Opportunities for practising communicative competence in teacher-centered classes and small group classes with senior grade primary school students

Abstract

Language is most effectively acquired through communication. In order to practice speaking skills, it is necessary to encourage students to communicate regardless of the method of teaching used by the teacher. Communication does not necessarily occur in class when teachers ask usual questions concerning information from text materials and students give typical answers which are grammatically correct and in full sentences. Communication in class occurs when a teacher initiates real, genuine conversation about the attitudes and opinions of the speakers. In spontaneous, everyday speech, speakers tend to use short, intermittent sentences, as well as various skills of interaction and conversation, such as false starts, parataxis, reformulations, hesitation devices and others. The aim of this paper is to investigate how much genuine communication happens using teacher-centered method, in comparison to pair and group work in two senior grade classes of primary school. We will first analyze the two teachers' teacher-centered classes example and try to determine the kind of communication that takes place there. Then we will compare the quality and quantity of communication, as well as the number of participants in it, with the results obtained with the same students in group tasks. The goal is to determine which method of work and the way in which it is performed encourages the development of students' communicative competence.