Unit16 Practice activities and tasks for language and skills development
⏹ What are practice activities and tasks for language and skills development?
The are activities and tasks designed to give learners opportunities to practice and extend their u of language, such as new vocabulary, functional exponents or grammatical structures, or of the subskills of reading, listening, speaking or writing. There are many different kinds of activities and tasks with different names and different us.
⏹ Key concepts
Here are two writing activities. Can you find three teaching differences between them?
Activity 1
Complete the ntences about yourlf with can or can’t.
1. I ……… swim.
2. I ……… speak Mandarin.
爸妈不是我的佣人
3. I ……… play the guitar.
4. I ……… u a computer.
5. I ……… run very fast.
Activity 2
Write an invitation inviting your friends to your birthday party.
● Invite them.
● Tell them:
the date
the time
the address of the party.
We can e that both the activities give learners an opportunity to u language, but in different ways.
Activity 1
Activity 2
● is a controlled/restricted practice activity becau learners can only u certain items of language
● focus on accurate u of language
● is a gap-fill exerci.
● is a less controlled/freer practice activity becau the language the learners will u is not carefully limited or controlled
● focus on communicating a message
● is a task.
The same kinds of differences can also be en in other activities for speaking, writing and learning new language. Drills (guided repetitions), copying words or ntences, jazz chants, dictation and reading aloud are other examples of controlled practice activities. In freer activities the teacher or the materials do not limit the language that learners u. Examples of the are: discussions; solving problems through exchanging ideas; sharing or comparing ideas, information or experiences; writing emails, stories, letters, invitations or compositions.
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Here are six more activities. What skill/subskill/language do they focus on? What is the name of the type of activity?
1. Read the story. Then answer the question:
a How old is girl?
b 融资租入Where does she live?
c What is her friend’s name?
2. A Listen to the tape and choo the best answer:
The children’s school is:
a near their hou
b near the shops
c opposite the post office
B Now listen again. Are the ntences true or fal?
a The school is new.
出色的反义词
酒店前台实习周记 b The classroom is big.
c The library has may books.
3. Look at the pictures and then read the story. Put the pictures in the correct order. Write the correct number (1-6) under each picture.
4. Listen to the tape, and in pairs fill in this form:
Girl’s name: ………………….
Girl’s address: ………………..
Name of girl’s friend: ………..
5. Work in pairs. Each of you should u one of the role cards.
A Your friend has a problem. Give him/her the best advice you can.
B You have a problem. You want to go to university, but you find studying very difficult. Ask your friend for advice.
6. Get into groups of four. Find out which food your friends like and dislike most. Ask:
Which food do you like most?
Which food do you dislike most?
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Here are the answers to the question above:
Activity | Skill/subskill/language | Type of activity |
1 | Reading for specific information | Wh- question (questions beginning with question words: e.g. which/what/how/when/why) for comprehension |
2 | Listening for specific information | A Multiple-choice question (an activity in which you choo the best answer from three or more possible answers) B True/Fal questions (an activity in which you decide whether statements are correct or incorrect) |
3 | Reading for detail | Ordering |
如何煮馄饨4 | Listening for specific | Form filling |
5 | Fluency in speaking / freer practice of new language | Role-play (an activity in which you imagine that you are someone el in a specific situation) |
6 | Accuracy in speaking / controlled practice of new language | Survey (finding out the opinions of a group on one topic) |
葡醛内酯片 | | |
We can e that activities can differ in veral ways: the skill or subskill they focus on; what type they are and what interaction patterns they u. The kinds of skills or language they focus on and the interaction patterns they u are not fixed. So, for example, multiple-choice questions could be ud for reading, listening or grammar activities and can be done individually, in pairs or in groups. Similarly, form-filling could be ud for reading, listening or grammar practice, and done individually, in pairs or in groups.
Activities 5 and 6 both involve learners talking to one another to exchange information they don’t know. This means they are talking order to communicate, not just to practice language. This kind of activity in which learners exchange information that only one of them has is called an information gap or a communicative activity.
