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and will subseąuently be used during the role-playing in the context of the situation.

These activities provide natural contexts in which the students can practice the new vocabulary. They may also have other purpose, they allow for reinforcement of the vocabulary that has been taught. The words are put in a context, they are not taught in isolation. Students remember vocabulary better when they experience the words and when the words relate to something relevant in their lives. Problem solving and role-playing fumish strategies that contextualize vocabulary and implant it morę firmly in the students' minds.

8.3. Opportunities for student participation

Traditionally, the teacher was viewed as an organizer of classroom activities, a controller over the implementation of these activities, and an evaluator of students' performances of the activities. This dominant role was based on the premise that the teacher was the “expert” who would impart his or her knowledge or “expertise” to the unknowing student. Nowadays, students play a much morę active role in the learning process. They are no longer passive recipients, on the contrary, the are contributing to the planning and implementation of what transpires in the classroom.

In addition, it is generally accepted in modem language teaching that active use of the language is crucial to good language learning. Yet EFL teachers are often faced with too many students in a class. In overcrowded classes, the teacher is not able to involve all the students in the use of the language. Chorał repetition has traditionally been used to get many students speaking at once. But, can we say students are really using the language if they simply repeat in choms?

8.3.1. Reducing teacher talk

A possible solution to this dilemma is to increase the opportunity for student participation by reducing the amount of “teacher talk“ in the lesson. Careful preparation can change the classroom interaction from teacher-dominated activities to teacher-student communication and finally to student-student communication. It stands to reason that planning opportunities for student-student communication will involve a greater number of students in an active, cognitive use of the language than does chorał repetition or even a mathematically even distribution of tums by the teacher.

The ąuestion is how can one plan opportunities for student participation. A simple way to start is to get the students involved in classroom management tasks. Students can cali the roli, return corrected papers, develop a bulletin board display, read announcements, etc. Although these are minor details, involving the students in these chores can promote interaction, a sense of teamwork, and the learning of names. The important thing is for the teacher to begin to loosen his or her hołd on the total domination/management of the classroom.

Those activities that are teacher-led should be carefully planned to involve all the students. Sometimes teachers are able to cali on students randomly, or strike a balance between calling on volunteers and drawing out the ąuieter students. In a large class, it may be helpful to use a set of index cards with a student's name on each card. The teacher can flip through the cards, calling on each student as his or her name appears. This simple system can help to ensure a fairer distribution of turns sińce research has shown that EFL teachers typically do not distribute turns evenly among students. (Teachers sometimes rely too heavily on bright students.)

Another way to involve morę students morę often is by using a chain-drill approach to grammar. Even at the early stages of language instruction, chain drills can be used to cut down on “teacher talk“ and maximize student participation.

8.3.2. Eliciting student-talk

One possibility in increasing the opportunities for student participation is to create activities that engage students in meaningful interaction, in which their attention is focused morę on what they are saying than on how they are saying it. It is this free practice that

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