Soloviova N.M., Semysiuk A.M, Lapa G.M.

AN ORAL APPROACH TO ESL LEARNING IN THE VIEW OF MODERN FOREIGN LINGUISTS.
Bukovinian State Medical University

Our learning experience presents a new outlook of well-known professionals in the field focusing exclusively on the oral approach to language learning program for medical students in the credit module system format.

Oral recognition technology is the specific objective of the medical students teaching program, as the part of academic working model "How to Teach More Effectively". The ability to express one's ideas in oral form for medical students whose first language is not English is a major achievement. It allows students to gain competence in the language of medicine, to develop techniques of speaking and their understanding of how the medical subject-matter is expressed through the English language as an aspect of the subject they are studing. An oral approach to language learning intends to develop students' general and professionally-oriented communicative competence.

What do the linguists mean by the term 'approach'? Anthony (1963) has provided the definition for this notion: an approach to language teaching is something that reflects a certain model or research paradigm - a theory; this term is the broader than the terms method and technique. In the paper "Some Fundamental Ideas" Earl Stevick (1957) assessing the role of communication in the acquisition of communicative competence and talking about the different methods of language study has formulated the definition of an oral approach to language learning as it can lead to smoother, more efficient way - to a higher return on the many hours of hard work that language mastery requires. According to the researcher the oral approach is based on the assumption that the spoken language underlies writing, and not vice versa. He stated: "Hearing before speaking, speaking before reading, reading before writing"[10]. 

Pre-21 st century language teaching methodology had two types of approaches: one type of trend was focused on using a language (i.e., speaking and understanding), the other type was focused on analyzing a language (i.e., learning the grammatical rules). 

It has become apparent in the recent years that there have been marked changes in the goals of the language education program. Today, language students are considered successful if they can communicate effectively in the foreign language. Thus, the teaching of the oral skills has become increasingly important.
The present study explored specific theories of the second language researchers: Hymes (1972,1974) was among the first to use the term communicative competence in language development. One of Hymes's contributions to the acquisition theory was his concept of cultural interference, which he defined as falling back on one's native culture when communicating in another[3]. 

If we wish to master another language we need to become communicatively competent in that language. Grammar knowledge is important for this communicative competence but it is not sufficient. In other words, successful speaking is not just a matter of using grammatically correct words and forms but also knowing when to use them and under what circumstances. Canale and Swain (1980) suggest that communicative model incorporates grammatical competence, discourse competence, and sociolinguistic competence. It is assumed that the content of a language course will include semantic notions and social functions, not just linguistic structures[4]. 

In the view of Pica and Doughty (1987), when using communicative activities, it is important to strive for a classroom in which students feel comfortable and confident, feel free to take risk, and have sufficient opportunities to speak. The teacher’s role is primarily to facilitate communication and only secondarily to correct errors; the teacher should be able to use the target language fluently and appropriately[7]. In Beattie’s study (1980) of fluent and nonfluent cycles of speech he described the techniques of putting the quickest and easiest questions (yes-no, alternative, question-word) for moving the students for real conversation, which are based on the established context: information and words of answer are in the text; text contains the information needed but not the words; text does not contain the information needed [2].

Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson (1974) described the rules for opening and closing conversations[8]. 

A 60 hour English course obtained for the first - and - second year medical students covers a variety of activities (comprehension check, discussion points, active listening, comments, willingness to ask questions, interactive exercises etc.). It aims at the developing language proficiency level of learners’ pertaining to communicative competence.

In the academic curriculum for medical students listening comprehension must go far beyond 20-minutus tape a lesson followed by a series of test questions about the factual content. Listen-and-Do format –that is, information gathering and information using – is recommended for listening instructional activities in student group. For the use in the classroom, there are many speaking activities and material available as there are creative teachers. For the purpose of the different discussions we have organized oral skills activities into such types: drills, performance activities, participation activities, observation activities, memorization, repetition, uncontextualized drills. The instructor can determine the kinds of situations in which the students will find themselves. The students may be required to explain ideas, or present opinions.

Other way to oral activity utilized by our teachers is listening and transfer. The basic steps in the technique are as follows:

1. Listening: at the beginning there is a short introduction to the topic. The input text is a listening passage.

· Prepare the students for the task. Make sure they are absolutely sure what they have to do.

· Play the tape right through, without stopping

· For many students it will be necessary to give them an opportunity to listen to the tape again. Replay the tape, stopping at appropriate places.

· Let the students check their answer with the key.

· Play the tape again if there are major differences between the key and the students’ answer.

2. Transfer: these activities involve speaking – mostly pair work.

· Divide the class into pairs.

· Assign roles (Student A and Student B). Make sure they only look at their role/information (Student B’s information is always in the key).

· Monitor the pairs while they carry out speaking transfer, prompting the use of practiced language if necessary. The material also develops speaking skills through problem-solving activities, role-plays, discussion topics.

Long (1975) suggest that group work allows more student talk, since in small groups several students can talk at the same time without disturbing others; allows talk that helps us clarify our ideas; allows students to function in a wider variety of roles and thus practice more communicative functions of language [5]. Paulston (1974) discusses the potential of role-playing and problem-solving activities since they motivate communication, allow students to play a variety of roles, and thus provide for practice in many different uses of language [6].

Speaking can be easily integrated into reading and writing assignments: discuss reading comprehension questions, assist each other in guessing vocabulary items in the context of reading passage, pool information on reading in order to write summaries.

Gabilentz’ formula (1942) includes the usage of microtexts (lasts only 30-60 seconds); the basic steps in the technique are as follows: read or tell the text three times; let the student ask questions in the target language; read (or tell) the text a fourth time; ask questions about the text; invite students to tell one brief thing that they remember from the text; talk with the students about the text. Scarcella (1989) survey the research literature that documents the communication difficulties caused by inadequate acquisition of the rules of conversation and points out that students need to understand that communication difficulties are natural, and that they need not converse perfectly to communicate.[9]

The European credit module system as a modern system of educational process designing is grounded on the simultaneous interaction of module strategies of teaching and testing to evaluate the students’ knowledge; the first around midterm (formative evaluation) and the second at the end of the term (summative evaluation).

Our two-year probation test control introduced into the educational process in terms of credit-module system has shown all pros and cons. Experience has shown us that educational program concerning the foreign language, functioning nowadays at medical higher institutions has the lack of “Listening and Speaking” control tests.

New target context of teaching program comprises content function enlarging of the summative evaluation tests (oral and written) in the last two weeks of the semester during English class hours. The teaching strategies of the department staff include assessing the students’ proficiency acquired by them throughout the course on grammar, vocabulary, topics and general level of English.

To sum up, we can state, that the concept of language as communication has influenced on language teaching methodology and curriculum design; in acquiring full communicative competence, students must learn to speak not only grammatically, but also appropriately – to study speech in natural settings.

References. 1. Anthony, E.M. – Approach method and technique. – ELT journal, №17, 1963. – P.63-67. 2. Beattie, G.W. Encoding Units in Spontaneous Speech. Mouton Publishers: 1980. – P. 131-143. 3. Hymes, D. On communicative competence. – Sociolinguistics, Penguin: 1972. 4. Canale, M., and Swain, M. Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second languages teaching and testing. – Applied Linguistics, 1980. – p. 89-112. 5. Long. Group Work and Communicative in the ESOL Classroom. – 1975. – p. 282-285. 6. Paulston. Linguistic and Communicative Competence. – 1974. – p. 281-283. 7. Pica, T., Doughly, C. The impact of interaction on comprehension. – TESOL, Quarterly, № 21, 1987. – P. 734-758. 8. Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., and Jeffersone, G. A Simplest systematic for the organization of turntaking. – Language, № 50, 1974. – P. 696-735. 9. Scarcella, R. Conversational analysis in 2.2 acquisition and teaching.- Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, №9, 1989. – P. 72-91.10. Stevick E. Some Fundemental Ideas. – Cambridge University Press, 1957. – P. 86-91.