Integrating Four Skills in Clt Context

In the history of language teaching, many methods and approaches have been used and developed. Among them ‘Communicative Language Teaching’ is now thought as the most influential or must-use one. It is clearly defined in the handout: “It would be fair to say that if there is any one umbrella approach to language teaching that has become the accepted "norm" in this field, it would have to be the Communicative Language Teaching Approach. ” Below is a lesson plan which is based on the CLT approach and we try to integrate four macro skills in it. This lesson plan is designed for intermediate-level or sophomore students at SFLC, NUM. In the lesson, we are aiming at a result in which students are actually able to use the language about environment, especially about the climate change/global warming, both verbally and in writing. Even though it looks like each task focuses on different skill, every task is designed to integrate at least 2 skills of the four. Also, the lesson is a part of a sequence lesson which means in the previous class they have been introduced vocabulary related to the environment. The period of the lesson plan is an hour and a half. Lesson procedure Warm-up: As a warm-up students are asked about the weather that day and previous day. The question is for the whole class; therefore anyone who feels comfortable to talk in front of the whole class can answer. Then they are asked to work in pairs to talk about their favorite weather. It’s a simple task to encourage the students and build confidence in them. The warm-up is about 10-15 minutes. Speaking: When the students are thought to be ready and confident enough, gradually turn the class into a discussion about climate change and global warming (causes of the climate changes, what’s happening in the world, what we can do about it, etc). Then they are divided into group of three and given statements of the Task 1. Students should discuss about the statement and when they are finished with it they can rotate the statements around the groups. Since the topic is a popular one all the students are encouraged to speak out. They can also use some Mongolian language if they can’t express them freely (but they should try as much English as they can) . As for the teacher, they need to use the target language as often as possible ‘in order to provide realistic models for students’ to use. I would give some explanation or help in Mongolian on the students’ request (15-20 minutes). Listening: As the discussion is on the global warming and climate change, students are now asked to listen to people speaking out their opinion on global warming. This is very authentic and contextualized because the tape script is actually taken from a readers’ discussion on a weather website. It will help the students to move from structured language production to more communicative language use . At first the tape is played without any interference. For the second time it should be stopped after each speaker and the students are asked if they agree or disagree with that person and to comment on the speaker’s opinion. If the students do not agree with each other and start an argument, they should be encouraged to defend their own idea. In this way, the listening task would turn from an inactive listening task to one where the students take alternate roles as listener and speaker (20 minutes). Writing: At this time, students are assumed to be very comfortable with the language, have formed their own opinion and built knowledge on the subject . Therefore, students are asked to write a small opinion passage about global warming. They should imagine that they are writing it on the real website discussion. In the previous task students have listened texts which models how people are expressing their opinion. Thus, the students will not face difficulties. After they are done with the task, they should exchange what they have written (20 minutes). Reading: Students are given handouts in which they need to read short passages about different areas of environmental issues (preferably questions discussed in the speaking section). Students are asked to read the passages at their own speed and match them to a set of questions. In order to match questions to the passages, students are required to demonstrate a global comprehension of the passages. Also this type of readings sharpens the students’ reading skills. While reading the handouts students are not allowed to use dictionary, because it distracts them from understanding the text. At the same time, it will help them to learn to recognize words automatically which is a basis for reading skill . When students complete the task, check the answer. 15 minutes) Homework (explaining HW will take 5 minutes): Students are asked to work in groups of four. Choose one of the environmental issues and present it to the class. It can be in any form e. g. news report, role-play, informative presentation and etc. This task is supposed to integrate all four skills including (but not limited to) activities such as: ? Doing some research and reading them thoroughly ?Or listening to news reports for information ?Writing about the topic based on information they found ?Finding related pictures and other visual materials and preparing to explain them ? Working with their partners which should include sharing opinions and listening to the others ? Presenting it to the class and responding to any questions those come from peer students afterwards. Handouts for the tasks Task 1: Discussion Statements Climate change is the most serious threat to our planet at the moment. All countries should be forced to apply serious regulations to reduce carbon emissions. Normal people can’t do much to stop global warming. I am worried about climate change. Everybody should do whatever they can to save energy. Climate change isn’t as serious as people say. People like to worry about something! There are simply too many people living on planet earth! We are going to lose many animal species and areas of low land in the very near future be cause of global warming. Task 2: Tape scripts for the listening task Gonzalo – I’m all in favour of global warming. I grow tropical plants so for me the warmer the weather is the better! Tanya – In 20 years time the traditional British weather will be a thing of the past. We’ll have a climate like the south of France. People will be healthier as they’ll spend more time outdoors. Just think, dining al fresco in the summer months. It’ll be great! Luis – no one can tell me that global warming isn’t happening. We’ve just had the hottest year on record! My sister lives in the north of Spain and she said that it is beach weather there and it’s November. I mean it’s not normal is it? Kevin – When I was a boy we used to have heavy snow most years. Since the early 90s all we’ve had is a light dusting of snow. It must be due to global warming. Ruth – You only have to switch on the news to see the crazy things the weather is doing. There are so many floods, hurricanes and droughts. It’s the extreme weather conditions caused by global warming. Oliver – There’s no such thing as global warming. It’s all media hype to brainwash people. If they told us the moon was made of cheese often enough people would believe it! Mark – The world will never be the same again, but that’s how it has always been. It changes constantly and nature and man can adapt to these changes. If we couldn’t, human life on the planet would have finished years ago. Task 3 • Who do you agree with most? • Who do you disagree with? • What would you write to the message board? Put your message here. • Share your message with the class. Does anyone have the same view as you?

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