For beginning-level learners, Anchor 1 states that learners need to “build skills on others’ talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges.” To reach that goal, we need to provide controlled meaningful practice and teach strategies for requesting clarification. Only then are students ready to apply the language in real communicative exercises.
Here is more information about each of the three key steps.
1. Provide controlled meaningful practice.
After being presented with the grammar and vocabulary for specific situations, students need guided practice. They work in pairs to ask and answer questions using content provided.
Example #1 (from Ventures Basic, p. 11, Exercise 2B)
This structured practice develops fluency and prepares learners for real communication, in which answers come from the learners, not the learning materials.
2. Teach clarification strategies.
With paired activities, students often need to clarify. We need to teach strategies, such as repeating information, to confirm that learners understand it correctly and ask questions about the information they may not have heard or understood. We also need to provide opportunities to interact with classmates in pairs to practice these strategies.
Example #2 (from Ventures 1, p. 63, Exercise 2C)
3. Provide real communicative practice.
In communicative practice students apply what they have learned. They use the same vocabulary and structures used in the controlled meaningful practice, but the answers come from the learners.
Example #3 (from Ventures 2, p. 121, Exercises 2A and 2B)
In summary, the key to building students’ skills in responding to the comments of others is to provide a progression of activities: (1) controlled meaningful practice to master the language (2) paired and small group activities to create situations in which learners need to clarify, and (3) open-ended communicative exchanges.