4. Stages of teaching and activities used at them.

The most widely accepted are the following stages:

• preparatory stage – mastering replies to different stimuli (in receptive-reproductive and reproductive semi-controlled activities)

• mastering some dialogue unities (in receptive-productive semi-controlled activities)

• mastering mini-dialogues ( in receptive productive semi-controlled activities and communicative tasks with verbal support )

• mastering dialogues of different functional types (in receptive-productive communicative tasks without verbal support).

Preparatory stage: imitation, substitution, transformation, answering questions, asking questions, informing etc. These activities can be done in different modes of interaction: whole class mode, T-L, L-T, L-L.

Examples:

• say that you are interested in this too.

• Say that your tastes differ from mine (and I’m interested in musical comedy).

• You are tourists and I’m your guide. Say what you are interested in and I’ll suggest places to visit.

Mastering unities and mini-dialogues: working in pairs (practically the same activities)

Mastering different types of dialogues: in pairs, groups or role-plays. Communicative situation is given but only natural support (announcements, TV programmes, train timetables, maps, pictures etc) can be provided.

Examples:

• 1. You are a British travel agency representative. You are in Ukraine now and talk to a rep from a Ukrainian agency to agree on a cultural programme for a group of British tourists during their stay in Kiev.

2. You are a representative of a Ukrainian agency. Find out what British tourists’ tastes are. Suggest visiting some theatres. Find out if the tourists know Ukrainian or Russian as your choice will depend on that.

• 1. You are a salesman at a book-shop in Scotland. Greet the customer, find out their literary tastes and languages they read in.

2. You are a Ukrainian on a trip to Scotland. It’s difficult to make your choice in a bookshop. Ask the bookshop salesman for a piece of advice.

• We have some foreign visitors at our school. They are present at our discussion club meeting. The topic is: “What are the best ways to spend days off”. Exchange your opinions and give arguments trying to persuade others.

A widely used activity is a group role-play. This is an activity when learners play some roles in a set situation. It is aimed at developing communicative skills in the conditions imitating real life communication and is based on the principles of group work, practical usefulness, competition, maximum participation of every learner, and creativity.

There are the following types of role-plays: 1) (depending on the character of learners’ actions) imitative, creative, competitive; 2) (depending on the level of task complexity and duration of the play) controlled role-play (the roles, plot and separate remarks are given), semi-controlled role-play (the description of the roles and the plot), free role-play (only the topic and roles are suggested) and small-scale role-play (only some episode is acted out).

Any role-play includes the following stages:

• Preparatory (in class and at home): the topic is selected, illustrative and problematic situations are defined, role cards for all participants are prepared, the composition of players is defined and the distribution of roles takes place, any necessary cues are given. Rules of the play are worked out. For learners preparation includes finding some extra information, reading the prepared materials, revision of the necessary language material and preparing necessary props.

• Explanation (optional, may take place during the previous stage): explanation of rules and distribution of roles.

• Role-play (may be in pairs, in small groups and in whole-class mode)

• Assessment and feedback. May take place immediately after the game or be delayed till the next lesson. Together with their teacher learners analyse the play, sum it up, exchange impressions, analyse mistakes and suggest variants of correcting them and improving the role-play.