Practical Teaching Idea: Teaching English Communicatively in EFL Context

Introduction

Learners of English as foreign language (EFL), like in Nepal and other countries having similar language context, need sufficient practice of English in the classroom. In the classrooms where English is taught communicatively, the teachers create real life like situation of conversation by engaging students throughout various activities. The classroom activities are guided by the principle of creating meaningful communication, some sort of interaction between the speaker and the listener, the writer and the reader or the text and the audience. The lessons are always learner centered and focus more on language skills to make the learner a competent communicator in English. In this short practical article, the idea of engaging learners to enhance communication skills in English has been elaborated with different activities.

Proficiency level: Intermediate and advanced

Age group: Teenagers (Grade 4-8 students)

Class time: 90 minutes

Objectives: This lesson engages learners with two short communicative lessons to teach comparatives and a planning of a tour for fourth and seventh grade students respectively. By the end of this lesson, the students will be able to:

Describe and compare different animals in terms of their size, manners and qualities;
Question and respond questions for better understanding and gathering information;
Communicate personal opinions clearly and persuade the audience; and
Discuss features and sample strategies of communicative approach of teaching English with reference to Grade 4-8 curricula.

Materials: Leaflets of Phewa Lake, Peace Stupa, Sarangkot, Caves, Mountain Museum, Picture (English Grade 4 p. 75), Meta cards, word cards, slides, and worksheets

Language item: 1: Comparison (Grade 4 Unit 6)

Time: 30 minutes

Activity 1. Drawing pictures: Distribute meta-card and word card, randomly, one each. Ask them to draw the two pictures on the meta-card. Draw in a side only. The list of word cards for drawing pictures can be as below. The teacher prints them and cuts into pieces of each pair.

Elephant-jackal, cheetah-gazelle, car-airplane, mango-apple, ghee-oil, hut-building, papaya tree- mango tree, School-college, bus-car, teacher-doctor, mother-daughter, buffalo-goat, crow-peacock, snake-lizard, river-pond, horse cart- auto-rickshaw, monkey-tiger, lion-bear, table-chair, hippopotamus-crocodile

Activity 2. Finding adjectives: Make groups of five students each. Then ask them to list down the adjectives which can describe the items they have recently drawn. First they do alone and add more adjectives after group discussion. The teacher encourages students to find more adjectives. She asks them to think in terms of qualities, manners, sizes and so on.

Activity 3. Comparatives (Whole class): list down the adjectives and their comparative forms. The teacher lists down the adjectives and comparative forms in the M-chart on the board. Now, he or she gives some examples of both types of comparative forms. For example, short adjectives like slow, big, tall and so on are transferred to comparative form by adding ‘-er’ at the end of the adjective whereas longer adjectives are preceded by ‘more’. The teacher then elicits the comparative forms of the adjectives. She can nominate particular student to tell the comparative forms.

Activity 4. Questioning: Now ask what questions they can ask to compare the items they have chosen. First the teacher gives some examples. Then s/he elicits more from the whole class and lists down. This will provide students the opportunity to practice the language skill and they can further generate similar sentences in their own, for example, which is faster; car or plane? Is car faster than plane?

Activity 5. Let’s play a question-answer game: Ask the participants to sit in larger group of 6 or 8 so that they can talk in pairs. They put all picture cards in the middle of the table. They take one at a time; ask a partner in pair and answer; then pick up next and continue questioning and responding. For example, student 1: Shows picture of buffalo and cow, and asks: Which is more expensive? Student 2: Buffalo is more expensive than cow in my village.

Activity 6. Speaking: The learners describe and compare the animals in the given picture (Appendix I).

Language item 2. A plan for a visit (Grade 7 Unit 9)

Time 30 minutes

Activity 1. Generating ideas: Elicit what is generally considered during planning of a tour. Collect the ideas on the board. Possible points might be the distance, expenses, facilities, precautions, foods and snacks, access etc.

Activity 2. Brainstorming a place: Divide teachers into 4 groups. Distribute leaflets and ask them to decide in group where to go for a tour. First they decide in group. Each group chooses a speaker for them.

Activity 3. Planning for a tour: A new group is made by taking one from each group, mostly the leaders. The new group discusses and decides where to visit. While the new group members are discussing, the other groups also get tasks. For example, Group A observes what questions the speakers make in the conversation. Similarly, Group B records how long does the speaker speak. Likewise, Group C keeps the record of how many times a speaker speaks.

Discussion (30 minutes)

Elicit the activities and their aims (Appendix II for worksheet). The following table summarizes the possible discussion. Whole class discussion will link the purposes of teaching English communicatively. The teacher may also link the curricular objectives and features of communicative teaching.

Item	Activities	Aims / achievements
1	Drawing pictures	Association of the objects and their characteristics
	Finding adjectives	Preparation of necessary language item
	Comparatives	Learning language accuracy (for communicative competence)
	Questioning	Scaffolding language skills
	Questioning and answering	Meaningful practice (for communicative competence: mechanical practice as comparatives above, meaningful practice for better understanding, and communicative practice)
	Speaking	Communicative practice for developing fluency
2	Generating ideas	Generating ideas
	Brainstorming a place	Preparation for the next discussion activity (scaffolding)
	Planning for a tour meeting	Speaking fluently (communicative competence) Skills of speaking Reflection: What promotes speaking? What hampers speaking? Let the participants discuss referring to this activity. Ensure: Questioning, Acknowledging, Turn taking, and turn giving. Let others speak Reasoning etc.

Curricular aims

The aim of teaching English at these grades is to enable students to develop basic communicative competence so that they can use the language in real life situations. (English Curriculum Grade 4-5, 2078)
. . . it aims to develop the communicative competence on the part of students. (English curriculum Grade 6-8, 2077)

Additional information

For achieving the curricular goal of developing communicative competence, the students should have opportunities to try out and experience the use of teaching items. For this, the teachers design several activities which engage students in conversations. However, the activities must proceed in the order of providing ample practices to learn necessary sub-skills like vocabulary cues, sentence formation, linking ideas and engage in longer communication. Teachers ignore mistakes which occur while the students are speaking because corrections of every mistake discourage students and avoid making efforts. If the students are allowed to speak freely without obstruction at mistakes, they are likely to build confidence. As they start using English a lot, they encounter correct forms and start self-correction which is more rewarding to language learning. However, the language teachers should provide the necessary vocabulary cues, sentence structures or typical expressions for particular language functions, sentence starters or linkers etc. These kinds of scaffolding motivate them to follow the process, build up accuracy and fluency. Although there are many oral practices, all the language skills are integrated throughout the lesson.

Suggested strategies for a communicative English language teaching class

Techniques/ Strategies	Sample of textbook contents
Jigsaw	Grade 6 Unit 4 Festivals of Nepal
Information transfer	Grade 4 Unit 2 Reading I Personal belongings (Report who has got what?)
Reciprocal reading	Grade 8 Ganesh Man Singh Student 1 reads early life and education. Student 2 reads his political involvement and contribution. They tell the major points to each other. (Pair work)
Information gap	Grade 7 Unit 9 A plan for a visit Students sit in pair. They get information asking to the partner. For example, a student might know more about Pokhara. The next student asks and gets information more.
Things in common	Grade 4 unit Writing II venn diagram
Role play / dramatization	Grade 7 Unit 11 Our values: Birthday Party
Debate	Grade 7 Unit 14 Excursion to the zoo (Is it good to keep animals in zoo?)
Picture gallery (walk)	Grade 6 Unit 7 Human and the environment
Timeline	Biography: Anne Frank Grade 6 Ganeshman Singh Grade 8 …

Conclusion

Above activities are some examples of enhancing communicative skills. Teachers need to increase the opportunity for students to communicate in more meaningful ways. The real activities provide learners a chance to work and communicate in pairs and groups. These sorts of activities and lessons helps students not only know the communication skills but also demonstrate communicative ability (Hedge, 2011). In this connection, teaching the materials like pictures, word cards, and worksheet can be very useful and engaging tools for activating communication among students.

Reference

Hedge, T. (2011). Teaching and learning in the language classroom. Oxford University Press.

Appendix I

(Picture source: English Grade 4 Unit 6 p. 75)

Appendix II

Item	Activities	Aims / achievements
1	Drawing pictures
	Finding adjectives
	Comparatives
	Questioning
	Questioning and answering
	Speaking
2	Brainstorming a place
2	Planning for a tour meeting

About the Author

Mr. Gopal Prasad Bashyal is an instructor at Education Training Centre, Palpa, Nepal. He is a life member and the Senior Vice-President of NELTA Lumbini. He is an author, a teacher trainer and researcher. Mr. Bashyal has published Optional English series (Grade 1 – 5), Teaching English to Beginners, ELT Handbook, and The Recollections, and several ELT and education related research-based articles in national and international journals and newspapers. His texts cover deeper understanding of real classroom practice and focus on concrete experiences of home and abroad. He can be contacted at: gopalbashyal@gmail.com