PRACTICE ACTIVITIES AND TASKS FOR LANGUAGE AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
In this unit the most important thing I learn
is that activities and tasks designed to give learners opportunities to
practise and extend their use of language, such as new vocabulary, functional
exponents or grammatical structures, or of the sub-, or of the
sub-skills of reading, listening, speaking or writing. There are many different
of activities and tasks with different names and uses.
When selecting activities for practicing productive
skills, we need to decide productive skills, we need to decide whether to do a
controlled practice which is mainly the accuracy or a freer practice
activity which is mainly communication.
When choosing activities for developing skills,
we need to decide which skill or sub-skill to focus on and take into account
that lessons should consist of a series of linked activities:
1. PPP: Presentation then controlled activities
and freer practice activities.
2. TBL: Discussion then tasks and presentation
with a focus on form.
3. Skill-based lessons: Warmer and lead-in comprehension
tasks and post-task activities.
Therefore in a language teaching situation the
teacher according to the learners needs is the one who choose if
applying a controlled practice, freer practice or free activity or an activity
that focuses on accuracy and communication.
To keep students motivation it is
important that the teacher apply variety in the class, it is to use different
kinds of activities but without disturbing the sequence of the lesson.
EXTRA USEFUL MATERIAL
- Prator, C.H. and Celce-Murcia, M. 1979. An outline of language teaching approaches. In Celce-Murcia, M. and McIntosh, L. (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. New York: Newbury House.
- Nunan, David 1989 Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Nunan, D. 1991 Language Teaching Methodology: A Textbook for Teachers New York: Prentice-Hall.
- Nunan, David (ed) 2003 Practical English Language Teaching McGraw Hill.
I like your analysis about when to use controlled practice activites and when to use freer activities because as you said teachers are the one who can choose the most suitable activities depending on the group of students they are working with.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Rosita for your comment! Indeed, teachers are in charge of choosing the type of activity that their students may need!
DeleteGood job
ReplyDeleteThe Group of links that you include into this topic, is helpful for teachers, because the practice activities is part of the each lesson in the class.
Thanks!
DeleteHope those links help you in the same way they did to me!
Dear Alexandra,
ReplyDeleteYour reflective blog has a relevant information and the use of vocabulary shows how much you understood from TKT book and I consider that in the classroom
the activities have to focus on communication.
Great Job,,