Transitioning to Communicative Activities in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

In the last decade, the Communicative Approach has taken an important position within the English language teaching world. Many countries have abandoned their traditional teaching methods to implement this approach. The objectives of this research were to analyze the transitioning to communicative activities in Teaching English as a foreign language in the Dominican Republic, to identify the communicative activities to which the students were more receptive, to research students’ attitudes while developing communicative activities, and lastly, to analyze new strategies for successful communicative activities. To carry out the investigation, three interventions were carried out in the classroom where activities such as role-play, group work, mingle, information transfer, opinion sharing, and information gap were implemented. Two interviews were administered to learners. Participant observation was implemented as well as the teacher’s diary and note-taking as a way of record the events. Interviews revealed that students had a great disposition towards group work as well as having conversations and activities that involved giving opinions. They also showed that close attention should be paid to activities that involve speaking in front of the class as they raised students’ stress levels. According to students’ performance and answers during the sessions, group work, information gap, and opinion sharing activities activated their motivation to a greater extent. Modeling and giving clear instructions was fundamental to overcome linguistic gaps that emerged during the sessions. The progressive integration of the target language was more convenient while implementing communicative activities.