Diane Larsen-Freeman

126 Communicative Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching 127
Observations Principles Observations PrincipLes
4 Th e st udents cry to state the O ne functio n can have ma ny 8 A st udent mak es an erro r, Th e Errors are to lerate d and seen as a
reporter's prediction s in different linguistic for ms. Since teac her and ot her stud ents natural outcome of the
different words. the {OCllS of the co urse is on real ignore it. developme nt of comm unica tion
language use, a va riety of
skills. Since this activity was
linguistic form s are presented
wo rk ing on fluenc y, the teacher
together. T he emphasis is on the
did not correct the st udent, but
process of communication rather
simply noted the erro r, which he
than just mastery of language
will return to at a later point.
forms.
9 T he teacher gives each group One of the teacher's major
5 The students unscramble the Students should work with of stu dents a strip story and a responsibilities is to establish
sentences of the newspaper language at the discourse or
ta sk to perform .
situations likely to promote
article. suprasentential (above the communication.
sentence) level. They must learn
10
a bou t cohesion and coherence,
The students work with a Communicative interaction
partner to predict what th e
tho se properties of language
encourages cooperative
next picture in the st rip sto ry
which bind the sente nces
relationship s among st udents. It
will look like.
togeth er.
gives srudenrs an opportunity to
work Oil negoriaring meaning.
6 The students playa language Games are important because 11 The students are to do a rol e The social context of the
game .
they have certain features in
play. They are to imagine that communicativ e event is essentia l in
common wit h real
they are all emp loyees of the giving meaning to the utterances.
communicative events-there
same company.
is a pu rpose to the exchange.
Also, the speaker receives 12 Th e teacher reminds the Learning to use language forms
immediate feedback fro m the students t hat one of them is appropriately is an important part
listener on whether or nor he playing the ro le of the boss and of communicative competence.
or she has successfully
that they should remember this
communicated. In this way they
when speaking to her.
can negoti ate meaning. Finally,
havin g stu dents work in small 13 Th e reacher moves fro m gro up The teach er acts as a facilitator in
groups maximizes the amount of to group offerin g advice and sett ing up co mmunicat ive
communicative practice they answering questions. activities and as an advisor during
receive. the activities .
7 Th e students arc asked how Stude nts sho uld be given an 14 Th e stude nts suggest alternative In comm unica ting, a speaker has a
they feel a bout the pred ictions. opportunity to express their ideas form s they would use to state a choice not on ly a bout what to say,
and opinions. predicriou to a colleague. bur also how to say it.