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The Role of Language Practice

Olga Goncharova

© BKC-IH Moscow Teacher Training Centre 2012

CELTA, DELTA, COLT, Cambridge ExaminerCELTA Trainer, IHC YLT Trainer, TKT: Trainer (3 Modules, Practical, TKT: YL)

Fluency vs Accuracy

• Accuracy is …• Fluency is … … an ability to speak idiomatically and accurately, without

undue pausing, without an intrusive accent, and in a manner appropriate to the context.

Fluency is an ability to• Select utterances appropriately (knowing what to say, to

whom and when)• Produce these utterances (rapidly and smoothly, without

much hesitation)© BKC-IH Moscow Teacher Training Centre 2012

Types of practice

• Mechanical • Contextualised• Communicative



What they have in common

• A specific grammatical feature is isolated for focused attention (target language)

• Learners produce sentences with the target language• Learners repeat the target language• Expectancy that learners will produce the target

language correctly. Therefore, practice activities are “success oriented”

• Learners receive feedback on accuracy, either immediate or delayed


The Habit Loop

clickCue

Routine

Reward


Criteria for Creative Automatisation

genuinely communicative, i.e. task related, not just for the sake of saying smth

psychologically authentic, natural

formulaic (short, memorizable, multi-situational)

focused (one or few functions)

inherently repetitive


Examples of situations where repetition is authentic

• Calling an appliance store to practise the structure “something needs V-ing”

• A party in a redecorated apartment to practise I've had the walls painted

• Speed dating to practise I like/ I don’t like• “Lost umbrella” to practise What does it look like?• “You look different” to practise I’ve had my hair dyed• Thanksgiving to practice Thank you for V-ing


I’ve never … live beeatdrinkhavelearnwork see

I’m getting/ feeling ….© BKC-IH Moscow Teacher Training Centre 2012


Examples of activities to promote creative automatisation

• Jazz chants/ creating chants (I’ve never…)• When I am 64. (Will you still…?)• When I am an old woman I shall wear purple. (future

forms)• Pictures on the wall (he’s going to … They might have..)• Class photo (prepositions of place)• What’s my job? (Do you have to…?)• What kind of animal am I? (Do you have..? Can you..?)


Acknowledgement

• Grammar teaching – Practice or Consciousness Raising? by Rod Ellis

• Addressing the grammar gap in task work by J.C.Richards• An A-Z of EFL by S.Thornbury• Teaching grammar in Second Language Classroom by

H.Nassaji & S.Fotos• The Power of Habit by Ch.Duhigg


Thank you!


BKC-IH Teacher Training Centre

E-mail: [email protected]: (495) 2340314

www.bkc.ru