What is information gap?
Search online for info-gap materials used for ELT.
HOMEWORK: What are the drawbacks and benefits of an information-gap-based task in ELT? Refer to your recent experience with the preceding task.
Enter your suggestions to the comments to this blog.
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Training communication
·
functions
related to contextual, situational and social meanings
·
satisfying
communicative needs
·
language
as an instrument for social interaction (role-play)
guided dialogues,
role cards with indirect clues, real information + structure training
E.G. "Excuse me, where is the post
office?" - "It’s opposite the theatre."
Purposes of communicative activities:
·
whole-task practice (not only separated items)
·
motivation - related to life goals
·
natural learning
Functional communication activities
(sharing = resctricted access to information)
1. sharing
information with restricted cooperation
a) identifying
pictures
b) discovering
pairs, sequences, location
2. sharing
information with unrestricted cooperation
a) discovering
differences
b) following
directions
3. sharing and
processing information
a) reconstructing
sequences
b) pooling
information to solve a problem
4. processing
information = full access to all facts
a) plan what to
take for a trip, desert island, Moon...
b) prepare an
itinerary
‘read,
think and speak’
Features:
less
predictable, less controlled
expressing
and respecting individuality
more
like a real life
When compared to other speaking exercises for pairs, they share similar disadvantages, such as the risk of slipping to the mother tongue while speaking, or going off-topic. Info-gap-based tasks, however, have the biggest advantage: they don't feel artificial the way some other tasks do (e.g. when simulating job interview in pairs - such activity is simply not intuitive). This is probably the best activity for speaking in pairs, at least from my point of view, although I realise it often depends on personal preferences - for some students, job interview may feel more funny than the info-gap-based tasks.
OdpovědětVymazatFrom my experience, such tasks, if well prepared, may be very useful for students in terms of spoken English. The language is best learned by experience, and the information gap ones give students a great chance to practice their vocabulary in situations, which may also happen later in their lives. Of course, the topic and the role-play has to be something close to reality. If students get divided into pairs, students with "stronger" English can help the "weaker" ones, so the teacher can observe more the weaker pairs, increasing the overall efficiency of teaching.
OdpovědětVymazatA drawback of such IG activities, as mentioned in our class, is that a situation or a role may offend some students in a class. Therefore a teacher needs to be really careful when choosing a topic. There is also possibility that students might get bored (if the activity is not fun enough) and thus not even try to complete the task / stop using English.
Information Gap activities are, in my opinion, quite useful. Students can practice their English language, find and learn new words and they can try, what it is like to be someone else, more specifically, what it is like to be in a given profession. The only issue is that the teacher must be careful not to pick a topic, that is somehow offensive.
OdpovědětVymazatThe advantages of an information gap exercise is communicating with a person of the same age and not just the teacher, students enjoy that. Also, they might have fun doing the task (if chosen wisely according to students' age and profficiency).
OdpovědětVymazatHowever, there are disadvatages. Students might not know the whole vocabulary and easily slip into their mother language. The teacher cannot control all of the pairs and helps them only a little. The topic might bore the students, and if they are not comfortable with the partner (chosen by the teacher), they might refuse to speak completely.
The biggest drawback of Info-gap is the fact that no teacher can control the whole class at once so there can be a problem with attention or the real work students actually do during this exercise. On the other hand it is the most natural way of learning English (through conversation and situation), since both participants has similar level of language, so it promotes better understanding and maximise the speaking potential of the whole class (time-wise)
OdpovědětVymazatPavel Bruckner
OdpovědětVymazatInformation gap exercises are useful because the students can learn new vocabulary in a fun way. Usually they don't even realize that they're learning something. It is important to choose a topic that is adequate to the students' language level.
While I believe that information gap exercises are going to broaden your teaching methods,I would like to propose that you as a teacher should be able to moderate the discussions very well and safely. there are numerous situations where you could discover some internal struggles that aren't meant to be publicly shared. So it should be considered carefully.
OdpovědětVymazatAll in all it is a great way to bond with the class and also for them to be able to talk about topics that are fully integrated into your basic life.
The benefit Is certainly in the amount od speaking the students do during these activities. They can also help each other and hear different english than that od their teacher. Given the right circumstances, students can also have fun.
OdpovědětVymazatThe drawback might be the difficulty of observing the students while they speak, but as the activity will probably mainly focus on fluency. Also the students might procrastinate a little bit.
From my experience the activity was fun and the roleplayish background and the time limit gave it the right spice to make it fun.
Marek Baraňák
OdpovědětVymazatSeveral pros of this method are that students learn to do simple activities in different ways and they can hear the use of English language from their classmates, giving them an opportunity to compare their own knowledge with the knowledge of others.
The major con can be that not every student manages to grasp the main feature of this method and can be confusing to him/her. The teacher therefore has to pay a lot of attention to the students so the method actually works.
It is definitely something that should be done in the class so the teacher knows the capabilities of each student.
I think that this exercise improves students ability to talk, extends the vocabulary and makes the learning more fun.
OdpovědětVymazatOn the other hand, sometimes can students slip into their native language or not be using this exercise correctly, so it's important to be aware.
From my personal experience is this exercise ok. Especially for speaking practice.
The biggest benefit of such activities is the simple fact that students finally get some time to train their spoken language. I am reffering to fact, that students do not really get many similar converzational activities during lessons. From my experience, it has always been mostly like "let's go by book and sometimes create a prezentation about someone you do not really care (dead writers for example)".
OdpovědětVymazatTasks like these make students think in english. Of course, it is very important to set your activity depending on the students level of english (you do not want to make your best students bored or your slow students lost)and it might be quite an issue to involve everyone in your activity. If the teacher manages to lead the activity in a proper way, not only it will expand students vocabulary, but it may also show where your students lack knowledge in grammar etc, and it also gives a fresh air for your lessons.
That is the excellent one post here. Thank you and all the best.
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