Филологические науки/1.Методика преподавания языка и литературы

Крічкер О.Ю.

Академія пожежної безпеки

ім. Героїв Чорнобиля, Україна

OUTSIDE THE BOX ENGLISH FOR TECHIE STUDENTS

Taking into consideration my 10-year experience as an ESL teacher of higher educational establishments I should say that the most difficult task for a teacher is to get techie students involved and interested in what is going on in the classroom. The problem takes its root in the low level of knowledge some of them have.

I suppose the aim of a teacher is to create a friendly atmosphere and conditions under which the students will change their mind and position towards the subject. As teachers we should help them see the perspective and the need in the language spoken in so many countries of the world. That’s why I started thinking about the way of making my classes special, filled with positive emotions and delivered at the level which lets everyone participate.

Before I continue I want to notice that there are students in my professional English classes who have quite a good knowledge of the language. And one must do the utmost not to lose them while teaching their groupmates. Usually I have separate tasks for students of different levels. For example, while lower-achieving ones work on grammar with their individual cards, it is possible to master oral comprehension skills and speech habits of advanced level students.

Now I’d like to offer some games that I use in my groups of studying English for fire safety inspectors. Sometimes they are not easy and lower-level students may use their notes to cope with them or ask for help of advanced-level ones. The tasks which I use quite often to help remember or refresh thematic vocabulary and spelling is based on restitution of words from scattered letters, for example, fightfireer (firefighter), methel (helmet), seho (hose), ennegi (engine). Students who recognise the word first, write them correctly on the blackboard and translate them. When the word is done students can think over sentences with it. It is possible that several students might work at the blackboard simultaneously.

The next game proved to be the most desired for my students. It has the same idea of refreshing the vocabulary. We can call it a word puzzle. A table filled with letters is drawn and one can form a word reading letters diagonally or vertically. The student who guesses the word crosses it out and translates it.

f	i	r	e	m	a	n	s	e	s
i	g	e	n	g	i	n	e	x	a
r	n	s	a	v	e	d	h	t	f
e	i	p	u	l	s	e	e	i	e
f	t	i	g	a	s	a	l	n	t
i	i	r	u	i	n	d	m	g	y
g	o	a	l	a	r	m	e	u	p
h	n	t	r	a	p	u	t	i	u
t	o	i	a	s	i	g	n	s	l
e	n	o	s	m	o	k	e	h	s
r	u	n	s	m	o	t	h	e	r

My main idea is to make students wait for the class, look forward to something unexpected, new and wanted. I think that English songs (most often the choice of a song is a privilige of students) may help not only relax after hard work but also acquire a good stock of common words. On the other hand, songs may be used while explaining grammar. The most vivid example is Yesterday by the Beatles. The text helps me show the formation of the Past Indefinite for regular and irregular verbs and its usage in the English language: Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away| I said something wrong| Yesterday love was such an easy game to play. The song Don’t Speak by No Doubt is good both for explaining the Imperative Mood and the Present Continuous: I really feel That I’m losing my best friend| I know just what you’re saying| I know what you’re thinking.

Speaking about the general knowledge it would be of help to talk with students on the holidays and events celebrated in the English-speaking countries. I have found out that they are always eager to prepare interesting facts about the countries and its bright personalities – politicians, poets, writers, artists and actors – which is brilliant for all of us: they get grades for the additional information and I help them (without any pressure) broaden their outlook.

In recent years project work method has become very popular and can also be used successfully in the ESL teaching classroom. It helps to sum up knowledge on the studied topic, have another way of looking at the problem. A teacher should start with explaining the essence of the task. To make it clear, it is possible to start with brainstorming, i.e. a discussion which helps find new ideas for studying the topic. It is necessary that every student should participate and offer viewpoints. I would show an example of project work based on the topic “Fire Safety in Great Britain”. The students offered the following ideas:

1.History of fire services in the UK. 2. Recruitment. 3. Fire service career. 4. Ranks in fire and rescue services. 5. London fire brigade. 6. Fire brigades of the UK. 7.Equipment and devices. 8. Trucks. 9. Uniform. 10. Firemen jokes.

After processing information obtained from different sources the results are presented by way of reports, research paper or a video film.

One more friend and assistant for the ESL teacher is the World Wide Web. Thanks to the Internet it is possible to find information on the similar educational establishments abroad, find out about their traditions, practical training. Advanced students can prepare reports on such establishments, the system as a whole. We may also offer students find some songs, poems, stories on their profession in the Internet and listen, retell and translate them in the classroom. As for our speciality – fire safety inspector – I’ve found wonderful firefighter’s prayers, wishes and songs (search on YouTube). They help students not only hear the original speech and study new words and construction, but what is more important – understand the essence of their future profession and be proud of the choice.

So there are many ways of turning routine into a holiday. I think that every teacher can make studying an interesting process and help students learn the language by repeating words, or even sentences, class after class in word games, songs, disputes. Of course, it takes a lot of efforts and time to prepare something new but sometimes it is the only thing which makes your students get interested and begin studying the language.