Student A: Have you ever eaten snails? Student B: Yes, I have.
Student A: Have you ever climbed a mountain? Student B: No, I haven’t.
This type of activity involves students in a discussion but the language is very controlled and is pre-determined by the teacher. Such activities are useful at lower
levels or where the objective is to get students producing language automatically without having to think about it too much.
Whilst controlled language practice will help with automatic reactions, it does not replicate real-world conversations. The example above is very false, it appears to be
an interrogation and there is no sharing of information. In real-life, student A might reply: “so what did you think of Mexico? I might be going there on holiday myself”.
Teachers should try to incorporate activities that imitate real-life conversations in the classroom as much as possible in order to prepare students for conversations in the
real world.
In free language practice, students use all and any language they know to express themselves. An example of free language practice is a classroom debate on smoking
in public. Students give their opinions, others agree or disagree, and counter arguments are put forward. There are no limits on the language that can be used,
except for staying polite There is a greater emphasis on this type of activity at higher levels. For more examples of free language practice, see Chapter 4, Speaking.
Alternatively, the teacher might create situations where certain language is likely to be used. For example, when talking about holiday plans, future tenses will probably be
used; in an interview simulation, the present perfect I’ve never worked in a shop before and simple past I worked for the council from 2000 to 2004 will probably be
used. We can predict what might be used but the actual language output is very unpredictable and can contain almost any language the students know. This is
sometimes known as freer practice. This type of task is useful to practise a language structure that has been presented recently where it is unnecessary to engage the
students in controlled practice.
1.15 Activities that provide controlled and freer language practice
The Communication Games series by Jill Hadfield provides controlled and freer language practice in fun situations.
Find somebody who... is a popular activity to provide controlled and freer practice of language. Students are given a sheet with the following:
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Find somebody who takes the bus to work Find somebody who always eats a big breakfast
Find somebody who likes snakes Find somebody who plays tennis
Find somebody who lives in the suburbs Find somebody who reads an English newspaper
Students take their sheets, stand up and move around the classroom asking classmates “do you take the bus to work?” “Do you always eat a big breakfast?” etc.
When they find a classmate who replies “yes”, they note the name of that person next to the question. They continue until they have the name of a student for each question.
The teacher stops the activity at an appropriate point and asks students what they have found out about their classmates. By repeating the questions, students are
engaging in controlled practice of the question form in a communicative setting. Depending on how students treat the answers, they can also get freer language
practice; i.e. if they choose to ask further questions of their classmates and whether the teacher encourages this approach.
1.16 Accuracy and fluency
Accuracy and fluency usually refer to oral language work but can refer to written work too. I will describe the differences here in the context of activities to practise speaking.
Accuracy refers to correct use of language; this is often used just after presentation of new language. The objective is to produce correct language rather than to
communicate ideas. When the focus is accuracy, the teacher usually deals with error correction immediately; we will look at this in further detail in Chapter 9. Typical tasks
include: repetition, drills, controlled conversations, these terms are explained in this chapter and in Chapter 2. These tasks are useful when introducing and practising new
language.
If the focus is fluency, the teacher allows students to express themselves freely without interruption. The aim is to help students speak fluently and with ease. The teacher
does not correct immediately, the idea being that too much correction interferes with the flow of conversation. In such situations, the teacher notes down errors and
comments on them after the activity. The role of the teacher in this type of activity is to ease difficulties in communication and prompt where necessary.
Students need practice in both accuracy and fluency if they are to speak proficiently. At low levels, there will be more focus on accuracy, simply because students don’t know
enough language for lengthy fluency work. At higher levels, the focus will be mainly, but not entirely, on fluency.
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1.17 Using a course book
