7.4.4.3. Exercises of group 3

Exercises of the third group serve for teaching students to construct MDs using DUs they have already mastered in the course of performing exercises of the second group. MDs differ from DUs not only in the number of replies, but in their relative completeness as well. Of course, every MD may be continued, as well as brought to a close at the last reply that is reactive. To continue a conversation a new stimulating reply is needed (e.g. Anyway,.. Besides,.. On the other hand... etc.). The dialogue itself includes two or three MDs.

Exercises of the third group are referred to as receptive-productive exercises of the 1^st level where the use of cues is allowed (See the table of the system of exercises).

In contrast with predominantly communicative (simulative communicative) exercises communicative exercises of the 1^st level lack in strict conditionality of the pupils’ utterances. These exercises are performed as a P – P activity. That is why the teacher has to formulate a communicative task for each partner and with the help of an advanced pupil or a phonogram demonstrates a model of performing the activity. Any of the ‘Short Conversation’ series from pupils’ textbook may serve the purpose. For example:

Ex.1. Instruction: a) for partner A: You are a shop assistant. Help the customer choose the thing he wants to buy.

b) for partner B: You are a customer. Tell the shop assistant what you want to buy and ask him to help you.

Model: S: What can I do for you?

C: I want to buy a pair of shoes. Can you help me choose one?

S: Certainly. What colour shoes do you prefer?

C: Brown.

S: Here you are.

Having listened to the model, the learners make up their own MDs in accordance with the received instructions. With this type of exercises, not only aural cues (i.e. a phonogram-model) are used. As a rule, various visual verbal cues are used. They may be presented as a dialogue-scheme or a dialogue-substitution table. For example, basing on the mentioned above model micro dialogue we can construct a cue scheme:

A: What can I do for you?

B: I want… Can you…

A: Willingly. What colour … do you prefer?

B: …

A: Here you are.

In our scheme, we leave blanks for the variable elements. These blanks have to be filled in by the learners. Set expressions are given in full.

If we take a verbal cue substitution table then we can see that there are several variants of variable elements. The student has to choose the appropriate variant from this variety.

A:	May I try on		that those		hat overcoat dress jacket trousers gloves shoes		please?
B:	Yes, certainly.
A:	Oh,	this… is those… are		too		small large

It is considered advisable to use a substitution table first, for it is a fuller cue, and only then a scheme. Nevertheless, these can be used simultaneously if the level of the group allows. Visual verbal cues may be presented to pupils as hand out material (cardboards for pair-work), a wall-chart or an OHP transparent acetate sheet. The transparent picture has a number of advantages, for it is made in a single copy with minimal amount of time and effort spent. However, such a cue does not allow for individualisation of the pupils’ work. This task is successfully fulfilled with the help of hand out cardboards.

Non-verbal cues may be of three types: subjective, illustrative and schematic. The subjects of reality: books, toys, pens, desks, chairs, etc. are used as subjective cues. As illustrative cues pictures, slides, stills of a filmstrip, transparencies of an OHP are used. Non-verbal subjective and especially illustrative cues can be combined with verbal cues. E.g., in the mentioned above dialogue-substitution table the names of articles of clothes can be substituted with their pictures.

Dialogue-functional scheme as a specific means of teaching

The cue in the form of a dialogue-functional scheme is given a specific place. Here communicative functions of separate replies, their sequence and interrelation are indicated on the scheme. Speech input itself is not shown. That is why such schemes are related to non-verbal references. The functional scheme is a peculiar model of a dialogue. The mentioned above conversation between a shop assistant and a customer may be presented in the following functional scheme:

‘functional question’ (an offer to help)
		informing; asking for something; requesting
specification question
		answering
offering/ suggesting

In comparison with subjective and illustrative cues, functional schemes make learners feel rather free and less dependent. The scheme indicates only the functions of replies and determines their sequence. However, it restricts the pupils’ initiative. That is why any cue should be withdrawn in the end.