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ix Activities Des伽ed for Oral Class Interaction 53 topic to the whole class. Step 4 The teacher gives some evaluation. 6.4.4D曲ate After students have gained certain amount of grammatical competence, discussion and debate are techniques conducive to promote students' communicative competence. Debate is also a kind of cooperative learning. Through the cooperative learning, students' creative thinking is developed gradually. The general procedures may be: Step 1 Interesting and controversial topics are offered to students. Step 2 The teacher explains some basic rules and techniques of debate. Step 3 The teacher puts the class into two large groups for face-to-face interation. Group A is in favor of the prbposition while group B is against the proposition. Step 4 Each group prepares and discusses about their idea for a few minutes. When the arguments are ready, the group elects a proposer and a seconded who makes formal speeches to argue their case. All the other students can then take part in with short intervention on their side. Step 5 At the end of the debate, the teacher gives feedback. In this chapter we have seen a number of activities through which the teacher can create an information gap and thus stimulate simple patterns of communicative interaction. In each case, it is the overcoming of the information gap rather than the production of correct language that signals the success of the performance. In this respect, the focus of the activity is on meanings to be communicated' rather than linguistic forms to be learnt. In considering what kinds of activity, situation and role are best suited to a specific learning group, the teacher must consider a number of factors. In the first place, it goes without saying that he must match the linguistic demands of an activity as closely as possible with the linguistic capabilities of his learners. The idea of "capability" here covers not only the level of complexity of the language forms that learners can handle, but also the degree of independence with which they can handle them. Thus, as learners increase their linguistic competence, there will be scope for both greater complexity and greater independence. In the second place, the teacher should remember the point made in connection with classroom interaction, that structures and functions are not bound to specific situations. Therefore, the situations that he selects do not have to be restricted to those in which learners expect to perform outside the classroom. Communication skills can be developed in the context。式say, a classroom discussion or a simulated detective inquiry, and later be transferred to' other contexts of language use. In the third place, the teacher has to aim for maximum efficiency and economy in his students' leatning. It therefore makes sense to engage them in a large proportion of situations which bear as direct a resemblance as possible to the situations where they will later need to; use their communicative skills. In this way, }he can be confident that most aspects of the language practiced (functions, structures, vocabulary and interpersonal skills) are relevant to learners' needs. This is particularly important with learners, whose needs are comparatively well-defined. In the fourth place, the teacher has to keep in mind that, in any forms of communicatibn activities, he