Match the following techniques and their features

There are two major ways to organize communicative activities to teach speaking and listening, reading and writing. The first way is information gap, which is a situation when a participant or a group possess the information, which others do not have, while others command the information that the other party is missing. E.g. a student in a pair with the other student might have the train timetable for odd numbers, while her partner might have the train timetable for even numbers. Their task is to use communication for finding out complete information on how the train runs. Information gap can take the form of the “matching” activity, in which the participants are to match pictures and texts, pictures and pictures, texts and texts (both oral and written) by using questions. Jig-saw activity is organized most often with the texts that are meant for reading or listening (“jig-saw” reading and “jig-saw” listening). A text is divided into several parts. Every participant has access to only one part of the oral or written text. They ask each other questions and provide information to pool the parts of the text together and to know the contents of the whole text. A “jig-saw” situation can be created as a result of the interviews that are held in the classroom. Every participant has a question that is put to the rest of the group, E.g. a student can ask other students “Do you like pickles?”. Another student can address her group-mates with the question “Do you like fried fish?” etc. After the interview all the information that was elicited with the help of the questions is pooled together and the students learn about the eating preferences in the group. Reading from cues is organized when the participants write information about themselves on the sticky labels in the form of separate words, dates, names etc. Other students ask questions trying to find as much as possible about the person, To achieve this goal they have to think first what a date on the sticky label might mean and ask a question like “Were you married in 1991?”, “May be you got your first job in 1991?” etc. Any activity can be turned into a communicative game if there are rules to name the winner. The second way to run communicative activities is simulation. “Simulation” means that an episode of the real world is reproduced in the classroom environment in the form of the role-play, discussion (problem solving) or project work. Role-play is an activity with the plot, the roles and the task to develop the plot and to achieve the communicative goal by means of communication. To do this the participants are to develop the plot and to change the situation so that the problem would be solved. E.g. “Buying a new car”, “Packing for a travel”, “Entertaining guests” etc. Role play can have elements of problem solving. E.g. “Managing family budget”. Problem solving (discussion) is an activity, the purpose of which is to solve the problem. E.g. “Why do you think some people are lonely?”, “Can drug abuse be stopped”, “Who is the best pop-singer of today?” Problem solving can have elements of the role play (some participants can have the roles of being “critical” of every idea etc). A useful activity for communicative language use is “project teaching”. Projects always have a product in the end. Projects can be of the “information”, “illustration”, “survey” and other types. A project can be done in the field of arts, science, politics, ecology, sports, education, personality, family, health, safety, culture etc. Final product can be magazine, collage, entertaining party etc. (After: Haines, S. Projects for the EFL Classrooms. Longman. 1995)

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 489