preference. This rearrangement phase is usually followed by a
period of discussions, when students explain or defend their choices in pairs or small
groups.
Ranking exercises practise interactive language, for instance agreeing, comparing,
contradicting, disagreeing, giving reasons. As in some jigsaw tasks the students may
experience a difference of opinion and may be stimulated to discuss these differences.
Reluctant students can be made to discuss their lists in detail if they are asked to produce
an integrated list of rankings for their group.
A variety of procedures for using ranking exercises can be suggested. The first step
remains the same for all procedures: the students are made familiar with the task. Work
on a ranking exercise can be continued in one of the following ways:
- Each student works on his own and writes down his solutions. These lists are then
compared and discussed in pairs, in small groups or with the whole class.
- When each student has finished his list, the students sit down together in small groups
and try to agree on a common listing, which has to be presented and defended in a final
general discussion.
- Groups of increasing size (two members, then four, then eight) discuss the lists and aim
for an agreed list at each stage
- All students whose lists are similar work together in groups and try to find as many
arguments as possible for their ranking order. A final discussion with the class follows.

2.1.1 RANK ORDER

Aims Skills - reading comprehension, speaking

Language - expressing likes and dislikes, giving reasons,
expressing certainty and uncertainty
Other - thinking about one’s own value
Level Intermediate/advanced
Groupings Individuals (pairs and groups also possible)
Preparation Handout (see Chapter V)
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
Each student receives a handout. He fills it in according to the instructions, stating not
only his first choice, but also numbering all the choices in order of preference (10 min).

58
When all the items have been ranked students share their results with their neighbour or
with the whole class. Depending on the interests of the participants this step can lead to a
discussion by individual members of the class of what is considered important.
Variations
If the questions suggested in Chapter V are considered too personal, alternatives can
easily be found, e.g. pollution, social problems, political attitudes, etc.

2.1.2 QUALITIES

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - describing personal qualities, stating
preferences, asking for and giving reasons,
contradicting, comparative and superlative
Other - thinking about one’s own values
Level Intermediate
Groupings Individuals, groups, then the whole class
Time 10-20 min

Procedure
The teacher presents the group with the following list, either writing it on the board or on
the overhead projector, or distributing it on handouts:
reliability
being a good listener
strength
honesty
intelligence
generosity
caution
being funny
stubbornness
helpfulness
Each student should think about how important he considers each quality. He then
rearranges the list starting with the most important.
Then students sit in small groups and talk about their ranking. A group consensus should
be aimed at.
The whole class aims to find a ranking order for the qualities which everyone agrees.
Variations:
The same procedure can be followed for different lists, which have been adapted to group
interests and the age of students. suggestions : reasons for wanting/keeping a pet, things
to make a holiday worthwhile, qualities of a good parent, car, friends, politicians,
scientists, nurses, doctors, etc.

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2.1.3 DESERT ISLAND

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - giving and asking for reasons, making
suggestions, agreeing and disagreeing,
if-clauses
Level Beginners/Intermediate
Groupings Pairs, class
Time 10-20 min

Procedure
The teacher tells the class about the situation and sets the task:
“You are stranded on a desert island in the Pacific. All you have is the swim-suit and
sandals you are wearing. There is food and water on the island but nothing else. Here is a
list of things you may find useful. Choose the eight most useful items and rank them in
order of usefulness:
a box of matches
a magnifying glass
an axe
a bottle of whisky
an atlas
some metal knitting-needles
a transistor radio with batteries
a nylon tent
a camera and five rolls of film
ointment for cuts and burns
a saucepan
a knife and a fork
20 metres of nylon rope
a blanket
a watch
a towel
a pencil and paper
Work with a partner. You have eight minutes.”
The students present their solutions and defend their choices against the others’
arguments.

2.1.4 NASA GAME

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - giving and asking for reasons, expressing
certainty and uncertainty, making objections
Level Intermediate/advanced

60
Groupings Individuals, pairs
Preparation Handouts (see Chapter V)
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
Each student has to rank the 15 items on the handout. (Note that the moon has no
atmosphere, so it is impossible to make fire or transmit sound signals; the moon has no
magnetic poles)
Each student then compares his solutions with his neighbour and they try to arrive at a
common ranking.

2.1.5 PERSONALITIES

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - giving reasons, making comparison
Level Beginners
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
The teacher writes the following list on the board:
Mahatma Gandhi
Mao Tse Tung
William Shakespeare
Queen Elisabeth I
Karl Marx
Alfred Hitchcock
Margaret Thatcher
Mohammed Ali
Buffalo Bill
John Travolta
Ronald Reagan
Miss Piggy
Elvis Presley
Liv Ullmann
Johann Sebastian Bach
David Copperfield
Frank Sinatra
Naomi Campbell
Charles Dickens
Walt Disney
Winston Churchill
Fidel Castro
The students are asked to select the six personalities they would like to invite to their
classroom to give a talk. The papers are collected.

61
The activity can be continued by asking the students to write interview questions they
would like to ask the person of their choice.

2.1.6 JOB PRESTIGE

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - asking for and giving reasons, agreeing and
disagreeing
Level Intermediate/advanced
Groupings Pairs
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
The teacher outlines the task. ”You are going to be given a list of 14 jobs. You have to
rank them according to two criteria. First arrange them in the order in which these jobs
are regarded and paid in our society. Secondly make a list in which you show how
important you think each job should be.”
dentist
taxi driver
secretary
school teacher
policeman
lawyer
journalist
university professor
actor
nurse
shop-assistant
librarian
engineer
farmer
Students work in pairs. They should try to reach an agreement.
The results are presented to the class. The two lists are written on the board: the first is
probably similar in most cases; however the second may differ wildly and should
stimulate a discussion.

2.2. DISCUSSION GAMES

Not all the activities from this part are games in a narrow sense of the word; in some
cases they are game-like exercises that lead to discussions. Quite often the same exercise
can be used for discussion of serious questions as well as for playing with ideas and
language. The main intention of all these exercises is, of course, to get the students talk

62
and stimulate their interest and imagination. Nearly all of them demand a certain degree
of flexibility in the foreign language and are structured in such a way that everyone will
get a turn.
To get everybody involved in the discussion may be occasionally difficult. The teacher
can hand round (e.g. a knotted scarf or a paper weight) and agree on the rule that whoever
is holding the object has to contribute to the discussion.
Many of the discussion games may lead to oral and written follow-up activities. Essays,
their own advertisements, panel discussions can follow after the games.

2.2.1 WHAT IS BEING ADVERTISED?

Aims Skills - speaking, writing

Language - making conjectures, expressing
probability, giving reasons
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Preparation A number of different advertisements (cut out from magazines)
from which all names and pictures have been removed,
half as many as students.
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
Each pair of students receives one advertisement. The partners discuss what product it
could be for and why. One of each pair takes notes. After about 5 minutes the
advertisements are exchanged, and the pairs do the same.
Taking turns the students show their second advertisement to the rest of the class and
report their ideas about the product being advertised. The other two students who had this
ad first, say where they agree or disagree. When all the ads have been discussed the
teacher gives the solutions (by presenting the cut out parts).

2.2.2 MAD DISCUSSIONS

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - giving reasons, describing advantages
and disadvantages, contradicting
Level Intermediate
Groupings Teams
Preparation Pieces of paper with one word written on them
Time 20-30 min

63
Procedure
The class is divided into two teams. One student from each team comes forward. Each
chooses a piece of paper with a topic on it. He then has three minutes to argue with the
student from the other team about which is more important for mankind, e.g. Alsatians or
pizzas. Possible topics:
flowers, New York, operas, ships, birthday cards, passports, watches, modern art,
detective novels, schools, socks, zips, paper, the wheel, etc.

2.2.3 SECRET TOPIC

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - all elements
Level Advanced
Groupings Pairs, class
Time 10-20 min

Procedure
Two students agree on a topic they want to talk about without telling the others what it is.
The two students start discussing. The others listen. Anyone who thinks he knows what
they are talking about joins in their conversation. When about a third of the class have
joined in, the game is stopped.
Variations
Students who think they know the topic write it on a piece of paper and show it to the two
students before they are accepted.

2.2.4 WORD WIZARD

Aims Skills - speaking, writing

Language - individual words
Level Intermediate
Groupings Individuals, pairs
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
The teacher asks the class to imagine the following situation: “A wizard has taken away
all the words from the world. Everybody can keep just four words. Choose four words
which you would like to keep and write them down.”
Each student finds a partner and tries to communicate using only his four words. The
pairs share their words with each other so that now they both have eight words to use.
Each student shares his eight words with another to have 16 words. They try to write a
poem with these words.

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2.2.5 USES AND ABUSES

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - declarative sentences, -ing form
Level Intermediate
Groupings Teams
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
The teacher and the class prepare a list (of about 20 items), which are written up by the
secretaries of the two groups. List A contains people and animals, list B objects.
Example:
A B
teacher book
mother walking stick
shop-assistant plaster
baby 50 p coin
elephant pen
crocodile loaf of bread
soldier car
dustman cactus
farmer apple pie
old woman glass of beer
nurse safety pin
The two teams sit facing each other. The secretary stars by inserting one word from list A
and one from list B into one of the two sentence patterns:
What can a/an A do with a/an B?
Why does a/an A need a/an B?
The students in team 2 must quickly answer. Then their secretary makes up a new
question for team 1. The secretary crosses out the used words. The game is over when all
the words have been used.

2.2.6 SHRINKING STORY

Aims Skills - speaking, listening comprehension

Language - all elements
Level Intermediate
Groupings Class
Preparation Story (see chapter V) or picture
Time 20-30 min

65
Procedure
Five students are asked to leave the room. The rest of the class is read a story or played a
recording. They listen to the story twice, and after the second one they agree on a few
important points which a summary of the story should contain. These are written down
by everyone.
The first student is asked to come in and listens to the story once. The second student is
called in and hears the story from the first student while the class takes notes following
which of the important points have been mentioned. Student 2 tells it to student 3, 3 to 4
and 4 to 5. Student 5 tells it to the class.
Using their notes the students who were listening report the changes in the story.
Variations
Instead of telling a story, a picture could be drawn by the last student.

2.2.7 MAGIC SHOP

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - if-clauses, arguing, praising
Level Intermediate/advanced
Groupings Individuals
Preparation Slips of paper with positive human qualities three times as
many as students
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
Each student receives 3 slips of paper with positive human qualities. E.g. honesty,
intelligence, fairness, humour, beauty, curiosity, cheerfulness, optimism, perseverance,
politeness, hospitality, wisdom, thoughtfulness, friendliness, adaptability, charity, justice,
helpfulness, health, gentleness.
Each student decides which of the three he would like to keep and which to exchange
with others. Students then barter with different people.
After 10 min. student report on which qualities they received.

2.2.8 PINK VERSUS BROWN

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - contradicting, praising, giving reasons
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups, pairs
Time 15-25 min

66
Procedure
Students whose favourite colours are the same should work together. They describe to
each other why they like this particular colour better than any other.
Students leave their groups and pair up with someone from a different group. Each
partner argues for his colour and tries to convince the other of its qualities.

2.2.9 OPTIMISTS AND PESSIMISTS

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - expressing different points of view
Level Intermediate
Groupings Two teams
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
One student from team 1 (optimists) begins by giving a statement, e.g. “: It is good for
your health if you do some sports”. Then one student from the other group gives the other
point of view, e.g. “But sports like boxing or car racing are dangerous.” The pessimists
continue with a pessimistic statement, which the optimists have to react to.
After a few minutes of exchanging statements, the students are asked if they found it
difficult to adopt one point of view throughout. They could also mention those statements
which went against their personal viewpoint.

2.2.10 PEOPLE

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - past tense, present tense, describing
someone
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups of three to four students
Preparation Photos of different people (cut out from magazines or own)
Time 15-25 min

Procedure
Each group receives a photo and is asked to write a curriculum vitae for the person in the
picture. The students should mainly imagine the person’s interests and lifestyle. When
they have finished with the first picture, photos are exchanged between groups. Each
group works with 3 pictures.
The results of the group work are read out and discussed. Which lives were seen in a
similar way by the three groups? Which pictures were interpreted differently?

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2.2.11 DISCUSSION WHEEL

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - discussing
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups of six
Preparation One handout for each group (see Chapter V)
Three dice per group
Time 15-25 min

Procedure
Each group member is given a number from 1 to 6. The dice are thrown; two dice
indicate the students who start the discussion, the third die indicates the topic they have to
talk about. After a short while the other group members can join the discussion. Every
topic on the wheel should be discussed at least once. If the topic die shows 5, the two
students chose their own topic.
Variations
Instead of writing the topics on the wheel, they can be put on small cards and laid face
down on the wheel.

2.3 VALUES CLARIFICATION TECHNIQUES

The activities in this section are based on the principle of the “values clarification
approach” which originated in the USA. It is one of the assumptions of this approach that
school must help young people to become aware of their own values and to act according
to them. The psychologist Louis Raths distinguishes among three main stages in this
process: “Prizing one’s belief and behaviours,…choosing one’s beliefs and behaviours,…
acting on one’s beliefs (Simon et al 1972, p.19) Adults as well as young people may not
always be consciously aware of their beliefs and so learners of all ages may find these
activities interesting in helping them discover something about themselves. This can be a
very motivating experience, because the students feel they are communicating about
something really meaningful, as well as being taken seriously as people.

2.3.1. LIFESTYLE

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - giving reasons, likes and dislikes
Level Beginners/intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Preparation Students are asked beforehand to bring along 3 objects that
are important for them.
Time 10-15 min

68
Procedure
Students work with a partner. Each of them explains the use and importance of their three
objects. Both partners then talk about the similarities and differences of their choices.
Variation
Before the paired discussion starts, a kind of speculating or guessing game can be
conducted, where the three objects of a student whose identity is not revealed are shown,
and suggestions about their significance are made.

2.3.2 AIMS IN LIFE

Aims Skills - writing, speaking

Language - giving reasons, expressing
intentions and desires
Level Intermediate
Groupings Individuals, groups
Preparation A handout for each student (see Chapter V)
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
Each student fills in the handout by first choosing the area of his aims, i.e. travel or
family, etc, and then by making a few notes on what he wants to achieve within this area
in the time specified.
When everybody has filled in the handout with at least one aim for each of the three time
periods given, small groups are formed. The students discuss and defend their aims in the
groups.

2.3.3 TWENTY THINGS I’D LIKE TO DO

Aims Skills - writing, speaking

Language - expressing likes and dislikes
Level Intermediate
Groupings Individuals
Time 20-30 min

Procedure
The students are asked to write a list of 20 things they would like to do. These can be
ordinary activities like eating a lot of ice cream, or more exotic dreams like going on a
trip in a balloon. They should jot down anything that comes into their mind, writing the
activities one under the other. These lists remain private.
They code their lists by putting one or more of the following symbols in front of them:
£ if the activity is expensive

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WF if the activity involves other people (with friends)
A if they do it on their own (alone)
M or F if they think mother or father would enjoy it too
X if the activity is physically or mentally harmful (smoking)
Then the students should think about the distribution of these symbols on their lists and
continue the following stem sentences:
I have learned from this exercise that…………………………
I am surprised that…………………………………………….
I am pleased that ……………………………………………...
I am worried that………………………………………………
I don’t mind that………………………………………………
They are collected by the teacher and individual one are read out, provide they contain a
stimulus for discussion.

2.3.4 SPENDING MONEY

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - asking for and giving reasons
Level Intermediate
Groupings Individuals, groups
Time 10-25 min

Procedure
Each student writes down what he would spend a sum of money on, e.g. 1 $, 5$, 20$,
50$, 100$, 1000$, 5000$ and 100000$.
Students sit together in small groups and describe what they have decided to buy with a
particular sum of money and why they would like to make this purchase.
Variations
Students are given choices for each sum. E.g. For 5$ you could buy a cinema ticket, a
paperback novel, a pack of cards, a T-shirt, a CD, a Chinese meal, a pot plant, etc.

2.3.5 UNFINISHED SENTENCES

Aims Skills - speaking, reading comprehension

Language - expressing emotions and
thoughts, agreeing/disagreeing
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs (two teams of equal size)
Time 10-20 min

70
Procedure
The class is divided into two teams of equal size. The chairs are arranged in two circles,
one inside the other, facing each other. Each student receives a handout. The two students
facing each other continue the first on the handout and talk about their sentence. Then the
students in the outer circle all move one chair to the left and do the second sentence with
a new partner. They continue moving on after each sentence until all sentences have been
discussed.

2.3.6 I’D RATHER BE

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - asking for and giving reasons
Level Intermediate
Groupings Class
Preparation A list of word pairs (nouns, adjectives)
Time 5-15 min

Procedure
The teacher reads out pairs of “opposites” from her list and asks the students which ones
they would rather be. The students should also give a reason for their choices.
Possible word pairs:
soft - hard
glass - wood
water - fire
bitter - sweet
beauty - ugliness
hammer - nail
rose - cactus
square - round
cold - hot
sparrow - snail
hawk - mouse
chicken - egg
candle - neon light
sun - moon
village - city
lemon - potato
Variations
The same activity is possible with verbs: e.g. sell - buy
make - break
arrive – leave etc.

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2.3.7 IDEAL DAY

Aims Skills - writing, listening, reading

Language - all elements
Level Intermediate
Groupings Individuals
Time 20-30 min

Procedure
Students are asked to write a description of an ideal day. They can choose freely the
places they would like to be in, their activities and the company they would like to have.
Some students read out their work.
Variations:
Other topics to write about: my ideal house, an ideal holiday, an ideal friend.

2.4 THINKING STRATEGIES

In the last decade Edward de Bono has repeatedly asked that thinking should be taught in
schools. His main intention is to change our rigid way of thinking and make us learn to
think creatively. Some of the activities are taken from his thinking course for schools (de
Bono 1973).
The thinking strategies included here resemble in the fact that different ideas have to be
collected by the participants in the first stage. Then these ideas have to be ordered and
evaluated. It is obvious that there is ample opportunity to use the foreign language at both
stages. Apart from the speech acts of agreeing and disagreeing, suggesting, etc. these
exercises practice all forms of comparison and the conditional.

2.4.1 PMI

Aims Skills - speaking, writing

Language - conditional, comparatives,
suggestions
Level Intermediate
Groupings Individuals, pairs, class
Time 10-20 min

72
Procedure
The students have to think of the plus points (P), minus points (M), and interesting points
(I)of an idea. The teacher gives the class an idea and then everybody works on their own
for a few minutes. Possible ideas:
A new law is passed that forbids smoking in public places.
Every family is only allowed to have meat once a week.
People should wear badges to show what mood they are in.
To save energy public buildings like post offices, stations, schools and offices are no
longer heated.
A scientist discovers a way of making gold cheaply.
Boys are only allowed to wear green clothes, girls only blue clothes.
Planes do not work anymore. They all crash after take-off.

Students work in pairs and share their ideas. Then the ideas are shared with the class.

2.4.2 CONSEQUENCES

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - future tense, conditional
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups of three to six students, class
Preparation As many cards with an action as groups
Time 10-20 min

Procedure
The teacher divides the class into groups. She gives each group an action card.
Examples:
A 25-hour working week is introduced.
A lorry driver empties a thankful of poisonous waste into the river near a town.
Animal merchants catch the last animals of a dying species and sell them to zoos in
Europe and North America.
Men can get maternity leave like women.
Robots that can do housework are built.
Scientists discover that cancer is caused by pollution.
A group of boys always use the bus or tram without paying.

Each group now has to think of all the possible long-term and short-term consequences
this action may have. The group secretary writes down all the consequences.
When the group cannot think of any more consequences they exchange cards with
another group.
A class discussion ends the activity.

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2.4.3 ALTERNATIVES

Aims Skills - speaking, writing

Language - conditional, making suggestions

Level Intermediate
Groupings Class
Preparation List of problem situations for the teacher
Time 5-20 min

Procedure
The teacher presents the situation to the class and asks the students to think of as many
courses of action as possible for the people involved.
Individual students present their suggestions and a complete list is compiled on the board.
Students work together in small groups and rank all the suggestions in order of
preference. Then they discuss what consequences the five most popular suggestions will
have. The rank orders and consequences of individual groups are compared.
Possible problem situations:
1. You hear from a friend that someone is saying nasty things about you. What can
you do?
2. Some money was stolen in the classroom recently. The thief hasn’t been found
yet. Your teacher treats you differently from before and you think she suspects
you took the money. You didn’t, but you know who took it. What do you do?
3. Your friend has bought a new coat. You think it is really ugly and does not suit
her. However, you know it was very expensive and your friend is easily offended.
What can you say?
4. You see someone dumping rubbish in the countryside. What can you say?
5. Someone in your class is giving a party. Everyone has been invited except you.
What can you do?
6. You forgot about an important appointment with your boss (teacher) and have just
realized that you should have met him two hours ago at the “Peking Restaurant”.
What can you do?

2.4.4 VIEWPOINTS

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - all elements
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups of 3-5 students
Preparation One handout for each group (see Chapter V)
Time 15-20 min

74
Procedure
The teacher divides the class into small groups and presents the situation:
Mary Taylor, a 35 year-old housewife, would like to go back to her job, teaching physics
and mathematics, after an eight year break. Imagine what her husband, her eight year-old
daughter, her mother-in-law, her parents and the headmaster might feel about the
situation.
The teacher writes the names, ages and jobs of the people mentioned in the situation on
the board, and assigns one of these people to each group. The students discuss among
themselves what they think this particular person might feel. The group secretary in each
group takes notes.
The teacher gives each group that part of the handout which concerns their person. (see
Chapter V). They compare their own ideas with those on the handout.
One person from each group comes forward. These students sit in a circle in the middle
of the class and hold a conversation in which the put their arguments and feelings
forward.

2.5 PROBLEM SOLVING ACTIVITIES

In the following activities the learners have to find solutions to various types of problems.
Most of the activities require pair or group work where the students have to use the
foreign language in a very creative way while going through the exercises.

2.5.1 RESCUE

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - stating an opinion, giving and asking for
reasons, agreeing, disagreeing,
comparisons
Level Intermediate/advanced
Groupings Groups of five to eight students
Time 10-20 min

Procedure
The situation is presented.
“The Earth is doomed. All life is going to perish in two days due to radiation. A spaceship
from another solar system lands and offers to rescue twelve people, who could start a new
world on an empty planet very much like Earth. Imagine you are the selection committee
and you have to decide who may be rescued. Think of a list of criteria which you would
use in your decision.

75
Each group discusses the problem and tries to work out a list.
They present their lists to the class.
Class discussion follows.

2.5.2 DESPERATE DECISION

Aims Skills - reading comprehension, speaking

Language - making suggestions, stating
possibilities, agreeing/disagreeing
Level Intermediate/advanced
Groupings Groups with 3-6 students
Preparation A handout for each student (see Chapter V)
Time 30-40 min

Procedure
Each student reads the description of the situation. The teacher may ask a few
comprehension questions to make sure everybody understood.
The groups try to find as many courses of action as possible. They should write them
down. Then they discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each solution and decide
on the best one. They write down their reasons.
Each group presents their solution. The other groups should challenge the arguments and
conclusions of the reporting group.

2.5.3 ONE DAY IN LONDON

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - all elements
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
The teacher describes the situation:
“You have to plan how to spend a day in London with your partner. Both of you arrive at
Heathrow airport at 9 a.m. and you have to be back at the airport at 9 p.m. There is a self-
drive car which you may use. It has a full tank. You receive 25 £ each, but you have no
other money. Decide what you would like to do. You should plan the day in such a way
that you are happy with it.”
The students work in pairs. The partners find out from each other what they would like to
do and what they would not. They work out a timetable for the day.
The students report back their plans to the class. Similarities and differences are
discussed.

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2.5.4 TREASURE HUNT

Aims Skills - all four skills

Language - all elements
Level Intermediate
Groupings Individuals, pairs, groups, class
Time A few minutes each lesson for a number of days

Procedure
All the tasks for this activity have to be worked out in advance. The tasks should be
tailored for individual students, so that their strengths may be exploited. The basic
principles of a treasure hunt are the following:
Each student has to follow instructions and fulfill a certain task. If he does it properly he
is rewarded with a piece of information, e.g. a word or letter. All the pieces of
information collected by the students have to be combined to find the general solution,
i.e. the treasure. It would be useful (if possible) to enlist the help of other English-
speaking people so that the tasks can include phoning and letter-writing. The prize for
finding the solution can be anything from a bag of sweets to a visit to an English movie.
Possible tasks:
1. There is a poem on page xx in your textbook. Learn it by heart and recite it in the
next lesson. You will then get an envelope from your teacher. (Envelope: Your
word is “you”)
2. (For two students) Here are the lines of a dialogue, all mixed up. Put them in the
correct order and write your own ending to it. Act it out in front of the class in the
next lesson. You will then get an envelope from the teacher.(Word: surprise”)
3. Here is a text where some words are spelled incorrectly. Check with your
dictionary to find out the correct spelling. Write down all the letters that were
wrong. They make a word. (Word: “there”)
4. Phone this number xxxxxxxxx and ask to speak to Mr. Z. Find out where he spent
his holiday last year, tell him about yours. If you don’t make any mistakes he will
tell you the next word.(Word: “is”)
5. Read this story and tell the class what it is about in the next lesson. Your teacher
will give you the next word. (Word: “cupboard”)
6. Here are the rules for a new game. Together with students C and D make the
materials for the game, so that we can play it next week. Your teacher will give
you the next word. (Word: ”for”)
7. Go and explain the new game to class X. Play it with them. You will then get your
new word. (Word: “a”)
8. Write a letter to Mrs. Y. Ask her for the recipe for trifle. If your letter has no
mistakes she will send you the recipe. The word you need is underlined with red
in the recipe. (Word: “in”)
9. Record the news on an English-language radio program on Monday and write
down the text. Bring the recording and the text with you to the lesson on
Thursday. Your teacher will tell you the next word. (Word: “the”)

77
Solution: There is a surprise for you in the cupboard.
When the teacher has worked out the tasks, they can be given to the students one by one.
Progress in finding the solution can be marked on a special notice on the wall in the
classroom.

2.5.5 GROUP HOLIDAY

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - asking for and giving reasons, agreeing,
disagreeing, making suggestions
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups of five to seven students
Preparation A handout for each student
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
The class is divided into groups. Each student receives a handout containing eight
suggestions for a two week holiday. Each group has to find the holiday that they would
like to have together. A decision should be reached by discussion and finding good
arguments and not by a majority vote.
Each group presents the holiday they have chosen and outlines the reason for this choice.
The other groups may ask questions or comment.

2.5.6 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS

Aims Skills - listening, speaking

Language - describing something, making suggestions,
discussing alternatives
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups of six to eight students or class
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
Individual students describe a problem they have, e.g. always forgetting their keys, not
being able to remember names, oversleeping, etc. The others try to suggest ways and
means of helping with the problem.

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2.5.7 BAKER STREET

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - all elements
Level Intermediate
Groupings Class
Preparation One copy of the handout (see Chapter V) cut into strips (if there
are more than 20 students two copies of the handout should be
cut out)
Time 5-15 min

Procedure
The teacher draws the diagram on the board. The situation is outlined to the students:
There are five houses in Baker Street. One person lives in each house. the aim is to find
out each person’s name, whether he or she is married or not, what pet he or she owns,
which books he or she likes, and what drinks he or she likes.
The students get a piece of paper each with some information on it. They have to share
what they know to fill in the chart.
It should be left entirely to the students how they organize the collection of information.
The teacher’s sole function is to remind them to speak English.

3. STORIES AND SCENES

3.1 MIMING

Objects, actions or people have to be mimed in the following activities. The mimes are
done in pairs or groups. Miming activities are valuable language-learning situations.
Guessing something is linked with the real desire to find out and thus is a true
communicative situation. Furthermore, miming exercises train the students’ skill of
observation and improvisation.. Finally, miming exercises are useful because they
emphasise the importance of gesture and facial expression in communication. In terms of
language elements, they practice question forms and expressing possibilities.

3.1.1 ADVERB CHARADE

Aims Skills - speaking

79
 Language - asking yes/no questions, adverbs
Level Beginners/intermediate
Groupings Pairs, class
Preparation About 50 small pieces of paper
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
The pieces of paper are distributed, so that each student receives two. On one piece of
paper he writes a simple action, e.g. eating a banana, knitting, reading a paper; on the
other an adverb, e.g. angrily, badly, cautiously,, etc. All the pieces of paper are put in a
pile face down.
Students team up with a partner. The first pair comes to the front of the class. One draws
a piece of paper from the action pile, the other from the adverb pile. Both mime their
action in the manner described by the adverb. the rest of the class guess.
Variations
It can also be played as a competitive team game

3.1.2 MIMING PEOPLE AND OBJECTS

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - making conjectures, asking questions
Level Beginners
Groupings Individuals, pairs, groups
Preparation Several piles of small pieces of paper with descriptions of
people (e.g. an old man, a fat bus conductor), names of
objects, photos or drawings of people or objects
Time 10-15 min

Procedure
Instructions as to what the students have to mime are given verbally or visually. The
individual mimes can be organized in one of the following ways:
1. Every student chooses a piece of paper from a pile and mimes the person or the
object. The others guess.
2. Two or three students combine their miming tasks to mime a short scene together.
The others observe and make suggestions.
3. Each group of students is given the same people and objects to mime.
Performances and different realizations are discussed.
4. Chain mime. One student starts by miming his object/person. Another student
joins him until up to ten students are involved in miming a situation.

3.1.3 DAILY LIFE

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Aims Skills - speaking, writing
Language - asking questions, stating one’s opinions,
making suggestions, agreeing/disagreeing
Level Beginners/intermediate
Groupings Groups of three to five students
Preparation Short dialogues on separate pieces of paper, some objects as
props
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
Each group of students receives a different dialogue and has five minutes in which to
organize miming. They decide who takes which role, and what props are needed.
Each group performs their mime in turn. After each performance the students in the
audience suggest what the mime was about.
Variations
Each group may speak only one sentence of the dialogue during the mime.

3.1.4 HOTEL RECEPTIONIST

Aims Skills - speaking, reading

Language - all kinds of questions, expressing
understanding, asking for confirmation
Level Intermediate
Groupings Class, groups of five to eight students
Preparation At least as many messages as there are students, on small slips
of paper
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
The teacher explains the situation.
The setting is a hotel in an English-speaking country. A guest staying at the hotel has a
very bad cold and has lost his voice. He therefore has to communicate with the hotel
receptionist by miming.
In the first two or three rounds the teacher takes the part of the hotel receptionist. The
guest is played by one of the students. This student draws a slip of paper with a message
on it (e.g. It’s very cold in my room. I can’t turn the radiators on. Could you send
someone up to have a look?) and, playing the part of the guest, mimes his request while
the hotel receptionist guesses. The rest of the class helps the receptionist to figure out the
request.

81
Then the students are divided into groups. The members of each group sit in a circle and
take turns to play the guest and the receptionist. Each group has a supply of messages to
draw from.
Variations
The setting is The Lost Property Office. Students have to claim objects they have lost.
The objects are written on small slips of paper.

Possible messages:
“I have to catch an early train tomorrow. Could I be woken up at 5.30 a.m., please ?”
“I am going out now. I am expecting a phone call from my wife. Could you, please, tell
her that I’ve lost my voice and have written a letter to her?”
“I have forgotten the number of my room.”
“Where is the nearest post office?”
“Can you get me two opera tickets for tomorrow night? But only if there are seats in the
first fifteen rows.”
“Can you change a £5 bill into 50p pieces?”
“I’d like to go on a sightseeing tour round the town tomorrow. When do they leave? How
long does it take and how much does it cost?”
“Is there a heated indoor swimming-pool in the town? How far is it?”
“Somebody has put a crocodile in my bath. Please, come quickly.”
“There’s a funny noise coming from the room next to mine. I’m afraid that somebody
might be ill.”

3.1.5 MESSAGES

Aims Skills - writing, speaking

Language - expressing one’s opinion, right/wrong
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs
Preparation As many pieces of paper with messages as students
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
Each student takes a message which he is not allowed to show to anyone. Then they find
a partner.
All the students stand around the walls of the classroom far from their partner. Half of the
class is miming at the same time, while their partners write down what they think they
see.
Then they sit down and discuss with their partner. The original messages are read out.
Then the second students mime their part and the discussion follows.
Possible messages:
1. I’d like to go to the cinema with you. Meet me at my house at 7 p.m.
2. Can I borrow your CD player? Mine has broken down.

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 3. I am having a party on Saturday. Can you come?
4. Could we do our homework together this afternoon?
5. I am going shopping to get a new bicycle. Do you want to come?
6. Please, do some shopping for me. Get four pounds of apples, two bottles of
lemonade, and some toilet paper.
7. I found a red purse on the floor. It has 20 $ in it. Is it yours?
8. Go to the library and get a book on cats.
9. Your trousers have split.
10. There is a big white stain on your pullover. It’s right under your left arm.

3.2 ROLE PLAY AND SIMULATIONS

It is not easy to distinguish clearly between role play and simulation. Both are forms of
games mirroring a slice of reality. As a rule simulations are more highly structured and
contain more diverse elements in their content and procedure. “Simulations are simplified
patterns of human interactions or social processes where the players participate in roles.”
(Davison and Gordon 1978, p.55). Most simulations demand that participants are
supplied with background information and materials to work from both before and during
the simulation. Accomplishing the task set in a simulation has sometimes got to be done
within a time limit, e.g. in writing the front page of a newspaper, just as in reality.
In contrast to simulations, role plays often consist of short scenes, which can be realistic -
as in acting out a shopping situation - or pure fantasy – as in pretending to interview a
Martian on TV.
Role plays improve the students’ oral performance generally, and simulations quite often
train all four skills. The complexity of simulations, which run over several stages,
prevents the teacher from exactly determining beforehand which structures, words and
language skills will be needed by the players. Therefore simulations mainly constitute
practice sessions where the participants draw on everything they have learned so far.

3.2.1 TELEPHONING

Aims Skills - speaking, writing

Language - insisting, interrupting, directing the
conversation, hesitating
Level Intermediate/advanced
Groupings Pairs
Preparation Role cards (see Chapter V)
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
The class is divided into two teams (A and B) and each team into sub-groups of three to
five students. Each A-group students receive a copy of an A-role, B-group B-role (see
Chapter V). The students in both groups work out some phrases which they could use in
the telephone conversation indicated on the role-card.

83
One person from group A and one from group B act out the telephone conversation in
front of the group. Up to four more pairs give their version as well. This procedure is
repeated with different role cards.

3.2.2 TV INTERVIEW

Aims Skills - speaking, writing

Language - describing something, (present simple)
questions, introducing someone
Level Intermediate/advanced
Groupings Groups of four to six students
Time 20-30 min

Procedure
One of the groups has to prepare the role of the interviewer and write down questions the
interviewer could ask the members of the “ideal family”. All the other groups represent
an “ideal family”; they should allocate the different roles within the group and talk about
the personalities, ways of behaviour and ideas of the people in their ideal family.
Each ideal family is interviewed by a different interviewer in turn in front of the class. At
the beginning of the role play each member of the family introduces either himself or
another family member.
Since a lot of the students’ values and ideals regarding families will have become
obvious, they should be discussed afterwards.
Other ideal groups can be interviewed, e.g. “ideal holiday”, “ideal flat-sharing”.

3.2.3 CONTROVERSY IN THE SCHOOL

Aims Skills - all four skills

Language - all elements
Level Intermediate/advanced
Groupings Groups/class
Preparation Handouts (See Chapter V)
Time 20-45 min

Procedure
Each student receives a handout. The texts are read and language difficulties are cleared
up.
Students are divided into groups. One group presents arguments the parents might put
forward, another group thinks of the point of view of the students concerned. All in all
there can be up to eight different groups, dealing with the parents, teachers, principal,
students of different ages, local press and school administration (local education

84
authority). The groups arrange meetings, e.g. the parents want to talk to the principal, the
local press interviews the teachers and students, etc.
The final step can be a panel discussion with a representative of each group.
Variations
Instead of arranging meetings, each group can produce a leaflet or poster outlining their
position.
Other issues that can be dealt with: pollution control, campaigning for a new playground,
fighting against a new motorway, etc.

3.2.4 SWAP SHOP

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - offering something, expressing interest,
describing adjectives, if-clauses
Level Intermediate
Groupings Individuals
Preparation Role cards
Time 20-30 min

Procedure
Each student receives a role card.(e.g. “You are a collector of model trains; you are
interested in steam engines” or “You are a fan of the Beatles and are desperately looking
for a copy of their white album in good condition, because yours is badly scratched”) and
two or three object cards (e.g. The Beatles White album, sleeve is very torn, records in
passable condition, model of the French high speed train, Victorian doll-one arm missing-
real hair)
The students walk around and try to find others who are interested in one of the objects
they have to offer or who can offer them something.
Variations
Real objects can be brought along and used for this activity.

3.2.5 MAKING A RADIO PROGRAM

Aims Skills - all four skills

Language - all elements
Level Intermediate/advanced
Groupings Class, groups, pairs
Preparation Tape recorder, microphone, CD player, sound effects, music,
collection of magazines, articles
Time 3-5 hours

Procedure

85
Students may work individually, in groups or in pairs. The end product should be a radio
program 10 to 20 minutes long, consisting of short interviews, or commentaries separated
by advertising and music. Students work on different parts of the program and a schedule
has to be written up first of all with the different tasks clearly specified.
Example:
Selecting and recording the music - 2 students
Presenters of the program - 2 students
Sound effects - 2 students
First interview - 5 students
Second interview - 4 students
Advertisements - 6 students
Commentary - 3 students
Short sketch - 3 students

More items for the program can be introduced with larger classes.
The students preparing the interviews and the commentary look through newspaper
articles to find suitable topics. When they have found a story, they decide who to
interview and prepare the questions with the help of the teacher. The students working out
the advertisements look through the magazines to find ideas they want to adapt. The
teacher moves from group to group to help and correct written material.
Before the final recording each group presents its part of the program. Last minute
alterations are made. The presenters work on their introductory remarks to each part of
the program. The sequence of the individual interviews is scheduled.
Final recording.

3.3 STORIES

The aim of the activities from this section is to make the students produce longer
connected texts. For this they will need imagination as well as some skill in the foreign
language. Stimuli are given in the form of individual words or pictures, depending on the
activity.
Story-telling activates more than a limited number of patterns and structures and these
activities are best used as general revision.

3.3.1 CHAIN STORY

86
Aims Skills - speaking
Language - simple past
Level Beginners/intermediate
Groupings Class
Preparation Small slips of paper with one noun/verb/adjective on each of
them, as many pieces of paper as there are students.
Time 10-20 min

Procedure
Each student receives a word slip. The teacher starts the story by giving the first sentence:
e.g. “It was a stormy night in November.” A student continues the story. He may say up to
three sentences and must include the word on his slip of paper. The next student goes on.
Variation
Each student is also given a number. The numbers determine the sequence in which the
students have to contribute to the story.

3.3.2 NEWSPAPER REPORT

Aims Skills - writing

Language - reporting events, past tenses passive
Level Intermediate
Groupings Groups
Preparation A large number of photos taken from magazines and
newspapers
Time 20-30 min

Procedure
Each group is given five pictures of which they have to use three. Their aim is to write a
newspaper report linking these three pictures.
When each group has decided which pictures to use they write their report.
The reports are read out and the pictures are shown to the class.
Variations
Each group chooses three pictures which another group has to describe. All the pictures
are displayed on the wall. When the reports are read, the others have to guess which
pictures fit the reports.

3.3.3 PICTURE STORIES

87
Aims Skills - writing
Language - describing something, dialogue
Level Intermediate
Groupings Pairs or individuals
Preparation Pictures from magazines and cartoon strips with the words in
the speech bubbles blanked out
Time 15-20 min

Procedure
The students have to write texts for the pictures or fill in the speech bubbles.
Variations
1. If more than one student receives the same pictures, their results can be compared.
2. One pair of students fills in the first bubble, then hands it over to the next pair and so
on. The first pair, in the meantime, fills in the first bubble on another strip and then passes
it on in the same way.

3.3.4 LETTER AND TELEGRAMS

Aims Skills - writing, reading comprehension

Language - nouns, verb forms
Level Advanced
Groupings Individuals
Preparation A copy of the letter to each student (see chapter V)
Time 10-20 min

Procedure
Each student receives a copy of a letter and is asked to write two telegrams for it, one of
24 words, the other of 12 words. The telegrams are read out and compared.
Variations
Students receive different letters.

3.3.5 KEEP TALKING

Aims Skills - speaking

Language - all elements
Level Intermediate/advanced
Groupings Individuals
Preparation Slips of paper with a sentence and a topic
Time 5-15 min

Procedure

88
A student chooses a slip of paper and has to talk for one minute about the topic,
beginning with the sentence on the paper.
Examples:
Smoking If a cigarette costs 1$ a lot of people…
Homesickness When I was a little boy/girl,…
Pets I used to have/I would like to have…
Parents There are no certificates for good parents.
Clothes I like…
Chewing gum Animals don’t chew chewing gum.

Variations
1. It can also be played as a team contest.
2. The topic and sentence cards can be prepared by the students.
3. This activity can be used to revise topics that have been dealt with in class.

V. WORKSHEETS OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES

89
 1. 1.1.4 STEM SENTENCES
2. 1.1.7 GROUPINGS 1
3. GROUPINGS 2
4. GROUPINGS 3
5. 1.2.3 GUIDED INTERVIEWS
6. 1.3.1 WHAT IS IT?
7. 1.4.1 THE SAME OR DIFFERENT
8. 1.4.2 TWINS A
9. TWINS B
10. 1.4.3 WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES
11. 1.4.4 ORDERING
12. 1.4.5 TOWN PLAN
13. 1.4.7 JIGSAW GUESSING
14. 1.4.8 PARTNER PUZZLE
15. 1.5.2 QUESTION GAME
16. 1.5.3 FIND SOMEONE WHO
17. 1.5.5 QUESTION AND ANSWER CARDS
18. 1.5.6 GO AND FIND OUT
19. 2.1.1 RANK ORDER
20. 2.1.4 NASA GAME
21. 2.2.6 SHRINKING STORY
22. 2.2.11 DISCUSSION WHEEL
23. 2.3.2 AIMS IN LIFE
24. 2.3.5 UNFINISHED SENTENCES
25. 2.4.4 VIEWPOINTS
26. 2.5.2 DESPERATE DECISION
27. 2.5.5 GROUP HOLIDAY
28. 2.5.7 BAKER STREET
29. 3.2.1 TELEPHONING
30. 3.2.3 CONTROVERSY IN THE SCHOOL
31. 3.3.5 KEEP TALKING

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