producing, comprehending, or interacting in varied use of the target language to communicate with many purposes. Communicative activities
can be conducted in the classroom by placing the students in a situation where they have to perform a task by communicating optimally. The
activities can encourage the students to speak in the target language so that they can give positive contributions toward speaking learning process.
b. Purposes of Communicative Activities
Communicative activities are activities that can involve students in learning to use the target language. Communicative activities can give
contributions toward the learning of the language. Littlewood 1981:17-18 suggests 4 purposes of communicative activities as follows:
1 They provide whole task practice Learning a language does not only involve practice in the part skill
but also involves practice in the total skill called whole task practice. It means that in foreign language learning, teachers need to provide
students with various kinds of communicative activities, structured in order to suit the ability level of learners.
2 They improve motivation The learners‘ ultimate objective in learning a language is to
participate in communication with others. Their motivation to learn is more likely to be maintained if their classroom learning can help them
to accomplish this objective with increasing success. 3 They allow natural learning
Communicative activities provide opportunities for positive personal relationship to develop among and between learners and
teacher. These relationships can create an environment that supports an individual in his efforts to learn.
c. Types of Communicative Activities
Littlewood 2002:20 offers two main categories of communicative activities. They are described as follows:
1 Functional Communication Activities These activities emphasize on functional aspect of communication,
for example, the learners have a problem to be solved or they have information to be exchanged. They are not required to choose a specific
language form which is appropriate or grammatically correct because the main purpose of the activity is that learners should use the language
they know in order to get meanings across as effectively as possible. For example, a student is asked to respond to suggestions in the line
with his own likes and dislikes Littlewood, 2002:11 The principle underlying functional communication activity is that
students have to overcome an information gap or solve a problem according to the situation structured by the teacher. The nature of the
classroom situations limit the range of functional communication needs that can be created for students. It includes sharing and processing
information. There are many examples that can be categorized as functional communication activities such as identifying pictures,
discovering identical pairs, discovering missing information and communicating based on pictures.
2 Social Interaction Activities These activities focus on the ability to take account of the social
meaning as well as the functional meaning of different language forms. Thus, it is important for the learners to choose the language which is not
only functionally effective, but it is also appropriate to the social situation they are in. Foe example, the learners need to pay attention on
to the social context in which the interaction takes place when they want to use the language. Here, language is not only instrument but also
a form of behavior. Teachers need to help learners in performing language in
meaningful social context of interaction rather than simply responding to prompts. Because of the limitation of the teaching and learning
processes, stimulation and role-playing are proper to be conducted in the classroom which can create social situations. Here is the example of
role-playing controlled through cued dialogues given by Littlewood 2002:14
Partner A Partner B
You meet B in the street A : Greet B.
B : A: Ask B where he is going
B : A: Suggest somewhere to go
together B :
You meet A in the street A :
B : Greet A A :
B : say you are going for a walk
A : B : Reject A‘s suggestion.
A : Accept B‘s suggestion B :
Make a different suggestion A :
B : Express pleasure
Based on communicative approach, Littlewood 2002:85 also distinguishes two kinds of activities in the classroom, i.e. pre-communicative
activities and communicative activities. In pre-communicative activities, learners are taught about the part skills of communication rather than the total skill to be
acquired. Learners only require producing certain language forms in an acceptable way such as learning about grammar and vocabularies and also practicing
pronunciation. The purpose of giving pre-communicative activities is to prepare the learners for later communicative activity by providing them with necessary
linguistics forms and the necessary links between forms and meaning Littlewood, 2002:16. In the other hand, communicative activities demand the learners
activate and integrate their pre-communicative knowledge and skills in order to use them for the communicative of meanings which can be applied in the form of
functional communicative activities and social interaction activities Littlewood, 2002:86.
Klippel 1991:3 also suggests some communicative activities for language teaching. In selecting and developing the activities, he has been guided
by several principle i.e. message oriented communication, learner-centered activities, active learning, cooperative and empathy.
The term message-oriented is used in the moments in the classroom when the target language serves as a tool for communication, e.g. such real
communicative situations as exchanging comments about TV program. A prime
instance of this use is classroom discourse, i.e. getting things done in the lesson Klippel, 1991:3.
Learner-centered activities are concerned with the learners themselves and their feelings and ideas. They necessarily need to be involved in real
communicative situations to be able to express their own opinions and attitudes, especially if they are studying English in a non-speaking English country,
learners‘ feelings and ideas are the focal point of the exercises. For learners who are studying English in a non-speaking English country it is very important to
experience real communicative situations in which they learn to express their own views and attitudes, and in which, above all, they are taken seriously as people.
Meaningful activities on a personal level can be a step towards this identification which improves performance and generates interest. And, of course, talking about
something which affects them personally is eminently motivating for students Klippel, 1991:5.
Klippel 1991:6 also emphasizes learners‘ active participation in the teaching process
– the degree of learner activity – by doing and making in the classroom when students are made to get out of their seats while interviewing
each other. Learning is more effective if students are actively involved in the teaching and learning process. The use of picture in the class, for example, can
arouse the curiosity and interest of students. Games can also make students active in the class.
It is generally known that a lot of teaching situations are based on fact- oriented stage mostly while foreign language teaching is supposed to lead up to
cooperation and empathy, i.e. learners should be urged to be sensitive towards the feelings of others and sharing them. Activities such as jigsaw tasks, for instance,
show the learner how necessary the cooperation is Klippel, 1991:6. Klippel proposes 123 activities in total which has been grouped under
three headings. They are question and answer, discussion and decision, and stories and scenes. The activities are structured in a similar way. They are interesting and
easy to be applied in the classroom. The activities do not constitute a graded program which should be taught step by step. Therefore, teachers can freely
choose the suitable exercises for students. From the explanation above, it seems that communicative activities
proposed by Klippel are the most appropriate to be applied in the classroom because the activities are interesting and easy to be applied in the classroom.
Besides, the procedures of the activities are not strict so that teachers can modify them based on educational aims and learners‘ needs. However, it is also important
to give pre-communicative activities for students to prepare them in having communicative activities.
d. Possible Activities to Teach Speaking
