How many foreign teachers began their careers at a language school, teaching English conversation using a communicative approach to small groups of generally well-motivated adults? Of those, how many were shocked, frustrated, and finally discouraged by the experience of trying to transfer those communicative techniques to the university classroom--the pairworks, games, and discussions that worked so well with half a dozen learners going down like the proverbial lead balloon in a class of fifty?
Even the most experienced university or college teacher may be forgiven for occasionally feeling that there exists an unbridgeable gap between the theory of communicative methodology and the reality of their classroom situation. In an attempt to bridge this gap consider the LIFE (Learner-centred, Imagination-driven, Fluency and Enjoyment-oriented) system.
The essential features of LIFE are easily stated: Learners take responsibility for their own learning, working in groups of two teams of three to complete task-sheets for which they are awarded points. The two teams sit facing each other about two or three metres apart. Learners are free to choose their teams afresh each week.
To coordinate the activities the three members of each team are simply referred to as Circle, Triangle, and Diamond. The task-sheets comprise various information--and reasoning-gap tasks, most of which can only be completed by exchanging information between teams. Learners are permitted to speak their native language within their teams at any time, but when speaking to their partner team they must only use English.
There are no examinations. Instead, at the end of each lesson points are awarded as an average to the team as a whole, with each member receiving the same score, irrespective of how hard he or she worked. This creates a powerful incentive for learners to cooperate both within and between teams to complete the tasks and leads to an extremely positive classroom atmosphere.
Lessons are highly learner-centred and the teacher¹s role becomes principally that of facilitator and resource: setting up the tasks and providing assistance. The numbers of points accumulated by the end of the course determines a learner¹s final grade. If learners do not want to do the work it is no longer the teacher¹s problem; they will just receive no points and risk failing the course. That's LIFE.
Edward Haig is a member of the CUE N-SIG and the Publications Coordinator for the PALE N-SIG.