19
Table 2.2: Fluency vs Accuracy Richards 2005, p.15
Activities focusing on fluency Activities focusing on accuracy
1. Reflect natural use of language
2. Focus
on achieving
communication 3.
Require meaningful use of language
4. Require the use of communication
strategies 5.
Produce language that may not be predictable
6. Seek to link language use to
context 7.
Reflect Classroom use of language 8.
Focus on the formation of correct examples of language
9. Practice language out of context
10. Practice small samples of
language 11.
Do not require meaningful communication
12. Choice of language is controlled
b. Mechanical, Meaningful, and Communicative Practice
Apart from being grammatical, the utterance must also be appropriate on many levels at the same time; it must conform to the speaker‟s aim; the role
relationships between the interactants, to the setting, topic, and the linguistic context. The speaker must also produce hisher utterance within severe
constraints; he does not know in advance what will be said to him and hence what his utterance will be a response to; yet, if the conversation is not to flag, he
must respond quickly Johnson 1981. Mechanical practice refers to a controlled practice activity which students can successfully carry out without necessarily
understanding the language they are using. A meaningful speech is a speech that can be understood by the audience.
The speaker should have the competency of speaking in front of the audience. According to Hymes 1979, an individual‟s communicative competence is his or
her ability to use language effectively in actual communication. This ability consists of both knowledge about the language and specific skills in using the
language. Communicative competence in relation to second language speaking is PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
20 further highlighted by Johnson 1981 where a competent second language
speaker is able to do. A meaningful practice also refers to an activity where language control is still provided and where the students are required to make
meaningful choices when carrying out practice Richards, 2005. Besides the mechanical and meaningful practice, the students should have a
communicative practice in a learning activity. The main idea in communicative language teaching approach is the ability of the students to communicate as much
as they can. According to Richards 2005, communicative practice refers to activities where practice in using language within a real communicative context is
the focus, where real information is exchanged, and where the language used is not totally predictable.
The distinction between mechanical, meaningful, and communicative activities are similar to that given by Littlewood 1981. Littlewood 1981
mentions the characteristics of pre-communicative and communicative activities. The characteristics are presented as follows.
Table 2.3: Pre-communicative activities Communicative Activities Pre-communicative activities
Communicative activities
Structural Activities Quasi-communicative activities
Functional communication activities Social interaction activities
c. Information Gap Activity
An important aspect of communication in Communicative Language Teaching is the notion of information gap in which the students exchange
information. The fact is, people mostly interact and communicate each other in order to get new information they do not possess. This is known as information
