38 learning process. It is likely that many aspects of language learning can
take place only through natural learning processes that operate when a student is involved in using the language for communication. Therefore,
information-gap activities as forms of communicative activities are important parts of the total learning process.
4 They can create a context which supports learning
Information-gap activities as communicative activities provide opportunities for positive personal relationships to develop among
students and between them and the teacher. These relationships can help to ‘humanize’ the classroom and to create an environment that supports
each of the individuals in the class in hisher effort to learn.
c. The Kinds of Information-Gap Activities
Information-gap activities cover a wide range of activities. The main principles of this kind of activities are that a participant knows some
information which the other participants do not know and that the goal of the activities can be achieved only if the participants communicate with each other
to exchange information. There are many creative forms that can be used in designing this kind of
activities. Klippel 1989 mainly divides communicative activities into three types. Those are questions and answers, discussions and decisions, and stories
and scenes. The former type covers warming-up exercises, interviews, guessing games, jigsaw tasks and questioning activities. The second one covers
ranking exercises, discussion games, values clarification techniques, thinking
39 strategies, and problem-solving activities. While the last one covers miming,
role-play and simulations and stories. However, regarding this categorization, Klippel 1989:1 says that since some types of activities share certain
characteristics, there is some overlap. Regarding the categorization above, further, Klippel 1989:4 suggests
that information-gap activities can be found under the umbrella of guessing game, jigsaw and problem solving activities. However, it is not impossible to
adapt the other kinds of activities to be information-gap activities as long as teachers can design the activities in such way that makes students have some
information-gap to be bridged by having the communication. Other than the activity categorization above, Folse 1993 proposes a way
in designing the activities in a more flexible way. She categorizes the activities based on their intended learning materials like names of people and things,
common adjectives, numbers, position, family, and clock and calendars. She does not categorizes the activities in a strict way. It means that there is a
possibility in mixing and adapting the activity design. The discussion in this point will be limited to the activities which will be
conducted in the research. In this case, at least, there will be activities under the umbrella of guessing game, and interview.
As the name suggests, guessing games are activities in which the students are given clues by their friends in order for them to guess something. In this
kind of activities, both chance and skill in asking the right questions play a part in finding the solution. The outcome of the game tends to be uncertain until
40 the last moment, and so it is full of suspense. The basic rule of guessing games
is eminently simple: one student knows something that another one wants to find out. How this is done is determined by an additional set of rules. These
rules lay down, for example, the type and number of questions. The thing to be guessed differs greatly from game to game. It can be something one player is
thinking of, an object seen only by one person, a word, an activity - or lots of other things.
Furthermore, Klippel 1989:31 states that as the student guessing has a real urge to find out something, guessing games are true communicative
situations and as such are very important for foreign language learning. These kinds of activities combine language practice with fun and excitement.
Therefore, students of all ages generally like them. One thing that teachers have to make sure before trying out a new
guessing game to her class is that the students have already known all the words and structures necessary for the game. If she is not sure yet, a trial run through
the game may refresh her students memories and show whether any revision on the game or any explanation about some language aspect is needed before
the game is played in earnest. A trial run also has the advantage that the rules are demonstrated to all the players. Another element to be considered before
playing is the organization of the game, in order to guarantee that as many students as possible are actively participating most of the time. If a guessing
game is played as a team contest, it may be necessary to damp down the very
41 competitive-minded. Games are a lot of fun even if they are not played in order
to score points. The design of the activity depends on the students’ need and the teacher’s
creativity. The teacher may make the activity by herself by paying attention to the basic rule above, and she may also adapt any kinds of activities whose
natures are guessing g ames. The teacher’s creativity in designing the game
plays an important role since variation is a vital ingredient of good games. Teachers can try changing the rules of familiar games or doing things in a
different order, and they will find that one game idea can be the nucleus of many new games.
The second kind of information-gap activities to be discussed here is interview. The nature of this kind of activity is the question-and-answer point
to seek for some certain information. The success of an interview depends both on the skill of the interviewer, on her ability to ask the right kinds of questions,
to insist and interpret, and on the willingness to talk on the part of the person being interviewed. Both partners in an interview should be good at listening so
that a question-and-answer sequence develops into a conversation. In the foreign language classroom, interviews are useful not only because they force
students to listen carefully but also because they are so versatile in their subject matter.
What teachers need to ensure before implementing interviews activities in the teaching and learning process is that her students understand the
necessary question-and-answer structures. A few sample sentences on the
42 board may be a help for the less able. Additionally, the topic of the interview
activities depends on the students’ need. From the two kinds of information-gap activities above, it can be seen
that the main point of an information-gap activity is that a speaker has some information which the other participants of the communication does not
know. Here then the main focus of the speaker is to deliver what is in hisher mind to the others. In other words, besides the activities elaborated in the
previous paragraph, an information gap activity might be as simple as asking students to have a conversation in groups or pairs in which each member is
given a card containing some picture or situation which must not be shown to other members.
4. The Psychology of Learning of Junior High School Students
