Types of context
Context means the situation or body of information, which causes language to be used. There are a number of different context types but for our purposes we will concentrate on three: the students’ world, the outside world and formulated information. 1) The students’ world can be a major source of context for language presentation. There are two kinds of students’ world context: physical surroundings and the students’ lives. - Clearly, we can use the physical surroundings that the students are in – the classroom, school or institution. The classroom can be a useful context for the introduction of meaning. It is a fact that the classroom is full of objects and also students. The former may help the presentation of meaning of such items as prepositions, there is/are -structure, etc.; the latter may be helpful in presenting such items as colours, size, comparatives, etc. Nevertheless classrooms and their physical properties (tables, chairs, windows, etc.) are limited. - The students’ lives are not constrained in the same way. We can use facts about them, their families, friends and experiences. 2) The outside world provides us with rich contexts for presentation: stories, situations and language examples, all of which can be real-life or simulated. - There is an almost infinite number of stories we can use to present different tenses. Teachers and materials writers have always used invented stories. A typical example of an invented story is that of the group of friends who were in a car crash and were injured. It shows perfectly well the meaning and usage of phrases like ‘ Julia can’t walk’ or ‘ Jane can’t play tennis’. Invented stories provide endless scope but it is difficult to make thembelievable. Besides, they place great demands on the teacher’s and materials writer’s imaginative powers. Teachers can also use real-life stories from their own experience or from the experience they share with their students. - Situations are taken to mean events, in which we list such things as participants, setting, etc. In other words, the people, the places and the purpose of what is being said are important. Two major types of situation are simulated real-life and real-life. Simulated real-life situations are particularly important for the introduction of more functional language. Thus it is important, if introducing the language of invitation to show who the participants are (whether they are friends or acquaintances, or whether one speaker is superior to the other) and where the conversation is taking place. Sometimes it is possible to use real-life situations, which occur at the lesson and prove appropriate for introducing new language. Their advantage is involving the students in natural communication even at the stage of introducing new language. In general we can say that real contexts are better simply because they are real, but they may have complexities of language and comprehensibility, which can be avoided by simulated contexts. They are life-like, but clearly made-up to some extent. - We can ask students to look at examples of language, which show the new language in operation, though this last category can sometimes have no other context than that of a phrase or a group of phrases. This limited context has the advantage of clarity of the function and structure of the language being introduced. 3) Formulated information refers to all that information, which is presented in the form of timetables, notes, charts, etc. Once again, we can use real charts and timetables, growth statistics, etc., or we can design our own which will be just right for our students. Teachers and materials writers are often attracted to the idea of presenting information in this way because they can provide just that information they need for the introduction of the new language in a way that is clear and simple. It is in marked contrast with many real-life charts, graphs, maps, etc. Although there is a danger in asking students to say things that are not true. It may be difficult to make such formulated information look authentic. In the case of real-life formulated information, we do not have to worry so much about truth, but often the way in which such information is presented is less than ideal for the language classroom.
[S = simulated; R = real] The context that is chosen will depend on the type of language being introduced. If the teacher is creating his own context, he will consider the type of student to whom he will be presenting the language. It is possible to speculate that adolescents are less content with invented stories and happier with an information load that challenges them per se. Older students having difficulty, on the other hand, may prefer the less demanding story. But it is difficult to generalise, and teachers should be sensitive to the varying degrees of motivation that different contexts provide. Finally, it is worth pointing out that language can be introduced in one context (e.g., a dialogue) but then the context should change for the accurate reproduction or immediate creativity.
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