Teaching english as a foreign language

Contents A.In the restaurant 46 I actor 46 II actor 46 Teacher's notes .46 B.Taxi court role 47 Passenger: 47 Cabbie: 47 You not think you should be in taxi court Saturday night, you picked up a drunk man and his girlfriend He was so drunk that you couldn't understand his directions You repeated "Cadman Plaza?" The customer was already kissing his girlfriend and didn't answer 47 C Neighbors at odds role cards 47 Create the atmosphere of a block of flats There are many residents Introduce the topic to the pupils Ask if the pupils have neighbors and what relations they have with their neighbors 47 The first resident aprt.102 47 The second resident aprt.202 .48 Introduction As a future teacher at a middle school, my main objective will be to help the pupils to master English at a high level This fact makes us use such terms that are generally handled in methodology They are: approach, technique, method When we use the word approach we mean that an idea or theory is being applied, that whatever the teacher does, certain theoretical principles are always borne in mind When we talk about a technique, we mean a procedure used in classroom Finally, a method is a set of procedures or a collection of techniques used in a systematic way which it is hoped to result in efficient learning A technique is the narrowest term, meaning one single procedure A method will consist of a number of techniques, probably arranged in a specific order The word approach is much more general and has the implication that whatever method or techniques the teacher uses, he does not feel bound by these, but only by the theory in which will fit in with his approach, then we will adopt them Different approaches may share the same techniques and even the same methods, and different methods may share the same techniques, some techniques have developed independently but many of the important ones have arisen particular methods Language teaching is a side of education that makes use not only of the language materials but of pragmatics One of the most important approaches in teaching English as a second language is the communicative one We throw forward this idea because the essence of the relations in life is created thanks to communication The aim of my paper is to bring home to the great majority ways to help the pupils to handle successfully the language Aim and tasks of the investigation have made us use the following methods: - the analytical methods; - the comparative methods; - the elements of the statistical methods The structure of the paper is as follows: it consists of an introduction, three chapters, conclusion and bibliography In Introduction the importance of the topic investigation is discussed the aims, tasks and methods used throughout the research Chapter is devoted to the theoretical aspect of the question that is the language teaching, its history, its methods, approaches and techniques Chapter touches upon the communicative approach, its necessity and its history It comes out according to different opinions this approach stands at the bases of the development of speech habits at foreign language learners The role of the teacher is to encourage and to motivate the pupils’ participation In Chapter you can find the classification of the communicative activities according to their structure and the aim of their usage We propose some exercises too that may help all the teachers in heightening the fluency In Conclusion the results of the licenta paper investigation are summed The Bibliography includes the list of literature and the web sites used in the investigation CHAPTER ONE: General Issues of Teaching English as a Foreign Language §1.1The needs of a foreign language teaching When Aristotle wrote All we is done with an eye to something else over two thousand years ago1, he probably did not realize that he would be helping introduce a book on human teaching www.methodenglish.com Language teaching came into its own as a profession in the last century Central to this phenomenon was the emergence of the concept of "methods" of language teaching The method concept in language teaching—the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices based on a particular theory of language and language learning—is a powerful one, and the quest for better methods was a preoccupation of teachers and applied linguists throughout the 20th century Howatt's (1984)2 overview documents the history of changes of practice in language teaching throughout history, bringing the chronology up through the Direct Method in the 20th century One of the most lasting legacies of the Direct Method has been the notion of "method" itself Methodology in language teaching has been characterized in a variety of ways When speaking about methodology main terms are very important A more or less classical formulation suggests that methodology is that which links theory and practice Theory statements would include theories of what language is and how language is learned or, more specifically, theories of second language acquisition (SLA) Such theories are linked to various design features of language instruction These design features might include stated objectives, syllabus specifications, types of activities, roles of teachers, learners, materials, and so forth Design features in turn are linked to actual teaching and learning practices as observed in the environments where language teaching and learning take place This whole complex of elements defines language teaching methodology When the linguists and the language specialists sought to improve the quality of language teaching in Larsen-Freeman, D (2000) Techniques and principles in language teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press.-p.29 the late 19th century, they often did so by referring to general principles and theories concerning how languages are learned, how knowledge of language is represented and organized in memory, or how language itself is structured The early applied linguistics such as Henry Sweet, Otto Jespersen, Harold Palmer3, elaborated principles and theoretically accountable approaches to the design of language teaching When they analyzed all the principles a lot of things were left out An attempt to clarify the differences, Edward Anthony proposed a scheme He identified three levels of conceptualization and organization, which he termed as approach, method and technique …an approach is asset of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and learning An approach is axiomatic It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught …….method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material…………… An approach is axiomatic, a method is procedural Within one approach there can be many methods A technique is implementational –that which happens in the classroom.4 Following Anthony, approach refers to theories about the nature of the language and language learning that serve as the source of practices and principles in language teaching In order for an approach to lead to a method, it is necessary to develop a design for the instructional system Design is the level of method analysis in which we consider what the objectives of a method are, how language content is selected and organized within the method, the types of learning tasks, the roles of learners, the role of the teachers, the role of instructional material 5 Richards, J Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press.2001-p.18 Richards, J Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press.2001-p.19 Richards, J., & Rodgers, T (2001) Approaches and methods in language Teaching (2nd ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.-p.56 §1.2Schools of Language Teaching Methodology Within methodology a distinction is often made between methods and approaches, in which methods are held to be fixed teaching systems with prescribed techniques and practices, whereas approaches represent language teaching philosophies that can be interpreted and applied in a variety of different ways in the classroom This distinction is probably most usefully seen as defining a continuum of entities ranging from highly prescribed methods to loosely described approaches The period from the 1950s to the 1980s has often been referred to as "The Age of Methods," 6during which a number of quite detailed prescriptions for language teaching were proposed Situational Language Teaching evolved in the United Kingdom while a parallel method, Audio-Lingualism, emerged in the United States In the middle-methods period, a variety of methods were proclaimed as successors to the then prevailing Situational Language Teaching and Audio-Lingual methods These alternatives were promoted under such titles as Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Community Language Learning, and Total Physical Response In the 1980s, these methods in turn came to be overshadowed by more interactive views of language teaching, which collectively came to be known as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Communicative Language Teaching advocates subscribed to a broad set of principles such as these: • Learners learn a language through using it to communicate • Authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of classroom activities • Fluency is an important dimension of communication • Communication involves the integration of different language skills • Learning is a process of creative construction and involves trial and error However, CLT advocates avoided prescribing the set of practices through which these principles could best be realized, thus putting CLT clearly on the approach rather than the method end of the spectrum Communicative Language Teaching has spawned a number of off-shoots that share the same basic set of principles, but which spell out philosophical details or envision instructional practices in somewhat diverse ways These Howatt, A (1984) A history of English language teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press.-p.78 CLT spin-off approaches include The Natural Approach, Cooperative Language Learning, Content-Based Teaching, and Task-Based Teaching It is difficult to describe these various methods briefly and yet fairly, and such a task is well beyond the scope of this paper However, several up-todate texts are available that detail differences and similarities among the many different approaches and methods that have been proposed 7Perhaps it is possible to get a sense of the range of method proposals by looking at a synoptic view of the roles defined for teachers and learners within various methods Such a synoptic (perhaps scanty) view can be seen in the following chart TEACHING METHODS AND TEACHER & LEARNER ROLES Teacher Method Situational Language Teaching Roles Context Setter Error Corrector Language Audio-lingualism Modeler Drill Leader Learner Roles Imitator Memorizer Pattern Practicer Accuracy Enthusiast Communicative Language Needs Analyst Improvisor Teaching Total Physical Response Task Designer Negotiator Commander Order Taker Action Performer Richards, J., & Rodgers, T (2001) Approaches and methods in language Teaching (2nd ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.-p.90 Community Monitor Language Counselor Learning The Natural Approach Suggestopedia Collaborator Paraphraser Actor Whole Person Guesser Props User Auto- Immerser hypnotist Relaxer Authority True-Believer Figure As suggested in the chart, some schools of methodology see the teacher as ideal language model and commander of classroom activity (e.g., AudioLingual Method, Natural Approach, Suggestopedia, Total Physical Response) whereas others see the teacher as background facilitator and classroom colleague to the learners (e.g., Communicative Language Teaching, Cooperative Language Learning) There are other global issues to which spokespersons for the various methods and approaches respond in alternative ways For example, should second language learning by adults be modeled on first language learning by children? One set of schools (e.g., Total Physical Response, Natural Approach) notes that first language acquisition is the only universally successful model of language learning we have, and thus that second language pedagogy must necessarily model itself on first language acquisition An opposed view (e.g., Silent Way, Suggestopedia) observes that adults have different brains, interests, timing constraints, and learning environments than children, and that adult classroom learning therefore 10 A Crazy Sentence Listening to details can be very important when trying to solve a problem or when attempting to follow complicated directions Sometimes the details are not essential but at other times these details are the most important part of the information being conveyed Being able to listen carefully to what is said and to all the words that a person is saying isn’t an easy task Sometimes we must listen with our eyes and observe body language, facial expressions, and eye movement in order to get all the information needed The better you “listen” to the details, the more you will hear and the better you will understand what is being said Objective To use good listening skills in order to win the game GroupSize or more Materials -Paper -Pensorpencils - Chairs Description Prior to this activity make up a dozen or so sentences that are complete and correct but make them crazy and random; then write each sentence on a small piece of paper Some examples of crazy sentences are: “My “Big prom Bird date had is a my 52 large idol.” tattoo.” “The “It blue is good “Rubber cow to bands swam eat spiders stick to over and the the caterpillars ceiling on moon.” for breakfast.” Christmas day.” Be creative and come up with many more Also, prior to the game set up two chairs in the front of the room For the activity select two people from the group and ask them to sit in the chairs that you have set up in the front of the room Give each person a piece of paper with one of the crazy sentences on it The two players must read the sentence to themselves and then engage in conversation Each player attempts to state his/her sentence in the course of conversation The object is to slip in the sentence without the other person guessing what it is You may wish to give them a topic to start with such as fishing, country music, bowling, buying shoes, or anything else that has nothing to with the sentences Also give them a one or two minute time limit to slip their sentences in during the conversation After the time limit, allow the people in the audience to guess what the crazy sentence is and whoever guesses correctly is given the opportunity to play the game for the next round DiscussionPrompts What did you have to in order to detect the hidden sentence? When you use your best listening skills? Why? When is it important for you to show good listening skills? Variations - Each player may tell a story, instead of engaging in conversation with one other player - This game can be done with three people engaging in conversation at the 53 same time instead of just two B Direction Direction In our society there is a constant transfer of information from one person to another You must be careful when you pass information on if you want it to stay accurate One great example shows up in rules for a game If you check with people in different parts of the country you will find out that many of the games have different rules Someone, something changed the rules a little bit In this activity someone gets a set of rules and the group gets to see how easy it can be to make mistakes in passing them on This can be a fun way to see what can happen when information is not passed on correctly Objective For people to recognize the importance of using good communication skills when giving directions and when receiving directions To recognize the difficulties encountered when interpreting what someone else said Group Size or more Materials - Varies Description Chose a game that has a few specific rules that must be followed in order to play the game (and enough rules to make it hard to remember them all) Prior to the activity select one person and give him/her the direction for the 54 game without telling the rest of the group Verbally explain the game can clearly state all of the rules At the time of the game, the person who has heard the rules will give the directions to the rest of the group without any help from you Allow the group to play the game once through before having a group discussion or making any corrections or clarifications in the rules of the game Discussion Topics Was there any confusion about the rules of the game? Why you think the game was explained correctly (or incorrectly)? What is important to remember when listening to others and when giving directions? C Back to Back Purpose: To have participants become aware of the need for eye contact in interpersonal communication Setting: Room enough for participants to sit on floor in pairs Procedure: Have participants form dyads Read the following mini-lecture to the group: 55 Sit back to back with your partner and begin to talk about something that happened to you lately - something that was a really good experience (Wait about one minute.) Now, move about five feet away from your partner and continue talking Processing: Ask the group members to share how this experience felt How did it feel for them to share a good experience with someone who turned away from them? If the group members not bring up the following points, discuss them with the group: -How strong is the need for eye contact when talking with others? -Did you find yourself missing the nonverbal gestures and facial expressions? Why? -How easy was it to hear what your partner was saying? D Do Your Best Objective: To help participants discover how well they communicate Materials: Sugar Cubes Exercise Handout Time: 20 minutes Procedure: Divide the participants into groups of two Have the groups determine who will be the committee leader and who will be the committee member Give the committee leader the sugar cubes and exercise handout Tell the committee leader to read each exercise's directions before beginning each activity Exercise 1Read the following instructions to your committee member "Your job is to stack as many blocks as you can in one minute Each sugar 56 cube will be stacked one on top of the other in a single, vertical column How you stack the sugar cubes is up to you If the column topples and time remains, you may rebuild Your score is the number of sugar cubes standing in a column when I call time Your minimum score is always one." Do not specify or suggest how many sugar cubes might be stacked Simply say, "Do your best." Time the exercise as accurately as possible (1 minute) When the exercise is finished, have the committee member count the number of sugar cubes standing Do not comment (verbally or nonverbally) in any way on your committee member's results If asked directly, avoid the question Discussion Questions: Was this exercise easy or hard? How did it feel to not have any positive feedback or encouragement? How did it feel to not have any say in the goal setting? How is this similar to "real life" situation? As a way of conclusion we can say that there are many ways to develop speech habits: imitative, intensive, responsive, transactional and interpersonal Using these activities the speech habits are developed gradually, from the elementary to the advanced level The wise usage of these activities can bring exceptional results 57 Conclusion Language teaching came into its own as a profession in the last century Central to this phenomenon was the emergence of the concept of "methods" of language teaching The method concept in language teaching—the notion of a systematic set of teaching practices based on a particular theory of language and language learning—is a powerful one, and the quest for better methods was a preoccupation of teachers and applied linguists throughout the 20th century A more or less classical formulation suggests that methodology is that which links theory and practice Theory statements would include theories of what language is and how language is learned or, more specifically, theories of second language acquisition (SLA) Such theories are linked to various design features of language instruction These design features might include stated objectives, syllabus specifications, types of activities, roles of teachers, learners, materials, and so forth Design features in turn are linked to actual teaching and learning practices as observed in the environments where language teaching and learning take place This whole complex of elements defines language teaching methodology When the linguists and the language specialists sought to improve the quality of language teaching in the late 19th century, they often did so by referring to general principles and theories concerning how languages are learned, how knowledge of language is represented and organized in memory, or how language itself is structured The early applied linguistics such as Henry Sweet, Otto Jespersen, Harold Palmer, elaborated principles and theoretically accountable approaches to the design of language teaching When they analyzed all the principles a lot of things were left out An attempt to clarify the differences, Edward Anthony proposed a scheme He identified three levels of conceptualization and organization, which he termed as approach, method and technique …an approach is asset of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and learning An approach is axiomatic It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught …….method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material…………… An approach is axiomatic, a method is procedural Within one approach there can be many methods A technique is implementational –that which happens in the classroom The subject matter of my research is the development of speech habits at school during the classes of English When speaking about the development of the speech, we refer to communicative language teaching approach Communication is the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another The communication process involves six basic elements: sender (encoder), message, channel, receiver (decoder), noise, and feedback Supervisors can improve communication skills by becoming aware of these elements and how they contribute to successful communication Communication can break down at any one of these elements The origins of CLT are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition from the late 1960’s Until then the situational language teaching represented the major British approach to teaching English as foreign language in situational language teaching, the language was taught by practicing Basic structures in situation-based activities In the mid 60’s British applied linguists began to call into question the theoretical assumptions underlying situational language teaching: By the end of the 60’s it was clear that the situational approach had run its course………… This was a response to the sorts of criticisms the American linguist Noam Chomsky had leveled at the structural linguistic theory in his classic book Syntactic Structures Chomsky had demonstrated that the current standard Structural theories of the language were incapable to account for the fundamental characteristic of the language- the creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences The other linguists saw that the need to focus in language on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery structures Scholars who advocated this view were C Candlin, H.Widdowson, J.Firth, D.Hymes, W Labov Both American and British proponents now see it is an approach that aims to make the communicative competence the goal of language teaching; to develop procedures for the teaching of four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication CLT is more than an integration of grammatical and functional teaching Littlewood states : One of the most characteristic features of CLT is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as to the grammatical aspects of the language This means using procedures where learners work in pairs employing available language resources in problem solving tasks The development of this approach is the essence of the society, without the communication the child , the pupil and the society can not live A more pedagogical analysis of the CLT was given by Henry Widdowson He identifies four dimensions of communicative competence : Grammatical competence is what refers to Chomsky’s linguistic competence It is the domain of grammatical and lexical capacity Sociolinguistic competence to an understanding of the social context in which communication takes place, including role relationships, the share information of the participants Discourse competence refers to the interpretation of individual message elements Strategic competence refers to the copying strategies that communicator employs to initiate, maintain and terminate the conversation The teacher has a role too In such a way according to Breen: The teacher has two main roles: the first role is to facilitate the communication between the participants in the classroom……the second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning- teaching group The other roles of the teacher according to Jack C.Richards are needs analyst, Councelor, and group process manager The needs analyst is the teacher’s responsibility for determining and responding to learner language needs Typically these assignments contain items that attempt to determine an individual’s motivation for studying the language The teacher counselor is expected to exemplify an effective communicator seeking to maximize the meshing of speaker intention and of the hearer interpretation, through the use of paraphrase, confirmation and feedback CLT procedures often require teachers to acquire less teacher-centered classroom management skills It is the teacher’s job to organize the classroom as a setting for communication Guidelines for classroom practice suggest that during an activity the teacher monitors, encourages and suppresses the inclination to have gaps in grammar and lexis The focus on fluency and comprehensibility may cause anxiety among teachers that are accustomed to seeing error suppression and correction as the major instructional responsibility A great variety of materials are used to support CLT approach The materials currently used are text- based, task- based and realia There are a lot of textbooks designed to direct and support CLT Their tables of content sometimes suggest a kind of grading and sequencing of language practice not unlike those found in structurally organized texts Some of these are written around a largely structural syllabus, with slight reformatting to justify their claims to be based on a communicative approach A variety of games, role plays, simulations and task- based communication activities have been prepared to support CLT These typically are in-one-of-akind items: exercise handbooks, cue cards, activity cards, pair-communication practice materials and student interaction booklets In pair communication materials enter two sets of material for pair of student They contain different information Sometimes the information is complementary and the partners must fit their parts in the jigsaw Others assume different role relationships for the partners Many proponents of CLT have advocated the use of authentic, from-life materials These might include language-based realia, such as signs, magazines, newspapers, visual sources around which the communicative activities can be built The conversational classes according to Marianne Celce-Murcia can be divided into: Imitative A very limited portion of classroom speaking time may be spent generating human tape recorder speech, where the students practice an intonation contour Imitation of this kind is trained not for the purpose of meaningful interaction, but for focusing on particular element of language form They offer limited practice through repetitions They allow to focus on one element of the language Intensive Intensive speaking goes beyond the imitative to include any speaking performance that is designed to practice some phonological grammatical aspect of language Intensive speaking can be self initiated, where students are going over some certain forms of language Responsive.A good deal of student speech is responsive, that means questions and answers They may be of different types, beginning from the trivial ones: How are you?, Who is on duty, finishing with How you find life in Moldova? The only condition is that this questions not expand into dialoques 4.Transactional Transactional language, carried out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging specific information, is an extended form of responsive language Generally we can speak about the talk referring to transactional language 5.Interpersonal Transactional type of activities resemble the interpersonal, but they differ as the interpersonal activities should involve the following factors: A casual register Emotionally charged language Slang Ellipsis Sarcasm A covert agenda We propose some activities that may help the teachers to make successful conversations and to develop their students’ speech habits Bibliography Bygate,M Speaking Oxford University Press 1995 Brown ,D Teaching by Principles, Second Edition San Francisco State University.2001 Brumfit, D The Communicative Approach to Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press.1979 Bachman, L Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing, Oxford: Oxford University Press.1991 Christison, M Applying multiple intelligences theory in preservice and inservice TEFL education programs English Teaching Forum.1998 Jonhson, K Communicative Syllabus Design and Methodology./www.google.com Klippel, F Getting Students to Talk: Communicative Fluency Activities for Language teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.1984 Howatt, A A history of English language teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press.1984 Larsen-Freeman, D Techniques and principles in language teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press.2000 10.Lee, J Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen, San Francisco:McGraw Hill.1995 11 Littlewood, W Teaching Oral Communication Oxford: Blackwell.1992 12 Morrow, K Communicate Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.1979 13 Pawley, A., & Syder, F Two puzzles for linguistic theory: Native-like selection and native-like fluency In J Richards & R Schmidt (Eds.), Language and communication London: Longman.1983 14 Richards, J., & Rodgers, T Approaches and methods in language Teaching (2nd ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.2001 15 Tannen, D Conversational Style Norwood,NJ:Ablex.1984 16 Savignon, S Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice.Mass:Addison-Wesley 1983 17 Wright, A Roles of Teachers and Learners Oxford: oxford University Press.1987 18.Yalden, J The Communicative Syllabus: Evolution, Design and Implementation.Oxford: Pergamon.1983 19.Widdowson, H The Communicative Approach and its applications Oxford: Oxford University Press.1979 Web sites: www.google.com www.englishtips.org www.eslogo.com www.english methodology.org www.wikepedia.org 10 [...]... situational language teaching, the language was taught by practicing Basic structures in situation-based activities In the mid 60’s British applied linguists began to call into question the theoretical assumptions underlying situational language teaching: By the end of the 60’s it was clear that the situational approach had run its course…………15 This was a response to the sorts of criticisms the American... the teaching of four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication CLT is more than an integration of grammatical and functional teaching Littlewood states : One of the most characteristic features of CLT is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as to the grammatical aspects of the language. 16 This means using procedures where learners work in pairs... floundered) on earlier notional/functional proposals for the description of languages Now new leads in discourse and genre analysis, schema theory, pragmatics, and systemic/functional grammar are rekindling an interest in functionally based approaches to language teaching One pedagogical proposal has led to a widespread reconsideration of the first and second language program in Australian schools where instruction... Words are used to create pictures and stories (scenarios) are used to create involvement This is the essence of the communicative language teaching approach The origins of CLT are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition from the late 1960’s Until then the situational language teaching represented the major British approach to teaching English as foreign language in situational... from language- based focus on accuracy to message based focus on interaction, meaning and fluency In our current zeal for interactive language teaching, we can easily slip into a pattern of providing zesty content- based, the interactive activities that do not capitalize on grammatical pointers When you begin a game make sure that your task include techniques that help the students to perceive and use... needs and interests and to promote optimal development of second language competence A critical question for language educators is "what content" and "how much content" best supports language learning The natural content for language educators is literature and language itself, and we are beginning to see a resurgence of interest in literature and in the topic of "language: the basic human technology" as. .. tricks, and at higher levels, cognitive and metacognitive strategies for learning, thinking, planning, and self-monitoring Research findings suggest that strategies can indeed be taught to language learners, that learners will apply these strategies in language learning tasks, and that such application does produce significant gains in language learning Simple and yet highly effective strategies, such as. .. lexical phrases has been immensely aided by large-scale computer studies of language corpora, which have provided hard data to support the speculative inquiries into lexical phraseology of second language acquisition researchers For language teachers, the results of such inquiries have led to conclusions that language teaching should center on these memorized lexical patterns and the ways they can be... the dialogue There some of the possibilities: • Asking for clarification • Asking someone to repeat smth • Using mime and nonverbal expression to convey meaning • Getting someone’s attention • Using paraphrases As you notice each class of speaking is a hard work as you should achieve the most important goal in teaching a foreign language, this is ability to speak and understand the interlocutor According... Richards21 to major approaches characterize current teaching for conversation: an indirect approach and a direct approach The indirect approach implies that one does not actually teach conversation, but rather the students acquire conversational competence by engaging in meaningful tasks 21 Klippel, F Getting Students to Talk: Communicative Fluency Activities for Language teaching Cambridge: Cambridge