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teaching is of paramount importance in the educational process.

During the communicative activities, mistakes are seen as a natural part of learning the

language and the feedback and correction stage is usually performed at the end of tasks, rather than

at the point of error, so as not to interrupt the students’ flow of ideas and discourage them. One

aspect that needs to be highlighted at this point is represented by the fact that communicative

activities involve two different kinds of feedback. “Context feedback” (Harmer: 1991, 237) concern

an assessment of how well the students have performed the task, whereas “form feedback”

(Harmer: 1991, 238) focuses on telling the students how well they have performed linguistically,

how accurate they have been. Teachers are recommended to offer their feedback in a discreet

manner, encouraging their students to learn from their own mistakes.

In order to shed a more practical light on the features of the communication approach we

mentioned, we need to think of clear examples of communicative activities. First of all, these should

be based on a realistic and relevant situation and should involve a large spectrum of communicative

functions, such as socialising, apologizing, telephoning, giving and asking for directions,

complaining, expressing likes and dislikes, job interviews, etc. These could take the form of role-

plays, simulations, reaching a consensus, projects, debates, discussions, surveys, etc., that is

activities that are characterised by spontaneity, creativity and improvisation, and which are likely to

require multiple turn taking.However, there are a few steps that need to be followed when creating such an activity. At

first, we need to think of a realistic situation in which the language structures we have taught might

be employed and picture a setting, with concrete participants, a clear purpose of their conversation,

etc. Secondly, we should bear in mind that making the task interesting is a leading factor to getting

our students involved. Thirdly, we should think if the task we imagined requires preparation time or

not, and for which type of student groupings it is appropriate (pairs, smaller or larger groups). Once

we have followed these steps, we should make sure students know and understand all the details

concerning the task (who their characters are, where they are, what they are supposed to do and why

they are talking). If necessary, we should allow our students some preparation time and we should

monitor their activity. During the performance of the students, we should not interrupt the students

in order to correct their mistakes, but we have to make sure that at the end of the activity we involveour students in the self-correction of errors so as to make them aware of the problematic issues they

have encountered, help them learn from their mistakes and avoid, as much as possible, repeating

them.

Here are a few examples of real-life situations that can constitute the object of

communicative activities during our class work:

1) Oral activities:

A. Role-plays:

. Imagine you are at a restaurant with a good friend of yours. You heard from some

friends that the restaurant was really nice, but when you got there, you encountered

serious problems: you couldn’t find a parking space, you got a table in the

“smoking” section although you specifically mentioned you were not a smoker, the

waiter was late in taking and bringing your order and finally the bill was higher than

you calculated based on the menu. So, you asked to talk to the manager, in the

presence of the waiter. Act out the scene.

. Imagine you were invited at the cinema by your boyfriend/girlfriend, but when you

get there, you cannot decide which movie you want to watch: “Charlie and the

Chocolate Factory” or “Schindler’s list”. You usually enjoy childish, light movies

that make you feel optimistic, but your friend tends to be in favour of reality-based,

serious movies. Act out the conversation and decide which movie to watch.



. Imagine you want to pay a visit to a good friend who recently moved to a different

city. You take the train and arrive in that city, but you don’t know how to get to your

friend’s house. You could call him, but you don’t want to ruin the surprise.

Fortunately, you know his exact address and you get across an extremely nice local

man who offers to help you and gives you the directions. Act out the conversation.

B. Discussions:

. Think of as many consequences of drinking alcohol as possible.

. Talk about the main advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet for solving

school tasks.

. Think of as many summer holiday activities as possible.

C. Reaching a consensus:

. You are going in Paris for the weekend (it’s July), but you are not allowed to take

much luggage with you. Decide on ten objects you should take with you.

. You saw an older colleague of yours stealing money from another student in your

school. Decide what you should do: a) report the incident to the headmaster; b)

ignore the incident; c) talk to the “thief” in private and try to solve the situation on

your own.

D. Debates:. Smoking should be strictly banned from all public places. Give arguments for and

against.

. All schools should impose uniforms for their students. Give your pros and cons.

. Violent movies should be forbidden on all TV channels. Give your pros and cons.

2) Written activities:

. Design an advertisement for a new brand of make-up/cars.

. Design a news broadcast about a serious accident that occurred in your town.

. In groups, take turns writing only one sentence in order to make up a story starting from the

following line: “Once upon a time there was a poor girl who lived with her sick mother in an

old, shabby house.”

. Choose a colleague in your class to be your penfriend. Exchange letters in which you adviseeach other, get to know one another better, etc.

Of course, the list of communicative activities1 could go on, but this is not the purpose of the

present paper.

1 The examples of communicative activities presented above chiefly focus on groups of students who

have an intermediate up to advanced level of English. However, communicative activities can be easily

created also for beginner, elementary or lower-intermediate English users. In conclusion, this paper

does not militate in favour of the idea that the communicative-style teaching is the sole and only

method of English teaching, but it surely shouldn’t be ignored on the path of our educational process, as

we need to give our students the opportunity to practice real speech acts and to learn how to be

confident speakers. Only in this way will they be prepared to go to a foreign country and cope with a

variety of everyday situations.

Bibliography:

. Berns, M. S., Savignon, S., Initiatives in communicative language teaching. A book of

readings, Reading, MA: Addison – Wesley.

. Larsen – Freeman, D. (1986), Techniques and principles in language teaching, Oxford:



Oxford University Press.

. Harmer, J. (1991), The Practice of English Language Teaching, London: Longman.

PROF.MAZILU DANIELA

LICEUL TEHNOLOGIC CONSTRUCTII DE MASINI COLIBASI

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