ALESSANDRA HORNUNG CARNEIRO

COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIESAND MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH CLASSES

Monografia apresent da para a obten,iiodo titulo de especiali~ta no curso de p6s~gradu8yao Especial&.ayao em LinguaInglesa, setor CEPPE - Centro de P6s-Gradua<;:ao, Pesquis~ e Extensao daUniversidade Tuiuti do Parana sob aorienta,iio da Prof' Mestra Marrigie K.Verburg.

CURITffiA2000

CONTENTS

: ::::':::~:'~:=~:~-~-~~:-~~-~--~:-~-:~-l~~-~~~:2.1. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING X STRUCrLISM.. 3

2.2. WHAT IS A COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITY r .23 BENEFITS OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHiING IN THEPROCESS OF LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE I 9

24 TEACHERS' AND STUDENTS' ROLES IN COM+ICATIVEACTIVITIES......................................................................................................... 12

D. ~

2.6. ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATION.. 17

2.7. TEACHERS' BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING FOREIGNLANGUAGE 20

22

3.1. METHODOLOGY. 22

3.2. DESCRIPTION OF THE LESSONS ...

26

24

3.3 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS ...

Communicative activities seem to be very important in English language

I. INTRODUCTION

teaching (ELT) because we are teaching a skill rather than a content subject. For this

. .. J .reason learners have to be given the opporturuty to expenment With the language bemg

learned, elaborate their own hypothesis about it and test them in l. environment which

is favourable to this practice and where they know there will be re teachers' support

and cOlTection whenever necessary. However, practical experieny of teaching English

at state schools has shown that this is not what usually happens ill these classrooms. I

have already been teaching for about eight years and nothing hJ changed in tenns of

teaching and learning foreign languages at public schools. studlts usually complain

they do not understand why they should learn something Jey do not have any

practical usage for and teachers also complain it is impossible tolteach the subject and

go on asking students to memorize lists of vocabulary and write sentences following a

For this reason and because I strongly believe there is room for changes, in

model.

this paper I intend to present a survey on topics such as whal is a communicative

aClivily, bene!ils of communicalive language leaching in Ihe pro)..,s of learning a new

language, leachers' and siudenis' roles in communicalive lessoL and beliefs aboul

leaching and learning a foreign language, as well as alliludes ld mo/ivalion. I also

intend to implement some communicative activities in my les.dns and see how they

affect students' motivation and production, comparing them to another group using

only mechanical activities. These data will be analysed and the conclusions presented

so that other teachers which are also seeking for imprQvemen1 in their methods of

teaching may have a better idea on what to do and the results they may reach in their

own groups.

2. THEORETICAL ASPECTS

2. L COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING X STRUfTURALISM

A lot of changes have been promoted in tenns of teaching a foreign

language and the different methodologies in which this has bel done point to two

main approaches which are the communicalive and the Sln,clura,.1

According to Ur (1997:7) one of the basic differences between these two

approaches is the way language is seen in each of them, as J1<'thC communicative

approach sees language as a means of communication rather than a set of words

or structures" which is the structural approach view. The goal of the language course

is another aspect which entails differences. In the commUnicatiJ approach the learner

is expected to achieve communicative competence while "thel mastery of correct

forms of the language" is the main goal of the structural approach. Ur (1997:7) also

points out that the activities included in both approaches make thl students perform in

different ways, being the "usage" favoured by the structmal lpproach, that is the

learner performing a task where he "demonstrates his ability tl use his knowledge

of linguistic rules", as defined by Widdowson (1978:3, cited b1ElIiS 1994:727). The

communicative activities on the other hand would favour the "use" which Widdowson

(1978:3, cited by Ellis 1994:727) defines as "the aspect of Iperformance which

makes evident the extent to which the language user demonstrates his ability to

Iuse his knowledge of linguistic rules for effective communication".

Therefore different methodologies and techniques have been developed and

introduced by course designers in the last decades. White (1988:lr points out that "in

the 1960s it was taken for granted that a structural syllabus, based on widely

accepted principles of selection and grading as outlined by ptmer and Hornby,

would form the basis of language teaching material". I Therefore discrete

decontextualized items of language were presented to learners and practised one at a

time, while the learners' output was higly controlled and correcJed on the spot. The

tasks in general lead to language manipulation and the mother toJre was used to talk

about the target language and to teach and explain the rules bleing presented. The

communicative language teaching was introduced later on and White (1988:17) says

that "the 1970s were characterized by a concern with Leaning'" and the

implications of this new approach was that language items were ltroduced in context

as a whole discourse, learners' output was less controlled and mo~e personal with less

correction. The activities aimed at communication and the mother tongue was not

used.

As the name suggests communicative activities are the ones which promote

2.2. WHAT IS A COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITY

communication among leamers. Communication is understood here as the need to get

a message across by using any language the students already kno I plus some attempts

in which "the teacher creates a situation and sets an activity in motion, but it is

to use language they have already been exposed to and think are sujtable for this

specific situation. Littlewood (1981: 18) describes communicative activilies as the ones

the learners themselves who are responsible for conducting t e interaction to its

conclusion" .

Regarding the differences between communicative and structural activities

we can say that lhe fonner has a focus on form, while the focls of the latter is on

forms. Long (1991, cited by Ellis 1994:639) points out that '101"5 all/arm involves

'alternating in some principled way between a focus 00 meariog and a focus on

form' and a foclls on forms refers to instruction that seeks to isolate linguistic

forms in order to teach and test them one at a time". It seems that in a structural

syllabus small bits of language are taught and tested in a pre1estabiiShed sequence

while in a commwlicative syl1abus language is seen as a whole and students are

exposed to it and have the opportunity to practise it by referrinb to several different

bits of language at the same time.

Another difference between these two approaches to language teaching is

that the communicative view of the language leads to implicit ~nstruction in which

"learners are required to induce rules from examples given tol them", according to

Ellis (1994:642) and the stlUctural view promotes an explicit J1

eall1lenl"where the

learners are given a rule which they then practise using", as defined by Ellis

(1994:642). For this reason the structural activities are so mechanical and make the

students concentrate so much on the form, while commurucati I e activities seem to

make the ieanlers think of how they can use this or that bit of language to

communicate on a specific occasion.

Littlewood (1981:20) divides the communicative activities into two groups,

the jilnctional communication activities "which are the ones Ithat emphasize the

functional aspect of communication". The aim of these activities is the fluency and

the learners do not have to use specific language they have leled for this purpose.

What students are asked to do is to use their own kuowledge of the world and the

general knowledge of the language they already have to solve a problem or exchange

some factual infonnation. Some examples of this kind of activities are: describing a

picture for a partner to spot differences, asking questions about that people are doing

now (using pictures) or talking about people at home or in the classroom (see appendix

I). The success of this kind of activity can be measured by h1w effectively learners

can make themselves understood and reach a definite solution or a decision. The other

group is related to "social interaction activities" and these addlanother component to

the exchange. The activity is not only a matter of fluency but it also aims at

\,p f~~I!(;i'·

gtammatlCal accuracy, pronuncIatIOn and, at more advaTed levels, regIster

awareness These activItIes such as roleplays and simulatIOns, set the students In a

specIfic enVlfonment ill which they have to behave accordmgll and respond usmg

appropriate language (levels offormality, for example) (see appeJdix I).

Concerning the way information is shared by Ibe students during tlle

activities Littlewood (1981:22) describes them as «Sharinl. information with

restricted cooperation", when one student has the infonnatio that another student

needs to complete the task and he only gives this information w en asked by the one

Iwho needs it, wilbout adding any extra details. One example of Ibis kind of activity is

the one in which one student has to find out the olber studenJ.. job by asking ten

yes/no questions. When students "sbare information with unre.lricted cooperation"

it means Ibat not only does the one who needs infonnation asJ questions to get Ibis

information, but the one who possesses the infonnation can also take part more

actively in the activity by adding details to the information given. When giving

directions, for instance. In "sbaring and processing information not only have the

students to share information, they also have to diSCU~Sor evaluate their

information to solve a prohlem", says Littlewood (1981:32). lor example, Ibere are

four students in a group and each of them knows prut of a storY, they have to join,

share Ibe infonnation and analyse it so Ibat they come up WilblIbe end of Ibe story.

Another stage of dealing with information is the "processing information ", all

learners possess the same kind of infonnation, for example, IbL have to plan a day

trip to a place that everybody knows, and this trip must be enjoyable to all participants

who have different likes (see appendix I).

PROCESS OF LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.

2.3 BENEFITS OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE

A lot of research has been carried out aimimg at creating more effective

ways of improving teaching and shortening the process of leJng a new language.

Ellis (1994:602) points out that "there is now convincing eVidenbe that learners can

learn naturally in a communicative classroom set". The c1astroom should be the

ideal environment to provide students with opportunities to use ~e language in a life-

like way so that they can feel it is something concrete and usefL in their lives. It is

difficult to say to what extent the process of learning a net language is really

enhanced by a communicative approach, however, it has been observed that there are aI

lot of positive factors which are in favour of this approach in fannal instruction

situations.

One of the benefits which is easily recognizable is the fact that the learners

are the centre of the procedures in the classroom and this leads em to interact with

the language. More opportunities are created to vary the quality of their production as

well as to increase the quantity of participation. Cathcart (f986, cited by Ellis

1994:594) found out that "situations where the learners had the control of the talk were

characterized by a wide variety of communicative acts, and syntactic structures, whereas the

situations where the teacher had the control seemed to produce single word utterances, short

phrases and formulaic chunks". Another benefit of the communicative activities is that

Ibecause they are usually perfonned in pairs or small groups and students are seeking

fu< '""_"'00 ","d, .,••" ", "'"""'00 ., ••., '" I"'" ~",."w,0

10

opportunities of real communication. The focus of attention is on the meanings being

expressed and there is negotiation of language in order to achieve la common objective,

which is the final product of their work together. This negotiatioi creates room for the

use of many different functions of the language which are fori instance, asking for

clarification, agreeing or disagreeing, asking for and giving suggestion. This is real

communication taking place and leading students to devLop communicative

competence.

The humanistic approach to langnage teaching takes into consideration

affective factors which may influence the leaming procesl and according to

Littlewood (1981:18) "communicative activity provides opportunilil. for positive personal

relationships 10 develop among learners and between learnm and teacter. These relationships

can help to humanise the classroom and to create an environment that supports the individual in

his efforts to learn." This cooperative atmosphere created in th1 classroom seems to

make students feel more confident and willing to take part as they feel at ease. At the

. thikindf' ··th I d I .. dsame time S 0 mteraCllonm e c assroom ten s to mcrease motIvatIon an

positive attitudes (see 2.5. - Attittndes and Motivation) which arj very relevant aspects

of the leaming process.

The use of communicative activities in the classroom also promotes

integration of skills, which is something that characterizes the rek use of the language.

That is, students performing a communicative task are required tb ask questions, listen

to the answers, take notes of what they hear, or read a text WhicJ contains relevant and

interesting information. They are familiar with all these procedJes occuning naturally

in their own language. That is why it seems to be more natural to se them all together

when practising the target language.

II

12

2.4.- TEACHERS' AND STUDENTS' ROLES IN COMMUNICATIVE

ACTIVITIES jThere IS a vanety of dIfferent roles which are pia ed by teachers and

Istudents 111 the classlOom, dependmg on the stage of the lesson and the kind of

acavltIes bemg earned out I

Teachers' roles, for example are represented by Hlel (1991 235) III a

clme of control and freedom m whICh the roles of control/er and ac/lilator are placed

m Opposite ends

The cOnfrol/el teacher IS the one that acts at certam palOts of the lesson In

which students' attention is focussed on the teacher. For instanc], when introducing a

new grammar point. Teachers also play the role of assessor dnd this role may be

placed very close to tl,e contl'OlIer end of the cline if we coLider correction, for

example. However, it can slid to the middle of the cline if gentle correction is

pClfonned. That is when the teacher spots the mistake and draws students' attention to

it but does not spend too much time making them repeat or fooussing their attention

entirely on tl,is mistake. Because students are asked to carry out !everal different tasks

during a lesson, teachers also act as organizers. They are tJe ones who instruct

students and make sure these students understand what they are dbout to do. They also

have the role of prompters due to the awareness of the developLent of the activities

they must show, since the very beginning of each activity, Ld they monitor the

activity encouraging students whenever necessary, reminding them about specific

"~,,\e:.\."\-)

1:' ..••IC-:'()riai \1o·•..<~o/

points of the task they must fulfil and engaging members of the group who may no Ptaking part in the activity. When it comes to taking patt , we ShJuld also consider the

role of participal1l a teacher can play on certain occasions. [In a simulation, for

example, the teacher can be one of the participants without taking over students' roles

.. . . . . . I .but playlOg hIS part and ennchmg the aclIVlty by exposmg students to better qualIty

doubts, and that ll1C teacher is available to help them overcome difficulties they may

language in tJlat situation. While monitoring pair or groupwork the teacher can play

the part of resource. Students must know that they can count on the teacher to clarify

have during the activity. As a tlltor the teacher can help student develop strategies of

lealllin~ as well as point out mistakes in written work, encouraging self-correction.

Finally, the teacher must be an investigator and observe [what happens in the

classroom, which procedures work well and which do not, and find out the reason why

they happen. By doing that teachers will be improving their 0ll perfonnance as well

as the quality of their work and students' results.

Students also play different roles according to the ifferent stages of the

.. Ilesson, and to the role the teacher IS plaYlllg at that moment. if the teacher keeps a

high-profile becoming the focus of attention, students are autJmatiCallY turned into

audiellce and play a passive role as listeners. Whereas, aftt an activity is set,

.. 'fi' I .practlsmg a speci IC grammar pomt or vocabulary to be learnt or revised, students

usually have to follow examples and they become trainees to be ~uided and controlled

" _00' ,,',"""'~ ~m "'" ,,~ '" M' ;,.", •"" "'r'"OW,""'" '"" W''"~•• ,"mmoo;~;w •••,,' " ,~,' "m, "' _I,m ;, mm<""" "'

14

practice taking place, but other elements are added to this practice so that students are

turned into participants because this kind of activity involves ploPle interacting with

their peers and sometimes with the teacher. This tends to transferlthe fOCllSof attention

from tile teacher to the language being used by the students a1 well as the meaning

they want to communicate when using this language. This also makes students users of

the language and at thi~, p~int they become. commUnicators IWhiCh is defined by

Swarbnck (1984:82) as belOg aware of the soclo-pragmatlc reqUIrements of the different

situations in which they are called upon to use the target language; lensitive to the varying

psychological relations they will have to the different persons lith whom they must

communicate, and capable equally of taking initiatives in communicatiL and responding to the

initio';ves of oth",,", even if limited to a certain level, students fend to improve their

petfonnance after having the opportunity to expose them elves and test their

hypothesis about the target language.

15

2.5.STUDENTS' BELIEFS ABOUT LEARNING A FOREIGN LlA.NGUAGE

A ro~";",~ .W=~m _.~ _., J .00 """",,,.,""

students' beliefs as an important fac(or for tl,e development of &e learning process.

Although these are " ... likely to be influenced by general ractorslsUcb as personality

and cognitive style" as suggested by Abr.han and Vann's (19r:97, cited by Ellis

1994:479) there are some beliefs which seem to be shared by most of the students. For

example, the research shows that "students preferred to llrn by production

activities (repeating orally and writing) ratber tban tbrOUg~ receptive activities

involving listening and reading". This can be observed in ~e classroom where

students usually complain that the text to be read is too long, or re piece of listening

too difficult. However, if they are involved in producing a structure or pcrfonning a

function of the language orally they seem to be more willing tJ participate and they

also seem to take more advantage of this kind of activity as it is easier for them to

enjoy what they are doing.

Another belief has to do with how students see the study of a foreign

language. Many students claim that they do not wlderstand Wht tlley should learn a

new language which is in the curriculum but which tlley are nof going to use in real

life. They seem to believe it is too difficult and useless and for this reason they refuse,I

even unconsciously. to make any effort to interact with it or unlerstand it better. This

kind of belief tends to inhibit learning as it affects negatively students' attitudes

towards the language. "Many believe that learning 'on the strJet' is more effective,

which they think is not the best environment in terms of language exposure.

Students' own experience with other subjects seem to lnf]uence their beliefs

about studying a foreign language. As most subjects teach and test a certain amoWlt of

Icontents during a certain period of time, students tend to view the study of a foreign

their (learners') chief interest is in acquitting themselves wei in the exams, and it

language in the same way. Unfortunately this kind of belief is disruptive for the

development of the process of leaming a foreign langnage due to he fact that langnage

is a skill rather than a subject. Swarbrick (1984:85) points out that "in many cases

may be difficult to shake their belief the teacher's job is straightfonvardly to

prepare them for that end". For this reason it is much easier Jd it seems logical for

tllem to concentrate on a specific point of grammar, for exJnPle, and study this

mechanically so that they can reproduce this in an exam and do Iell at it.

Regarding the development of the leaming process, students tend to be

17

2.6. - ATTITUDES AND MOTIV ATlON

more or less successful depending on how motivated they le and what kind of

attitudes they have towards the language.

According to Harmer (1991 :3) "motivation is some ltind of internal drive

Ithnt encourages somebody to pursue a course of action". However, this internal

drive may vary in intensity influenced by external factors WhiC~may be the different

experiences students have with the language inside or outside the classroom, for

instance. Consequently, a good performance with the languale seems to enhance

Imotivation. The rapport in the classroom also seems to affect students' motivation.

'"=="",_ C,., ., _'""., w,,'" =clL" ..'''"m''. ,which is defined by Gardner (cited by Ellis 1994:509) as "the 110mbin.tion of effort

pins desire to achieve the goal of learning the language". For example, students are

interested in the culture of the target language and want to be part of it. Thus tius kind

of motivation facilitates learning. However, there are some exte,al factors pointed out

by Harmer (1991:4) such as "getting a better job, position or statns" which may

result in instrumental motivation and consequently lead learners 0 perform well using

the target language. It also seems that the more successful students are in their

attempts with the language the more enthusiastic they are in ta .ng part. On the other

18

hand, students with great difficulty seem to avoid participating and their level of

m.;~' ••_. ro"' ,~ 'm, ,,'~m)"".""~"""~t""""""Attitudes may be influenced by several factors: age, IOf example. Children

are usually very curious and this helps them to seek for any ,d of information and

promotes a positive attitude towards learning a foreign languagel Adolescentes like to

be challenged and if they see the langnage as something which Til make them part of

a group, they might as well develop positive attitudes. Adults seem to bring lots of

extrinsic motivation (integrative and iustrumental) to the c1assJom, and the progress

they have at the beginning of the course (resultative motivati01 tends to affect their

attitudes very positively, even though at the intennediate level they seem to have

difficulties measuring their progress. They have already learned r lot and the things to

be learnt at this level are so complicated that they sometimes start to feel demotivated.

It is the teacher's job to keep the right level of challenge so rat it does not affect

students' attitudes towards the language negatively. Adult advanced ieanlcrs, however,

develop positive attitudes if they can see that they are not reajlY being presented to

::~tems of language but that they are learning how to use bettler what they already

According to Ellis (1994:201) sex, social class and e

lic identity are also

variables which influence students' attitudes towards the language. Results of research

have shown that women seem to develop more positive attitudei towards the language

and are usually more successful than men in the classroom. L arners who belong to

middle class tend to achieve better results than lower class learners in the same

the learning process more difficult.

2.7. - TEACHERS' BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING A FOREIG LANGUAGE

20

Many teachers seem to think that using communiCjtive activities in the

classroom does not work very well, the main reason being that this kind of activity is

usually performed in pairs or groups and promotes discipline 'roblems. Some even

argue that students usually want to work together with a peer T talk about anything

else but the topic that they should be discussing. Worse still is iliat these students will

not use the target language, all the communication being carrild out in the mother

tongue instead. Teachers seem to think they are not doing their Lork properly if they

share the responsibility of the activities with the students. They link that they should

Ilead the whole process and guide students all the time to make sure everything is

""., " 0< "" ,''', ,. ",m."' _.m.","" •"" '"="'""1Most of the time then what is observed, especially in state schools is "the

traditional teaching situation, in other words, where a teachlr controlled session

is taking place", as described by Harmer (1991:243). If wj consider this as an

indication of what "traditionally" happened in the classes in whilh those teachers used

to study, we may think that the way they teach nowadays has bet strongly influenced

by the way they were taught in the past. These teachers seem to tel more confident to

use methods and techniques which they already know, and they lay as well think that

students.

if they worked with them, there is no reason why they will not work with their

v~ __J/IO"ial~'

Discipline problems seem to be one of the greatest issues in state schools,

therefore teachers also tend to use techniques which make it easit for tilem to control

all the students' practice at the same time, and also detennine tile pace of tile lesson.

When the teacher talks to students as a whole group, they are the centre of this group's

attention, and "can usually be sure tbat everyone can bear wb1t is being said", says

Harmer (1991:243). Teachers can also correct students on the spot, since all the

students' production is closely monitored by them. This is al10 a way of keeping

discipline in the classroom,. by forcing students to concentrate on the teacher and to

dctennine the pace.

Another belief that influences teachers' choice of act[Vities and techniques

is that they have to find a way of teaching students so that they I ill do well in exams

and not fail this subject. Lightbown and Spada (1993:70) point out that "the teacher's

goal is to see to it that students learn the vocabulary and grammatical rules of the target

language. The gO:ll of learners in such courses is to pass an examinatiol rather than to use the

language for their daily communication interaction"',

3.1. - METHODOLOGY

22

3. RESEARCH

This work focusses on the use of communicative actilties in the classroom

and how much these affect students' motivation and attitudes towards learning

English, especially at state schools. The comments presentL here result from

observation of two groups of forty students each, whose average ige is fifteen and who

are studying English as part of the curriculum at their school in Je seventh year. They

The groups are identified here as GROUP A, which worked with

have two classes a week and each lesson lasts fifty minutes.

communicative activities, using the target language (simple present and present

continuous); and GROUP B which worked with mechanical activities focussing on

forms of the language being taught (simple present and presentlcontinuous). Students

were observed carrying out the activities during two months. TIe amount of activities

presented in this paper (appendixes) is not large and this showi how difficult it is to

Ideal with large groups, especially because there are several prOblems of understanding

and the work develops really slowly_ Another reason is that there are some difficulties

keeping discipline in the classroom and some time of thJ1lcsson is wasted in

organizing the activities and engaging students.

Another point that was taken into consideration was the teacher's role when

dealing with both groups due to the different techniques being uled with each of them.

23

This aspect interested me during the development of this work because T wanted to

know how well I would perfonn and if I would be able to adapt myself to the different

groups and the requirements of the different approaches.

3.2 - DESCRIPTION OF THE LESSONS.

24

The first activitity (appendix 2) deals with adverbs and its use with the

present simple tense. This was used with both groups but USingla different approach

with each of them. GROUP A, which is the "communicative activities group" was

asked to infer from the text what the meaning of the adverbs wa, and their position in

the sentence, while GROUP B, which is the more traditional "striIctural group" used a

dictionary to translate these words (adverbs) in the text and we~e given a rule about

how to use them in the sentences. With group A the chart under !he text was used as a

reading comprehension activity and they transferred infOrmatiot from the text to the

chart. The same was done by group B. The difference beilg that group B had

translatedmost of the text before. As a follow-up activity group B concentrated on the

fonn oJsimp/e present with adverbs <ifJrequency and had to wrile sentences about the

character in the text using prompts in exercise 3 (appendix 2)j Group A also wrote

those sentences but what they had to do was write sentences aoout themselves using

the same cues.

The second activity was the use of present COntinUOurin the striIcture "J'm

wearing. . " "He/she's wearing. .. " . The vocabulary was intrruced using pictures

(appendix 3) to group A and these students were asked to derribe what they were

wearing as well as their colleagues. With group B only the vocabulary was introduced,

as a list of words and the students were asked to look up some Jf the items, according

25

to the picture, in a dictionary. This was set as school work and w:as worth some points

in their marks.

In the third activity each student received a worksheet (appendix 4) with a

picture showing different people performing different activities. In the middle of the

sheet there are nine houses, the aim of the acitivity is to find out from the others what

people are doing in each house. At the end there will be one house about which

nobody has any infOlmation, but by observing the picture stukents find out which

activity has not been mentioned for any other house and concludl it is what people are

doing at that specific house (in the activity it is the house numJer five). To make the

activity cOJlUnunicative group A was divided into five groups or eight students each.

Each member of the group had information about one of the ~ouses and the other

members had to ask him/her what people were doing in 111athouse. Each student

answered at a time so that the others checked in their pictures hich activities were

being mentioned and matched these activities with the corresrnding houses. With

group B the same sheet was used but they only wrote sentences (jescribing the various

activities which were taking place, and later on they read the crdS with infol1uation

about the different houses and checked whether their sentences were correct or not.

3.3. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

26

After using the communicative activities with GROUP A and keeping a

more mechanical approach with GROUP B I could observe that lit is velY difficult for

the teacher sometimes to implement a more communicative approach in the state

school classroom. There are several factors such as the numbel of students, lack of

time, students' discipline, lack of materials and teachers' knOwledge of the approach

that have to be mentioned because they really make the lplementation of

communicative approach a hard task. IFirst, the groups are very big which makes the management of the class,

especially concerning discipline and setting up aCtivitiJs, time consuming.

Unfortwlately two lessons of fifty minutes each is not much timl if you consider what

was mentioned above. ISecond, when using the first activity for example I aid not realise at fust

that tilere was not an infonnation gap. The activity was CarriJd out by both groups

almost in the same way. Because of that J should conSidCl1 it was not really a

communicative activity that group A performed and I took part in the activity most of

the time as I helped students to interpret the text and the lesson was completely teacher

centred. With activities two and three I felt more confident to lliow students time to

think and see tile kind of language they needed to complete thl tasks. I also let tilem

interact with their peers most of the time which is somethinglnew for them and for

myself. It was interesting to observe them working and see that they are able to cope

@'OW""flJ':..

~~ '. 27 l~<:'("-\l

with the difficulties and that they can help each other and correct each other·~~'::'I.J#

necessary during the development of the activity. IFinally. the activities being used in the classroom I,vere collected from

materials outside the school, because unfortunately there is not a teacher's resource

centre to provide teachers with the necessary amount of activities lor ideas to be used in

the classroom.

As for the different groups and their performance witO the activities T have

to say that GROUP A had more difficulties at the beginning becalse they had to create

much more than GROUP B, but on the other hand they were a1!0 more involved and

Ireally motivated to produce good language so that they could solve the problems

proposed. The fact that they had to communicate and this involveid speaking, as well as

listening to the others and recording the data collected they experienced language in a

more realistic situation. These students mentioned that they willinot forget how to ask

and answer questions in the present continuous, for example. They also said that the

lesson was much more interesting because they could notice Elglish can be used for

something practical and it is not only to write sentences in ~s or that verb tense.

GROUP B, however, did better in terms of using the correct Iforms since the very

beginning because their only task was to follow models and iey are used to doing

that The language here was learned as a content to be tested in the next evaluation,

. Iand probably forgotten soon after that. These students SaId that they are used to

copying the models and for this reason they can do it well molt of the time, but this

does not mean tlley understand why or when they should use it1real life.

4. CONCLUSION

28

To conclude this research, it is necessary to say that a teacher trying to

implement a new approach must be really aware of what the 1fferences between a

communicative and a structural approach are. I could a1si observe that what

sometimes happens is that as a teacher you think you are doing something in the

classroom and in fact you are doing somedling completely differbnt. That happened to

me when using activity 011e. IWith regards to the benefits of the commnnicare activities in dIe

classroom 1 realised that students feel much better if they can do something with the

language being taugbt instead of only making lists or writing seJences which have no

practical use for them. Communicative activities allow students and teachers to

pcrform different roles in the classroom, putting them more in ctntact with each other

and creating a better rapport which tends to make the lessons more appealing to all the

participants. IBy changing the approach in the classroom and getting positive results with

it, teachers will be creating opportnnities for the students and fof themselves to change

dleir beliefs about teaching and leaming a new language and prtablY creating a more

positive environment for this language to be learned in their classrooms. The fact that

beliefs can be changed positively also tends to favour more pJitive attitudes towards

the language being learned and this can lead students to experill ent different levels of

motivation dley had never had before.

ofFluem:y and Accura(y. Cambridge University Press.

29

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ELLIS, R 1994, 111eSiudy a/Second Language Acquisilion 0iord Universtiy Press,

HARMER j, 199L 111ePraclice a/English Language TeaChingl Harlow. Longman.

LlGHTBOWN, P. M. and N., SPADA. 1993. Hall' Language1 are LearnedOxford

University Press.

LITTLEWOOD, W. 1981. Communicalive Language TeaChijg - an inlroduclion.

Cambridge University Press.

SWARBRICK, A. 1984. Teaching Modern Language - The Oper Universily.

UR, P. 1997. In: ELT - Neil'S and views. Suplement 4.1 March i997.

WHITE, R. 1988. The ELT Curriculum - Desigu, lnnovali nand Managemenl.

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