GAME-PLAYING TECHNOLOGIES AT LESSONS OF RUSSIAN AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE

(Ikhsangaliyeva G., Nurzhanova Zh., Kazakh National University,

named after Al-Farabi, Almaty)

It is already long time that a linguistic principle as a basic principle of language teaching has given way to the communicative one in theory and practice. The purpose of teaching foreign students in the University is to develop their communicative competence. That is a set of programs of verbal behavior, depending on the person's ability to navigate in an environment of communication. These target principles of teaching Russian as a foreign language highlight the activity-related teaching didactic tools as an important factor for the effectiveness of the educational process. These tools include educational and, in particular, didactic games. They could not better implement a technological approach to the teaching. In the various systems of education game has special place.

Psychologists proved that game "justifies" a transition to a new language. Game is both: interesting kind of work for the student and an analogue of language exercises for the teacher, through which the skills of all kinds of speech activity are developed.

Game has a universal feature: the use of game techniques can be adapted to different goals and objectives.

Game technologies at an early stage of training provide a long-term nature of learning and mastering of skills and abilities.

An educational game is a game used in the learning process as an assignment containing the learning task (problem, problem situation), a solution of which will ensure the achievement of a specific learning goal.

Using a game in class sessions, a teacher creates and develops students' skills and ability to find necessary information, to transform it, to elaborate on its basis plans and decisions in both: stereotype and non-stereotypical situations. Recreative game elements allow students to overcome most of the difficulties associated with a conditional nature of the foreign language communication. In addition, the game situations in the classroom are designed to create an atmosphere of relaxedness and spontaneity.

Educational game should be purposeful. The unusual form of a lesson, its unconventional nature helps to maintain interest in the target language. Being introduced into the system of traditional training, educational game performs several functions: incentive-motivational, pedagogic, orienting and compensatory.

The game is used as a means of visualization and as an exercise. It is necessary to remember that game is not an end in itself, but a tool to enhance vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, reading, writing and oral expression.

Another positive feature of didactic games in the process of teaching Russian language for foreign students is a fact that preparations for a game activate students' independent work. So, it is necessary to include in it the tasks which promote self-preparation for a didactic game, and this not only to assimilate new vocabulary, but also to model certain types of speech, as well as to select needed informational materials.

With the involvement of students in the situation of a didactic game their interest to the educational activity increases dramatically, the material under study becomes more comprehensible and performance increases significantly.

Didactic game is a quite broad group of methods and techniques of organizing the educational process. The main difference between game in general and the didactic game consists of the fact that the latter has following essential features: a clearly stated purpose of learning and a corresponding teaching result. Both can be substantiated, distinguished in explicit form and are characterized by learning and cognitive orientation. A characteristic feature of such lessons is that a didactic game is included in their construction as one of the structural elements of the lesson.

Didactic games (DG) can be classified according to several attributes:

• functional and target-oriented use

• time of performance

• structure and composition

There are three types of functional and target-oriented DG: diagnostic DG, role DG and control DG.

According to the time of performance, DG can be large (4 hours and more), medium (2-3 hours), small (1 hour) and mini-games (less than 1 hour).

Structural and compositional construction of DG may be tightly programmed or adaptive.

Considering above-mentioned attributes combination, DG can be classified on the generalized basis as follows:

- fragmented didactic games, each piece of which is based on a solution of educational problem related to a specific element of the training material;

- integral issue-related didactic games associated with a solution of several pedagogical problems according to the educational theme;

- complex didactic games that combine reproductive and productive activities of students and serve to solve a set of educational and developmental problems.

Didactic games are different versions of educational technology.

Modern conceptions of educational technology are associated with the systematic and consistent practice implementation of a pre-designed, evidence-based educational process. In this sense, educational technology is a purely practical implementation of key provisions of didactics and pedagogy in general. It is already not doubted that successful teaching is impossible without technology. This is because the teaching technology is an integration of theoretical and empirical efforts to identify learning objectives, educational content, possibilities of a combination of teacher’s and students’ activities, necessary training forms, methods and teaching aids, as well as determination of the learning process effectiveness.

The technology also considers efficient use of time, selection of appropriate techniques, forms, procedures, individual approach, exercises appropriateness and etc. An example of the educational technology use in practice can be development and application of didactic games for teaching of a foreign language, in our case Russian language.

The main stages of preparation and conduct of DG are the following:

1. Preparatory: preparation of a teacher for a game (definition of objectives, rules and regulations of a game, training and self-preparation of students for a game, preparation of didactic, methodological and technical support of a game), evaluation of students' readiness for a game, preliminary playing groups organization.

2. Introduction to a game: introduction of a theme of a game to participants, presentation of information by teacher, tuning the students’ mindset for a game, presentation of script and rules of a game, formation of playing groups, distribution of role responsibilities, giving a game task, providing didactic, methodological and technical materials.

3. Game itself: discussion of the assignment in groups, consulting of the master of a game, roles performance by participants, communicative interaction of players within the playing groups, organization of a group thinking activity (GTA) within the playing groups, discussion of solution options, choice of an optimal solution for the task, a group speaker selection, training visualization, presentation, questions and answers, intragroup discussions.

4. Final stage: reflection of the participants, reflection of the master of a game, the winners determination, summing up of the game by the master of a game.

5. Post-playing stage: analysis of substantive and procedural sides of the DG, analysis and evaluation of the results.

Didactic and methodical support of a DG, or so-called package of a didactic game, includes:

1. Text materials.

2. Speech materials.

3. Linguistic materials.

4. Scenario of a didactic game:

a) plot description;

b) list of the rules of a game;

c) regulations;

d) indication of the sequence of actions in a game;

e) description of the roles of participants and social conditions in which there was verbal interaction.

Text materials should include:

a) problem information to be discussed;

b) samples of oral polemic speeches;

c) use of television and broadcasting plots.

Linguistic comment is:

a) lexical and grammatical information and rules;

b) exercises and activities to eliminate the formal difficulties in reading and reproducing of texts.

Speech material includes:

a) list of speech acts that serve different stages of a game;

b) rules of the connection of speech acts in the circuit of the connected monologue utterance;

c) tasks and exercises motivating communication between participants of a game.

In the context of the above-mentioned, usually teachers use the following types of lessons:

1) role-playing games in class (staging);

2) ludic organization of educational process with the use of game tasks (tutorial-contest lesson, trip-lesson, presentation-lesson);

3) ludic organization of educational process with the use of tasks that are usually offered at a traditional lesson (find an orfogramm, produce one of the kinds of parsing, etc.);

4) use of a game at a some point during the lesson (beginning, middle, end; acquaintance with a new material, reinforcement of knowledge and skills, repetition and systemization of a studied material).

The basis of a didactic game is an innovative content. It lies in the assimilation of the knowledge and skills that are used in solving educational problem. Game equipment includes usual lesson equipment: visual aids, training aids, didactic handouts, etc. The lessons include a variety of phonetic, lexical and grammatical games.

Important factors in the early stage of study of Russian as a foreign language are learning of the alphabet and development of reading skills. Therefore, a diversity of game forms at this stage is crucial.

Basing on practice experience, the following most simple games for the study of the alphabet could be recommended:

1. Ball throwing, calling the letter of the alphabet in the modes of: teacher-student, student-student, student-teacher.

2. One student calls any letter of the alphabet, other one should continue it.

3. One student calls a letter, another one should name both: a letter which is before the mentioned one and a letter standing after the named one, according to the alphabet order.

4. A student should add corresponding lowercase letters to uppercase ones and vice versa;

5. Fill in the missing letters.

6. A student should correct the order of the letters in the alphabet.

7. A student should find errors in the written alphabet.

8. A student should clap his hands when vowels are pronounced.

For memorization of a vocabulary and writing skills development a dictation on the pictures can be carried out.

Thus, the game is not opposed to the traditional education process, it is not inconsistent with modern theories of teaching, but is a form of integrated education, which should unite all types of training, the best of what was, is and will be in the theory and technology of teaching Russian as a foreign language.