DEVELOPMENTS IN TESOL METHODOLOGY

LEARNING CIRCLE MEMBERS: Deman, Kate, Shaima, Noora, Yiota, Evelyn, Janet, Hara,Uzma

SUMMARY

The ‘Family Relationship’ communicative task is an activity, which if adjusted to the level and the age of the students, it will be really interesting and helpful for them as it will trigger their imagination, draw their attention and enable them to achieve fluency in speech as well as acquisition of the taught material. To be more specific, when this task is applied to learners of elementary level, it should focus on the teaching of easy topics, forms and structures of the language. Those could be the members of the family, the professions and their roles in society. Also, taking into consideration that the task addresses to young students, its aim should simply be the practice of the taught subject.

On the other hand, when the task is performed by adult learners, it should be modified in order to be compatible with their age and interests. As a result it should include topics like sports and politics and focus on the acquisition of more complex forms of the language. In this way, during the interaction that takes place, the students will exchange ideas and their knowledge will be expanded.

As far as our snapshot activities are concerned, they were quite similar to the ‘Family Relationship’ communicative task as most of them included role playing and the question-answer pattern. Moreover, their purpose was to promote communication among the students, who trough their interaction they would be able to achieve speech fluency and thus automaticity.

However, some members of the group were not sure if they could set this activity to the students of their country, as the government policies that affect the educational sector are quite strict, imposing a teaching line which must be followed by the teachers without any radical modifications. Another suspending factor is the number of the students within a class. The task might not be successful in classes with a large number of students because it would be difficult for them to interact and at the same time be relevant to the topic. This could only be possible if they were given certain instructions before the introduction of the task and if they were constantly monitored by the teacher.

In conclusion, the ‘Family Relationship’ communicative task is an activity the application of which in the CLT classrooms will have the desired effects only if it is transformed according to the age, the level, the interests and the number of the learners as well as if its use is allowed by the government teaching line.