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Date Posted: 10:06:35 07/30/03 Wed
Author: Mylene Fonseca
Subject: task 13

Communicative Approach On line Class
Learner: Mylene Fonseca Garcia
Task Thirteen


Following Littlewood’s classification, it is my objective to create a sharing information with unrestricted cooperation activity. It is my attempt to stimulate a flexible and spontaneous interaction between the learners, by proposing to them an objective communicative purpose.
Therefore, in my hypothetic lesson plan, in my previous class, my students would have been presented to some specific vocabulary concerning to trial issues. They would have been acquainted to terms such as:
1. commit a crime;
2. plead guilty/not guilty;
3. pass sentence on someone;
4. convict/acquit someone of a crime;
5. admit to an offence;
6. serve on a jury,
7. give evidence in court;
8. cross-examine a witness;
9. appeal against a sentence (given by a judge) or a verdict (given by a jury);
10. sentence the defended (to + time period);
11. remand someone in custody;
12. overruled or sustained (judge’s orders);
13. charge someone with an offence, and the like.

So, these words and their meanings would already be familiar to the class. Afterwards, I would propose a new situation. The class (approximately twenty students) would be divided in two groups which would act as lawyers for the defense and accusation. I would give them sufficient time to organize themselves in groups and start to imagine these two opposite roles and each group would point out three attorneys who would speak for them. The class would be aware of the crime (a minor theft: Jack Miles is a chicken robber. He killed five chickens from a chicken house. But he assures he did that to feed his family.) So, this would be my proposition to the class: there would be a trial judging Mr. Miles’ action. How would they defend and accuse this man? My students should think about it and put their ideas in order, as imaginatively as possible, so three of them should represent Mile’s interests by defending him and other three students should represent the chicken house’s owner, by accusing Miles.
Moreover, they should put into practice their new vocabulary and interact with each other, bearing in mind to achieve this specific communicative purpose. The trial would take place, but first, they should be informed that eight students would serve as the jury (four of each group) and that I would be the judge. I would interfere the minimum as possible and give the final verdict after a consensus by the jury.
Well, for me, this activity covers the mainly characteristics of a communicative task. As Littlewood says: “more realistic patterns of interaction can emerge, producing a wider variety of communicative functions (…) they [learners] must learn to take shared knowledge into account, to use feedback and reformulate messages when necessary, to compensate for language deficiencies” and “learners need opportunities to be creative with the language they have acquired”. Thus, this activity might stimulate all these if properly conducted. Besides, it would also stimulate learner’s integration and participation.
Summing up, this activity has a well-defined communicative purpose. It would depend of learner’s effective linguistic ability to deal with it. It certainly improves motivation and allows natural learning by giving a real context to this learning.

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