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Date Posted: 22:40:42 06/12/03 Thu
Author: Cássia Scheinbein
Subject: TASK 6


Describe the design of a prototypical communicative course.

If I understood well, learners are the main focus of the class. Conditions are created to give the learners the opportunity to use the language to learn it. A blend of different teaching techniques are used to suit the students'needs. The strong emphasis is on speaking and students have many opportunities to try out their speaking skills in an english language learning environment. Many of the speaking activities are based on students'personal experiences, opinions and ideas and there is a communicative purpose to each activity. A task-based approach is used where students have an attempt at the task towards the beginning of the lesson and have opportunities to do it again. The first attempt of tasks involves students trying out language and finding their feet, so to speak. Within and between tasks input is planned, which is based on student production and possibly listening or reading activities. The language analysed is what is needed for the speaking activities. Typical mistakes are looked and students are helped to say things that they couldn't say when they walk into the classroom. It is important to provide a clear topic focus throughout any lesson.The topics discussed in class are relevant to the students' needs and interests and by doing this students engage in the activities. Speaking lessons are as pyramid discussions, which involves starting with one student for the first activity, then two and then four, etc in subsequent activities. This approach is used to repeat activities and the aim with each repeated event is for students to get better. By repeating the speaking activities, students gain confidence in each task and have the opportunity to do it again, but better. In terms of grammar teaching,there are two main approaches (deductive or inductive) and the choice made about which is appropriate depends on many factors. The choice depends on the complexity of grammar and the rules, the students' needs and the language learning environment. Some form of grammar instruction is extremely valid in terms of second language acquisition. The focus on meaning is first and it's believed that languages are not learnt as discrete items, presented out of context but are acquired through meaningful interaction. Language is presented in context and students are encouraged to hypothesise what they think the rule might be. It is important for students to try the rules out, seeking confirmation of their hypothesis. Meaningful, contextual representations of the grammar point, which are relevant to students' needs and interests are provided to facilitate students'intake of grammatical features. Contextual examples are given. It is important to show students' typical mistakes or during guided discovery tasks invite students to make typical mistakes. It is just as important to show students what they can't do as well as what they can. Making mistakes is a vital part of the learning process and a hard work is done with students, using a variety of error correction techniques, to iron out those problems. The course is planned with long term objectives. The starting point of any course or scheme of work is the learner. Needs analyses are carried out, which are the best way of being able to identify a set of objectives for the course, and this can involve decisions about the choice of coursebook and materials to be used. A huge amount of focus is put on the students through the techniques used in class. Students are encouraged to have an important amount of input into the course. Realistic goals are set for the course and class time is spent learning aspects of the language, which are most important and relevant for students. The learning environment and the staff also play an important role. It's important to feel like in an english speaking environment. Everybody should speak english and be proficient speakers. Authentic reading and listening texts are purposeful and relevant. A lot of communicative activities are used to encourage the students to participate as much as possible. Students must be stimulated to negotiate, discuss, give opinions and speculate in real communicative situations. A lot of recycling of language and plenty of revision activities into the lessons are used.A material which allows communicative lesson, gives the students a reason to interact with the material, respond to the input and provide a purpose for communication based on the input. Materials, learners and the teacher all play an important role in the EFL classroom. The general approach should aim to focus on the students more than the other two factors, but there are times when the focus is justifiably placed on our teachers or the materials. Fewer materials are used and more is done with them. Small pieces of material are used to set up contexts where one can express himself and discuss his attitudes, feelings, ideas, opinions and beliefs. Some materials lend themselves more to a communicative approach to language learning and when this is not the case they are adapted. Students are encouraged to take charge of their language learning and work with materials outside the classroom.

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