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Date Posted: 19:54:00 07/30/03 Wed
Author: Carolina Dias Cunha
Subject: Task 13

According to Littlewood (1981:39), functional communication activities place learners in a situation where they need to use language for a well-defined communicative purpose.

Create a good communication activity and describe it to your classmates. Say what type it is, according to Littlewood.

The activity I have created deals with a very current issue: Home swapping. I’ve found an article in a Brazilian magazine and I decided to do some research on the subject. I ended up finding lots of interesting sites and articles about it. After gathering all the information I needed, I adapted 2 articles into a single text. I think it would suit all levels (provided it can be adapted to each group). This is an activity that works with reading, writing and mainly speaking.

According to Littlewood (1981:36) this is a “Processing Information” kind of activity; “the stimulus for communication comes from the need to discuss and evaluate these facts [relevant facts that they have access to], in pairs or groups, in order to solve a problem or reaching a decision.”

Read the text below and then do the following tasks with your partner:

How to Vacation Without Leaving Home -- Someone Else's

At a wedding on the Peninsula a couple of years ago, I found myself chatting with a woman from Manhattan. She adored the Bay Area, she said. I expressed my undying devotion to any place within shouting distance of New York City. That conversation resulted in Dee, the New Yorker, and I becoming part of a growing trend among travelers here and abroad: home exchange.
Home exchange is not a sublet or time-share. In the case of Dee and me, the no-cost arrangement meant switching apartments (I'm a renter, she's a co- op owner) for a period of two weeks. She was coming to the Bay Area for the graduation of a niece from San Francisco State, which made my apartment near the university perfect. I was going to New York with a friend because - well, simply, because it was New York. Things worked so well that we did another swap this summer.
Most people, however, may well be strangers at the beginning of the transaction. A lot of them join Web site organizations that charge annual fees running to $75 (or, with printed catalogs that some offer, as much as $100).
After I posted my information on a Web site recommended by a seasoned home swapper, I heard from someone in Bangkok whose daughter was starting San Francisco State. She offered a "beautiful villa with full-time help" in exchange for my humble, but convenient, abode. I also heard from a woman named Catherine whose daughter was expecting a baby in San Francisco and offered a place in San Diego with "TV, VCR, tons of CDs and a small backyard with fruit trees."
Swapping houses is a growing trend in vacations. According to HomeExchange.com, there are more than 250,000 happy swaps every year, from families around the world who switch everything from villas in Italy for R.V.'s in Oregon to somewhat more conventional exchanges like Greenwich Village apartments for flats in Paris.
Adapted from:
San Francisco Chronicle, September 28, 2002 and
New York Times: Magazine, June 2, 2002

Task 1:
What do you think of this new trend? Discuss with your partner the pros and cons of swapping houses.

Task 2:
Visit the following web sites:
www.homeexchange.com
www.ihen.com
www.intervacus.com
www.snapnow.com

What are your impressions on the properties and locations? With your partner, choose a location and share your decision with the class. Tell why you have chosen it.

Task 3:
You and your partner decide to go away for the holidays and you decide to post your profile on one of the sites above. Write an e-mail to the chosen site, subscribing yourself on the programme. Don’t forget to mention your property’s characteristics and the kind of place you are looking for.



Reference:

LITTLEWOOD, W. Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1981.

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