Activities to Promote Interaction and Communication

Adult English language learners at all proficiency levels, including literacy- and beginning-level learners, need to speak and understand spoken English for a variety of reasons. Immigrant adults need English for daily life to communicate with the doctor, the school, the community, and the workplace. Learners at all proficiency levels can communicate, and they appreciate being encouraged and challenged to further their skills. They participate in interactive, communicative activities in all facets of the class—from ice-breaking activities, needs assessment, and goal-setting to life-skills, phonics, and spelling. This is especially true where there is a strong classroom community that supports natural language production.

What are Communicative Activities?

Communicative activities include any activities that encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen to other learners, as well as with people in the program and community. Communicative activities have real purposes: to find information, break down barriers, talk about self, and learn about the culture. Even when a lesson is focused on developing reading or writing skills, communicative activities should be integrated into the lesson. Furthermore, research on second language acquisition (SLA) suggests that more learning takes place when students are engaged in relevant tasks within a dynamic learning environment rather than in traditional teacher- led classes (Moss & Ross-Feldman, 2003).

Benefits of Communicative Activities

Some immigrants, such as parents, elders, or people who work in isolated environments (like housekeepers and babysitters) may feel lonely and experience depression or have low self-esteem. They may begin to feel that they will never learn English or never feel comfortable in the United States. Offering well-designed and well-executed communicative activities can help turn the English classroom into an active, safe, and enjoyable place where literacy- and beginning- level learners can learn what they need and want to learn.

Challenges

Most English language learners have had access to some schooling in their native countries. Their school was probably very teacher-directed. Learners were expected to be quiet and listen to the teacher and then, when asked, to respond to the teacher in unison with the one correct answer. Because of this, some adult English language learners may be initially disconcerted when their English teacher begins asking them to get up and move around, work in pairs or groups, and talk to one another. It also may be difficult for learners to realize that there can be more than one correct response to a question and many ways to ask a question. However, many, if no t most, learners adapt and prosper with increased interactivity and independence.