Teaching Tips

2.2 Techniques of communicative teaching

According to R. Gower, D. Philips, S. Walters, "The aim of communication activities is to encourage purposeful and meaningful interaction between students.communicative tasks are designed so that students have a reason or a purpose for speaking: they are bridging an information or opinion gap; they are asking for or giving real information or finding out about the opinions of their fellow students. Not only are these activities motivating in the classroom, but they offer a challenge which mirrors real-life interaction" [14; 108].

Communicative teaching suggests pair work and group work activities. Pair work is sometimes referred to as open or closed depending on whether just one pair is speaking, usually across the class, to provide some sort of model for the others (open) or whether the whole class is divided into pairs and working simultaneously (closed). Frequently a closed pair activity is preceded by a small amount of open pair practice to get it going.
Another type of communicative activity is the mingle activity in which all the students stand up and move around talking in turn to the other students - so that pairs and small groups are being continually formed and re-formed.
Doing these communicative activities:
gives the students more valuable talking time. It gives them more of the time they require to practice the language than is possible when you are dealing with the class as a whole;
allows you to withdraw and monitor individual performances;
encourages rapport between students;
provides an opportunity for the students to co-operate with one another and learn to become independent of the teacher;
enables the students to invest much more of themselves in the lesson;
gives an opportunity for shy or unconfident students to participate whereas they would be reticent about contributing in front of the whole class;
provides a change in pace;
adds variety to a lesson.
The way the teacher use pair work and group work can depend on such factors as the experience and expectations of the students, their level, and whether they are in a monolingual or multilingual group.
It is important to remember that not all students are used to interactive activities in class. The teacher may have to introduce pair work and group work activities gradually, making sure the tasks are clearly defined, and pointing out the rationale and advantages of the approach. In a monolingual group it may be useful to discuss the purpose of such activities and to set up the first one or two in the mother tongue.
At lower levels tasks need to be limited, more structured and generally shorter than at higher levels. However, although lower levels will need more controlled practice than advanced students they will still need opportunities to express themselves freely, just as advanced levels will need some controlled practice.
This type of activity has a place in most types of lesson. Every opportunity should be taken for the students to talk to each other - when asking about unknown words, comparing their answers to tasks, correcting each other’s work as well as in activities set up especially with pairs and groups in mind - practice dialogues, information gap activities, role plays, discussions and games, etc.
So, communicative teaching possesses techniques of intercourse activity (dialogue, brainstorming role plays and dramatization, debates, games, debates, projects, etc.).