Innovation of methods in foreign language teaching

Step 3: Story line. Write a story line covering the major elements of the presentation. It involves breaking down the theme into major components. It should be logical and not be too long; fewer than 5 topics are generally manageable. Developing a storyboard is simply breaking down the story line into its major parts or ideas. Once you have developed the storyboard, you have the basic framework of your presentation. What is then needed is to put the storyboard into slides. The basic principle is "one slide for one idea".

 

 

1.7 Presentation techniques directed on developing of listening and reading skills

 

For reading or listening presentation it needs to select or create a short text which contains the target language. As the text is being used for presentation purposes, rather than as a resource for skills development, it should not be too difficult for the students. It should not contain a lot of new vocabulary or structure. The stages of the presentation are similar to those for most presentations. There should be a lead-in, interest and context. This may include some vocabulary work, particularly if there are any words in the text which the teacher feels the students need to know. There is a focus on form and meaning and controlled practice. The teacher exploits the text following stages: establish context, pre-teach vocabulary; set gist questions; listening\reading text; checking in pairs etc.

For presentation listening material it can be used the following devices: tape-recorder, CD and MP3-players, Ipods, computer etc. to make sure the students understand the material here can be used demonstrative handouts in format of slide show, notes, pictures etc. The super-technologies of our century allow us to implement entertaining-direct appliances in teaching process, and this fact can cause extra attention from students. The access to presenting resources is enriched by World Wide Web, where one can easily get any licensed educational material from special sites, book, articles etc. For listening purposes one can visit portal as You Tube, where a great range of video of wide variety of topics. The material can be easily modified and adjusted to the aims of a lesson. The video education sites with feature video, documentaries, news coverage etc.

Except downloading records for reading material or listening, teacher can prepare his own records or make a video on the theme. 

For presenting reading material with use of Power Point program which is base program for slide-shows, we can use next model of delivering material:

Activity 1

The objective is forming of reading/listening skills on the theme “Food” on material of the article “Attentive Waiter” [4, 25]

Lead-in phase: presentation of vocabulary. Put down the words on a slide and make students find relations between them and then let them reconstruct the chronicle of the events. If the words are simple you can present them in the format of pictures.

Activity 2

After reading material or listening text, comprehension questions can be prepared in the way of video conference it would be more productive if the questions are asked by different people, and video clips due to capacities of the program can be installed in the presented slide-show.

Activity 3

Another way to introduce a new language is to use a dialogue build. A dialogue is a conversation between two people and in this activity the teacher uses the conversation to show the students the language being used in a natural way. Dialogue build presentation is set on the material of the article. The students listen to the conversation and have a try to remember and rebuild the dialogue.

In conclusion, one may say that presentation technique is not innovation in teaching process. But ways to deliver them are revolutionizing. Right technique with exact presentation can help a teacher to invent a friendly, rich atmosphere for learning foreign language. Good presentation should include such stages as rehearse, timing, personal reproach and visual aids.  Visual aids can be presented by Microsoft Office Programs including Power Point. Slide-show projection is one of the popular visual aids which is considered to be more effective way in production of drills directing on development of communicative skills of students. For making presentation slides 4 stages are taken into account. The stages are purpose of presentation, theme/title, story line, design. Other programs were recruited from entertainment in academic purposes are Internet programs, DVDs, Ipods etc. Any task programmed on developing 4 basic skills as listening, speaking, reading and writing can be delivered by the means and can boost interest of students.  And motivation is the main impact on progress in meeting any goal.

The native and foreign experience shows that the using new information technologies provide:

• Giving a student the tool of investigation, construction, formation of knowledge about object world and active component of objective world, instrument of measuring, reflecting and influence on object world;
• Broadening the sphere of independent activity of students on the basis of organization different kinds of educational activity (experimental research, educational-playing, informational educational activity, also activity connected with processing information, such audiovisual information), including individual, group and collective work;
• Individualization and differentiation of educational process by means of interactive dialogue, independent choice of regime of educational activity and organizational forms of studying;
• Forming of information culture, components of individual culture, member of information society, by means of implementation of informational-educational activity;
• Increasing of motivation by means of computer visualization of studied objects, phenomena, managing studied objects, situations, ability to choose independently the forms and methods of teaching and learning, including playing situations.

Thus along with the development of the process of informatization and education the volume and content of educational material changes, programs of academic subjects are over structured, the integration of some themes or subjects is taking place, that leads to the change of structure and content of educational subjects, and consequently to the change of structure and content of education itself [21, 34p.].

As well as these processes new solutions to the problem of students level of education, based on working out and using complex of computerized testing, diagnosing methods of control and evaluating of the assimilation level.

 

  1.8  Using video in the foreign language classroom

 

Authentic teaching materials, such as news reports, weather forecasts, video, interviews, etc. have distinct beneficial points as they provide learner’s exposure to the language naturally occurring in life. Educators agree that authenticity of language materials is invaluable in developing learners’ communicative skills. Video is one of such effective tools. Although being a time-consuming and challenging educative means, I value it immensely since video stimulates students’ critical thinking, promotes enhancing of their vocabulary, facilitates consolidation of grammatical structures, and is just fun and exciting.

This part provides teachers with insights on developing creative approaches to using video in a foreign language classroom.

Video is a great resource to use in teaching a foreign language because it combines visual and audio stimuli, provides real language and cultural information; it allows learners to see facial expressions and body language at the same time as they hear the stress, intonation, and rhythm of the language.

 

Teaching tips

The selection of films is the most important step in the process and constitutes the biggest challenge. It can be based on thematic content to reinforce and consolidate topics treated within the language syllabus, such as moral issues, generation gap, problems of youth, ecology, education, or to illustrate language functions and grammatical patterns in real use.

When choosing a film, decisions on subject matter should be based on well-thought-out criteria since it may go beyond the learner’s linguistic and conceptual competence and may not be in keeping with her/his needs and interests. The students’ age and psychological maturity must be also considered when making a choice, and care should be taken so as not to offend the learner’s sensitivity.

There are three stages of working on video materials in class and every stage should be accompanied by specific activities.

Preview

At this stage a teacher should first consider what movie length (or clips) will be used in the classroom as there are two possible ways of showing a movie:

1. A teacher can split the film into 2 parts (45-50 minutes) and view it with the whole class.
2. A teacher can provide a limited exposure to a movie (no longer than 10-15 minutes) as longer sessions can overwhelm learners.

Before showing a movie, teachers’ task should be to activate the students’ background knowledge. This method serves as a kind of a hook for learners that relates the knowledge they already possess and the one to be acquired, making the acquisition occur more smoothly. Choose one of the possible ways to start work on the film:

Introduce the theme of the movie. Have a group discussion of the theme. Ask students what they know already on the topic of discussion. Ask them to predict from the title what they think the film will be about. Will it be a comedy? A drama? A documentary? Ask them to predict the story line. Introduce students to the general vocabulary. Scan the items of the worksheet.

Another way is to show a scene without the sound to elicit where the people are, who they might be, what they are talking about, etc. Have students write or discuss these items.

 

While-viewing activities

If you are showing a clip, have an aim. You should know why you are using the clip: to look at greeting forms and practice them? To give students practice in giving a commentary, telling a story? To lead to a discussion on an issue? Give a concrete task for students that should be short and not too overwhelming to complete while viewing. Learners should watch attentively to be able to answer true/false questions, what/when/why/how/who questions, focus on details, e.g. signs, buildings, vehicles etc., follow some characters to describe them afterwards. The teacher may turn the sound down and students imagine a possible line of dialogue between the characters, or try to predict what will happen next and then check their guess after the teacher turns the sound on. While students watch, they should pay attention to the language: conversational formulae, idioms; cultural and traditional issues.

 

Post-viewing

It is appropriate to begin a post-viewing session with language-development tasks:

1. Word partnership. Match the words with their definition.
2. Explain the underlined word combinations and phrases.
3. Finish the sentences in your own words.
4. Answer the questions.
5. Who said this/ Explain in your own words.
6. Complete the conversation with the words given below.
7. Restore the dialogue in the correct order.
8. Restore the events according to the order.
9. Use video to contextualize target vocabulary.

 

Discussion

In the discussion session try to relate the film to the students’ own lives or the world in general.

Some suggestions for class or small group discussion

1. After the section ends, groups can summarize the events that occurred.
2. Choose a character. Compare that character’s life/actions/ideals with your own.
3. How would the movie have been different if certain characters had taken different actions?
4. Debate the pros and cons of a controversial theme in the movie.
5. How do cultural norms influence the action? (Would the plot be plausible in another culture? Why or why not?).

 

      Grammar practice ideas: Choose a grammatical structure that is used several times in the film and create your own exercise. One possibility: if a particular scene uses future conditional tense, transcribe the scene and omit the verbs. See if students can fill them in.

Expansion

1. Conduct a team competition based on detailed student-generated true-false statements or who/what/when/where/ why/how questions about the segment (including visual content).
2. Imagine characters in other situations.
3. Retell the content of the segment based on notes taken earlier.
4. Use the transcript to note linguistic features such as slang, abbreviations, technical terms, word formation or syntax.

Discuss customs or cultural stereotypes to be encountered in the segment.

5. Write a summary, journalist’s report, critic’s review.

 

The given framework for working on video materials can provide enjoyable language learning opportunities for students if the teacher chooses appropriate films and tasks which are purp

 

1.9 Motivation and cultural studies 

 

The important component of educational brunch “Foreign language” is the competence in language and area of particular country.  In students' activity should take place not simple imposition of new information on schemata, but transition from general encyclopaedia knowledge to concrete, socially and culturally conditioned.

The information about the country of studied language, which is contained in many prevailing school textbooks and manuals, has not dynamic disposition. And though it needs to become contemporary according to beginning of XXI cent. It should be oriented on maximum full image of the country and real cross-cultural communication.

Therefore, it is necessary to point out the object of teaching process. Object category is one of the most important in methodology and theory of teaching. We determine in the object such duplicate issue: first, its conditionality; second, that it sets the way and character of person’s activity. In teaching process object is an intermediate link between social and methodological points [23, 52p.].

What are the social needs in language teaching nowadays? Undoubtedly – teaching foreign languages in multiple ways. It means complex approach to teaching: practical, educational, pedagogical, and developing.

Thus, what do we teach when we teach language? Teaching means transmission of culture in corpore to the youth. The common cultural fund becomes the property of the person through take-over of its “branches”: physical, musical, aesthetic, and artistic. Foreign culture is that one a student gets through foreign language in all its aspects. It, as one of the objects of teaching, has social, lingua-cultural, educational and psychological content. But it can be taught not right away but gradually. Each lesson must include certain number of different strategic elements. All these make teaching manageable and give the possibility to study the foreign culture.

  But we have to take note of motivation. This problem is still studying both in psychology and in teaching theory. Motivation is as much an effect as a cause of learning. It is widely agreed that motivation has a great effect on a student's capacity to learn. Motivation can be broken down into extrinsic and intrinsic forms. Intrinsic motivation comes from within the learner, who wants to learn for the sake of learning. It is much more likely that our students will be extrinsically motivated, meaning that their motivation comes from external sources such as wanting to pass an exam or please their parents. But there are many things to do in the classroom to increase the levels of extrinsic motivation.

Carl Rogers outlined 3 attitudinal qualities that a teacher should have to assist the learning process [2]. They are empathy (seeing things from the students' view point), authenticity (being yourself) and acceptance (of students’ ideas and opinions).

The ways of solving the problem of motivation are usually connected with the following issues:

• special system of tasks;
• emphasizing;
• teacher’s activity;
• use of visual methods;
• personality orientation.

During direct teaching process methods could be various: one should get an extra task so as not to be bored, another barely manages to follow the lesson, yet another needs a lesser task and some extra attention. A teacher should look for new sources of motivation and encouragement, which is quite difficult.

For setting socio-cultural knowledge for students it is necessary to take into account such factors as sameness or distinction degree between native (Ukrainian) and certain peoples cultures; cultural distance; meaningfulness of this information in intercourse process.  So, we on ought to give up the base of general encyclopaedia knowledge and develop the knowledge of:

• conditions of contemporary language bearers life (standard of living, way of life, health protection,  education, social defence of young people in society);
• mode of life (day order, work and spare time, food and drinks, food reception hours,   leisure);
• interpersonal connections (in family, between elder and younger; sexual, in youth groups; in educational institutions, laboured mutual relations; official;  between political and religious groups);
• the cultural traditions;
• the contemporary young people life aspects (studying, work, leisure, tourism, sport, fashion; youth organisations etc.);
• culture of verbal behaviour and etiquette, adopted in country of studied language, in typical situations of everyday and business (limited) intercourse;
• national peculiarities of non-verbal behaviour (Kinesics (body language): body motions such as shrugs, foot tapping, drumming fingers, eye movements such as winking, facial expressions, and gestures; Proxemics (proximity): use of space to signal privacy or attraction; Haptics: touch; Oculesics: eye contact; Chronemics: use of time, waiting, pausing; Olfactics: smell; Vocalics: tone of voice, timbre, volume, speed; Sound symbols; Silence Pausing; Posture Position of the body; Adornment Clothing, jewellery, hairstyle; Locomotion Walking, running, staggering, limping).

One of the ways of developing socio-cultural knowledge is project work.

Project work is becoming an increasingly popular feature within the ELT classroom. Common projects are class magazines, group wall displays about countries of studying language and designs for cities of the future. A project involves students in deciding together what they want to do to complete a project while the teacher plays a more supporting role.

Some advantages of project work are:

• Increased motivation - learners become personally involved in the project.
• All four skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking, are integrated.
• Autonomous learning is promoted as learners become more responsible for their own learning.
• There are learning outcomes – learners have an end product.
• Authentic tasks and therefore the language input are more authentic.
• Interpersonal relations are developed through working as a group.
• Content and methodology can be decided between the learners and the teacher and within the group themselves so it is more learner centred.
• A break from routine and the chance to do something different.
• A context is established which balances the need for fluency and accuracy.

There are several important moments in organizing any kind project work:

First – to give learners an idea of what projects are and what they should be aiming to produce, it is good to have examples of past projects: a photocopy of a previous group newspaper or a photograph of a wall display.

Second – after explaining the idea behind the project, ask learners to propose a scheme of work: - what to include in the project; - what form it will take; - who will be responsible for what; - the time it will take to produce each part of the project; - needed materials or resources.

Third – to allocate an agreed amount of time for the project.

Forth – to provide the learners with necessary materials. It is fairly common now for learners to want to use the Internet to find information for their projects.

Fifth – presentation of the project. It needs to be seen, read and admired so schedule the last project session as a presentation.

Sixth – to evaluate the project. As with any piece of work a project needs to be acknowledged and evaluated. Use a simple project evaluation report, which comments on aspects of the project such as content, design, language work and also evaluates the oral presentation stage of the project.

Each teacher has his own method of teaching. But he should be quite flexible depending on the certain situation in a classroom. The teacher must not dominate but guide. His roles are different: knowledge source, tutor, supervisor, and organiser. He is a person who helps to choose the right way in the world of knowledge. But the student has to study only by himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

II. USAGE OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY IN THE ENGLISH LESSONS

 

2.1. How to teach foreign languages (general remarks)

 

Every few years, new foreign language teaching methods arrive on the scene. New textbooks appear far more frequently. They are usually proclaimed to be more effective than those that have gone before, and, in many cases, these methods or textbooks are promoted or even prescribed for immediate use. New methods and textbooks may reflect current developments in linguistic/applied linguistic theory or recent pedagogical trends. Sometimes they are said to be based on recent developments in language acquisition theory and research. For example, one approach to teaching may emphasize the value of having students imitate and practise a set of correct sentences while another emphasizes the importance of encouraging 'natural' communication between learners. How is a teacher to evaluate the potential effectiveness of new methods?

One important basis for evaluating is, of course, the teacher's own experience with previous successes or disappointments. In addition, teachers who are informed about some of the findings of recent research are better prepared to judge whether the new proposals for language teaching are likely to bring about positive changes in students' learning [14].