The Nature of Information Gap Activities

B. Information Gap Activities

1. The Nature of Information Gap Activities

Information gap activity is an activity which is based on information-gap principle that in real communication people normally communicate in order to get information they do not possess. 20 Real communication is likely to occur in the classroom if students practice language forms on their own way and use their linguistic and communicative resources in order to express their ideas. In so doing, they will get available vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies to complete a task. Another definition of information gap activity is an activity where two speakers have different bits of information, and they can only complete the whole picture by sharing that information-because they have different information, there is a ‘gap’ between them. 21 In an information gap activity one person has information that the other lacks. They must use the target language to share that information. For instance, one student has the directions to a party and must give them to a classmate. Information gap exists when one person in an exchange knows something to other person does not. 22 Therefore, if we create an activity based on this statement, the activity is in the form that the students work in pair or in group and each student has different information and they have to share each other’s information in order to complete a task. Referring to the definition above, we can conclude that the principles of information gap activities are that each student has different information and they need to obtain information from each other in order to finish a task. They must use target language to accomplish it. 20 Jack C. Richards, …….., p. 19 21 Jeremy Harmer, How to teach English, Harlow: Pearson education limited, 2007, p. 129. 22 Diane Larsen Freeman, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, New Yor: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 129. For information gap activities to work, it is vitally important that students understand the details of the task for example, that they should not show each other pictures. 23 It is often a good idea for teachers to demonstrate how an activity works by asking a student to come to front of the class and performing the activity with the teacher, so that everyone can see exactly how to do the activity. Many English learners cannot say what they wish to say in English, even though they had years of English learning. Therefore, we need to actively engage students in speaking activities that are enjoyable and that are based on a more communicative competence as the goal of teaching speaking. One of the challenges faced by many second language-teachers is motivating their students to speak in the target language, confident students always participate and students who are less confident are reluctant to speak. Even when students speak in the target language, they are usually answering a question and this approach greatly limits students output. Oral presentations provide opportunities for students to speak in the target language for an extended period of time and these activities are useful, but they should not be the only opportunities, students have to speak at length. Because students prepare for this presentation by writing a script and then rehearsing it, they have difficulty to speak in the target language spontaneously because they only have a little opportunity to do so. When students choose to learn a language, they are interested in learning to speak that language as fluently as possible. One solution is by using information gap activities. These types of activities are extremely effective in the L2 classroom. They give every student the opportunity to speak in the target language for an extended period of time and students naturally produce more speech than they would otherwise. In addition, They can help to reduce such fears by maintaining a friendly atmosphere in the class and providing opportunities for students to practice alone or with another student and then increasingly with a larger group of students. 24 Thus, 23 Keith S. Folse, The Art of Teaching Speaking, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 2006, p. 95. 24 Rudy Wallace, et–al, Teaching speaking, listening and writing, Geneva: International Bureau of Education, 2004, p. 12. From: http:www.ibe.unesco.org. students can practice speaking in front of their peers who face the same situation. Speaking with peers is less intimidating than presenting in front of the entire class and being evaluated. Another advantage of information gap activities is that students are forced to negotiate meaning because they must make what they are saying comprehensible to others in order to accomplish the task.

2. Speaking Activities Based on Information Gap Activities