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Date Posted: 06:13:19 06/18/03 Wed
Author: André Luiz Elias
Subject: Task 7

The activity presented by Karlys Wells fits well the main proposal of the communicative approach to language learning, that is, to make a language class meaningful, practical, functional and fun for the learners. However, every language teacher should adopt activities to their own contexts, it means, teachers must be aware of their learners' needs, cultural background, etc. so that the activity can be faced by learners as an interesting one. It is not an easy job. That is why we as teachers-to-be must value our professionalization more and more and do not allow that people who have no idea of what learning a language is jeopardize our professional area, and also our role as educators. Going back to the task...
This kind of activity would be effective in a context in which learners are acquainted to the sort of shopping suggested in it. For instance, I teach English (as a volunteer) in a "favela" in Belo Horizonte. People there, in general, have a different idea about buying cars. They are usually worried about buying food and diapers for their newborn children. So this type of activity there would not make sense, I mean, it would not be "real" to their context, mainly because most of them doesn't even have internet access to procede the proposed research phase. This way, the structure of the activity is interesting, once it raises discussions and get learners talking using the target language, but it should also be adapted to a situational context.
According to the text by Stephen Ryan, learners may feel a bit bored, for there is no a clarified linguistic goal. "Goals direct attention and effort towards goal-relevant activities at the expense of activities that are not relevant; they regulate effort expenditure; they encourage persistence until the goal is accomplished; they promote the search for relevant action plans or task strategies" (Dörnyei, apud Crabbe et al., 2003). So learners may think that they are just "talking" and not "learning" anything. There is also no clear feedback from the teacher, but if learners are autonomous ones, it would not be a big problem.
A point that was not mentioned by Ryan, but I think it is cogent factor for learning a language is the opportunity learners have to interact among themselves. This would free teachers of being the centre of the class and consequently promote learners' autonomy.
In sum, the activity is a very good one, once it gets students facing "real" language, and so on, but it must be adapted to a situational context, so that it'll be more effective.

Crabbe, D., Hoffman, A., Cotteral, S. (2003) Examining the discourse of learner advisory session. In: Aila Review 15 edited by Leni Dam. AILA. United Kingdom

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Ryan-Communicative.html

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/OConsumerEdBuyCar912.htm

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