Meaning-Centered Activities

In Communicative Language classes, Meaning is often more important than Form (grammar and word order, etc.). Simply, if someone says something that we can understand, it’s OK even if there are ‘mistakes’, or a mix of English and Japanese, if there are a lot of gestures or pictures, etc.
The simplest kind of activity that is purely meaning-centered is translation from English to Japanese. One student says a word or something more in English, and a paired student translates this to Japanese. This can be used in the early stages of introducing new words or patterns, when students are still learning how the pattern can be used with different words to change the meaning of the basic pattern. (end)