Communication in the Language Classroom [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION If you know how something works, you can begin to work out how to interfere with it. (Professor Lewis Wolpert, BBC Radio 4: 27 May 1995) As teachers we are probably reluctant to think of what we do profession-ally as 'interference'; 'intervention' sounds better. This book looks at how communication works, since knowing how people succeed and fail in their efforts to communicate can help us to intervene to make learners' use of language more effective. Part One explores the characteristics of natural spoken interaction that we should take into account in teaching a language and in evaluating learners' performances. In Part Two I suggest var-ious ways of encouraging interaction through classroom tasks in the four traditional language skills—listening, speaking, reading, and writing. 'It wouldn't work here because A common reaction to any suggestion for change is to find reasons for keeping things as they are. Faced with recommendations for changes to classroom practice, teachers may respond by pointing out différences between their own circumstances and those of the person making the suggestion, or between theory and practice. Différences between teaching situations In 1993 I was preparing for a series of workshops for English teachers in India, on the topic of'teaching for communicative competence'. I expected to find that some teachers would be résistant to change and would argue that the materials and techniques I was going to demónstrate were impracticable in their teaching situation, for reasons such as class size and lack of resources. In fact, the response I encountered was veiy different. The debate that arose was not between me, the outside speaker, and local teachers, but