Oral and written communicative activities

    It is well established a fact that it is very hard to get students to talk in a foreign language classroom. Thus lowering the students’ intimidation and promoting e.g. discussion is teacher’s inevitable responsibility. Students must be aware of the fact that language is above all a communicative medium and it is one of the most important purposes it serves. One of the ways of preparing learners to be able to communicate in a foreign language is presenting a piece of video e.g. a story. It is much more beneficial than an audio tape or a text which may serve similar purpose. Apart from the spoken language a lot of the story is told visually and music or other effects only facilitate students’ perception (Doye 1998:61). There are various specific video-based techniques, which are discussed later in my thesis paper that can be successfully applied to achieve communicative purpose. From the list of oral activities suggested by Harmer (1996:122-138) discussion and role-play seem to be the ones most frequently used and may be characterized as typical communication activities. When it comes to written activities they are often associated with homework and not so popular as oral ones. However, as Harmer (1996:139) points out, communicative writing can play a valuable part in the foreign classroom situation.