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Date Posted: 13:26:49 07/24/03 Thu
Author: Maria Isabel Avila Martins
Subject: 12th. Class - Material evaluation

Functional activity
12th. Class


Activity: Map reading

Firstly, helpful phrases could be written on the board: turn right (left), go south (north, east, wesst), go around the corner (straight), on the right (left, north, south, east, west) side of the street, in the (middle, far corner) of the block, down (up) the street, until you see a mailbox (fire hydrant, bus stop), between the drug store and the bank, across from the hardware store, and so on.

Secondly, the teacher hands out maps to the students and have them follow given directions by tracing the route with a pencil. The teacher is supposed to do a demonstration with the students beforehand. Place the map on the overhead projector and trace a route while reading a set of directions out loud – for example: “Start at the bank, go north on Second Street until you get to Central Avenue, turn left, walk straight ahead to the gas station. It’s between the grocery store and the bakery”. Then divide the students into pairs and have them give each other directions while they trace the routes on their own maps.

An alternative might be to combine storytelling with the activities. For example: create a story about a fugitive who moves from place to place in different ways: he walks, runs, darts, crawls, skips, and drives. The students trace the route on their individual maps as the teacher reads. Instead of drawing only straight lines, the students can draw broken lines for “walks” (--------), zigzag lines for “runs” (^^^^^^^^^), sideways carets for “darts” (>>>>>), wavy lines for “crawls” (uuuuu), arches for “skips” (mmmm) and a series of plus signs for “drives” (++++++).

Follow-ups could include having the students draw maps of sections of their communities and write sets of directions to the various places within them. They may even want to write mini-stories to go with the directions. Eventually the students can participate in similar activities using real street maps of cities or highway maps of whole states or countries.

Classification of the activity according to Littlewood

The activity above is demanding and challenging, and provides additional opportunities for development. According to Littlewood (1981), as in other communication situations, the degree of difficulty will depend on how detailed and informative the commands are. As described above, the teacher can adjust the levels of difficulty by combining the first part of the task with a storytelling. Also, the teacher can ask the students to develop their own maps and directions.

Discovering sequences or locations is one communicative activity among many others. It brings communication into class once one learner possesses information which another learner must discover. The former should provide information only in response to appropriate questions of a specific kind. The teacher should specify the actual language structures that they should use in order to make the activity as communicative as possible, providing the students with the language they need.

July, 24th., 2003.

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