Филологические науки/5. Методы и приемы контроля уровня владения иностранным языком

Svetlana Grytsai

National Aviation University (Kyiv, Ukraine)

PERSPECTIVE APPROACH TO LEARNING TO SPEAK А FOREIGN LANGUAGE

In our survey, just all of the modern Universities provided some foreign language teaching, mainly in English.

It is clear that very large numbers of students, yet have had an opportunity of learning a foreign language within the study at the University . The reasons for this are partly historical, partly related to the shortage of really skilled and fluent language teachers. There are nevertheless signs that this situation is beginning to change, and we think it wholly desirable that it should.

There are several reasons why students of all courses of ability should have the opportunity of learning a foreign language. One has an important connection with their urgent need, already discussed in relation to English, of improved powers of communication. Learning to speak in foreign tongue offers one more experience of significance of words as tools, as means of indicating particular objects or action or ideas; and as a result of this, though very simply in the case of the more limited students, they may begin to think about the use of words in their own language. While we should not suggest that very backward students still struggling to attain the barest literacy in their own language should be burdened with another, there is very likelihood that other students, whose poor attainments stem from disturbed early schooling or adverse environment rather than lack of native wit, might be helped, by the stimulus of a foreign language well taught, to apply fresh energy to the learning of their own.

Indeed, some of us would consider this the most important reason of all, that the learning of a new language may give confidence to those students who need it most – the less than average, those who have often had difficulty with reading in English. The feeling that they too can express themselves, however simply, in a foreign tongue can increase their self-respect and improve their general attitude to learning.

In the past, the people have had their closest links with the English speaking world and have generally lacked the incentive which some other European countries have had to learn a foreign language. But circumstances are changing, and are already beginning to create a climate of option which may be very favorable to language teaching on a much wider scale. Not only in our nation economic life, for which it is highly important that as many people as possible should be able to cross the language barrier, but in private life, the links with the rest of Europe are growing stronger every day. The notable increase in resent years of facilities for foreign travel, both by university parties and by families and young people on holiday, has provided a strong motive for acquiring at least a “tourist” knowledge of another language.

Only teacher can find out what interests his student, and he must begin, though not end, with that. The initial experience will be that of home, University and the immediate background, though student’s curiosity will soon take them beyond that. There is so much to discuss, not only local and domestic questions, but also such themes as fashion, the rate for the job, marriage, football, abstract art, the prospect of human survival. Hobbies such as vintage cars, aircraft all offer possibilities which point beyond their own first beginnings – for discussion will not satisfy for long.

The difficulty is to ensure a succession of good teachers, whatever language is chosen. Continuity of teaching, always important in the learning of a language, is essential in the weakest groups. The teachers must be fluent and have an easy command of the language. The approach must be an oral one: the argument for teaching a language is valid only if the students can speak what they know. We accept the fact that some will never speak more than a few simple sentences but many will do more that that and will be able to write simply as well. It will be, with rare exceptions, only the most able who will speak fluently and write accurately. Nevertheless we would not deny even to the least able the privilege and the fun of being able to say a few simple things in a language other than their own.

Opinion varies as to how long “average” and “below average” students can go on learning a language. The experience over years of one comprehensive University is that a language can be taught to students of all levels of ability for at least four years, and that in spite of the great demands it makes on the patience and ingenuity of the staff, it is well worth doing for the sake of the students. If there can be continuity of teaching, it would seem that a language can profitably be studied to the end of the fifth year by “average” student though probably not by the least able.

Happily, just at the time when the demand for teachers of foreign languages may rise sharply, there have been striking advances in teaching techniques based on the use of audio-visual aids, which offer ways of considerably supplementing the teacher’s own resources. These methods, which put an emphasis on lively communication through speech, as opposed to an analytical, text-book approach, could have special significance for our students.

The students in the first or second year do not seem to mind too much, even where, as is not uncommon, the text books seem a tired survival from the school. But good humored tolerance often passes into a somewhat cynical attitude which may in turn become definite rejection, when reading means little to these students, writing less. What they already have of either seems enough for their needs later on. But the students are not merely a product of University. Their standards in speech, as in much else, reflect those of their families. They have heard much about the outside world from newspapers, magazines, the cinema and television. The last appears particularly potent, if only because so many particularly of the less able students have imbibed so much of it. Like the other mass media it tends to mirror and overemphasize certain aspects of our society which are at variance with the values of University – not for nothing is the screen University master usually a buffoon. No wonder if University is regarded as something to be tolerated.

Though students learn to speak long before they go to the University, every University carries a major responsibility for its students’ speech. This is not essentially a matter of accent or pronunciation, although in a mobile society it is realistic to recognize that the students who have no alternative to a strictly local vernacular may be at a disadvantage in later life.

In the long run quality of reading usually depends upon will and interest. Many teachers manage quite happily with little reading and less writing; the students know it, even though they also will accept that one cannot really go very far in contemporary life without either. In a world where the spoken word is so much more important than it was, we cannot assume that all our students will take reading or writing seriously unless we show them the value of both. This means taking account once again of the students’ background and interests – and also of their personal history; some, particularly of the weaker ones, associate reading and writing with two or four years of continuous failure, and these salvage cases are the most difficult of all.

Indeed, in all its work in speech and reading and writing, the English department at the University will have special need of these aids and of others such as Personal Computer and Internet, as both sources of material and methods of teaching.

We welcome the present interest in language teaching, and believe that extended experiments are highly desirable, in methods of teaching and learning over the whole range of ability, and in the choice of the language taught. Given good conditions, a foreign language, taught in a well-conceived oral course and enlivened whether possible by direct contacts with a foreign country, might well be one of the most stimulating subjects in the curriculum for some of students.

For many of our students, both the language and the supplementary reading stimulated by the possibility of a visit may valuably enlarge their general stock of ideas and of knowledge. Here is one more window on the world, a chance to extend their experience through contact with a different people and culture.

Finally, there is a significant world trend towards more language learning.

References

1. Arthur H. Charles (1994). How to learn a foreign language. New York: Franklin Watts.

2. Barry Farber (1991). How to learn any language: quickly, easily, inexpensively, enjoyably, and on your own. New York, NY: Citadel Press.

3. Richards, Jack C.; Theodore S. Rodgers (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.

4. Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning teaching. MacMillan Publisher Limited, Oxford.