Morocco Lesson Plan
Theme
- personal information.
Linguistic Content
- verb to be;
- question adverbials (how, what, when, why, who, how much).
Socio-cultural Content
- cultural norms in asking about personal information.
Goals
- demonstrate the practical aspects of the training that we can provide as a Faculty;
- demonstrate that we proceed from practice to theory;
- demonstrate communicative learning activity.
Objectives: At the end of this session, SWBT:
- engage in an information gap activity in which they interact with classmates in
order to obtain personal information;
- note examples of cultural and linguistic challenges in working with information
gap activities in which personal information is gathered;
- identify some of the important steps that teachers need to take in order to
effectively manage information gap activities;
- identity some ways in which information gap activities can be extended into
writing tasks.
Procedure
1. Warmup/ Introductions
-
introductions: who we are;
objectives of activity made clear to the participants by a brief overview of this
lesson plan (see second slide of ppt).
2. Theory (ppt):
-
(2 min)
(10 min)
The communicative approach emphasizes the communicative aspect of teaching
language, concentrating on function rather than form;
As Allen and Widdowson (1979) stated, the approach involves, "the learning of
rules of use as well as rules of grammar" (p.141);
The goal is to create a realistic context for language acquisition in the classroom.
Functional language usage;
The ability to learners to express their own ideas, feelings, attitudes, desires and
needs;
Open ended questioning and problem-solving activities;
-
Exchanges of personal information;
Negotiation of meaning while working with authentic materials in small groups;
Tasks turn declarative into procedural knowledge (Skehan, 1998);
Johnson noted that “fluency in the communicative process can only develop
within task-orientated teaching” (1979, p.200);
Teacher professionalism and learner autonomy is closely linked to experiential
learning and pedagogical task design (Fleming & Walter, 2004);
What’s a task? (Richard & Rodgers, 2008): Focus on Meaning; Focus on process;
Goal oriented; Problem-solving; Integrative; Collaborative; Example: Create a
class newsletter.
3. Procedural instructions given to participants
(1 min)
Participants are given an information gap slip (see below) for each one of the participants
at their table and told to interview them in turn.
4. Information gap activity
(10 min.)
Participants ask group members personal questions based on slip.
5. Debrief: professors note that:
(2 min.)
- this is a classic information gap activity and is a hallmark of the communicative
approach to second language pedagogy;
- refer to the tenets of the communicative approach discussed earlier;
- the goals in using this activity with second language learners is to have sts
actually use the target language;
- the activity also serves as an ice-breaker;
- briefly note some of the main features of Canale and Swain’s competency model,
making the point that communicative ESL pedagogy has to use models that
expand our notions of language beyond of linguistic competency;
6. Brainstorming
-
(10 min.)
Participants asked to choose a recorder for each table.
Participants are asked to brainstorm ways in which the information gap activity
could be extended into writing and reading tasks.
Using a blackboard/ flipchart paper, the recorder notes the points made during the
brainstorm.
7. Posting ideas
(15 min.)
The recorders post their flipchart paper on the walls around the room and all of the
participants are asked to circulate and view them.
8. Feedback
(10 min.)
-
-
Professors debrief the activity, noting that in future work with the participants we
would plan to explore functionally based critical approaches that critique and
expand upon competency-based models in view of the globalization of English.
Participants are then asked for feedback and questions.
The formal end of session comes with the distribution of exit slips (to be
collected): what did you like most about the activity?
Materials
-
flip chart paper/ stands/ markers/ masking tape
ppt/ laptop/ projector
information gap slips designed as follows:
name: _____
birthday: ______
family: ______
hobbies: ____
favorite color: ____
favorite food: ____
favorite drink: ____
favorite place to be: ____