Филологические науки/ Методика преподавания языка и литературы

Klymenko O.O.

National Technical University of Ukraine "KPI", Ukraine

Interaction activities in teaching English

Every teacher conducting lesson should keep in mind the oft-quoted Confucian maxim which remains as relevant today as it did almost two and a half thousand years ago: “Tell me and I forget, Show me and I remember, Involve me and I learn”.

Interaction activity offers students the opportunities to establish and maintain social relationships and individual identities through pair and/or group activities. It enhances personal rapport and lowers the affective filter, involving the learner’s wants, needs, feelings, and emotions. These activities are carried out mainly through dialogues, role-plays, and interviews.

Pair work, group work, role-play, simulation games, scenarios and debates help learners practice and produce grammatical items, as well as notional/functional categories of language ensured a communicative flavor to their interaction activities. Social interaction activities focus on an additional dimension of language use. They require that learners take into consideration the social meaning as well as the functional meaning of different language forms. In carrying out this social interaction activity, learners have to pay greater attention to communication as a social behavior, as the activity approximates a communicative situation the learners may encounter outside the classroom.

Information-gap activities, which have the potential to carry elements of unpredictability, freedom of choice, and appropriate use of language, were found to be useful and relevant. So were role-plays, which are supposed to help the learners get ready for the “real world” communication outside the classroom. One of the challenges facing the classroom teacher, then, is to prepare the learners to make the

connection between sample interactions practiced in the classroom and the communicative demands outside the classroom. Whether this transfer from classroom communication to “real world” communication can be achieved or not depends to a large extent on the role played by the teachers as well as the learners.

The term 'role play' takes on different meanings for different people. It certainly seems to encompass an extremely varied collection of activities. These range from highly-controlled guided conversations at one end of the scale, to improvised drama activities at the other; from simple rehearsed dialogue performance, to highly complex simulated scenarios. When students assume a 'role', they play a part (either their own or somebody else's) in a specific situation. 'Play' means that the role is taken on in a safe environment in which students are as inventive and playful as possible. A group of students carrying out a successful role play in a classroom has much in common with a group of children playing school. Both are unselfconsciously creating their own reality and, by doing so, are experimenting with their knowledge of the real world and developing their ability to interact with other people. In this situation there are no spectators and the occasional eavesdropper may not even be noticed. None of the risks of communication and behaviour in the real world are present. The activity is enjoyable and does not threaten the students' personality. This 'playing' in role will build up self-confidence rather than damage it.

It is probably neither possible, nor very profitable, to make fine distinctions between role play and simulations. Clearly however, simulations are complex, lengthy, and relatively inflexible events. They will always include an element of role play, though other types of activity, such as analysis of data, discussion of options, etc. are also involved. Role play, on the other hand, can be a quite simple and brief technique to organize. It is also highly flexible, leaving much more scope for the exercise of individual variation, initiative, and imagination. Whereas role play is included in simulations, it is not by any means confined to them.

The overall aim of both these types of activity is very similar: to train students to deal with the unpredictable nature of language. Whether they are playing themselves in a highly constraining situation (as in simulations), or playing imaginary characters in more open-ended situations (as in role plays), they need to think their feet and handle the skein of language as it unravels.

A very wide variety of experience can be brought into the classroom through role play. The range of functions and structures and the areas of vocabulary that can be introduced, go far beyond the limits of other pair or group activities, such as conversation, communication games, or humanistic exercises. Role play puts students in situations in which they are required to use and develop those forms of language which are so necessary in oiling the works of social relationships, but which are so often neglected by our language teaching syllabuses. Many students believe that language is only to do with the transfer of specific information from one person to another. They have even little small talk, and in consequence often appear unnecessarily brusque and abrupt. It is possible to build up these social skills from a very low level through role play. Some people are learning English to prepare for specific roles their lives: people who are going to work or travel in an international context. It is helpful for these students to have tried out and experimented with the language they will require in the friendly and safe environment of a classroom. For these students, role play is a very useful dress rehearsal for real life. It enables them not just to acquire set phrases, but to learn how interaction might take place in a variety of situations. Role play helps many shy students by providing them with a mask. Some more reticent members of a group may have a great deal of difficulty participating in conversations about themselves, and in other activities based on their direct experience. These students are liberated by role play as they no longer feel that their own personality is implicated.

Role play is one of a whole gamut of communicative techniques which develops fluency in language students, which promotes interaction in the classroom, and which increases motivation. Not only is peer learning encouraged by it, but also the sharing between teacher and student of the responsibility for the learning process. Role play is perhaps the most flexible technique in the range, and teachers who have it at their finger-tips are able to meet an infinite variety of needs with suitable and effective role-play exercises.

Another type of interaction activities is a communication game. The emphasis in the communication games is on successful communication rather than on correctness of language. Games, therefore, are to be found at the fluency end of the fluency-accuracy spectrum. This raises the question of how and where they should be used in class. Games should be regarded as an integral part of the language syllabus, not as an amusing activity for the end of term. This suggests that the most useful place for these games is at the free stage of the traditional progression from presentation through practice to free communication; to be used as a culmination of the lesson, as a chance for students to use the language they have learnt freely and as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. They can also serve as a diagnostic tool for the teacher, who can note areas of difficulty and take appropriate remedial action.

The teacher's role in these activities is that of monitor and resource centre, moving from group to group, listening, supplying any necessary language, noting errors, but not interrupting or correcting as this impedes fluency and spoils the atmosphere. It is a good idea to carry paper and pen and to note any persistent errors or areas of difficulty. These can then be dealt with in a feedback session after the game. In many cases, the game could then be played again with different partners or with different role cards. In other cases, mostly in those activities involving puzzle-solving, this will not be possible. However, a similar game with different information could easily be constructed to practise the same exponents, and suggestions have been made for this where appropriate.

Carrying out communicative tasks requires active involvement on the part of the learner, which in turn makes the lessons more motivating and more effective. These factors are crucial in any learning situation.

References:

1. Resource books for teachers. Series editor Alan Maley. Role games. Gillian Porter Ladousse, Oxford 1987

2. FCE games and activities, Watcyn-Jones P., Rawdon Wyatt, Pearson Education (Longman), 2002

3. Advanced communication games, Jill Hadfield, Longman, 1987

4. Understanding language teaching, B. Kumaravadivelu, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., London, 2006