Real Communication:

Speaking a Living Language

All speech is a dead language, until it finds a willing listener.

Robert Louis Stevenson

For most foreign language teachers t h e te rm 'dead language' would probably bring t o mind piles of dusty scrolls of anc ien t and forgot ten dialects or, more simply, those languages such as Latin or Classical Greek t h a t a r e no longer commonly spoken. The te rm 'living language,' by contrast, would be descriptive of t h e French, Spanish, or other modern language they teach. Ironically, to too many foreign language stu- dents the term 'dead language' seems to charac- terize very accurately their day-to-day experi- ences in the modern language classroom, espe- cially if their verbal ac t iv i ty consists largely of mechanistic, manipulative, art if icially contriv- ed conversations devised for oral p rac t ice and imposed upon them. We too of ten overlook t h e fact that communication is a function of need. If we hope to achieve genuine communication in our classrooms--if we want our students to speak a living language--we must c r e a t e t h e need to talk and the need t o listen. The students must truly want t o hear each other, or they might as well be conversing with a t ape recorder.

To encourage our students t o converse with each other we can adapt a human relations tech- nique described in the February 1975 issue of Psychology Today in an a r t ic le en t i t l ed "The Jig- SdW Route to Learning and Liking." The 'Jigsaw Puzzle Method' was designed to promote be t t e r relations arnong the races in in tegra ted schools by creating two needs within the students: (1) t o coiniliunlcate with one another, and (2) t o se rve as resources for each o ther in problem-solving activities. Basically, t he technique works on t h e principle of the jigsaw puzzle: each s tudent in a group has a piece of information, but only by combining pieces can the group members put t h e puzzle together. Cooperation, careful listening,

and understanding a r e essential if t h e puzzle pieces a r e t o form a comple te picture.

The technique is easily adaptab le to foreign language classrooms, and i t provides a conceptual tool for c rea t ing new activit ies, modifying old ones, or seeing classroom behavior in a new light. A f ew examples of small-group activit ies using t h e jigsaw puzzle method follow.

1. Games: Each s tudent in a small group is given a picture of a n object t h a t h e must describe to t h e others without using t h e name of t h e object directly. The f i r s t l e t t e r of t h e name of each object is then recorded, and t h e combined l e t t e r s spell ou t a group word, For example, French s tudents may be given the following objects to describe:

Student 1: cahier Student 2: robe Student 3: argent Student 4: immeuble Student 5: 6cole

The group word formed from t h e f i r s t l e t t e r of each object would be w, and t h e puzzle would be complete.

A variation of this game involves puzzle par t s depicting objects t ha t a r e par t of a scene t o be guessed, such as pieces of furn i ture in a room. Groups within t h e class might be in competit ion fo r t h e first completion of t h e puzzle.

Another variation would be t h e use of descrip- t ive phrases or sen tences (perhaps on cards) as t h e puzzle parts. All t h e s ta tements , when com- bined, provide an adequate description of a n ob- ject tha t t h e group must then identify. Cards with more specific descriptors could be provided if t h e object is not guessed on t h e f i r s t round.

Puzzle par t s might also describe a personality- perhaps a cha rac t e r from a television show, a political figure, or an individual in t h e school (a teacher , staff member, or s tudent t h a t t h e mem- bers of t h e group would know). The game could proceed in t h e manner of Twenty Questions; how-

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Studen t s r e c e i v e cards wi th c lues describing a profession in a j igsaw version of 'What's My Line?'

ever, no one member of the group knows who the personality is. Each student holds a ca rd contain- ing one piece of descriptive information (physical traits , nationality, occupation, etc.) t h a t the others in the group must elicit from him through questioning. When all t he available information has been conveyed and pieced together, group members make a collective guess as t o the identi- t y of the mystery personality. The group tha t makes the correct identification f i r s t would win the game.

Student-Generated Material: The above activ- i ty could be modified by asking each student in the class t o write a description of himself on 3 x 5 cards--perhaps four or five separate cards could be used to provide information about his inter- ests, his physical appearance, his family, or any other facts about himself t ha t he would like to convey t o others in the class. (Because the stu- dent provides the information about himself, there is no danger of hurt feelings.) Each student has thus created a personal jigsaw puzzle to be used by the small groups in the class.

Multiple Puzzles: A more complicated version of these activit ies might involve multiple puzzles to be solved. For a group of five, for example, several SetS of cards could be made: each set of five cards depicts four objects that go together conceptually--four cards depicting food, four cards depicting clothing, etc.--and one 'odd' card. The group members describe to each other t h e objects represented on their cards (being careful

not to let the others see the card). For each set of f i ve cards, t he group decides which object does not belong with t h e others and sets i t aside. When several sets of cards have thus been described and sorted, t he group takes all of t h e odd cards and t r ies t o determine what concept they represent. All of the odd cards might depict t h e rooms of a house, modes of transportation, or types of ani- mals. When the concept has been correctly iden- tified, t he puzzle is complete.

2. Pdarrarive Construcxion: Each student in a group of four or f ive individuals is given a part of a story, anecdote, or other narrat ive material. Each one tells his pa r t of the story in turn (the par ts could be numbered sequentially), and all members of t he group a r e responsible for the ent i re content of the narrative tha t they have constructed together by means of mutual, active listening and speaking.

An interesting variation might be the use of cartoons tha t tell a story. The Peanuts cartoons, for example, have been translated into several modern languages, as well as Latin, and could be conveniently used in this activity. Each member of the group receives one f r ame of t he cartoon sequence. He must describe the action that is taking place in as much detail as possible, con- veying any dialogue tha t appears in his f r ame as well. The group then pieces the frames together in their proper sequence; for afollow-up activity students might write a r b u m e of the narrative, including as many details as they can remember from their group discussion.

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3. C'illtLire i ' L l ~ S l l i i c S : Ra ther than relying on a culture capsule presentation by t h e teacher , stu- dents can share the responsibility of teaching one another various facts about a given cultural con- cept. For example, in discussing French bread, each student could be responsible for transmit- ting a piece of information t h a t would normally bcx included in a culture capsule:

Student I : The impor tance of bread t o t h e French family; bread as a national symbol.

Student 2: A description of t h e French baquette.

Student 3: The way in which bread is ea t en at the table in France.

Student 4: Proverbs and sayings t h a t depict bread and i t s impor tance to French life.

The group could then summar ize together t h e ways in which French and American bread differ, basing their conclusions upon t h e inf ormat ion that they have provided each other. 4. Proverbs and CLlch6s: A l i s t of proverbs (or

cliches) in the foreign language could be provided to members of t h e group, along with a short narrative that has been divided in to parts. The narrative describes a situation t h a t is i l lustrative of one of the sayings. For example, a s tory could be constructed illustrating the proverb, "A s t i t ch in time saves nine." Each s tudent receives a pa r t of the story and is responsible for conveying t h a t information to the o thers in t h e group. The puz-

z le is comple te when t h e group discovers t h e proverb f rom t h e l ist t h a t applies to their partic- ular situation.

The possible applications of this technique a r e as abundant as a r e i t s benefits in promoting stu- dent-centered learning and real communication in the lanwage . Not onlv do s tudents fee l a genuine n&d 70 speak and-listen t o each other, but also every individual perceives his contribu- t ion to the group e f fo r t as impor tan t and worth- while. If t h e results of t h e Jigsaw Puzzle Method obtained in the in tegra ted schools, as described in Psychology Today, a r e replicated in our class- rooms, s tudents will develop respec t for each other's needs and will l eave t h e experience with more confidence in themselves and in their abili- t y t o communica te in the foreign language.

Alice Omaggio

The Ohio State Uniuersity

In the i r effort t o communicate, students of t e n use gestures to supplement words.