Theory of foreign language teaching

Rule for the teacher: Teach pupils correct grammar usage and not grammar knowledge.

3. Structural approach to the teaching of grammar, i.e., grammar items are introduced and drilled in structures or sentence patterns. It has been proved and accepted by the majority of teachers and methodologists that whenever the arm is to teach pupils the command of the language, and speaking in particular, the structural approach meets the requirements.

Pupils are taught to understand English when spoken to and to speak it from the very beginning. This is possible provided they have learned sentence ratters and words as a pattern and they know how to adjust them to situations they are given.

Rule for the teacher: Furnish pupils with words to change the lexical (semantic) meaning of the sentence pattern so that pupils will be able to me it in different situations. Remember that pupils should assimilate the grammar mechanism involved in the sentence pattern and not the sentence itself.

4. Situationa1 approach to the teaching of grammar. Pupils learn a grammar item used in situations. For example, the Possessive Case may be effectively introduced in classroom situations. The teacher takes or simply touches various things and says. This is Nina's pen; that is Sasha's exercise-book, and so on. Complex Object I want somebody to do something may also be presented in classroom situations. For example, the teacher addresses a boy, he says: Pete, I want you to give me your exercise-book. Please, give it to me. Lena, I want to help Nick with his English. Please, help him with his reading. Andrew, I want you to clean the blackboard. Will you?

Rule for the teacher: Select the situations for the particular grammar item you are going to present. Look through the textbook and other teaching materials and find those situations which can ensure comprehension and provide the usage of the item.

5. Different approach to the teaching of active grammar (grammar for conversation) and passive grammar (grammar for reading). Grammar items pupils need for conversation are taught by the oral approach, i. e., pupils and them, perform various oral exercises, finally see them printed, and write sentences using them.

Rule for the teacher: If the grammar item you are going to present belongs to those pupils need for conversation, select the oral approach method for teaching. If pupils need the grammar item for reading, start with reading and writing sentences in which the grammar item occurs.

While preparing for the lesson at which a new grammar item should be introduced, the teacher must realize the difficulties pupils will meet in assimilating this new element of the English grammar. They may be of three kinds: difficulties in form, meaning, and usage. The teacher thinks of the ways to overcome these difficulties: how to convey the meaning of the grammar item either through situations or with the help of the mother tongue; what rule should be used; what exercises should be done; their types and number. Then he thinks of the sequence in which pupils should work to overcome these difficulties, i.e., from observation and comprehension through conscious imitation to usage in conversation (communicative exercises). Then the teacher considers the form in which he presents the grammar item -- orally, in writing, or in reading. And, finally, the teacher plans pupils' activity while they are learning this grammar point: their individual work, mass work, work in unison, and work in pairs, always bearing in mind that for assimilation pupils need ample examples of the sentence pattern in which this grammar item occurs.

Types of Exercises for the Assimilation of Grammar

The following types of exercises may be suggested.

Recognition exercises which are the easiest type of exercises for pupils to perform. They observe the grammar item in structures (sentence patterns) when hearing or reading. Since pupils only observe the new grammar item the situations should be natural and communicative. For example:

In conclusion it should be said that in teaching grammar, as well as in teaching pronunciation and vocabulary, various audio-visual aids and teaching materials should be extensively utilized. If grammar is to be a means to an end and not an end in itself the teacher should follow the principles and observe the rules described above.

Questions for Discussion:

1. Grammar is very important in foreign language learning. Why?

2. There are different viewpoints on grammar teaching. Analyze them and say which you consider justifiable in foreign language teaching in schools. Give your reasons.

Activities:

1. Examine one of the lessons in Pupil's Book and Teacher's Book to deduce upon what principles grammar is taught.

2. Select a grammar item and prepare the plan of a lesson to be used with a standard textbook.

3. Give a contrastive analysis of one of the grammar items to deter mine the difficulties it presents to Russian-speaking pupils

4. Review the principles grammar teaching should be based upon and show how you will utilize them in teaching some grammar item.

5. Compile a grammar test. Select a grammar item from a standard textbook.

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 9. Listening

The Aim of the lesson:

- to increase motivation and retention

Objectives:

- to provide a vehicle for critical thinking and problem solving

- to encourage collaborative social skills

- to help them verbalize their thoughts

- to analyze and express their points of view

Plan

1. Classroom listening

2. Recorded texts

3. Speaking

4. Classroom speaking

5. Speaking activities

Some learners say 'I understand everything but I can't speak'. This may be the case when people speak slowly and carefully to them, realizing that they do not know much English. But it is usually very different when they are listening to English programmes on the radio, or watching English television or films, or trying to take part in conversations dominated by native speakers. Listening is as difficult as any of the other skills. In fact, learners often find it hard to understand textbook cassettes especially designed for them. Unlike reading texts, the speed and clarity of spoken texts are often completely outside the listener's control.

If you do not understand the words while they are still 'in the air', it is usually too late. Of course, this is not always so. In a conversation you can ask the other person to speak more slowly, or repeat or explain something. In fact, these are very useful strategies for learners to acquire and use in conversation and similar situations. Remember, you are giving the learners listening practice when using English as the main classroom language (class or seminar) and in pair and group work (face-to-face conversation). Also, these are listening situations where the learners do have some control and can use the strategies mentioned above. Encourage them to ask for things to be repeated or explained if necessary, and teach them appropriate expressions, for example, 'Could you repeat that, please?' and I'm sorry. I didn't understand that. In natural listening situations, we appear to use specific listening strategies: -We usually start listening with certain expectations. For example, at an airport we expect to hear about flight numbers, gate numbers, delays, and cancellations. And when watching a science-fiction film we expect to hear about spacecraft and extraterrestrials.

* Pre-listening:

Discuss a relevant picture Discuss relevant experiences Associate ideas with the topic Associate vocabulary with the topic Predict information about the topic Write questions about the topic

* While-listening:

Identify the exact topic, or an aspect of it Note two to four pieces of information Answer questions

Complete sentences

Complete a table, map, or picture

* Post-listening:

Give opinions

Relate similar experiences

Role-play a similar interaction

Write a brief report

Write a similar text

Debate the topic

There is some controversy about whether a recording should be played over and over again in the while-listening stage. Some teachers insist that this is unnatural and unlike most real-life listening situations, where you get only one opportunity to understand. But most teachers think that classroom listening practice can be different from real-life listening and still be useful preparation for it. It is best to give very simple tasks the first time the learners hear a recording, and increasingly difficult ones the second or third times. This is much better than giving them a single, complex task from the start and playing the text over and over again, hoping the learners will recover from their initial shock, and confusion, and eventually complete most of the task.

Questions:

1. Consider how you would organize part of a lesson using the authentic material.

2. Think in terms of the three stages--pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening.

3. Think carefully about the purpose of your pre-listening activity. Make your first while-listening activity easy. Connect the post-listening activity with real life.

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:

Ur, P. 1984. Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wallace, C. 1992. Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press. White, G. 1998. Listening. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Williams, E. 1984. Reading in the Language Classroom. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan.

LECTURE 10. Speaking

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

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

Plan

1. Speaking as a type of communicative activity.

2. Basic linguistic and psychological characteristics of speaking.

3. The forms (types) of communication.

4. The Structure of verbal communication.

5. The structure of speech situation.

Speaking comes naturally to humans, but it is not as simple as it seems. For a start:

· Many people do not like speaking in front of large groups of people. This is especially true in a foreign language, because we may worry about producing utterances with many errors or oddities in them.

· Try to create a relaxed atmosphere in your classes so that most learners are not frightened of speaking in front of the rest of the class. And do as many speaking activities as possible in pairs and groups, so that the learners can speak English without the rest of the class listening.

· Expose the learners as much as possible to naturally pronounced speech, and also integrate some pronunciation work into your lessons. They will not learn to pronounce intelligibly, or to develop speaking skills in general, if they do not hear enough natural speech.

Accustom the learners to combining listening and speaking in real time in natural interaction. Perhaps the most important opportunity for this is in the general use of English in the classroom

Classroom speaking

Like listening ability, speaking ability should partly be the natural result of using English as the main means of communication in the classroom. But speaking will probably develop more slowly than listening. You can help learners understand what you say in English by simplifying your speech and using gesture or mime. You cannot so easily get them to express themselves in English, but, when they do, always show you are pleased even if what they say is far from perfect.

If you want the learners to be able to converse in English, you need to make the classroom a conversational place. If the learners do not talk naturally during the course of each lesson, it is hardly surprising when they can still hardly speak at all after hundreds of hours and several years of English classes.

Techniques the Teacher Uses for Teaching Speaking

There are two forms of speaking: monologue and dialogue. Since each form has its peculiarities we should speak of teaching monologue and teaching dialogue separately.

In teaching monologue we can easily distinguish three stages according to the levels which constitute the ability to speak: (1) the statement level; (2) the utterance level; (3) the discourse level.

1. No speech is possible until pupils learn how to make up sentences in the foreign language and how to make statements. To develop pupils' skills in making statements the following procedure may be suggested:

Pupils are given sentence patterns to assimilate in connection with situations.

Rule for the teacher: In teaching monologue instruct pupils how to make statements first, then how to combine various sentences in one utterance and, finally, how to speak on a suggested topic.

We have already spoken about the linguistic characteristics of dialogue. Some more should be said about its structure.

A dialogue consists of a series of lead-response units. The significant feature of a lead-response unit is that the response part may, and usually does, serve in its own turn as a fresh inducement leading to further verbal exchanges, i. e., lead

response > inducement> response.

A response unit is a unit of speech between two pauses. It may consist of more than one sentence.

There are three stages in learning a dialogue: (1) receptive; (2) reproductive; (3) constructive (creative).

1. Pupils “receive” the dialogue by ear first. They listen to the dialogue recorded or reproduced by the teacher. The teacher helps pupils in comprehension of the dialogue using a picture or pictures to illustrate its contents. They listen to the dialogue a second time and then read it silently for better understanding, paying attention to the intonation. They may listen to the dialogue and read it again, if necessary.

2. Pupils enact the pattern dialogue. We may distinguish three kinds of reproduction:

Immediate. Pupils reproduce the dialogue in imitation of the speaker or the teacher while listening to it or just after they have heard it. The teacher checks the pupils' pronunciation, and intonation in particular. The pupils are asked to learn the dialogue by heart for homework.

Delayed. After pupils have learned the dialogue at home, they enact the pattern dialogue in persons. Before calling on pupils it is recommended that they should listen to the pattern dialogue recorded again to remind them of how it “sounds”.

Modified. Pupils enact the dialogue with some modifications in its contents. They change some elements” in it. The more elements (main words and phrases) they change in the pattern the better they assimilate the structure of the dialogue:

In the senior stage (9--10 forms) monologist speech must prevail since pupils either take part in discussion and, therefore, express their thoughts in connection with a problem or retell a text read or heard. To sum it up both forms of speech (monologue and dialogue) should be developed side by side with preference for the one which is more important for pupils' progress in learning a foreign language at a certain stage.

Prepared and unprepared speech

Pupils' speech in both forms may be of two kinds: prepared and unprepared. It is considered prepared when the pupil has been given time enough to think over its content and form. He can speak on the subject following the plan made either independently at home or in class under the teacher's supervision. His speech will be more or less correct and sufficiently fluent since plenty of preliminary exercises had been done before.

This is ensured by the pupil's ability to arrange and rearrange in his own way the material stored up in his memory. Consequently, while assigning homework it is necessary to distinguish between reciting and speaking so that the pupil should know what he is expected to do while preparing for the lesson -- to reproduce the text or to compile a text of his own. His answer should be evaluated differently depending on the task set. If the pupil is to recite a text, the teacher evaluates the quality of reproduction, i.e., exactness, intonation and fluency. If the pupil is to speak on a subject, the teacher evaluates not only the correctness of his speech but his skills in arranging and rearranging the material learnt, i.e., his ability to make various transformations within the material he uses while speaking. The teacher should encourage each pupil to speak on the subject in his own way and thus develop pupils' initiative and thinking.

In conclusion it should be said that prepared and unprepared speech must be developed simultaneously from the very beginning. The relationship between prepared and unprepared speech should vary depending on the stage of learning the language. In the junior stage prepared speech takes the lead, while in the senior stage unprepared speech should prevail.

Evaluating pupils' speech habits

Pupils' speech habits may be evaluated in two ways:

1) constantly, during every lesson when pupils perform various exercises in hearing and speaking and the teacher has an opportunity to watch every youngster working (in a group of 20 pupils the teacher can pay attention to everyone);

2) regularly, after finishing a lesson (audit of the textbook), a topic studied. The teacher may conduct a quiz. He may ask pupils to retell the text heard, to speak on a picture, to talk on a situation, in other words, to perform all oral activities possible in this particular form, with this group of pupils, within the language material and the topic covered.

The former may or may not result in assigning pupils marks for their speech activities. The latter results in evaluating speech activities of those pupils who are called on to speak.

Mistakes and how to correct them

It is natural while learning a foreign language that pupils make mistakes. They make mistakes in auding when they misunderstand something in a text. They make mistakes in speaking when pupils mispronounce a word, violate the order of words in a sentence, misuse a preposition, an article, use wrong intonation, etc. The teacher's main aim is to prevent pupils' errors. There is a good rule: “Correct mistakes before they occur.” In other words, careful teaching results in correct English, i. e., pupils make very few mistakes. However, they make them, and the problem is how to correct pupils' errors.

If a pupil misunderstands something when auding the teacher should do his best to ensure comprehension. He suggests that the pupil should either listen to the sentence again; if he does not understand it properly the teacher or the classmates help him to paraphrase the sentence or translate it, or see it written. The latter often helps if pupils do not get used to hearing, if they are eye-learners. As far as speaking is concerned it is the teacher who corrects pupils' mistakes. It is a bad habit of some teachers to ask pupils to notice mistakes when their classmate is called in front of the class to speak.

Speaking activities

We have already considered a range of oral practice activities, from controlled accuracy work to fairly free fluency work. All the activities in this progression from accuracy to fluency can contribute to the development of speaking skills. Even non-communicative oral practice can help develop pronunciation and the fairly automatic production of grammatical sequences of words. But it is the types of activity that develop the ability to participate effectively in interactions outside the classroom that are most relevant in this chapter.

Teaching ideas

* Unscripted role-plays

These differ from scripted role-plays or simulations because the learners have only a description of a situation and no model script, for example: The living room of a house at one o'clock in the morning. The parents have been waiting up. The 14-year-old son/daughter has just arrived home.

Problem-solving /decision-taking activities

Describe a problem to the learners, or give them a written description, for example: You see a fellow worker in your office steal a portable computer; you know he/she is the single parent of two young children and has financial problems.

Get the learners, in groups of three to five, to decide what the best course of action is.

*Discussions and debates

Organize an informal discussion or a formal debate on a topic of interest to the learners. Get them to propose or select the topic. It is often best to decide on the topic in the lesson before the actual discussion or debate.

*Group projects

*Warm-ups and fillers

There are many other very simple but effective speaking activities, especially for intermediate or small groups. Some are particularly good as warm-ups at the beginning of lessons, or fillers at the end. For example, simply say 'What a great holiday that was!', and then sit down and wait for questions. If nobody asks a question, you can write cues on the board, for example, 'When?', 'Where?', 'Who with?', 'How long?' After you have answered a good number of questions, put the learners into groups and invite one person in each group to say 'What a great holiday that was!' Other topics can be handled in the same way, for example, 'What a terrible night that was!', 'What an interesting person she is!', 'What a beautiful place it is!', or 'What an exciting experience that was!

Questions:

1. Not all oral exercises mean speaking. Comment upon this statement.

2. Compare different approaches to teaching speaking and determine which is most justifiable.

3. What are the reasons for pupils' poor comprehension of the target language when spoken?

4. Why is it is so difficult to teach speaking in artificial conditions?

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. This writing strategy is for you to follow in your review writing:

Give a brief summary of the plot.

Recommended Literature:

Campbell, C. and H. Kryszewska. 1992. Learner-based Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hadfield, J. 1984. Elementary Communication Games. Walton-on-Thames: Nelson. Nuttal, C. 1996. Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Oxford: Heinemann. Nolasco, R. and L. Arthur. 1987. Conversation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Porter-Ladousse, G. 1987. Role Play. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seligson, P. 1997. Helping Students to Speak. London: Richmond. 1981. Discussions that Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

LECTURE 11 Reading comprehension

The aim of the lesson:

- to develop innovative approaches and technologies for effective acquiring of communicative skills and habits

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

Plan

1. Some difficulties pupils have in learning to read in the English language.

2. How to teach reading (silent reading, reading aloud).

3. Selection of texts for reading.

4. Reading control ( types of home task and checking them, criteria of grades)

Reading comprehension has much in common with listening comprehension, but also some differences. As is often the case in listening, we usually start reading with certain expectations: for example, in a newspaper we expect news, and on certain pages we expect financial news, entertainment news, or sports news. As we read, we try to confirm or identify the precise topic, and each change of topic. This activates the ideas we have stored in our mind related to that topic. And that helps us to make sense of what we then read. On the basis of our expectations, our previous ideas about the topic, and our knowledge of the language and of texts written in the language, to some extent we predict what will come next. When you have read:

Ways of reading

We often read in distinctly different ways for different purposes. Sometimes we do preliminary or exploratory reading rather than reading whole texts thoroughly. This kind of reading can be divided into two types, scanning and skimming. When scanning a text, you look quickly through it to find some specific information, for example, looking through a telephone directory for a specific number, a sports article for the result of a specific soccer game, or a textbook for the mention of a specific topic. When skimming, you look quickly through a text just to get a general idea of what it is about, in other words, the gist.

When we read whole texts we may also read in different ways at different times, depending, for example, on whether we are reading an easy text for pleasure or a difficult text for study or work. When reading a novel, for example, you may hardly be aware of the words on the page. The novel simply 'comes to life' in your head. Even with study or professional reading you may also read easily through a text if the text and content is simple or you are already familiar with the subject. But even in our LI we sometimes have to work hard to understand a text. For example, articles or books on innovative or complex areas of science or technology may make us painfully aware of how we are struggling to attach intelligible ideas to the words on the page. Obviously, this happens more often in a foreign language.

In many English language courses, reading comprehension work consists only of scanning, skimming, and 'easy reading'. But you should not forget that professional people need to be able to deal with more complex texts as well. For example, doctors, engineers, or chemists need to be able to understand new, often revolutionary and complex, concepts and procedures very clearly indeed.

Reading activities

As we have said, reading has much in common with listening, and many aspects of the teaching of reading comprehension are similar to the teaching of listening comprehension. For example, the selection of texts is just as important. They should as far as possible be what the learners might really want or need to read. Many textbooks nowadays contain potentially interesting reading texts. But you still need to be prepared to find alternatives to texts which are of little interest and are really trying to give practice in grammar not reading comprehension. If necessary, it is relatively easy to substitute or supplement the reading material in your textbook with authentic material from magazines, newspapers, holiday brochures, and books. You may need to simplify such material for lower level classes, and you will need to design suitable activities and exercises. The text is only one element in a reading activity.

As in listening comprehension practice, three stages are generally recommended to make reading more realistic and interesting:

Pre-reading

This stage is to prepare the learners for what they are going to read, just as we are usually prepared in real life.



While-reading

This stage is to help the learners understand the text. They may first do an easy scanning or skimming task, and then a task requiring more thorough comprehension. As with listening, you should help your learners understand the text rather than just testing their comprehension the whole time.

Post-reading

This stage is to help the learners to connect what they have read with their own ideas and experience, just as we often do in real life, and perhaps to move fluently from reading to another classroom activity.

Questions:

1. Compare different standpoints on various approaches to reading. Which approach do you find justifiable? Give several arguments to confirm your statement.

2. The textbooks pupils read are different by nature. How does this influence the techniques used while working at a text?

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. This writing strategy is for you to follow in your review writing:

Give a brief summary of the plot.

Recommended Literature:

Campbell, C. and H. Kryszewska. 1992. Learner-based Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Nuttal, C. 1996. Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Oxford: Heinemann.

Ur/P. 1984. Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wallace, C. 1992. Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press. White, G. 1998. Listening. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Williams, E. 1984. Reading in the Language Classroom. London and Basingstoke: Macmillan.

LECTURE 12. Writing

The aim of the lesson:

- to develop innovative approaches and technologies for effective acquiring of communicative skills and habits

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

Plan

1. The aim of teaching writing in foreign language teaching.

2. The connection of writing with speaking and reading.

3. Teaching techniques of writing.

4. Improving and developing writing skills and habits at the intermediate and senior stages.

Writing is probably the linguistic skill that is least used by most people in their native language. Even in the most 'advanced' societies a significant percentage of the adult population writes with difficulty. Good writing skills usually develop from extensive reading, some specific training, and a good deal of practice.

Writing involves the following basic skills:

- handwriting or typing

- spelling

- constructing grammatical sentences

- punctuating.

Writing activities

Writing in an English language class may be handled in different ways for different purposes. The aim of the commonest type of writing practice is to consolidate the learning of functional or grammatical items. For example, you might give the learners sentence completion exercises or a guided composition requiring the writing of several examples of comparatives after you have presented and practiced them orally. This can be very useful to clarify the grammar, to provide a change of activity in a lesson, or to give extra practice outside the classroom as homework. The other main type of writing practice is intended to develop higher-level writing skills. That means the ability to do the writing tasks in intermediate and advanced proficiency examinations, and to do real business and academic writing. However, some work towards this type of writing can be started at lower levels. It can even be combined with writing principally intended to consolidate grammar.

Teaching ideas

Here are three examples of simple writing tasks:

*Parallel compositions

With the whole class, discuss the topic of `animals' characteristics and habits to elicit sentences in the Simple Present like:

Chimpanzees live in central Africa. They eat fruit and leaves. Adult chimpanzees weigh 40 to 50 kilos. They are very intelligent animals.

Ask for volunteers to write these sentences up on the board. Correct them if necessary. Then, telling the learners to use the sentences on the board as patterns, get them to work in pairs and write a parallel composition about some other animal, for example, kangaroos. You could then ask them to write compositions for homework about animals of their choice. Similar work could be done about cities (to practice 'There is/are') or famous people (to practice the Simple Past).

Get the learners to tell a simple story illustrated by a sequence of pictures.

Ask for volunteers to repeat the whole story from memory. Then get the learners to write the story in pairs or groups. It may be divided into three paragraphs - the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story.

Questions:

1. Teaching English penmanship is not difficult. What is your opinion on the matter?

2. Spelling is one of the most difficult problems in teaching English. Do you agree? Give some examples to substantiate your opinion.

3. Why is writing an effective means in language learning? Give a few arguments to prove your answer.

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:

Campbell, C. and H. Kryszewska. 1992. Learner-based Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hedge, T. 1988. Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

LECTURE 13. PLANNING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

The necessity for planning and the approach to the problem

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

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

An efficient working level of teaching is ensured by systematic and careful planning. The foreign language teacher plans all the kinds of work he is to do: he plans the essential course, the optional course (if any), and the extra-curricular work.

The first step in planning is to determine where each of his classes is in respect to achievements. It is easy for the teacher to start planning when he receives beginners.

Though the teacher does not know his pupils yet, his success will fully depend on his preparation for the lessons since pupils are usually eager to learn a foreign language in the 5th form (or the 2nd form in a specialized school). Planning is also relatively easy for the teacher who worked in these classes the previous year (or years) because he knows achievements of his pupils in each class. He is aware of what language skills they have acquired. Planning is more difficult when the teacher receives a class (classes) from another teacher and he does not know the pupils, their proficiency in hearing, speaking, reading, and writing.

The teacher begins his planning before school opens and during the first week. He should establish the achievement level of his classes. There is a variety of ways in which this may be done. The teacher asks the previous teacher to tell him about each of the pupils. He may also look through in pupils' test-books and the register to find out what mark entail of his pupils had the previous year. The teacher may administer pre-tests, either formally or informally, to see how pupils do with them. He may also conduct an informal quizzing, asking pupils questions in the foreign language to know if they can understand them and respond properly, or he has a conversation within the topics of the previous year. After the teacher has determined the achievement level of his classes, he sketches out an outline of the year's work. In making up his yearly outline the teacher consults the syllabus, Teacher's Book, Pupil's Book, and other teaching materials and sets what seems to him to be realistic limits to the content to be covered during the course of the year. In sketching out an outline of the term's work the teacher makes a careful study of Teacher's Book, Pupil's Book, teaching aids and teaching materials available for this particular form. Taking into consideration the achievements of his class, he compiles a calendar plan in accordance with the time-table of a given form.

Unit planning

The teacher needs two kinds of plans to work successes fully: the plan of a series of class-periods for a lesson or \ unit of the textbook or a unit plan, x and the daily plan or the lesson plan for a particular class-period.

The unit plan, therefore, involves everything the teacher needs for the detailed planning of a lesson (class-period), namely: the objective (objectives) of each lesson, the material to work at, and the exercises which should be done both during the class-period and at home to develop pupils' habits and skills in the target language.

All this should be done by the teacher if there are no teacher's books (guides) to the textbooks, for example, if he works in a specialized or an evening school. If there are such books, the teacher's planning should deal with (1) the study of the author's recommendations and tabling the material so that he can see how hearing, speaking, reading, and writing should be developed, and (2) the development of these recommendations according to his pupils' abilities.

The teacher starts by studying the authors' recommendations. He takes the textbook and the teacher's guide and table the material. Let us take Lesson 22, Fifth Form English by S.K. Folomkina and E.I. Kaar for illustration.

The unit plan includes nine columns:

1. The number of class-periods. The authors plan four periods for Lesson 22.

2. The objectives of each period.

3. Language material. By language material we mean words, word combinations, phrases, and sentence patterns. In Lesson 22 there are six new words (April, May, June, speak, learn), four word combinations(in the evening, that's right, that's not right, go swimming),and the following sentence patterns: Where do you go ...? Where does he (she) go ...? When do you go? When docs he (she) go ...? What do you do? What does he (she) do ...? I can'tread English. I can't (don't) skate either.

4--7. Language skills. In developing each language skill the authors observe the main didactic principles. For instance, they develop pupils' speaking (monologue) gradually, starting with the sentence level (1st period), then passing to the utterance level (2nd period), and finally, to the speech level both prepared (3rd period) and unprepared (4th period) within the material covered. Pupils develop writing habits and skills independently at home. They write only once in class; it is a dictation drill.

8. Accessories. While working at Lesion 22 the authors propose to use records twice (2nd and 3rd periods) for developing listening comprehension.

9. Homework. The authors plan pupils' independent work at home after every class-period. It is connected mainly with copying and writing. (By the latter we mean creative work on the part of the learner as in exercise 5: What you/ friend does at the English lesson? Write five sentences.) Besides, pupils read what they have read in class.

If we fill in all the columns of the table, we can see that Lesson 22 was well compiled. This allows the teacher to enrich pupils' knowledge and develop habits and skills in the target language. It also shows that recommendations given in the teacher's guide can ensure the gradual development of pupils' skills in speaking and reading and, therefore, their progress in language learning.

Planning a class-period

The unit plan completed the teacher may move into planning a class-period or a daily plan which, in addition to what has been determined by the unit plan, indicates the ways the teacher will follow to organize his class to work during the lesson. Therefore the daily plan includes (1) what should be achieved during this particular lesson, (2) what material is used for achieving the objectives, and (3) how the objectives should be achieved.

The teacher should write his daily plans if he strives for effective and reasonable use of time allotted to his pupils' learning a foreign language. However some teachers, including novice teachers, do not prepare written plans. They claim Iliat they can teach “off the top of their heads”, and they really can, but their teaching usually results in poor pupils' language skills because in this case we have “teacher dominated” classes when the teacher works hard during the lesson while his pupils remain mere “observers” of the procedure. Indeed, when the teacher is standing in front of pupils he does not have much time to think how to organize his pupils' activity. This should be done before the lesson for the teacher to be able to stimulate and direct pupils' learning the language. We may state that the effectiveness of pupils' desired learning is fully dependent on the teacher's preparation for the lessons. If the teacher is talking, reading, and writing a great deal himself during the lesson, he is not ready for it. And vice versa, if the teacher gets his pupils to talk or read with communicative assignments while he listens, or to write while he moves about the class, giving a helping hand to everyone who needs it, he has thoroughly thought over the plan of the lesson beforehand. Therefore we may conclude: to provide necessary conditions for pupils' learning a foreign language, the teacher should thoroughly plan their work during the lesson which is possible if he writes his daily plan in advance.

Questions for Discussion:

1. Planning is a necessary prerequisite for effective teaching. Say why.

2. Unit planning not only saves the teacher's time for compiling daily planning but also makes allowance for developing various skills within the time allotted to a certain unit. Do you agree? Confirm your statement.

3. Since classes are different, daily plans should be adapted to each particular class. What is your opinion on the subject?

Activities:

1. Examine current foreign language textbooks and say how the authors plan the teacher's work at a lesson (unit).

2. Analyse one of the lessons in the Pupil's Book and determine the difficulties of the lesson. Compare your analysis with the one given in the Teacher's Book.

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 14. Lesson planning

The aim of the lesson:

- to develop innovative approaches and technologies for effective acquiring of communicative skills and habits

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

Plan

1. Lesson planning

2. Class management

3. Getting attention and participation

4. Giving and checking instructions

For truly professional teachers, lesson planning is not optional; it is essential preparation for teaching. It is a matter of deciding exactly what you are going to teach, and how. Unless you establish your objectives and activities in this way, you may find yourself just going mechanically through the textbook, or trying to improvise whole lessons. Such approaches usually produce poor results, although some improvisation and flexibility is good, even essential, in teaching. Learners can easily notice the difference between teachers who plan and those who do not. And if their teacher does not make an effort, why should they?