Applying communicative activities to teach apeaking skills to 11th form students

Applying communicative activities to teach speaking skills to 11 th form students

1

Table of content

Acknowledgements
Index
Content

Page

Part I: Introduction
Reasons for choosing the subject

01
01

1. Aims of study

02

2. Scope of study

02

3. Methods of study

03

4. Design of study

03

Part II:

Development

Chapter I: Theoretical preliminaries
1. The communicative language teaching

04
04
04

1.1.

Leaner - Centered instruction

04

1.2.

Cooperative and collaborative learning

04

1.3.

Interactive learning

05

1.4.

Content - based and task- based instruction

05

2. An integration to speaking skill

06

2.1.The position of speaking skill

06

2.2.The characteristic of speaking classes

07

3.The communication continuum
3.1.Communicative activity versus non-communicative activity
3.2.Purposes of communicative activities

07
07
08

3.2.1.Communicative activities improve motivation

09

3.2.2. Communicative activities allow natural learning

09

3.2.3. Communicative activities can create a context which
supports learning

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Applying communicative activities to teach speaking skills to 11 th form students

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3.2.4. Communicative activities give “whole-task” practice

09

3.3.Types of communicative activities in language teaching

09

3.3.1.Information and motivation stage

10

3.3.2.Input stage

10

3.3.3.Focus stage

11

3.3.4.Application stage

11

Chapter II : Types of Communicative activities used in speaking classes13
1. Activity

13

2. Types of Communicative activities used in speaking class

14

2.1.

Meaningful Drills

14

2.2.

Exchanging information

19

2.2.1.Information Gap activities

19

2.2.2.Exchanging personal information

22

2.3.Communicative Games

24

2.3.1. Finding the differences (similarities)

24

2.3.2. Describing and arranging

25

2.3.3. Story reconstruction

26

2.3.4. Guessing Games

27

2.4.Discussion

28

2.4.1. The buzz group

29

2.4.2.Controversial topic

30

2.4.3. The debate

30

2.5.Reaching a consensus activity

31

2.5.1. Going to New York

31

2.5.2. Moral dilemmas

32

2.6.Replaying instruction

33

2.6.1. Exercises

33

2.6.2. Making model

33

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Applying communicative activities to teach speaking skills to 11 th form students

2.6.3. Describing and drawing
2.7.Oral interaction

3
33
33

2.7.1. Finding someone who

34

2.7.2.Questionnaires

34

2.8.Role play

35

2.8.1. Simulation

35

2.8.2. Role play

38

Chapter III : Applying communicative activities to develop the 11 th
Form Students’ speaking skill
1. General characteristics of students at secondary schools

39
39

2.The state of using communicative activities in teaching speaking at
secondary schools

40

3. Some suggested communicative activities to teach the 11 th form
Students’ speaking skill

41

4.Techniques to help the 11 th form students correct speaking errors 46
4.1. Common speaking errors made by the 11 th form students

46

4.2. Techniques for correcting speaking errors

48

Part III : Conclusion

52

Reference:

53

Part I :

INTRODUCTION

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1. Reasons for choosing the subject

Open-door policy of many countries‟ governments has been giving people
many chances to learn and practise English. Nowadays, people all over the world
learn English; therefore, English has become necessary for a lot of people at
different social positions. However, how to learn and how to teach English in
general and speaking skills in particular is still a discussing matter.
For most people, the ability to speak a language is synonymous with knowing
that language since speech is the most basic means of human communication. The
Communicative Approach teaching requires to develop language learners‟ four
skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Nevertheless “speaking in a second
or foreign language has often been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills.”
(Bailey and Savage,Teach English as a Second Language 1994 _ 449). And again,
according to Bailey and Savage “speaking is an activity requiring the integration of
many subsystems.. .. all these factors continue to make speaking a second or foreign
language a formidable task for language learners.. . Yet for many people, speaking is
seen as the central skill”. For that reason, we would like to particularly study how to
help teachers to develop their students‟ speaking skill.
Of course, there are many ways to develop learners‟ speaking skill, however,
it‟s still discussing to choose an appropriate way to teach. Today we‟re trying to
teach English in a communicative way followed learner-centered instruction;
communicative activities are certainly becoming essential part in language teaching,
however, to many teachers in secondary schools, communicative activities are still
very strange. They only teach their students speaking skill based mainly on the
textbooks through mechanical drills. Therefore, we found it interesting and useful to
have a specific research into the communicative activities, we think that we can
make

use of communicative activities

to

teach speaking skill because

communicative activities can somehow involve students in and give them both a

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desire to communicate and a purpose which involves them in a varied use of
language. They improve learners‟ motivation to learn in a natural learning, they can
create a context which support learning process, finally, they give a “whole-task”
practice…for this reason, they‟re useful and helpful for teachers in secondary
schools to teach their students speaking skills.
For the reasons above, we decided to choose the topic “Applying
Communicative activities to teach speaking skill to 11 th form students” as the
study of our graduation thesis.

2. Aims of study
The aims of our study are:
- To systematize communicative activities that can be used in a speaking class.
- To distinguish between communicative activities and non-communicative
activities.
- To suggest some typical communicative activities to teach speaking skill in
some lessons in 11th form textbook.
- To investigate common speaking errors that students often make when using
communicative activities and techniques to correct students‟ speaking errors.

3. Scope of study
The study covers speaking skill and communicative activities. However, we
just concentrate on types of communicative activities which can be used in speaking
classes, i.e., we try to divide them into different groups according to their
characteristics and the level of difficulty.
The study also suggests some typical communicative activities to teach
speaking skills in some lessons of 11th form textbook and techniques to correct
students‟ speaking errors.

4. Method of study
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A lot of methods were used while we were doing this research but the main
ones are descriptive method, collecting method, analytic method, synthetic method,
observing, doing survey, etc..

5. Design of study
The study includes three parts:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2 : Development
Part3 : Conclusion
The Development consists of three chapters:
Chapter I

: Theoretical preliminaries.

Chapter II

: Types of communicative activities used in speaking classes.

Chapter III

: Applying communicative activities to develop the 11th form

students‟ speaking skill.
References

Part II :
Chapter I:

development
theoretical preliminaries

1. The communicative language teaching
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Closely allied to communicative language teaching are a number of
concepts that have, like communicative language, become bandwagon terms without
the endorsement of which teachers can‟t be decent human beings and textbooks
cannot sell, so in the communicative language teaching we have to be aware of

giving lip service to principles of communicative language teaching. Hence a brief
summary is appropriate.
1.1. Learner- centered Instruction
According to H.Douglas Brown, Learner-centered instruction includes:
Techniques that focus on or account for learners‟ needs, styles and goals.
Techniques that give some control to the students (group work or strategy
training, for example)
Curricula that include the consultation and input of students and that do not
presuppose objectives in advance.
Techniques that allow for students creativity and innovation.
Techniques that enhance a student‟s sense of competence and self-worth.
1.2. Cooperative and collaborative learning
As students work together in pairs and groups, they share information and
come to each other‟s aid. They are a “team” whose players must work together in
order to achieve goals successfully. Research has shown an advantage for
cooperative learning (as opposed to individual learning) on such factors as “
promoting intrinsic motivation... heightening self-esteem... creating caring and
altruistic relationship and lowering anxiety and prejudice” (Oxford 1997 : 445).
Cooperative learning does not merely imply collaboration. To be sure, in a
cooperative classroom, the students and teacher work together to persue goals and
objectives. But cooperative learning is “more structured, more prescriptive to
teachers about classroom techniques, more directive to students about how to work
together in groups than collaborative learning” (Oxford 1997 - 443).

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1.3. Interactive learning
At the heart of current theories of communicative competence is the
essentially interactive nature of communication when you speak; for example, the
extent to which your intended message is received is a factor of both your
production and the listener‟s reception. Most meaning, in a semantic sense is a
product of negotiation of give and take, as interlocutors attempt to communicate.
Thus, the communicative purpose of language compels us to create opportunities for
genuine interaction in the classroom. An interactive cause or technique will provide
for such negotiation. Interactive classes will most likely be found.
Doing a significant amount of pair work and group work.
Receiving authentic language input in real world context
Producing language for genuine, meaningful communication
Performing classroom tasks that prepare for actual language use “out there”
Practising oral communication through the give and take and spontaneity of
actual conversation.
Writing to and for real audience, not contrived ones.

1.4. Content based and task based instruction.
According to Brinton, Snaw and Wesche – 1989 (Teaching by principles,
H.Douglas Brown - 149) “Content-based instruction is the integration of content
learning with language teaching aim. More specifically, it refers to the concurrent
study of language and subject matter with the form and sequence of language
presentation dictated by content material.
While there is a good deal of variation among experts on how to describe or
define task . Brinton‟s concept of “task” seems to capture the essentials. He defines
task as an activity in which:
- Meaning is primary
- There is some communication problem to solve.

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- There is some sort of relationship to comparable real- world activity.
- Task completion has some priority.
2. An integration to speaking skill
Speaking in second language involves the development of a particular type
of communication skills. Oral language, because of its circumstance of production,
tends to differ from written language in its typical grammatical, lexical and
discourse patterns. In addition, some of the processing skills needed in speaking
differ from those involved in reading and writing.

2.1. The position of speaking skill in second language learning
For most people, the ability to speak a language is synonymous with
knowing that language since speech is the most basic means of human
communication. Nevertheless “Speaking in second language or foreign language has
often been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills” (Bailey and
Savage,Teach English as a Second Language: 1994 ).
Speaking skill has not always figured so centrally in second and foreign
language pedagogy. In classes that utilize comprehension-based approaches to
language teaching, listening skills are stressed before speaking. Even in a
production-based approach such as silent way student‟s speech is carefully
controlled for structure and content. And while audiolingualism stressed speaking
skill (evidenced by the amount of time spent in the language laboratory practising
skill.), speech production was tightly controlled in order to reinforce correct habit
formation of linguistic rules.

2.2. The characteristics of a speaking class
In deciding how to structure and what to teach in a speaking class,
questions such as the following should be considered: who are the students? Why

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are they there? What do they expect to learn? What am I (the teacher) expected to
teach?
One basic consideration is the level of the students and their perceived
needs; level may be determined by a placement test administered by the institution
or by a diagnostic test given by the teacher. Information on learners‟ needs can be
obtained by means of a student‟s information sheet on which they report the amount
of time they spend speaking English, their future goals, their goals for course and
their overall speaking ability, confidence in speaking English.
Nowadays, speaking classes at all levels are often structured around
functional uses of language. In low-level contexts, these might involve basic
greetings, talking on the telephone, interacting with school personnel, shopping..
..students learn to introduce themselves and greet other people, give and request
personal information, direction and prices, talk about family members, tell time, give
and accept invitation, describe clothing and give and accept compliments.

3. The communication continuum
Where students are working on an output stage with an emphasis on
communication, we can use our generalizations about the nature of communication

to come to a number of conclusions.

3.1. Communicative activity versus non-communicative activity
Whatever activity the students are involved in, if it is to be genuinely
communicative and it is really promoting language use, the students should have
desire to communicate. If they do not want to be involved in communication then
that communication will probably not be effective. The students should have some
kinds of communicative purposes. In other words, they should be using language in
some ways to achieve an objective. The students, however, will have to deal with a
variety of language rather than just one grammatical construction, for example,

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while the students are engaged in communicative activities the teacher should not
intervene. By „intervening” we mean telling students that they are making mistakes,
insisting on accuracy and asking for repetition etc. This would undermine the
communicative purpose of the activity. The teacher may, of course, involve in the
activity as a participant and will also be watching and listening carefully in order to
be able to conduct feedback.
Thus for non-communicative activities there will be no desire to
communicate on the part of the students and they will have no communicative
purpose. In other words, where students are involved in a repetition, they will be
motivated not by a desire to reach a communicative objective but by the need to
reach the objective of accuracy. The emphasis is on the form of language, not its
content, often only one language item will be the specially designed to focus on a

restricted amount of language. A lot of language presentation techniques have these
characteristics.
We can summarize the points we have made:
Non-communicative activities

Communicative activities

- No communicative desire

- A desire to communicate

- No communicative purpose

- A communicative purpose

- Form not content

- Content not form

- One language item

- Variety of language

3.2. Purposes of communicative activities
3.2.1. Communicative activities improve motivation
The learners‟ ultimate objective is to take part in communication with
others. Their motivation to learn is more likely to be sustained if they can see
how their classroom learning is related to this objective and helps them to
achieve it with increasing success.

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3.2.2. Communicative activities allow natural learning
Language learning takes place inside the learners and, as teacher knows,
many aspects of it are beyond their pedagogical control. It is likely, in fact, that
many aspects of language learning can take place only through natural process,
which operates when a person is involved in using the language for communication.
3.2.3. Communicative activities can create a context which supports
learning
Communicative activities provide opportunities for positive personal
relationships to develop among learners and between learners and teachers. These
relationships can help to “humanize” the classroom and to create an environment
that supports the individual in his efforts to learn.
3.2.4. Communicative activities can give “Whole-task” practice
Learning how to swim, for example, usually involves not only separate
practice of individual movements (part-skills) but also actual attempts to swim short
distance (whole task practice). In foreign language learning, our means for providing
learners with “whole-task practice” in the classroom is through various kinds of
communicative activities, structured in order to suit the learners‟ level of ability.
3.3. Types of communicative activities in language teaching
Probably the most commonly used and general term for the part of a lesson is
activity. Most teachers will use this word in discussing their lesson plans and
behaviors, although specific activities often have particular names. In much recent
analysis of second language classroom, materials and syllable, the term “task” has
been used to discuss those less controlled activities which produce in realistic use of

the second language.
In discussing both controlled and freer types of classroom learning
procedures, we will utilize “ activity” as a broader term, Valcarcel-1995 (Teaching
English as a second or foreign language- Marianne Celce - Murcia) has

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developed a tentative list of activity types according to four stages of instructional
sequencing in lesson.
3.3.1. Information and motivation stage
3.3.1.1.Warm_up
Mime, dance, song, joke, play,etc…the purpose of these is to get the students
stimulated, relaxed, motivated, attentive or otherwise engaged and ready for the
classroom lesson, not necessarily related to the target language.
3.3.1.2. Story telling.
Oral presentation by the teacher of a story or an event as lengthy practice,
although not necessarily lesson-based it implies the use of extended discourse, it
usually aims at maintaining attention or motivation and is often entertaining.
3.3.1.3.Brainstorming.
Free, undirected contributions by the students and the teacher on a given
topic to generate multiple associations without linking them, no explicit analysis or
interpretation is given by the teacher.
3.3.1.4. A propos
Conversation and other socially oriented interaction /speech by teachers,
students or even visitors on general real life topics, typically authentic and genuine.

3.3.2. Input /control stage
3.3.2.1. Role play demonstration.
The use of selected students or teacher to illustrate the procedure to be
applied in the following lesson segment; it includes brief illustration of language or
other content to be incorporated
3.3.2.2. Dialogues/narrative presentations
Reading or listening passage in the form of dialogues, narratives, songs.. .. ..
for passive reception (students become familiar with the text without being asked to
perform any task related to the content); it usually implies students‟ listening to a
tape or the teacher reading aloud while students follow with or without the text.

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3.3.2.3. Question-answer display
Controlled activity involving prompting of student responses by means of
display questions (teacher or questioner already knows the response or has a very
limited set of expectations for the appropriate response).
3.3.2.4. Review
Teacher-lead review of previous week/month or other period; a formal
summary and assessment of students‟ recall and performance.
3.3.3. Focus stage
3.3.3.1. Cued dialogue.
Students build up a dialogue or a piece of narrative following cues from
miming, cue card, picture, flow chart key functional request or other stimuli
related to narrative or dialogue (e.g: filling empty bubbles, cued dialogue completing

a dialogue or a text).
3.3.3.2. Meaningful drill.
Language activity involves exchange of a limited number of fixed patterns
of interaction; distinguished from mechanical drills in that students have to make a
choice with respect to the meaning convey.
3.3.3.3. Game.
Organized language activity that has a particular task or objective and a set
of rules which involves an element of competition between players (eg: boardgame,
hangman, bingo... .. ) It usually implies entertainment and relaxation.
3.3.4. Transfer/Application stage
3.3.4.1. Role play
Students act out specified roles and functions in a relatively free way;
distinguished from cued dialogue by the cueing being provided only minimally at
the beginning not during the activity.
3.3.4.2. Discussion

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Debate or other forms of group discussion of specified topics with or without
specified sides / position pre-arranged
3.3.4.3.Information exchange
Activity that involves one way or two ways communication such as
information gap exercises in which one or both parties must obtain information from
the other to achieve a goal: distinguished from meaningful drills in that the pattern of
exchange is not limited to a fixed set or order of structures.

3.3.4.4.Problem solving.
Students work out on an activity in which a problem and some limitation on
means are established, it requires cooperative action on the part of the participant in
small or large groups in order to reach a solution only one outcome sometimes
among other possible solutions is allowed per group.
3.3.4.5.Simulation.
Activity that involves complex interaction between groups and individuals
based on simulation of real life actions and experiences.

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Chapter II:

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types of communicative activities
used in speaking classes

1. The activity
“Activity” is a loose term used to give a general description of what will happen
in a class. It is important to realize that here we are not talking in anyway about
items of language; we are talking about what, generally and physically, the students
are going to do (Teaching English as a second or foreign language- Marianne
Celce - Murcia)
A game is an activity, so is an oral composition. When being asked: “What are
you going to do in class today?”, rather than give details they will often say: “Oh,
I’ve got a group discussion task and then we’re going to do a game.”.

It will be necessary to consider activities not only on the basis of what the
students have been doing recently but also in terms of the class period itself.
Activities are considered as a starting point for lesson planning that the teacher can
ensure a motivating balance of type.
Communicative activities are those which exhibit the characteristics at the
communicative end of our continuums, students are somehow involved in activities
that give them both the desire to communicate and a purpose which involves them in
a varied use of language. Such activities are vital in a language classroom since here
the students can do their best to use the language as individuals, arriving at a degree
of language autonomy (the Practice of English Language Teaching – Jeremy
Harmer - 41)

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In the classroom, in general, the aim will be to provide a sequence that is
varied and does not follow one activity with a completely similar activity and then
follow that with one that is the same.
The decision about what activities are to be included in a lesson is a vital first
part in the planning process. The teacher is forced to consider, above all, what would
be most beneficial and motivating for the students .
2. Types of communicative activities can be used in speaking classes
Communicative activities used in speaking class can vary from activity to
activity. However, activities are often designed to provoke spoken communication
among students or between teacher and students. Based on the level of difficulty of
the activity and the students‟ motivation, we can integrate into communicative

activity types.

2.1 . Meaningful drills
Drills are useful in practising constant language features especially as the first
step in the learning sequence. It is generally believed that students learn best from
their success not from their failure.
Drills often focus on specific and isolated language patterns which might not
be immediately apparent to the students from his own experience in the language.
What must be stated emphatically is that drills are not an end in themselves but
means to an end-natural communication. We must not only dissect language by
drilling systematically in patterns but we must also rebuild language in the context
of complex, natural conversations. If the students understand the drill, they are likely
to acquire a basic foundation of patterns which can be extended and manipulated in
later pattern practice drills and which finally can be applied and shaped to the
situational context simulated in the classroom.
Some types of meaningful drills are:
2.1.1 (Four) phase drill

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(Four) phase drill is so-called because they are four-phases or stages:
E.g. :

Question-Answer-Question-Answer

The reason why “four” is in bracket is of course because we can also have six
or eight phase drills or any number, for that matter, although four seems to be the
most useable. The students are encouraged to ask a question and on the basic of the
answer follow it up with another question.
E.g.: A: Is Nam English?
B: No, he isn’t.
A: Where is he from, then?
B: He is Vietnamese.
In this case the drill is designed for beginners to practise the question form: “
Is X (nationality)? And “where is he/she from”.
We can start the activity by showing flashcards of people with some
indication of their nationality. We then conduct a cue response drill in which
students ask question such as “Is Nam English?”
Teacher : Question .. .. Mai.. .. French (nominate student 1)
Student1: Is Mai French?
Teacher: Answer..... Lan
Student2: No, she isn’t... etc…
We can then move on to the next question adding the word ”then “ if the
answer to the first question is negative.
E.g.:
T : Good.. .. .. ask someone a question with “where.... “
S4 :Where is she from?’
T : Good.. .. .. but you can say “where’s she from, then?” so ask again
Lâm.
S4 : Where’s she from, then?
T : Answer, Ba.

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S2 : She is from English.
The teacher conducts this drill with the whole class for a short space of time
and the students then practise the drill in pairs. The teacher can give them flashcards
or they can think of famous people to ask about.
Of course, four-phase drills can be constructed with any question sequence.
E.g.: A: What’s your favorite hobby?
B: Tennis.
A: How often do you play?
B: once a week.
Four-phase drills are useful for practice and revision of specific question
forms and can be successfully used for quick five-minute sessions after these
questions have been introduced , perhaps in a previous class.
2.1.2. Frequency of activities drill
In this drill students work with a specially prepared set of flashcards. The
cards show various activities taking place.
Students are put into groups of four and a set of flashcards is placed in front of
them, face downward. A student picks up a card and has to ask another student how
often a relative of that student performs the activity shown on the card. The drill
might go in the following way.
S1: (picks up a card showing a man doing the washing-up).
- How often does your brother do the washing-up, Nhung?
S2: Twice a day, I think (picks up card showing someone playing football)
- How often does your mother play football, Nhung?
S3: She doesn’t play at all. (Pick up a card showing a person getting on the bus).
- How often does your sister travel by bus Hoa?
S4: Never.. .. .. She always gets me to drive her everywhere.. .. ..

This is a simple cue-response drill, but students are conducting the drill
themselves rather than being controlled by the teacher. The random selection of the

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cards makes the drills enjoyable and quite challenging and the use of group work
means that many students get a chance to participate in a cooperative and friendly
way.
Cards of this kind have a use in many kinds of drill activities where students
can practise specific items of language without being inhibited by the teacher.
2.1.3. Transformation drill
The transformation type asks the students to transform a sentence in response
to a signal word. When the drill is conducted orally, cues for transformation are
often given verbally, but tense changes can be signaled by a backward or a forward
gesture.
E.g.:
T: I travel to work by bus
S: I travel to work by bus
T: Mr. Nam.
S: Mr. Nam travels to work by bus
T: Question.
S: Does Mr. Nam travel to work by bus?
T: Yesterday.
S: Did Mr. Nam travel to work yesterday?
T: Negative question.

S: Didn’t Mr. Nam.. ..
Also, practice based on table on blackboard can be done in a more meaningful
way by having the learners ask each other questions in public pairs. One student
stands and nominates another by name, this second student also stands. The first
then asks a question and designated partner answers truthfully. Having answered, he
or she addresses a new question to another student. The language exchanges will
sound like this :
Student 1

: Tell us about your brother, Nam?

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: He used to be a good footballer, but now he doesn’t play

Nam

anymore. Lâm, tell us something about your uncle.
Lâm

: He used to drive a taxi. Now he drives a cyclo. Mai…

2.1.4. Chain drill
Chain drill is a way of practising a particular structure over and over again in
the context of either a game or personal elements.

With a large class, students can sit in groups; otherwise this is a whole-class
activity. The teacher chooses the structures and then says:
For example:
“My name is Mary and I’d like to travel around the world.”
The student next to her then says:” Her name is Mary and she’d like to travel
around the world. My name is Paul and I want to write novel.”
The third student then has to remember the first two speakers‟ ambitions then
give his or her own.
2.1.4.1. The action drill
The teacher starts by performing or dramatizing a sequence of actions and
by asking the students to state what he is doing.
Teacher

Students

(Opens the door and asks)
“What am I doing now?”

You’re opening the door

After the students understand the drill, the teacher will then ask a good student
to perform the sequence of actions for the rest of the class. The demonstrating
student describes what he is doing and asks the class questions about what he is
doing or has done. The class asks him questions and tells teacher what has
happened.
2.1.4.1 . The conditional chain drill

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This drill must be thoroughly demonstrated before the students can be
expected to produce it. The teacher describes a situation and explains possible
consequences of it
E.g.: “My wife has just had twins. Now our apartment is not big enough for us. We
might move to a bigger apartment or buy a house. If we decide to buy a house, we’ll
need some money.”

Teacher
- If we need some money..

Students.
If you need some money, you’ll go
to a bank.

- If we go to the bank..

If you go to the bank, you.. ..

2.1.4.2 . The Question-Answer chain
This drill is a step in the direction of free conversation, so the drill will go in
this way. E.g:
T : Where does Nguyệt live?
S1:I don’t know where he lives, perhaps Lâm can tell me, where does Nguyệt
live?
S2: Nguyệt lives on Ngư Hải Street.
S1: Lâm just told me that Nguyệt lives on Ngư Hải Street.

T : Thank you…

2.2.

Exchanging information

2.2.1. Information gap activities
With information gap activities, different students are given different bits of
information. By sharing this information they can complete the task. Many
communicative activities are designed to be done by students working in pairs or in

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groups to create a need to communicate, the students in each pair or group are given
different information. The activity can then work in various ways:
One student has some information and the other student has to find it
out by asking questions
One student has some information and tells it to the other student.
Both students have different information and they tell each other.

2.2.1.1. Picture dictation
Students work in pairs. Each student has information (a picture, a text, a story,
a worksheet.. .. ) which is different from their partner‟s. Students do not show their
partners the differences. It‟s a secret. Often the teacher puts the students back to
back so that they cannot “look”. There is a “gap” between what the students know

which provides students with a purpose for talking. Students can only find out what
their partner has by talking and asking questions.
For example:
Target item: Farm vocabulary and preposition of place

A: There’s a man in a field.
B: Where’s the field?
A: Next to the house
.. .. .. ..

Students fold the piece of paper in half. In the top half they draw a picture.In
the bottom half they draw their friend‟s picture. Students sit back to back, student A
describes his/her picture and student B draws it and asks questions then they swap
role student B describes and student A draws and asks. Feedback is done by getting

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students to compare original picture with dictated one. The pair with the closest
likeness is the winner.
2.2.1.1. Pair work gaps fill
The teacher puts up two posters - one at either end of the classroom. Students
sit in row, first row facing the back wall, second row facing the board…Students ask
each other questions and “fill in” the information they don‟t have.
For example:
Poster1 (student A)

th

century
hero. He lived in Sai Gon. He
sold peanut. He found out
about the French army, then
he gave the ……………to the
Vietnamese army. He put
………………..on
himself.
He…………………..he blew up
the…………………
Le Van Tam was a 20

Poster 2 (student B)
Le
Van
Tam
was
a
…………………………He lived
in…………………………….He
sold………………..He found out
the………………………then he
gave
the
information
to
Vietnamese army, he put the
petrol on himself. He set himself

on fire. He blew up the place
where the French kept their guns
and ammunition.

Students will ask each other questions like:
B: Who was Le Van Tam?
A: He was a 20 th century hero.
B: Where did he live? .. .. etc..
2.2.1.3. Pair work gap grid
Students sit in pairs, in each pair student A has an empty grid and student B
has the text, which he or she doesn‟t show to student A. student A completes the
grid by asking questions.
Example:
This evening

Trần

Tonight Kim is going to stay at
home because he wants to write a
Tomorrow
letter to a friend. Tomorrow
morning
morning he has classes as usual at
Tomorrow
college; but he has the afternoon
free so he’s going to help his father
repair
the rooflanguages
of their house. In
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afternoon
Tomorrow
evening

Student A will have to complete the grid by asking student B questions .
Example: what’s he going to do tomorrow morning? Why?.. ..
What is he going to do tomorrow evening? .. .. .. etc ..
2.2.1.4. Shopping
Students sit in pairs. In each pair student A is a customer and has a shopping
list. Student B is a shop assistant and has a list of items in the shop and their prices.
They do not look at each other‟s list. Student A tries to “ buy” the things on his or
her list.
Student A
Shopping list

Student B

_2 packets of tea

You sell
_1 kilo of sugar

Tea

_ 50 p a packet

_1 can of orange juice

Sugar _ 30 p a kilo

_2 kilos of rice

Rice _ 20 a kilo

For example:
A: Have you got any tea?
B: Yes, I have.
A: How much does it cost?
B: 50 a packet... etc...
Summary:
If students have not done an exercise of this type before teacher would be well
advised to demonstrate the technique before putting the students in pairs when an
activity of this type is over the teacher can conduct a feed back by getting students to
ask and answer the questions with the whole class. This serves to check not only the
students‟ language production but also whether they have got the right information.

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