Designing Communicative Activities

The late 1980s and 1990s saw the development of approaches that highlighted the fundamentally communicative properties of language, and classrooms were increasingly characterized by authenticity, real-world simulation, and meaningful tasks.

The range of exercise types and activities with a communicative approach is unlimited, provided that such exercises enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum, and engage learners in communication. It requires the use of the communicative processes including:

•　Information sharing;

•　Negotiation of meaning;

•　Interaction.

Classroom activities are often designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve negotiation and sharing of information. For example:

•　Showing slides to the students for them to identify;

•　Providing incomplete diagrams for students to complete by asking for information;

•　Jigsaw listening;

•　Jigsaw reading;

•　Comparing sets of pictures and noting the similarities and differences, etc.