Resource centre - Productive skills - Moving beyond gap fills
Will Pearson discusses some of the issues involved in choosing language production activities.
Somewhere between scholarly studies of how people learn and the frontline
experience of teaching, the issue of how TEFL/ESL learners actually acquire and
keep language is confronted in activity design. Language practice activities
come in many forms, and their design should take into account learning aims, the
most important being language production. What is language production practice?
Any student learning any language requires time and concentration to practise
language after it has been acquired through a teacher's presentation or through
the discovery approach.
Yet, considering many course book and handout activities formats, not all employ
language production. A considerable amount feature gapfills that require
students to modify a stem verb or guess a missing verb. This cannot be
considered as language production as such TEFL/ESL practice requires fuller
expressions, even sentences to be constructed around context.
There are two types of productive practice of English in terms of skills;
written practice and speaking practice. Common sense in TEFL/ESL learning
methodology dictates that written practice should come first. Learners need time
and separation from others to digest new language, without the pressures of
interaction. Logically, when some sense of grammatical rules is made
individually, learners should progress to communication.
The productive element of practice is what's crucial to English learning.
Learners have to, through intuitive activity design by teachers or course book
writers, hardwire the use of grammatical structures and fixed vocabulary
expressions. Context is everything in this process. Grammatical structures,
arguably, should be practised in context according to three principles. Students
need to be able to use structures comfortably (understanding), fit within
existing structures (relation), and relate to other context beyond the confines
of the existing activity (extrapolation). Each of these three factors is equally
significant.
The first principle of understanding is mostly concerned with levels and grading
in a TEFL/ESL context. For example, students with only limited experience in
English (say for example two months), are likely to be able to understand the
past simple, though will most likely struggle grasping the differences with the
present perfect simple. Understanding, though, is a slippery concept, and there
is nothing worse than a teacher asking 'do you understand'?
So how can students improve their understanding through language production
activities? Arguably, ESL worksheets that involve repetitive, contextual
sentence writing through some guidance are of greater benefit than gapfill
activities where students must insert a missing verb form. This is for two
reasons; first, gapfill activities focus more on grammatical form rather than
meaning (as verbs are often given in such activities). Second, such practices
are mostly receptive. All information is given, requiring only students to
change words, rather than come up with phrases and sentences themselves.
Our next point relates to the second aspect of language production activities;
they must allow students to relate them to other structures they know. Grammar
cannot be seen in isolation, and language production activities must use context
for students to make the link between new structures and familiar ones. Take for
example, the present perfect simple at elementary level. This structure fits
commonly in with superlative adjective forms (e.g. what's the best restaurant
you have been to?) and the past simple (e.g. follow-up questions to "have you
ever been to...") TEFL/ESL activities should integrate such forms and ensure
students are made to use them when practising new forms.
The final point, extrapolation, relates to the continuation of understanding and
use of freshly-learnt grammatical forms through language production activities.
Language forms such as the present perfect simple re-occur at several levels
(all between elementary and upper-intermediate in fact). Thus, it is crucial for
teachers to integrate activities that promote learner revision of prominent
forms. How can this be achieved through language production activities? In
short, students need to make language, helped along with the context of heavy
grammar recycling and re-use of fixed expressions. TEFL/ESL tasks involving
pictures or dominoes with minimal context do not achieve this. On the other
hand, speaking tasks that involve students rephrasing expressions with other
fixed expressions (for example 'have a friendly relationship' rephrased to 'get
on with)' are exceedingly useful.
In conclusion, students learning English need to 'make' language through
contextual guides such as pre-known grammar, familiar vocabulary that students
can relate to, and exemplification. This can be done through language production
activities in the form of writing and speaking. Writing activities where
students model grammatical structures with their own personalised information,
and speaking activities where students practise the essentials of new grammar in
pairs and groups are particularly helpful. The way forward in TEFL/ESL is for
course books and teachers to acknowledge this and continue to aid students in
their quest for improvement through productive practice.
Grammar Teaching: Implicit or Explicit?
ESL resources
Downloadable classroom activities
What do you think of this article? Add a comment »
I agree. Coursebooks and
new fangles school exercises focus only on receptive passive knowledge... and
are baaaaaad.. Get students back to thinking and using their brains ... makes
learning much easier.
Interesting article.
However, I can see how people might come away thinking that "Moving beyond gap
fills" means "Gap fills v2.0", which is essentially not moving *beyond* gap
fills at all, rather it's following their logical evolution... Nevertheless,
good points well made.
I agree with the end result
of communicative contextual activities. However, it should be mentioned that
gap-filling and other types of drills and exercises do have a role to play in
the acquisition process. I take the moving beyong gap-filling to suggest the
natural progression of acquisition of the language, but not the banning of cloze
or gap-filling.
I agree. I work for a
language school in Prague, Czech Republic and the school has already accepted
the idea that the communicative teaching method should be used more, and it
really is nowadays, than the old one based on grammatical filling gaps and
translation, nevertheless, I think that you cannot teach without this as well.
Both are needed and both serve their own purpose.
Hi, I agree with this
article completely but what really interests me is the way we can relate
content. You say the present perfect commonly fits with other structures such as
superlative and past simple. Can you offer an article on this? I mean giving
examples of the most common associated structures to provide meaningful
learning? Thank you very much
Gap fills, how boring, in
class I want to see the students faces not the tops of their heads as they do
tasks that would put anyone to sleep. Gap fills are useful for homework, or
boardwork. Gap fills with cut out pieces of paper and pair / group work is good
to promote debate. On another subject. Elementary level students should not
learn the present perfect!!! Your example of 'What is the best restaurant you
have ever been to?' is too complex at this level. My EFL teaching career started
in 1993 and continues to today. I have taught many upper intermediate students
who confuse the past simple and present perfect using it with past time markers,
'last year I have visited London' would be typical. Why ? Because throughout
their English learning experience the importance of the present perfect has been
emphasised over and over again to the detriment of the past simple. The past
simple is more useful to the lower level student. They must learn to sit up
before they can run. I see my role is to give the students the confidence and
opportunity to use the English they have been taught.
So good to hear someone
else say it! Here in Spain, we live under the tyranny of cloze -with predictable
results. Mind if I put the article (with source, no worries) on my own, rather
less than well-known site, http://elt-one.webs.com ?
I think lessons need to be
progressive. That is, that they need to start off with controlled practice and
lead onto fluency practice. Gap fills are great as controlled, but then the
students need to move onto more productive activities. Then, at the end, write
up some of the mistakes and have the students correct them, to reinforce what
they learned during the controlled practice. I think it's ok to teach elementary
students the present perfect; it's a very useful tense to know. But of course
the past simple should come first, then teach the present perfect as a contrast.
If it's taught well enough, students will gain a lot.
Well, you have a good point
and I mostly agree with your approach. However, it doesn't seem so proper to
leave out 'gapfills'. It may be useful at the early stage of learning if
combined with other related activities.
Most of us know that there are different approaches, methods, factors and
expectations in language teaching and learning. Though they may differ from each
other to an extent, basically they all have the same goal; that is to have
learners communicate in the target language. Therefore, while teaching we need
all of them more or less. As long as we adjust the doses according to learners'
needs and expectations, we can make use of all different tools to help learners.
I personally believe that writing and speaking activities are crucial in
production of the language if done under the guidance of the teacher. Having
learners write something or discuss something is not enough, teachers need to
observe them carefully and correct them properly and make them understand from
their mistakes.
As for grammar, though grammar and I are not good friends, we still need each
other'. Maybe this expression may seem a bit 'too strong' but I tend to say
''grammar is the skeleton of a language and without it, a language can not
move.' The point is how we teach grammar, whether we make it more boring or
exciting. I do believe 'grammar in context' and activities must combine
different grammar points in a single piece of writing so that learners can see
and comprehend the differences and similarities.
We need to consider various factors that greatly influence the learners'
language learning and acquisition such as their sociolinguistic and
psycholinguistic background, what kind of learners they are, their needs, their
personal differences in SLA like age, gender, motivation, working memory,
context etc. so that we'll be able to choose and use suitable ways and
materials.
I disagree with the
responses here. This article does not discuss gap fills as a production
activity. Clearly it is not. It is, however, one way for students to come to an
understanding of a certain grammatical point. There is nothing wrong with
reinforcement through repetition...this allows a learner to internalize the
concept in order for it to be used in production activities. It seems to me that
this is not so much a problem with gap fills, as it is with considering gap
fills to be a type of production activity.
Well, you have a good point
and I mostly agree with your personal approach. However, it doesn't seem proper
to leave out 'gapfills'. It may be useful at the early stage of learning if
combined with other related activities.
As teachers, most of us know that there are different approaches, methods,
factors and expectations in language teaching and learning. Though they may
differ from each other to some extent, basically they all have the same goal;
that is to have learners communicate in the target language. Therefore, while
teaching we need all of them more or less. As long as we adjust the doses
according to learners' needs and expectations, we can make use of all different
tools to help learners.
I personally believe that writing and speaking activities are crucial in
production of the language. Having learners write something or discuss something
is not enough, teachers need to observe them carefully and correct them properly
and make them understand from their mistakes.
As for grammar, 'though grammar and I are not good friends, we still need each
other'. this expression may look a bit 'too strong' but I tend to say 'grammar
is the skeleton of a language and without it, a language can not move. 'The
point is how we teach grammar, whether we make it boring or exciting. I do
believe 'grammar in context' and activities must combine different grammar
points in a single article or writing so that learners can see and comprehend
the differences and similarities.
We need to consider various of factors that greatly influence the learners'
language learning and acquisition such as their sociolinguistic and
psycholinguistic background, what kind of learners they are, their needs, their
personal differences in SLA like age, gender, motivation, working memory,
context etc. so that we'll be able to choose and use suitable ways and materials
for learners.
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