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Date Posted: 06:16:31 07/24/03 Thu
Author: jara
Subject: task 12

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

The activity that I chose to be described is from the Longman Grammar Series:Focus on Grammar, volume A, for intermediate students, page 23. This book was chosen because it has been used in Cenex, so Cenex teachers could adapt the activities in order to teach more communicative classes.
The activity in question is about two pictures. The first one has the title “Usually”, and it is about a woman inside a train. She is stood up, checking the hour in her watch. The train is full of other people doing different things, such as reading newspapers, magazines, talking and looking outside the window. The second picture has the title “Today”, and shows a scene in which the same woman is driving a convertible car. Their clothes are different now, she is sport dressed, wearing sunglasses and listening to music (which is shown through musical notes drawn around her). Both pictures are on the same page of the book, and students are instructed to work in pairs. Their task is to describe what the woman is doing, and compare the differences between the pictures. The titles contextualize the pictures, since the students are informed about the woman’s routine, and her leisure.
The activity can be classified under the Communicating patterns and pictures, seeing that students have the same visual information. The activity could be classified as an easy one, for the pictures correspond to contrastive situations. However the teacher can adapt it to a higher level by introducing new information such as leisure days in the week the woman has, or by changing the titles. The students can share the same pictures and help each other with vocabulary. The activity demands accurate grammar structures, for there are specific situations to be described, however, the way of describing the situations can differ. The students are then encouraged to overcome the difficulties presented by the activity while they are working together.

Bibliography:

BONNER, Margaret; Fuchs, M.; Westheimer M.. Focus on Grammar an Intermediate Course for Reference and Practice. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, White Plains, 1994
LITTLEWOOD, William. Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1995

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