interference due to the discrepancies between sounds and their written symbols. If teachers consider it useful, they can ask the class to repeat the utterances in chorus, then in
groups of students for example whole rows and finally individually. When, interference from the written text is reduced to a minimum, students can repeat the
utterances by reading from their books.
e Reading out loud Reading out loud should be done by groups of students either at the same time or one after the
other. Each member of a group reads out loud the utterances of one character.
f Reconstruction of the dialogue The reconstruction of the dialogue must obviously be carried out with books closed. The teacher
asks question; to help students reconstruct the dialogue: Who speaks first? What does heshe say? How does Susan answer? What happens now? etc.
g Dramatization At this point, the dialogue will have been memorized by almost all the students, who will
therefore be able to act it out. This is always extremely interesting and fun for students, and it would be a pity to dedicate only a short time to this activity. If the lesson is almost over, it
would be better to postpone this activity until the following lesson thus giving all students, even the slowest enough time to memorize the entire dialogue at home.
It is advantageous to use props”, if the students have them available where necessary the teacher or the students can procure them. Other students not directly involved in the activity in
question can provide background noise a doorbell ringing, a door opening, etc., or they can act as extras
. The whole activity should be carried out in a lively playful atmosphere in order to reassure stage-shy actors
, and also encourage shy students. The teacher should coordinate the activities, but also be able to remain in the background at the right time and, when necessary,
suggest forgotten lines. Heshe should avoid correcting students. Correcting can be done after the acting is over.
2. Oral Practice Stage Communication Practice
In this stage, the functions and structures presented in the dialogue are practised intensively, usually with new lexical items. Each activity is highly visible and clearly reveals the kind of
communicative function it exercises so that students can immediately become aware of the real use of the utterances they produce during practice. Moreover, in these activities there is always
some kind of information gap where one speaker will not know what the other speaker will answer, and vice versa. Occasionally, participants have to communicate about their personal
experience. These activities are of fundamental importance for the success of the course. Not only do students practise listening and speaking, but they also exercise skills such as organizing
oral and written discourse, predicting language, negotiating meaning and correcting each other mistakes.
Almost all the activities should be aimed out in pairs on groups. Working in pairs or in groups helps solve the problem of lack of time for individual student production and comprehension
practices. The class is divided into pairs and the teacher assigns letters A and R to the member of each pair. All pairs work simultaneously and at the end of the activity, the two members
exchange roles so that each student can, for example, ask and answer questions. If the class has an odd number of students, the teacher can pair up with the odd students and take part in the
activity. The seating arrangement of the class should be change frequently so that students can change partners.
During these activities the teacher should take the role of monitor. Heshe can walk around the classroom, listen to the pairs of students, and make necessary corrections. Often, however, the
partners themselves will correct each other. The teacher might, from time to time, follow another procedure. Heshe can walk around the
classroom, listen to the pairs of students, and note down any mistakes they might be making. After the activity has been completed, the teacher may go over the mistakes noted beforehand
with the whole class.
This type of activity has the advantage not only of setting all students involved simultaneously, but also of amusing boredom caused by listening to the same exercise repeated over and over
again. One might object that practice is rendered less effective by the fact that all the students are talking at the same time. However, this rarely happens. Students get used to lowering their
voices almost immediately because they realize that yelling does not help, but only causes other students to raise their voice as well. Sometimes, when the activity is over in a few verbal
exchanges, it might be a good idea to substitute a chain exercise for pair work: student A asks a question to student B who answers. The latter than asks the same question to student C who
answers and then asks the question to student D, and so on. Group work is also interesting and useful; it is carried out in the same way as pair work. It is
often necessary for the group usually a small group of 3 or 4 students to select a group leader who will report the results of hisher group work to the class. An important characteristic of this
kind of activity is that students are asked to collaborate actively. They themselves must provide the necessary information thus giving the exercise a touch of the personal information
unknown to the partner. This justifies the verbal exchanges and makes them similar to those occurring in real situations of communication.
An information gap is introduced into almost all oral activities.
3. Grammar and Written Practice Grammar Practice
