The Ways of Creating “Information Gap Activities” in the Communicative Language Teaching

白雪

【Abstract】The information gap is the disparity which is expressed when people grasp some aspects of the information. As a result of the gap， people will transmit and exchange the information in spoken-language activities. In this thesis， we base on the communicative language teaching to stress the importance of using information gap activities.It is the purpose of revealing the effect of information gap activities in communicative language teaching

【Key words】Information gap； Disparity； CLT； Information gap activities； Forms； Effects

The worldwide demand for English has created an enormous demand for quality language teaching and language teaching materials and resources. So， in thesis， we should know some more ways of CLT to improve our language teaching.

The communicative language teaching holds that the language is the tool of communication in essence. It utilizes the achievement of social linguistics and absorbs the advantageous of listening， speaking and cognition simultaneously. After massive practices， we know that using the theories of communicative language teaching makes good advance of teaching environment. It also improved students abilities of spoken language and communicative skills. However， the CLT also has the deficiency. Therefore， teachers should enhance the ways of utilization and the methods in communicative language teaching to improve the quality of language teaching.

Communicative Language Teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the audio-lingual method of language teaching， which relies on repetition and drills， the communicative approach can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise， which will vary according to their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Students motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics.

An important aspect of communication in CLT is the notion of information gap. This refers to the fact that in real communication people normally communicate in order to get information they do not possess. This is known as an information gap.

After the introduction of the information gap， we know that more authentic communication is likely to occur in the classroom if students go beyond practice of language forms for their own sake and use their linguistic and communicative resources in order to obtain information. In so doing they will draw available vocabulary， grammar， and communication strategies to complete a task. The information gap activity is a process that students were given some different fragments of the information， which be used by them to share and exchange to finish the task. It is the core of the CLT.endprint

Information gap activity has several forms just like：filling in different blanks， overcoming mutual obstacle， oral jigsaw reading， comparing similar pairs， which can improve the quality of teaching. Then we should comprehend those ways.

In a traditional grammar oriented class， teachers often spend a large proportion of class time asking questions for which they and the students already know the answers；thus， there is no information gap to fill. Typically， a teacher asks a “display” question （the teacher knows the answer to the question）， an individual student answers， the teacher evaluates or corrects the answer， and then the cycle begins again with another student and another question that everyone already knows the answer to. Its an unrealistic use of language without information gap practice and genuine communication， the appropriate use of language in different contexts is neglected. Students without this knowledge may be able to compose grammatical sentences but still not be able to use them appropriately with other people. Without information gaps， classroom activities will be mechanical and artificial.

Information gap activities give students opportunities to use English appropriately inside the classroom. Unlike teacher-initiated display questions， which do not reflect real life language use， information gap activities have genuine communicative value. When structural drills are necessary， after pattern practice at the mechanical level， teachers can use the structure in communicative drills and activities that rely on referential questions and establish a communicative need in the English classroom.

Today communicative language teaching can be seen as describing a set of core principles about language learning and teaching， as the article discusses above， it also has some weak points and the information gap activity can be used in China today to enhance our teaching quality. Its not only good for students but also for teachers to realize their role in class. As using those forms of information gap activities， we should help students to obtain their target language. In one word， it is good for teachers to create information gap activities in communicative language teaching.

References：

[1]Jack C.Richards.Communicative Language Teaching Today[M].Cambridge Language Teaching Library：New York： Cambridge University Press，2001：1-23.endprint