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Date Posted: 12:47:40 07/23/03 Wed
Author: Marcos Manso
Subject: TASK 12

TASK 12 - Material Evaluation
July 21th to 25th

"Examine one textbook and choose a good communicative activity. Describe it and then classify that activity according to the types presented by Littlewood."

I examined the textbook Student’s Book 2B of New Interchange series (by Jack C. Richards – Cambridge University Press) and chose the activity called Interchange 10 – Dream Job on page IC-13 and 14. This activity is a functional communication activity that falls under the category of “Sharing and processing information” (Littlewood, 1981). I find it a very good activity for by Littlewood’s classification and definition learners not only share information but they also discuss and evaluate this information in order to solve a problem.

Dream Job appropriately reviews much of the vocabulary and grammar presented in Unit 10 of that book. It is a challenging activity because it elicits students to ask about, describe, and compare the personalities and skills of two job applications. In this interesting activity students are the co-owners of an athletic shoe company. They need to discuss two job applicants who were interviewed for a marketing position in their company. Then they must decide which person to hire for that job.

Students are separated in pairs (or it can be adapted for small groups, suiting the “board-type” interview) and they choose their own A/B roles. Each one looks at a different page (IC-13 or IC-14). In each of these pages there is a set of instructions, the job description with the requirements and responsibilities (e.g., Requirements: Must have a business degree or marketing experience; Must be willing to travel; Responsibilities: Interview customers about their shoe preferences; Working with famous athletes) which is in the ad format, a caricature of the job applicant in the center, what each job applicant said during the interview (“I don’t mind traveling”; “I worked for three years as a sales assistant at MBA Sports”), and a group of questions (e.g., What kind of degree does he have?, Is he good at writing reports?) to ask the partner (Students are encouraged to be creative and add further questions or information). The activity is divided in three phases: A, B, and C. In part A, Student A reads the job description and what the applicant said. Then he/she answers his/her partner B’s questions about the applicant. In part B, Student A asks Student B the same questions to get information about the second applicant. In part C, students are to work together by comparing the two interviewees’ background, abilities, and personalities in order to decide which person is better for the job.

In this particular and stimulant activity, students have to overcome an information gap and solve a problem. They must work together “towards a definite solution or decision” (Littlewood) by using language to share and process information, therefore complying with functional communication activity needs. Although it seems a little restricted with a tight frame in the beginning – there is a list of the job’s requirements and responsibilities; each interviewee’s answers are already printed; there is a group of broad range questions already suggested -, this demanding activity really enable students to cooperate and interact with each other producing a wide variety of communicative functions and skills. Students are engaged in using language for “describing, suggesting, asking for clarification, helping each other, and so on” as well as taking shared knowledge into account and evaluating them (Littlewood). Here, learners analyze, explain, and evaluate, and there is even opportunity for disagreement and negotiation which will “force” students to interact more skillfully. With this kind of activity learners are evoked to use and develop their communicative skills and strategies, and explore the full potential of their repertoire therefore becoming more competent – linguistically, functionally, and socially (provided the teacher allows some free added contributions and interventions by both students and other students in relation to the job requirements, employment legislation, discrimination on race, age, gender, etc, and other cultural information).

by Marcos Manso

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