Categories: uncategorized
Date: 09 March 2005 22:45:10
Last night's lecture was on Communicative Language Teaching Activities. Communicative Language Teaching's most distinctive feature is the emphasis on "real world" situations, which hopefully ensures students are motivated to learn as they are talking about meaningful topics in meaningful ways.
We looked at a variety of activities we could do, and the pros and cons of each activity in terms of enabling learners to learn. As well, we had two overseas students on scholarships [a man from the Czech Republic and a woman from Germany] who teach English in secondary schools in their respective countries. It was interesting to hear their points of view on the challenges and successes they have had with various ideas.
We also had to have a five minute presentation pre-prepared. I blabbered on about my trip to the monastery at New Norcia, and had photos and a map of the town. A woman from Zambia in our group showed us a 2 metre by 1 metre piece of fabric [I forget its name :(] which is used as a skirt, as a tie around the waist during dances, and to hold a baby while doing the house work! Very multi-purpose. Another woman had a practical lesson where we sewed pieces of fabric and a pom-pom to make a floral pattern you could sew onto clothes. Not something I'd wear ;-), but interesting nevertheless. A very enjoyable evening.