Using information gap activities to oromote meaningful communica tion

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGTHANH HOA CITY EDUCATION AND TRAINING OFFICE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE MEANINGFUL COMMUNICATION T

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THANH HOA CITY EDUCATION AND TRAINING OFFICE

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO

PROMOTE MEANINGFUL COMMUNICATION

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THANH HOA CITY EDUCATION AND TRAINING OFFICE

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE MEANINGFUL COMMUNICATION

II Types of gaps

III Examples of information gaps activities

IV Benefits of using information gap activities

V Drawbacks of using information gap activities

VI Teacher’s roles in information gap activities

VII Strategies of implementing information gap activitiesVIII Stages of information gap activities

IX Some applicable information gap activities

X The implementing of the lesson plan

XI Effectiveness of the experience initiatives

C CONCLUSION

D APPENDIX

E REFERENCE BOOKS

A INTRODUCTION

One of the challenges many second language teachers face is motivatingtheir students to speak in the target language Confident students alwaysparticipate and students who are less confident are reluctant to speak Evenwhen students speak in the target language, they are usually answering aquestion and this approach greatly limits students’ output Oral presentationsprovide opportunities for students to speak in the target language for anextended period of time and these activities are useful, but they should not bethe only opportunities students have to speak at length Because students preparefor these presentations by writing a script and then rehearsing it, they havedifficulty speaking in the target language spontaneously because they are givenlittle opportunity to do so When students choose to learn a language, they areinterested in learning to speak that language as fluently as possible We,therefore, need to actively engage students in speaking activities that areenjoyable enough to interest the students Further more, one of the principaltenets of the communicative approach to language teaching is that the learnersare involved in actual interaction in the classroom This interaction must be

meaningful and involve an authentic use of language

To help students develop their communicative efficiency in speaking, thereare some activities used in the classroom to promote the development ofspeaking skills in our learners However, in this writing I will just try to center

on information gap activities as one of the strategies to enhance meaningful

and communicative speaking I will discuss some main points related to

information gap activities: the meaning of gap, types of gap, types ofinformation, examples of information gap activities, benefits as well as thedrawbacks of using information gap activities, the teacher's roles, somestrategies of implementing information gap activities, and the stages ofinformation gap speaking lessons And finally I will suggest some useful andapplicable information gap activities that I have adapted from the text books ofTieng Anh 6, 7 into my classrooms

B MAIN CONTENT

I What is a gap?

In this context, gap may be taken to mean difference If there are twostudents, A and B, and if A has some information which B does not, and possiblyvice-versa, then there is a difference or gap between the two students A taskwhich requires B to find out the information that A has (i.e a task which closesthe gap) will provide a reason for communication

II Types of gap

Generally, the activities which depend on bridging a gap could be in theform of the following:

 The opinion gap: Everyone has different opinions, feelings and thoughts

about the world Finding out about someone’s feelings and opinions helpsclose the gap between people The number of personalized activities inmany textbooks shows the value of this gap

 The experience gap: All students in classes have had different experiences

in their lives, so this type is a good task for communication Questionnairescan be exploited the experience gap, particularly those that aim to practicepast form, e.g a questionnaire to find out what sports they like most

 The knowledge gap: Students know different things about the world This

gap can be exploited in brainstorms and general knowledge-style quizzes

 The information gap: This is the classic gap exploited by the

communicative approach It is a situation where one person knowssomething, which the other does not This cultivates curiosity/inquisitiveness, inventive nature, confidence, problem solving, phrasingquestions, discovering questions, and above all communication Theinformation gap is ideally suited to pair and small group work and usuallyrelies upon pre-prepared information cards

III Examples of information gap activities

1 20 questions:

Students work in pairs or small groups One student chooses an object orperson and keeps it a secret The other students must ask yes or no questions todetermine what that object/person is The maximum number of questions is 20

2 Guess the card:

Students work in partners This is similar to 20 questions only the studentsalready have the object chosen for them One student holds a card so that theirpartner can’t see The partner must then ask yes or no questions to determine

what is on the card Often teachers structure this activity to fit with the theme of

a particular unit

3 Find your partner:

Whole class participates Students are each given a card with an image on it;there are two of each image Students must circulate and try to find the personwith the same image by asking yes or no questions The students may not ask “Doyou have an elephant” if their image is, for example, an elephant They must askmore descriptive questions, for example “Does your thing have 4 legs?” or “Doesyour thing live in the jungle?”

4 Words on back:

Students work in large groups or as a whole class Each student has a wordattached to his or her back; the students must then circulate asking each otheryes or no questions to determine what word is on their back

5 Same different:

Students work in pairs Each has a different picture that should not beshown to their partner The students take turns asking each other yes or noquestions to find out how the pictures are different

6 Fill in the chart:

Students work in partners The students are both given tables withinformation missing What is missing in one partner’s table is there on the otherpartner’s table and vice versa Students must ask each other questions todiscover what is missing in each of their tables

7 Jigsaw activities:

A jigsaw activity is a group activity in which each member is dependent onthe others for part of the information In other words, in order to complete a task,group members must cooperate

IV Benefits of using information gap activities

Information gap activities have increasingly achieved popularity in recentyears and have been recommended as a way forward in English languageteaching Below are the benefits of using information gap activities in teachingEnglish language skills

- Learners talk a lot As much as possible of the period of time allotted to

the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk

- Participation is even Classroom discussion is not dominated by a

minority of talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions arefairly evenly distributed

- Motivation is high Learners are eager to speak: because they are

interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because theywant to contribute to achieving a task objective

- Language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves in

utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of anacceptable level of language accuracy

V Drawbacks of using information gap activities

One drawback to this type of exercise is that it could train students toengage in conversations that resemble police interrogations rather thaninteractive discussions It should be understood by teachers and students thatmany varieties of information gap activities are actually a type of interactivedrill rather than a model of conversation

Also, teachers need to be clear to students about the purpose of the activity.Some students mistakenly believe that the purpose is to completely fill in all ofthe blanks on the page Teachers need to emphasize that the important part is theprocess of asking and answering in English Otherwise, some students will talk

in their native language, peek at each others' papers, just recite the answers, orany number of other ways to quickly rush to the end

Despites all of these drawbacks, information gap activities can serve veryuseful roles in the foreign language classroom

VI Teacher’s roles in information – gap activities

1 Facilitator

First, as facilitator of communication, the teacher may need to perform in avariety of specific roles These include the following:

- He may perform the familiar role of language instructor He is the

material provider and activity initiator The students may not have the capacity

to begin the communicative information gap activity directly because they maylack the knowledge in linguistic forms or skills, which compose communicativeability

- He is the organizer of the classroom activities The main aim of the

teacher when organizing an activity is to tell the students what they are to talkabout (or write or read about), give clear instructions about what exactly theirtask is, get the activity going, and then organize feedback when it is over Thissounds remarkably easy, but can be disastrous if teachers have not thought outexactly what they are going to say beforehand

In addition to this, the teacher has to break the whole class into pairs or groups,and decide on procedures of pair, group or class work When the informationgap is being filled, the teacher has to walk around the classroom and make surethe communication is going smoothly

- He may be the error-corrector At the stage of pre-communicative

activity, the linguistic errors should be strictly monitored and corrected, but atthe group work and class work levels in the process of communicative activity,errors are viewed as the unavoidable by-products of communication and can beignored unless they hinder communication

- He may choose to be a by-stander, making no intervention after initiating

the proceedings, and let communication take place through independent activities

- While such an independent activity is in progress, he may act as

consultant or adviser, walking to and from in the classroom and helping where

necessary or when asked

2 Participant

There is no reason why the teacher should not participate as an equal in theactivity He can offer his information, and at the same time stimulate and presentnew language, without taking the main initiative for communication away fromthe students themselves

3 Observer and learner

The teacher may also act as an observer and learner When the independentactivity is in progress he may move about the classroom in order to monitor thestrengths and weaknesses of the students, as a basis for planning future learningactivities He can use the weaknesses as signs for learning needs which he mustcater for later, probably through more controlled, pre-communicative activities

VII Strategies of Implementing Information Gap Activities

Information gap activities should be implemented via some strategies,which will provoke learning by a large extent to a learner’s own personalinvestment of time, effort, and attention to the second language in the form of anindividualized battery of strategies for comprehending and producing thelanguage The following are some techniques used to implement informationgap activities:

1 Pair work or group work:

In order to elicit information and opinions, the learners need to interactamong themselves They should spend most of their time working in pairs orgroups, finding out their peers’ points of view, transmitting their ownconceptions, exchanging ideas, and questing for clues for solutions Thus,dividing the learners into pairs and groups is an inevitable and importantstrategy to implement information gap activities This ensures the successfulfunction of the information gap activities in teaching speaking in which groupwork can help achieve the goals of anxiety reduction and meaningfulcommunication However, effective group work in the classroom does not occurautomatically and thus the teacher’s careful involvement is required as in thefollowing steps:

Firstly, the teacher should plan and prepare for the group work activitiesahead of the speaking lesson because the good designs of the activities willresult in “more negotiation of meaning, more feedback and faster acquisition” Secondly, the engagement of the teacher in the group work is important.Thirdly, the teacher should allot roles to each member within groupreasonably As it is suggested that mixed groups including different proficientmembers can work better than “homogeneous groups” Additionally, thestudents should be seated in a way that they can talk together easily, keep eyecontact, share materials and talk in a lower voice

In fact, information gap activities assist students to achieve their goals ofmeaningful communication Through pair and group work they can get moreopportunities to speak and feel more confident about speaking after cooperating

to practice

Furthermore, they get enjoyment from learning language, which motivatesthem to reach a higher level But teachers should take into consideration thatgroup work in speaking also has its negative effects For instance, students mayoveruse the first language or engage in “off-task talk.”

2 Personalization and Individualization:

As we all know that information gap activities collect views not only fromothers but also from one’s own contributions as well It is both speakers’conceptions that close the gap between them Personalization activities providethe learners opportunities to express their opinions, suggestions, or taste, toshare their real life experiences or ideas, and to apply their issues or concerns tosome controversial topics And individualization activities allow the learners toact at their own pace, in their own manner and style, and on the topics or content

of their own choice Then they will find their own way, taking charge of theirlearning, and make their own opportunities for practice in using the languageinside and outside the classroom

role-4 Variety:

A variety of information gap activities and techniques are always essential inall teaching and learning They will accommodate varieties of learning styles andindividuals Constant alteration of activities, techniques and approaches canprovoke greater motivation and interest as well as further increased longing to fill

in the gaps Variety also means great several contributions from the learners If theinformation gap activities are created with plenty of potentials for learners, thedesire to learn from the learners could be greatly increased

VIII Stages of an Information Gap Lesson

The teachers must be careful during preparing for lesson plan, so they have

to choose the most perfect ways to implement their lessons successfully Beloware some steps that teachers should take into consideration when setting a lessonplan by using information gap activities,

 Objectives

The objectives of each lesson are respectively derived from the integratedskill texts The researcher took into consideration the speaking skills intended to

be developed in this study and student centered activities Students find andshare information by asking and answering questions in order to complete a task

 Estimated time

Each lesson takes 45 minutes The time varies, but usually ranges between(05) and (10) minutes for each one

 Resources and teaching aids

The student's book & workbook, the worksheets, the evaluation sheets,video, pictures, maps, newspaper, LCD, lap top and other materials are used asresources and teaching aids They are selected appropriately for each lesson

 Warming up

In this activity, two students share information to complete a task In way gap activities, one student has all the information (e.g., one studentdescribes a picture and the other learner draws it) In two- way gap activities,both students have some information and must share it with each other tocomplete the task Because this activity usually combines speaking and listeningwith reading and writing, all the skills are practiced

one- Procedure and techniques

The teacher prepares a master handout based on information, languagestructures, and vocabulary the students have been working on Then, the teacherdeletes pieces of information on two sets of handouts For example, Handout

“A” will have some information deleted that handout “B” will provide Handout

“B” will have other pieces of information deleted that handout “A” will provide.For example, in a work place context the master could be a weekly schedule orlist of work tasks The teacher can make one side more challenging than the other,

to meet the needs of learners at different levels

Pre-teach and practice vocabulary and structures for the particular task.Students should also be familiar with question and answer formulas (e.g., “Whattime is _” and “It’s at _”), and ways to ask for clarification (e.g., “Excuse me,can you repeat,” or “I’m sorry, I don’t understand”) These can be introduced in thefirst days of classes, and recycled, adapted, and extended over time

Explain the information-gap procedures by modeling a sample gap activitywith an able volunteer from the class

Have students work with a partner One student in each pair gets Handout

“A” and the other gets Handout “B” Ask two students to model the asking andanswering of questions in the gap activity before the whole class begins theactivity

Learners ask and answer questions and record answers until both form “A”and form “B” have been completed

Ask students to compare their papers with each other

To complete the activity with the whole group, teacher can ask volunteers

to come up to the board to fill in information they’ve gathered from theirpartners Or teacher can ask students to report the information they have in theirhandout This helps solidify the knowledge and gives some slower learners orpairs a chance to catch up and check their work without stress

 Evaluation

Walking around the room observing learners during the activity gives achance to know how well individual learners use and understand English in theactivity and download some notes

IX Some applicable information gap activities

Below is a list of information gap activities that I have adapted form thetext books of Tieng Anh 6 and 7, the two text books that I have been workingwith for these two recent years They have proved to be very useful inmotivating students to talk and improving their confidence as well as ability tospeak

TIENG ANH 6 (sach thi diem)

1 Unit 2 My home – Communication – Activity 2.

FIND THE DIFFERENCES

- Activity: Pair work: Speaking

- Aim: To find the differences in the two pictures

- Grammar and functions: There are / is, There isn’t/ aren’t…

- Vocabulary: Types house and room funiture.

- Preparation: Make one copy of Nick’s house for student A and one copy of Mi’s house for student B (see appendix)

- Time: 10 minutes

- Procedures:

 This activity is done as a productive activity

 Divide the class into pairs and give each pair a copy of Worksheet Aand worksheet B Explain that they must not show their picture toeach other

 Tell the students that there are ten differences between the pictures,which they must find by asking and answering questions

 Ask them to use There is/ are, There isn’t/ aren’t….

 When they have found the ten differences they can look at the otherpicture, and then write down the differences

 Check the answer with the class

2 Unit 3 My friends – Looking back (Communication)

WHEN AND WHAT?

- Activity: Pair work: Writing and speaking

- Aim: To ask and answer questions about schedule.

- Grammar and functions: Present continuous for the future /

Prepositions of time

- Vocabulary: Shedule activities

- Preparation: make one copy of the worksheet for each student in the

class

- Time: 10 minutes

- Procedures:

 Ask students to close their book

 Write a time of day on the board

For example: At 8 – 9.30 tomorrow morning

Ask the students to guess what you are doing at this time

For example:

Are you doing your homework ?

Student 3: Are you playing football ?

Now complete the example sentence on the board:

At 8-9.30 tomorrow morning I am playing football.

If necessary, give another example using a different preposition of time

For example: Between 10 and 11 tomorrow morning, I am going to

the gym.