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Date Posted: 14:03:23 06/18/03 Wed
Author: Thiago Rodrigues Costa
Subject: TASK 7

Analyzing Wells' lesson plan according to Stephen Ryans' text:

In “ Overcoming Common Problems Related to Communicative Methodology” Stephen Ryan mentions six important steps that should be followed by teachers in order to create a good atmosphere in a communicative class: providing adequate feedback, clarifying the lessons goals, having consistency in teaching style, having a routine framework, having cultural awareness, and being clear about student-teacher relationship.

Before analyzing Wells’ lesson plan I should mention my difficulty to see its real purpose. I started wondering if it is really a lesson plan for a language class, since there is never a direct or explicit reference to language teaching and learning in the plan. So, it is important to say that my words should not be followed as true, and that I am working more with my own impressions about Ryan’s text and Wells’ lesson plan than with scientific data and support.

First of all, if we analyze Wells’ lesson plan “Buy a Car” over a communicative perspective, we will see some negative aspects in its contents in relation to some of the steps highlighted by Ryan. The first aspect that called my attention was the real goal of the activity. It seems that there is an important social goal in this activity, since students would be able to face a “real” situation in which they would decide which car they would buy, and they would also practice how to get to a decision according to relevant aspects. However, there is no explicit reference to functional or grammatical aspects of the language that will be learned during the class. Again I highlight my crucial doubt: is it really a language class?
Besides, it seems that the activity is not suitable to many cultural groups, since it demands from students the thorough research on Internet in order to achieve the tasks. Moreover, the subject is not very attractive to many students. It seems that many people do not like buying cars, as I could notice even in some of my colleagues’ tasks. I myself admit that I would not enjoy a class concerning the appropriate tools to buy a car very much. I believe that there are other more interesting subjects related to cars to deal with in a foreign language class. Maybe this activity could be used in a less complex way. It is important to mention that it is not a hard activity to do, but it is full of details and information. It may work in a medium or long-term schedule, but I have my doubts about a short one.

Finally, according to Ryan, communicative classes have to be meaningful, practical and fun for the students, and I actually do not see these aspects well developed in the lesson plan. It is, in my opinion, a very boring activity to do if we follow all the instructions without regarding its cultural and practical aspects. In my opinion, there should be more feedback sessions and effective communication along the activities in order to adapt it to a communicative class of a second/foreign language that may work as a real communicative class.

Source:
Ryan, Stephen. "Overcoming Common Problems Related to Communicative Methodology" in http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Ryan-Communicative.html

Wells, Karlys http://www.lessonplanspage.com/OConsumerEdBuyCar912.htm

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