Theory of foreign language teaching

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Lecture 1. Methods of foreign language teaching and its relation to other sciences

Plan

1. Methodology is as a theory of foreign language teaching

2. Links of methods with pedagogics

3. Psychological prerequisites for foreign language teaching

4. Linguistic prerequisites for foreign language teaching

5. Methods of foreign language teaching is closely related to Physiology

The aim of the lesson: - to develop innovative approaches and technologies for effective acquiring of communicative skills and habits;

- to activate students' to brainstorm on the questions

- to provide a summary of the key items

- to link the students experience with learning

- to make learning two-way process.

Objectives:

- to have SS share information and express their standpoints

- to help SS learn and practice in a friendly, non-threatening atmosphere

- to motivate SS effectively verbalize their thoughts and ideas.

Methods of foreign language teaching is understood here as a body of scientifically tested theory concerning the teaching of foreign languages in schools and other educational institutions. It covers 3 main problems;

1. aims of teaching a foreign language

2. content of teaching, i.e. what to teach to attain the aims.

3. methods and techniques of teaching , i.e. how to teach a foreign language to attain the aims in the most effective way.

Methods of foreign language teaching is closely related to other sciences such as pedagogics, psychology, physiology, linguistics and some others.

Pedagogics is the science concerned with the teaching and education of the younger generation. To study F.L.teaching one must know pedagogics. One branch of pedagogics is called didactics. Methods, as compared to didactics, studies the specific ways of teaching a definite subject. F.eg. the so called `principle of visualization `was the first introduced in teaching for Lang-s.

Teaching a foreign language means first and foremost the formation and development of pupils' habits and skills in hearing, speaking, reading and writing. We cannot expect to develop such habits and skills of our pupils effectively if we do not know and take into account the psychology of habits and skills, the ways of forming them, the influence of formerly acquired habits on the formation of new ones and many other necessary factors that psychology can supply us with it. If the teacher wants his pupils to speak English he must use all the opportunities he has to make them hear and speak. Furthermore, to muster a second language is to acquire another code, another way of receiving and transmitting information. To create this new code in the most effective way one must take into consideration certain psychological factors.

Effective learning of a foreign language depends to a great extent on pupils' memory. That is why a teacher must know how he can help his pupils to successfully memorize and retain in memory the language material they learn. Here are psychological investigations are significant.

For example, psychologist P.K. Zinchenko proved that in learning a subject both voluntary and involuntary memory is of great importance. In his investigation of involuntary memory he came to the conclusion that this memory is retentive. Consequently, in teaching a foreign language we should create favourable conditions for involuntary memorizing. P.K. Zinchenko showed that involuntary memorizing is possible only when pupils' attention is concentrated not on fixing the material in their memory through numerous repetitions, but on solving some mental problems which deal with this material.

Questions:

(Use your experience as a learner to answer these questions if you are not yet teaching.)

Do you agree that successful English teachers usually speak English in class?

Do you agree that they give much more time to practice than to explanation?

Do you agree that teacher co-operation in an English language department is important?

Methodological recommendations:

Lecture delivering is tended to the students' development of the professional creation and self-education activity.

The quality of the lecture and its delivering depends on a range of factors: the lecture's social activity, desire to work and socialize with the students, teaching skills, general and professional level of culture, intellect, knowledge and behaviour norms.

One of the professionally significant features of the lecturer is his / her speech etiquette: oral and written. During the oral presentation of the lecture the language pronunciation, grammar norms should be observed alongside with the expressive non-verbal means as: intonation: accent, pausation, gestures etc. Interactive method of teaching students-lecturer / presupposes setting problem questions, ability to listen and understand the students and to answer the students' questions.

Writing summary: A summary is the expression in a condensed form of the principal content of any piece of writing. In other words the summarizer should briefly render the main idea in his own words.

Writing reviews: there are a lot of review types. These writing strategy is for you to follow in your review writing:

Give a brief summary of the plot.

Recommended Literature:

All of the following books offer up-to-date views of teaching English:

1. Gower, R., D. Phillips, and S. Walters. 1995. Teaching Practice Handbook (2^nd edn.). Oxford: Heinemann.

2. Harmer, J. 1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching (2nd edn.). Harlow: Longman.

3. Scrivener. 1994. Learning Teaching. Oxford: Heinemann.

4. Ur.P. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

LECTURE 2. Aims of foreign language teaching

The Aim of the lesson:

- to increase motivation and retention

- to help students develop a positive image of self and others

- to develop the students' communicative skills

Objectives: - to provide a vehicle for critical thinking and problem solving

- to encourage collaborative social skills

- to help them verbalize their thoughts

- to motivate to speak, analyze and express their points of view

Aims, Content and Principles of Foreign Language Teaching in a Secondary (Ten-Year) School

Aims are the first and most important consideration in any teaching.

«Процесс обучения представляет собой переход учащихся из одного состояния в другое, задачи обучения состоят в том, чтобы переместить обучающихся из их начального состояния в определенное состояние (или, точнее, во множество состояний), означающее наличие у них определенных знаний, навыков и умений»

Hence the teacher should know exactly what his pupils are expected to achieve in learning his subject, what changes he can bring about in his pupils at the end of the course, at the end of the year, term, month, week, and each particular lesson, i. e., he should know the aims and objectives of foreign language teaching in schools.

The terms “aims” and “objectives” are clearly distinguished in this work in accordance with the suggestion given by R. Roberts. Here is what he writes: “The term `aims' be reserved for long-term goals such as provide the justification or reason for teaching second languages ... the term `objectives' be used only for short-term goals (immediate lesson goal), such as may reasonably be achieved in a classroom lesson or sequence of lessons.” In this chapter we shall deal with long-term goals, that is, with the aims of foreign language teaching which dictate the teacher's approach to this subject.

The changes the teacher must bring about in his pupils may be threefold: practical -- pupils acquire habits, and skills in using a foreign language; educational -- they develop their mental abilities and intelligence in the process of learning he foreign language; cultural -- pupils extend their knowledge of the world in which they live. Therefore there are three aims, at least, which should be achieved in foreign language teaching: practical, educational, and cultural.

Practical aims. The foreign language as a school subject differs from other subjects of the school curriculum. Whereas the teaching, for instance, of history is mostly connected with the imparting of historical laws and facts which pupils are to learn and the teaching of the mother tongue leads to the mastery of the language as a system (which is already used for exchanging thoughts and feelings) so that pupils will be able to use it more effectively in oral and written language, the teaching of a foreign language should result in the pupil's gaining one more code for receiving and conveying information; that is, in acquiring a second language for the same purpose as the native language: to use it as a means of communication. In this connection we should like to quote G. Perren: “Whatever a new language is being taught as a curricular extra ... or as an essential medium for education it will be learned by the young child only if it obviously makes possible some purposeful activity other than language learning. If it does not do this, attempts to teach it may be largely a waste of time.”

In modern society language is used in two ways: directly or orally, and indirectly or in written form. Thus we distinguish oral language and written language. Direct communication implies a speaker and a hearer, indirect communication implies a writer and a reader. Hence the practical aims in teaching a foreign language are four in number: hearing, speaking, reading, and writing.

When adopting the practical aims for a secondary school course the following factors are usually taken into consideration: the economic and political conditions of society, the requirements of the state; the general goals of secondary school education; the nature of the subject, and the conditions for instruction.

The length of the course, the frequency of the lessons, the size of groups should also be taken into consideration in adopting practical aims. The amount of time for language learning is one of the most decisive factors in mastering and maintaining language proficiency since learners need practice. The syllabus for the eight-year school concentrates on the development of speech proficiency. Pupils should be able:

1) to give a short talk and carry on a conversation on the topics included in the programme;

2) to read without a dictionary texts containing familiar grammar material and no more than 4--6 unfamiliar words (per 100 words) the meaning of which, as a rule, should be clear from the context or due to familiar word-building elements.

The syllabus for the ten-year school requires that school-leavers should:

1) read and understand a foreign text both with and without a dictionary;

2) understand oral language and speak within the topics and material required by the syllabus;

3) write a letter.

At the present time, however, foreign language teaching in school does not quite meet the demands of our society; better results are desirable. In this connection we should welcome O.I. Moskalskaya's proposal to investigate the aims of foreign language teaching to be able to establish what can really be achieved under school conditions.

In conclusion it should be said that the achievement of practical aims in foreign language teaching makes possible the achievement of educational and cultural aims.

Educational aims. Learning a second language is of great educational value. Through a new language we can gain an insight into the way in which words express thoughts, and so achieve greater clarity and precision in our own communications. Even at the most elementary level learning a second language teaches the cognizance of meaning, furnishes a term of comparison that gives us an insight into the quality of language. When learning a foreign language the pupil understands better how language functions and this brings him to a greater awareness of the functioning of his own language.

Since language is connected with thinking, through foreign language study we can develop the pupil's intellect. Teaching a foreign language helps the teacher develop the pupils' voluntary and involuntary memory, his imaginative abilities, and will power. Indeed, in learning a new language the pupil should memorize words, idioms, sentence patterns, structures, and keep them in long-term memory ready to be used whenever he needs them in auding, speaking, reading, and writing. Teaching a foreign language under conditions when this is the only foreign language environment, is practically impossible without appealing to pupils' imagination. The lack of real communication forces the teacher to create imaginary situations for pupils, to speak about making each pupil determine his language behaviour as if he were in such situations.

Teaching a foreign language contributes to the linguistic education of the pupil, the latter extends his knowledge of phonic, graphic, structural, and semantic aspects of language as it is through contrastive analysis of language phenomena.

Cultural aims. Learning a foreign language makes the pupil acquainted with the life, customs and traditions of the people whose language he studies through visual material (such as post cards with the views of towns, countryside, and people; filmstrips, for example, “Great Britain”, “What Tourists Can See in London”, “Disney Land” films) and reading material dealing with the countries where the target language is spoken. Foreign language teaching should promote pupils'. General educational and cultural growth by increasing their knowledge about foreign countries, and by acquainting them with progressive traditions of the people whose language they study. Through learning a second language the pupil gains a deeper insight into the nature and functioning of language as a social phenomenon.

In conclusion it should be said that practical, educational, and cultural aims are intimately related and form an inseparable unity. The leading role belongs to practical aims, for the others can only be achieved through the practical command of the foreign language.

Methodological recommendations:

Lecture delivering is tended to the students' development of the professional creation and self-education activity.

The quality of the lecture and its delivering depends on a range of factors: the lecture's social activity, desire to work and socialize with the students, teaching skills, general and professional level of culture, intellect, knowledge and behaviour norms.

One of the professionally significant features of the lecturer is his / her speech etiquette: oral and written. During the oral presentation of the lecture the language pronunciation, grammar norms should be observed alongside with the expressive non-verbal means as: intonation: accent, pausation, gestures etc. Interactive method of teaching students-lecturer / presupposes setting problem questions, ability to listen and understand the students and to answer the students' questions.

Writing summary: A summary is the expression in a condensed form of the principal content of any piece of writing. In other words the summarizer should briefly render the main idea in his own words.

Writing reviews: there are a lot of review types. These writing strategy is for you to follow in your review writing:

Give a brief summary of the plot.

Recommended Literature:

All of the following books offer up-to-date views of teaching English:

1. Gower, R.,D. Phillips, and S. Walters. 1995. Teaching Practice Handbook (2^nd edn.). Oxford: Heinemann.

2. Harmer, J. 1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching (2nd edn.). Harlow: Longman.

3. Scrivener. 1994. Learning Teaching. Oxford: Heinemann

4. Ur, P. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

LECTURE 3. CONTENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

The aim of the lesson:

- to make an introduction of the notion, its aims and principles

- to activate students' to brainstorm on the questions

- to provide a summary of the key items

- to link the students experience with learning

- to make learning two-way process

Objectives: - to motivate them express their points of view and draw conclusion

- to encourage them verbalize their thoughts and ideas clearly

- to have students work cooperatively to share their knowledge of a lecture

The content of foreign language teaching or what to teach is one of the main problems the Methods deals with. In this chapter an attempt is made to touch on the chief components which, we think, should constitute the content of foreign language teaching in schools; a more detailed consideration will be given in appropriate chapters dealing with teaching various aspects of the language and language skills.

The first component of “what to teach” is habits and skills which pupils should acquire while learning a foreign language. According to the aims of learning this subject they are: hearing (listening comprehension), speaking, reading, and writing. The level of habits and skills is determined by the syllabus for each form. However, quantitative and qualitative characteristics of skills, or the so-called terminal behavior, is not defined yet for different types of schools and stages of instruction. This is one of the problems for methodologists to investigate and solve. Nevertheless, some attempts have been made in this respect. Thus in school syllabi we can find some directions as to the level of skills that should be reached in each particular form and their development from form to form. For example, the requirements for hearing and reading skills differ “in the 9th and 10th forms. In the 9th form pupils should be able to understand oral language on the basis of the material previously learned and within the topics covered, while in the 10th form the material for hearing should include 1--2 unfamiliar words for pupils to guess their meaning, and to understand a text received by ear, based on the material learned and on a topic close to those pupils have worked at. This is a new “qualitative step” for pupils in understanding oral language. If in the 9th form pupils should read with the speed of 1 000 signs per academic hour, in the lot form the speed of reading is 1 300.

The second component of “what to teach” is language (textual) material, arranged in topics and serving as starting points for the development of oral language and written language, which allows the teacher to reach the practical, educational, and cultural aims set by the syllabus. For example, in the junior stage (the 5th and 6th forms) pupils should speak and read about school, home, town and countryside, nature, physical training and sports. In the senior stage the textual material should cover the following topics: the life of the youth in the USSR and abroad; sport in the USSR and abroad; industry, agriculture, and science in the USSR and abroad; history and geography of the country whose language pupils study; art and literature in the USSR and abroad. Topic for speaking and reading are developed from form to form i. e., the pupil's ability to read and speak on a certain topic is widened as his vocabulary and grammar are enriched.

The third component of the content of foreign language teaching is linguistic material, i.e., phonology, grammar, and vocabulary carefully selected for the purpose. The selection of linguistic material, the compiling of the so-called minimal for instance, minimum vocabulary and minimum grammar has always been one of the most important and difficult problems to be solved and, although a great deal of work has been done in this respect, we are still on the way to its solution; A limited body of linguistic material is required by pupils who have about 600 class hours at their disposal spread over six years (extensive course), and at the same time it must be large enough to serve as a sound basis for developing pupil language skills.

To sum up what has been said above, the content of foreigj language teaching involves:

language skills: hearing, speaking, reading, and writing;

language (textual) material;

linguistic material; vocabulary, grammar, phonological minima.

In conclusion it should be said that the content of teaching in our schools is laid down in the syllabus and realized in teaching materials and in the teacher's own speech.

Methodological recommendations:

Lecture delivering is tended to the students' development of the professional creation and self-education activity.

The quality of the lecture and its delivering depends on a range of factors: the lecture's social activity, desire to work and socialize with the students, teaching skills, general and professional level of culture, intellect, knowledge and behavior norms.

One of the professionally significant features of the lecturer is his / her speech etiquette: oral and written. During the oral presentation of the lecture the language pronunciation, grammar norms should be observed alongside with the expressive non-verbal means as: intonation: accent, causation, gestures etc. Interactive method of teaching students-lecturer / presupposes setting problem questions, ability to listen and understand the students and to answer the students' questions.

Writing summary: A summary is the expression in a condensed form of the principal content of any piece of writing. In other words the summarizer should briefly render the main idea in his own words.

Writing reviews: there are a lot of review types. This writing strategy is for you to follow in your review writing:

Give a brief summary of the plot.

Recommended Literature:

Harmer, J. 1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching (2nd edn.). Harlow: Longman. Scrivener,}. 1994. Learning Teaching. Oxford: Heinemann.

Ur.P. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

LECTURE 4. TEACHING AIDS AND TEACHING MATERIALS

The aim of the lesson: - to make an introduction of the notion, its aims and principles

- to activate students' to brainstorm on the questions

- to provide a summary of the key items

- to link the students experience with learning

- to make learning two-way process

Objectives: - to motivate them express their points of view and draw conclusion

- to encourage them verbalize their thoughts and ideas clearly

- to have students work cooperatively to share their knowledge of a lecture

To master a foreign language pupils must be engaged in activities which are characteristic of the language; they should hear the language spoken, speak, read, and write it. Classroom practices which are restricted to teacher's presentation of linguistic material (vocabulary, grammar) and the testing of pupils' knowledge cannot provide good learning. The teacher covers “content” but does not instruct pupils. The majorities of pupils remain passive, and work only to memorize what the teacher emphasizes. We cannot but agree with the following words: “... most of the changes we have come to think of as `classroom learning' typically may not occur in the presence of a teacher. Perhaps it is during seatwork and homework sessions and other forms of solitary study that the major forms of any learning are laid down.”1 Nor can the teacher ensure pupils learning a foreign language if he uses only a textbook, a piece of chalk, and a blackboard.

To achieve effective classroom learning under the conditions of compulsory secondary education, the teacher must use all the accessories he has at his disposal in order to arouse the interest of his pupils and retain it throughout the lesson which is possible only if the pupils are actively involved in the very process of classroom learning.

To teach a foreign language effectively the teacher needs teaching aids and teaching materials.

During the last few years important developments have taken place in this field. As a result there is a great variety of teaching aids and teaching materials at the teacher's disposal.

Teaching aids

By teaching aids we mean various devices which can help the foreign language teacher in presenting linguistic material to his pupils and fixing it in their memory; in testing pupils' knowledge of words, phrases, and grammar items, their habits and skills in using them.

Teaching aids which are at teachers' disposal in contemporary schools may be grouped into (1) non-mechanical aids and (2) mechanical aids.

Non - mechanical aids are:

a blackboard, the oldest aid in the classroom; the teacher turns to the blackboard whenever he needs to write something while explaining some new linguistic material to his pupils, correcting pupils' mistakes, or arranging the class to work at some words and sentence patterns, etc.; the blackboard can also be used for quick drawing to supply pupils with “objects” to speak about;

a flannel board (a board covered with flannel or other soft fabric for sticking pictures on its surface), it is used for creating vivid situations which would stimulate pupils' oral language; the teacher can have a flannel board made in a workshop or buy one in a specialized shop; the use of a flannel board with cut-outs prepared by the teacher or pupils leads to active participation in the use of the target language, as each pupil makes his contribution to working out “a scene” on the flannel board;

a magnet board (a board which has the properties of a magnet, i.e., can attract special cards with letters, words, phrases or pictures on it) used with the same purpose as a flannel board;

A lantern which is used for throwing pictures onto a screen.

Mechanical aids are:

tape recorders (ordinary and twin-track); the same tape may be played back as many times as is necessary, the twin-track tape recorder allows the pupil to play back the tape listening to the speaker's voice and recording his own on the second track, the lower one, without erasing the first track with the voice of the speaker, the tape recorder is considered to be the most important aid in teaching and learning a foreign language;

a gramophone or record player is also an audio equipment available in every school; the record player is an indispensable supplement to contemporary textbooks and other teaching materials as they are designed to be used with the long-playing records which accompany them;

an opaque projector or epidiascope used for projection of illustrations and photographs;

a filmstrip projector which can be used in a partially darkened room (the Soviet filmstrip projector ЛЭТИ does not require a darkened room);

an overhead projector used for projection of a table, a scheme, a chart, a plan, a map or a text for everyone to see on a screen;

television and radio equipment: television would make it possible to demonstrate the language in increasingly varied everyday situations; pupils are invited to look, listen, and speak; television and radio programmers are broadcast, but it is not always easy for teachers using these programmers to synchronize their lesson time with the time of the television or radio transmissions;

teaching machines which can be utilized for presenting information to the pupils, for drilling, or testing; the teaching machine can provide an interaction between the pupil and the “programmer”; the learner obtains a stimulus and a feed-back from his response; thus, favorable conditions are created for individual pupils to learn, for instance, vocabulary, grammar, reading, etc.;

a language laboratory, this is a special classroom designed for language learning. It is equipped with individual private or semi-private stalls or booths. They are connected with a network of audio wiring, the nerve center of which is the monitoring console which has a switch board and tape decks, making it possible to play tapes and send the programmer to all or any combination of booths. The teacher at the monitoring console can listen in, or can have a two-way conversation with any pupil.

There are two main types of language laboratories -- library and broadcast systems. The library system is suitable for students capable of independent study; each student selects his own material and uses it as he wishes. The broadcast system is suitable for classwork when the same material is presented at the same time to a whole group of students, and a class works together under a teacher's direction.

The language laboratory is used for listening and speaking. The pupil's participation may be imitation or response to cues according to a model. The language laboratory is used for “structural drills” which usually involve rephrasing sentences according to a model, or effecting substitutions. The language laboratory is often used for exercises and tests in oral comprehension.

Tape recorders fulfill all the functions required for this use of the language laboratory. Tape programmers can be associated with visual aids for individual work or work in pairs.

The language laboratory keeps a full class of pupils working and learning for the entire period, and thus enables the teacher to teach the foreign language more effectively.

In conclusion, it must be said that the use of teaching aids is very klemanding on the teacher. He must know about each aid describe above, be able to operate it, and train pupils to use it. He should also know what preparations must be made for classroom use of each of these teaching aids, and what teaching materials he has at his disposal.

In teaching foreign languages in our secondary schools most of the teaching aids are available. Each school should be equipped with a filmstrip projector, a film projector, an opaque projector, a tape recorder and a phonograph. Specialized schools, where English is taught nine years, should have language laboratories.

When used in different combinations teaching aids can offer valuable help to the teacher of a foreign language in making the learning of this subject .in schocls more effective for pupils.

Teaching materials

By teaching materials we mean the materials which the teacher can use to help pupils learn a foreign language through visual or audio perception. They must be capable of contributing to the achievement of the practical, cultural, and educational aims of learning a foreign language. Since pupils learn a foreign language for several years, it is necessary for the teacher to have a wide variety of materials which make it possible to progress with an increasing sophistication to match the pupils' continually growing command of the foreign language. Good teaching materials will! help greatly to reinforce the pupils initial desire to learn the language and to sustain their enthusiasm throughout the course.

The following teaching materials are in use nowadays: teacher's books, pupil's books, visual materials, audio materials, and audio-visual materials.

A teacher's book must be comprehensive enough to be a help to the teacher. This book should provide all the recorded material; summaries of the aims and new teaching points of each lesson; a summary of all audio and visual materials required; suggestions for the conduct of the lesson and examples of how the teaching points can be developed.

Pupil's books must include textbooks, manuals, supplementary readers, dictionaries, programmed materials.

Textbooks. The textbook is one of the most important sources for obtaining knowledge. It contains the material at which pupils work both during class-periods under the teacher's supervision and at home independently. The textbook also determines the ways and the techniques pupils should use in learning the material to be able to apply it when hearing, speaking, reading, and writing.

The modern textbooks for teaching a foreign language should meet the following requirements:

1. The textbooks should provide pupils with the knowledge of the language sufficient for developing language skills, i. e., they must include the fundamentals of the target language.

2. They should ensure pupils' activity in speaking, reading, and writing, i.e., they must correspond to the aims of foreign language teaching in school.

3. The textbooks must extend pupils' educational horizon, i.e., the material of the textbooks should be of educational value.

4. The textbooks must arouse pupils' interest and excite their curiosity.

5. They should have illustrations to help pupils in comprehension and in speaking.

6. The textbooks must reflect the life and culture of the people whose language pupils study.

Each textbook consists of lessons or units, the amount of the material being determined by the stage of instruction, and the material itself.

The lessons may be of different structure. In all cases, however, they should assist pupils in making progress in speaking, reading, and writing.

The structure of the textbook for beginners should reflect the approach in developing pupils' language skills. If there is an oral introductory course, the textbook should include a lot of pictures for the development of hearing and speaking skills. Thus the textbook begins with “picture lessons”. See, for example, Fifth Form English by A.P. Starkov and R.R. Dixon.

Visual materials

Objects. There are a lot of things in the classroom such as pens and pencils of different sizes and colors, books, desks and many other articles which the teacher can use in presenting English names for them and in stimulating pupils activities to utilize the words denoting objects they can see, touch, point to, give, take, atc. Toys and puppets may be widely used in teaching children of primary schools, which is the case in the specialized schools.

Flashcards. A flashcard is a card with a letter, a sound symbol or a word to be used for quick showing to pupils and in this way for developing pupils' skills in reading and pronunciation. Flashcards are usually made by the teacher or by the pupils under the teacher's direction, though there are some ready-made flashcards.

Sentence cards. They bear sentences or sentence patterns which can be used with different ams, e.g., for reading and analyzing the sentences, for using these sentences in speaking, for compiling an oral composition using the sentence as a starting point, for writing a composition.

These cards are prepared by the teacher and distributed among the pupils for individual work during the lesson. The teacher checks his pupils' work afterwards.

Wall-charts. A wall-chart is a big sheet of paper with drawings or words to be hung in the classroom and used for revision or generalization of some linguistic phenomenon. Such as “English Tenses”, “Passive Voice”, “Ing-Forms”, “Rules of Reading”.

Though there are printed wall-charts, the teacher should prepare his own wall-charts because he needs more than he can get for his work.

Posters or series of illustrations portraying a story. They are used as “props” in retelling a story read or heard. The teacher himself, or a pupil who can draw or paint, prepares such posters.

Pictures. There are at least three types of pictures which are used in teaching a foreign language: object pictures (e.g., the picture of a bed), situational pictures (e.g., the picture of a boy lying in bed), topical pictures (e.g., the picture of a bedroom). They may be big enough to be hung in the classroom or small to be distributed among the pupils for each one to speak on his own. Pictures may be utilized separately (as single units) and in sets to be used as “props” for oral composition or re-telling a story. For example, there is a set of pictures by M.S. Kaplunovsky which can be used for creating vivid situations on a flannel board.

Photographs. They are of two kinds: black-and-white and coloured. One can use photographs which are on sale, e.g., “Views of Moscow” or have them taken, e.g., “We are going on a hike”, or “Our family”.

Albums. An album is a book of pictures or photographs which is used for developing pupils' language skills. It usually contains textual material to supply pupils with necessary information, and in this way make their work easier in describing these pictures.

Audio materials. Tapes and records or discs belong to audio materials. Tapes are usually prepared by the teacher (he selects the material and the speaker for recording). Tapes and records are used for teaching listening comprehension, speaking, and reading aloud.

Audio-visual materials. Sound film loops and films are examples of audio-visual materials:

Sound film loops are becoming popular with the teachers. They are short (each lasts 1.5--1.7 min.) and the teacher can play the film loop back as many times as necessary for the pupils to grasp the material and memorize it.

Films. Specially prepared educational films for language teaching have appeared, e.g., “The Mysterious Bridge”, “Robert Burns”, “Australia”, “New York”, “Winter Sports”.

Young children like to sing and play various games, that, is why songs and games should constitute an important part of teaching materials. Folksongs and popular current songs develop a feeling for the distinctive culture being studied. They furnish a frame work for pronunciation practice. Games give an opportunity for spontaneous self-expression in the foreign language and can be used as a device for relaxation.

Practical and educational functions of teaching materials are as follows:

Teaching materials used in various combinations allow the teacher to develop his pupils' oral-aural skills. Recorded materials can provide the teacher and the pupil with an authentic model, tireless and consistent repetition and many different voices.

These materials are valuable for presentation, exercises, revision, testing, etc.

Visual materials have an important role to play in the development of hearing and speaking skills. Carefully devised they help to get rid of the necessity for constant translation and assist the teacher in keeping the lesson within the foreign language.

Questions for Discussion:

1. The foreign language teacher has a great variety of teaching aids at his disposal. Which?

2. Modern teaching materials differ from those used twenty or more years ago. How?

3. Compare foreign language textbooks and say how they differ and whЈt they have in common. Say which textbook you would like to use in school? State the reason for your selection.

4. Compare the teacher's books by different authors x and say whether they are written in a similar way or not. Confirm your statement. Say which teacher's book you like best. State the reason for your choice.

5. Effective teaching cannot be ensured without the use of audio visual materials. True or false?

6. The foreign language teacher must know how to handle mechanical aids to teach his subject effectively. Do you agree? Support your answer.

7. Programmed instruction may be considered one of the ways for the intensification of foreign language teaching. Explain.

8. Programmed instruction in foreign language teaching cannot replace the teacher in the classroom. What is your opinion on the problem?

9. The teacher should use various audio-visual materials. Say what factors you will consider in selecting these materials in teaching foreign languages. Confirm your statement.

10. Are you ready to utilize teaching aids and teaching materials you have read about? Analyze your strong and weak points in this respect

Methodological recommendations:

Lecture delivering is tended to the students' development of the professional creation and self-education activity.

The quality of the lecture and its delivering depends on a range of factors: the lecture's social activity, desire to work and socialize with the students, teaching skills, general and professional level of culture, intellect, knowledge and behavior norms.

One of the professionally significant features of the lecturer is his / her speech etiquette: oral and written. During the oral presentation of the lecture the language pronunciation, grammar norms should be observed alongside with the expressive non-verbal means as: intonation: accent, pausation, gestures etc. Interactive method of teaching students-lecturer / presupposes setting problem questions, ability to listen and understand the students and to answer the students' questions.

Writing summary: A summary is the expression in a condensed form of the principal content of any piece of writing. In other words the summarizer should briefly render the main idea in his own words.

Writing reviews: there are a lot of review types. These writing strategy is for you to follow in your review writing:

Give a brief summary of the plot.

Recommended Literature:

All of the following books offer up-to-date views of teaching English:

1. Gower, R., D. Phillips, and S. Walters. 1995. Teaching Practice Handbook (2^nd edn.). Oxford: Heinemann.

2. Harmer, J. 1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching (2nd edn.). Harlow: Longman.

3. Scrivener. 1994. Learning Teaching. Oxford: Heinemann

4. Ur, P. 1996. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.



LECTURE 5. PRINCIPLES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

The aim of the lesson:

- to make an introduction of the notion, its aims and principles

- to activate students' to brainstorm on the questions

- to provide a summary of the key items

- to link the students experience with learning

- to make learning two-way process

Objectives:

- to encourage them verbalize their thoughts and ideas clearly

- to have students work cooperatively to share their knowledge of a lecture.

Methods of foreign language teaching are based on the fundamental principles of didactics; among them, a conscious approach to language learning, activity, visualization, and others. However, in foreign language teaching, due to the specific features of the subject in which means and ends are equally essential, principles are used in a particular way.

The principle of conscious approach to language learning implies comprehension of a linguistic phenomenon of language material by the pupil usually through the medium of the native language, or the arrangement of the material in sentence patterns graded in difficulties with the emphasis on same elements which are singled out as “teaching points”. In all cases pupils understand both the form and the content of the material they are to learn, and they are aware of how they should treat the material while performing various exercises which aim at developing habits and skills in using it. Such an approach to language learning usually contrasts with “mechanical” learning through repetitive drill. A great research work has been carried out in Soviet psychology and methods, and it has been proved that conscious approach to learning a foreign language promotes the acquisition of the subject. V.A. Artemov, a prominent psychologist, puts forward a theory of the unity of the language rule and the speech activity (language behavior) in foreign language teaching.

He writes, «Язык по самой своей природе есть система правил; `система' потому, что в ней все основано на противопоставлении, а, `правил' потому, что язык есть орудие общения, а орудие без правил его употребления не есть орудие. Но правила языка не раскрыты наукой до конца и в наши дни, а люди подчиняются этим правилам в своей речи. Следовательно, у человека имеется возможности создавать посредством деятельности коры больших полушарий мозга программу, правила языка. Эта программа все время совершенствуется по закону обратной связи речевого действия с его правилом»

In teaching a foreign language therefore, it is more reasonable to help pupils in assimilating language rules which function in this language by introducing the rules, rather than to wait until the learners deduce these rules through speech activity. V.A. Artemov warns the teacher against putting this hard work on the learner's shoulders. Here is what he writes: «… не бояться языкового правила, не перекладывать труд его выработки на плечи бесконечно повторяющего и бессмысленно подражающего учащегося, а искать оптимальное сочетание языкового правила и речевого действия в процессе научения речи на иностраннм языке. … Объединение правила и действия в любом виде деятельности ведет к оптимально краткому времени работы и максимальной ее эффективности».

A conscious approach to foreign language teaching implies the use of the learner's native language. Soviet Methods has devoted much attention to the problem of the mother tongue in teaching and learning a foreign language. If a man knows only his native language his concepts are directly associated with the expression of these concepts in this tongue. The associations which arise, extremely complicated in nature, are very lasting due to systematic speech practice. The acquisition of a foreign language means the transition to thinking in a second language. For this purpose, it is necessary to acquire the ability to establish direct associations between concepts and their means of expression in the second language. Indeed, when a pupil begins to learn a foreign language the words of this language are often associated with the words of the mother tongue first. However, thanks to constant practice the intermediate link -- the native language -- fades, and foreign language words come into the pupil's consciousness directly in connection with the concepts they express. Mastery of the language means formulating one's thoughts within the foreign language.

In teaching a foreign language it is necessary to cope with the mother tongue of pupils

This means that teaching a foreign language, for example, English to Russian, Chuvash, Bashkir, Arabic-speaking pupils should differ in the arrangement of language material and in the techniques of its presentation and retention. We cannot ignore pupils' native tongue in teaching a foreign language when searching for the shortest and most sound ways to the desired end. Indeed, Russian-speaking pupils and Arabic speaking pupils have different troubles in learning English. The teacher either helps pupils to make a transfer, for instance, from Russian into English (little explanation, if any, and law exercises are needed in this case), or he gives pupils the necessary explanation and supplies them with exercises, which pupils perform within the target language, without stressing the difference by translation exercises; the latter work rather at comprehension than at forming new habits and skills.

In connection with the analysis of the principle of conscious teaching, it is necessary to dwell upon the forming of habits and skills in a foreign language. All language habits and skills are extremely complex in their nature and are closely connected with conscious activity of students. What are habits? Here are some definitions of habits.

“A habit may be regarded as an instance of learning in which a relatively simple response is made, automatically and fairly frequently, to a relatively simple kind of situation.”

«Навыки - это усвоенные и упрочившиеся путем упражнений способы действия»

The principle of activity in foreign language teaching, of utmost importance since learning a foreign language should result in mastering the target language which is possible provided the pupil is an active participant in the process; he is involved in language activities throughout the whole course of instruction.

In modern psychology activity is now generally considered to be a main characteristic of cognitive processes. Activity arises under certain conditions. According to the Sets Theory the learner should feel a need to learn the subject, and have necessary prerequisites created for the satisfaction of this need. The main sources of activity are motivation, desire, and interest.

In this connection I.F. Komkov writes: «…успешное обучение, обеспечивающее хорошее усвоение материала, формирует у учащихся активное, положительное отношение к изучаемым языкам. Отсюда лишний раз становится очевидной первостепенная роль методов обучения»

The pupil willingly and actively learns the subject if he understands its social and personal “meaningfulness” (значимость).

A decisive condition of stimulating interest in language learning is the pupils' understanding of its specific content, that is, they acquire a second language to be able to use it as a means of communication. For this purpose, from the very first step, the learners should see this; they should perform exercises of natural communicative character. They must feel that the language they study can be used as a means of intercourse, of getting information while hearing, speaking, and reading it. Therefore if the teacher wants to stimulate pupils' interest in the subject he should make them use their knowledge for practical needs while talking, reading, doing various exercises of a communicative character which are creative by nature. Hence the methodological principle may be formulated as follows:

In teaching a foreign language it is necessary to stimulate pupils' activity by involving them in the act of communication in the target language either in its oral (hearing, speaking) or written (reading, writing) form.

If pupils are not involved in the act of communication in the target language and remain on the level of performing drill exercises, they soon lose interest in the subjected become passive at the lessons. One needs a lot of practice in the use of the language to master it. Consequently the problem arises how to enlarge the real time available for each pupil during the class-period to make him an active participant of the lesson, of the work done during the lesson. It is pupils who should work, and not the teacher as is often the case.

d) work in pairs, when pupils sitting at the same desk have an opportunity to “talk” in the target language: reciting a dialogue they are to learn, doing an ask-and-answer exercise or making up a dialogue of their own;