Педагогические  науки/5.Современные методы преподавания

Maksut A.E., Gaurieva G.M.

L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Kazakhstan

COMMUNICATIVE AND SITUATIONAL FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING OF SCHOOL STUDENTS

Nowadays internationalization of all domains of social life leads to the fact that a foreign language is considered to be a real necessity in practical and intellectual actions of the person. For this reason, teaching of school students a foreign language is the social order of society. As a result, development of an efficient model in organization of teaching process at school is the need we are faced with.

Special attention paid to acquisition of foreign languages has caused changes in nature of foreign language teaching. There was a transition from the previous orientation to adoption of grammatical structures to communicative which is directed to mastering skills of the live speech. Continuous practical use of language helps pupils to overcome dislike of linguistic manipulations, does training attractive, as it is coordinated with an ultimate goal and by that provides assimilation of the speech as a means of communication [1].

The communicative and situational teaching which is guided by the conceptual provisions of communicative approach, stated in works of linguists of RK and CIS and foreign scientists is represented to be one of the actual directions promoting improvement of foreign language teaching at schools. Communicative and situational foreign language teaching is aimed at the development of foreign-language communicative competence and assumes the organization of educational process on the basis of a situation as the main unit of teaching, imitating a real foreign-language communication. Imitation of real communication is provided by communicative and situational teaching, in which extralinguistic parameters of a situation and the principles of communicative-orientated teaching are integrated, such as:

- the situational feature of teaching, consisting in selection of material and its activization by communicative situations;

- the authenticity of teaching, intending the use of educational material borrowed from real life situations and creation of conditions for educational communication which are brought most closer to real;

- the functionality in selection and organization of educational material which is realized in its compliance with the conditions of communicative situation, intensions of the speaker and communicative functions of the language;

- the activity nature of teaching which is shown in the communicative and situational tasks directed to the formation of foreign-language communicative competence of students [2].

Development of communicative skills is impossible without awareness of language system (words, the grammatical phenomena, phonetic material) and skills of operating these means. Therefore it is accepted to include knowledge of language material and skills of successful operating in the content of communicative and situational foreign languages teaching.

Within communicative and situational teaching there is an assimilation not of the language system, but system of the language means necessary for students usage in a varying sphere and situation of communication. Consequently, selection of language and speech material is made on the basis of its use rate at the solution of communicative tasks within situations of foreign-language communication.

Development of effective algorithm / technique of communicative and situational foreign language teaching demands use of the system approach representing a modern method of scientific research for the solution of problems of theoretical and practical character. Communicative and situational teaching as a methodical system is defined by coherence and integrity of its components. In definition of the notion "methodical system of foreign language teaching" we will address its treatment by I.L. Bim, claiming that as "the main components of methodical system it is possible to consider the purposes of foreign language teaching, the contents of a subject, educational process, methods and appliances of teaching" [3;17]. In the methodical system of communicative and situational foreign language teaching of school students, six main components are distinguished: content of foreign-language communicative activity, student, teacher, means of the organization of communicative activity, educational process, and management.

Thus, the foreign language, and also process of its mastering at school represent the interconnected and interdependent systems. Such approach gives the chance to present development of communicative competence of school students as complicated multicomponent system, and also to develop effective linguo-didactic model of its realization. The models of foreign language teaching existing at many schools not fully consider the changed needs for receiving qualitatively new language teaching, and in this connection there is a need of modernization of teaching system of school students and development of content of communicative and situational teaching, within which the communicative situation is considered as training unit, whereas mastering a complex of the most frequency and significant situations for cross-cultural communication leads to development of foreign-language communicative competence.

The complete system of teaching English of school students at different levels of training intends, on the one hand, autonomous character at each level, and, on the other, the interrelation of all levels of training, where achievement of the objectives of each level allows to use a foreign language in a varying form and provides a possibility to continue training at the following level. Based on various approaches to determination of formed level in foreign-language communication skills, we distinguished, as did Markarjan K.V. [4], communicative and satisfactory, communicative and sufficient and communicative and optimum levels of formation of school students’ communicative competence. Within the considered levels we have made selection of the communicative situations necessary for mastering by school students, and have defined the communicative skills and abilities formed at them.

Level of communicative and satisfactory foreign language skills assumes work on the situations aimed at the development of linguistic, pragmatical and discursive components (within the monological statement) of foreign-language communicative competence. At this stage there is a mastering pronunciation standards of the object language, grammatical and lexical skills. Thus, work at this level can be presented by the following communicative exercises and tasks.

Situation 1. Housing «Where do You live?»

Activity 1. Make a list of words related to the place where you live, use your list of words and the words given in brackets (saucepans, shower, sofa, towels, alarm clock, kettle, video, sheets, sink, washbasin, coffee table) and arrange them in the spidergram below.

Activity 2. What do you do in each room? What things are in these rooms? e.g.: This is a living room. We watch TV in the living room. There is a TV set and a sofa in the living room.

Activity 3. Describe your perfect home.

The communicative and sufficient level of proficiency in a foreign language assumes work on the situations directed to achievement of formation pragmatical and discursive components (within dialogical statements) of communicative competence of school students. At this stage the following educational aims are pursued: development of abilities to realize communicative intention by the choice of the speech actions corresponding to the studied situation and logic of course of the speech act; development of abilities to understand different types of communicative statements, to build complete statements of various functional styles; formation of abilities to structure oral and written texts. We will consider achievement of objectives on the example of the communicative exercises and tasks aimed at the development of speech and cogitative activity of students.

Situation 2. Bringing up children «Coping with adults».

Activity 1. Put the phrases in each sentence into the correct order and discuss them in class.

1. different from/being a/teenagers/I think/when my/teenagers today/is very/parents were.

2. ways we/freedom today/In some/have more.

3. other ways/life is/ But in/and difficult/more complicated.

4. a lot/I feel/today put/on teenagers/of pressure/that parents.

5. not/every teenager/It is/the best/to be/possible for.

6. feel I/space/Sometimes I/some/just/need.

The communicative and optimum level of foreign language skills assumes work on the situations directed to formation of strategic and sociocultural components of communicative competence. School students learn to overcome difficulties of communicative character; to select and use the most effective strategy for the solution of the set communicative tasks - rephrasing, description, argument. Knowledge about cultural features of native speakers, their habits, customs, rules and standards of behavior, social conventions, regional geographic features of the studied linguoculture are also formed.

Situation 3. Health and Healthy lifestyle «Are you going in for extreme sports?»

Activity 1. Read the following words and ideas about extreme sports. Put them into two groups: for and against. Add some ideas of your own.

risk, adrenaline rush, danger is exciting, challenging your body, sense of achievement, doing something different, accidents, fun, you need reliable equipment

Activity 2. Discuss the pros and cons of extreme sports with your partner. Respond to his counter-arguments.

Activity 3. Write an essay for or against the statement according to the plan: «Extreme sports are becoming more and more popular with teenagers. But they are very dangerous that's why should be banned»?

- write the title of the essay;

- make a general statement to introduce the topic;

- write about the advantages and disadvantages or the arguments for and against in separate paragraphs;

- use a new paragraph to introduce each new topic;

- support your new ideas with arguments;

-use linking words and discourse markers - furthermore, in addition to this, a further negative/positive aspect of this is, for one thing, for example, for instance, such as, on the one hand, in contrast, however, in fact, actually, on the other hand, as far as I’m concerned, in my view/opinion, to sum up, to summarize, in conclusion;

- summarise your arguments at the end of the essay;

- you should include your own opinion;

Overall, in the conditions of social and economic and political changes of modern society, the knowledge of foreign languages acts as the integral attribute of successful self-realization of the personality, allows to join actively in life of society of open type, to master achievements of world science and culture. Communicative orientation of educational process is necessary for the solution of the tasks set by society, whereas communicative and situational foreign language teaching promotes more effective development of communicative competence of school students.

List of literature:

1. Gal'skova N.D. Sovremennaja metodika obuchenija inostrannym jazykam Tekst.: posobie dlja uchitelja / N. D. Gal'skova. M.: ARKTI, 2000. - 165s.

2. Mil'rud, R.P. Sovremennye konceptual'nye principy kommunikativnogo obuchenija inostrannym jazykam [Tekst] / R.P. Mil'rud, I.R. Maksimova // Inostrannye jazyki v shkole. - 2000. - № 4.

3. Bim, I.L. Sistema obuchenija inostrannym jazykam v srednej shkole i uchebnik kak model' ee realizacii [Tekst]: avtoref. dis. ... dokt. ped. nauk. / I. L. Bim. - M., 1976.-17s.

4. Markarjan, K.V. Obuchenie inojazychnomu pragmaticheskomu obshheniju studentov nejazykovogo VUZa [Tekst]: dis. ... kand. ped. nauk. / K.V. Markarjan. - Pjatigorsk, 2006. - 183s.