Педагогические  науки/ Современные методы преподавания

Nurlanbekova Y.K., Sarymbetova A.A.

Kazakh state women’s teacher training university, Kazakhstan, Almaty

Oral composition as a Basis for Effective Training in Written Composition

One of the main necessities in the learning of a foreign language is the development of the four skills, which are listening, speaking, reading and writing. As a consequence, learners have many problems, especially in oral communication. When they try to express themselves orally, they only pronounce isolated words and disconnected sentences making their production poor and meaningless. Training in oral skills which let them communicate and interact in a meaningful and fruitful form, that is, exchanging information, negotiating meaning, supporting ideas, facing oral defenses, is a way to motivate students to see the foreign language as a vehicle for social interaction. On the other hand, it is important to create a positive environment to encourage the learners’ interaction. As such, they can express their ideas, feelings and opinions without feeling afraid of making mistakes. Students can also carry out communicative tasks in an effective way.

Willis (1996) states that creating a low stress atmosphere and using the language for real purposes are ways to get meaningful communication and through interaction learners have the chance to acquire discourse skills. Willis also highlights the essential conditions for effective language learning, such as exposure, use, and motivation. With this view of language, task-based learning offers many advantages in the designing of communicative activities and the development and improvement of oral skills [1].

Nunan (1991: 279) says that task-based learning views the learning process as a set of communicative tasks that are directly linked to the curricular goals they serve. Task-based teaching involves an approach where communicative tasks are important because students need to engage in interactions inside and outside the classrooms. This view changes the approach of designing tasks to be developed in the classroom. It means teachers and students must be engaged in tasks which involve meaningful contexts where learners use the foreign language in a real form not only for a grade but for their daily life. Task-based learning lets the students develop a set of discourse strategies such as opening and closing conversation, introducing a topic, etc. Also, the learners have the opportunity to interact in different situations, in different groups and audiences [2]. At this point we want to highlight the importance of oral compositions because when learners work in groups, they have the chance to rehearse their speech and also give and receive feedback.

Oral compositions have been very popular in English language teaching for some time. The idea is for the teacher and students working together to build up a narrative orally before writing it. The process of building up the composition with the whole class allows the teacher and students to focus in on a variety of language items from tense usage to cohesive elements, etc.

Oral compositions can be handled with visual or aural stimuli. In story, or play them a tape with a series of sounds. The example we are going to look at uses pictures.

The teacher starts the procedure by showing the students a picture and eliciting the information from them using the language he and they want.

The teacher has prepared the following text for the picture:

Yesterday John Smith left his home at eight o’clock. As usual he said goodbye to his wife and got into his Rolls Royce. It was raining heavily.

The teacher introduces the key concepts (e.g. that the story is about yesterday, that the man’s name is John Smith, etc.).

The teacher builds up the story with four pictures (showing John Smith picking up a tramp, the at John Smith’s home, the tramp and Mrs Smith kicking John Smith out of the house, and the tramp at the wheel of the Rolls passing John Smith in rags).

When the teacher and the students have built up the whole story the teacher will write up key words from it, for example:

Yesterday John Smith ________ at eight o’clock. As usual _____ and ______ Rolls Royce. It _______ heavily. etc.

Working in pairs the students complete the story which is then checked with the whole class on the blackboard.

The finished story may form a useful model for a parallel writing task where the teacher brings in a similar picture sequence and the students write their own narrative either singly or in pairs or groups. Writing demands concentration, logic, order, and complex thinking skills.

Oral compositions are useful, then for the teaching of narrative style and thus the use of various past tenses. However, they take a long time and should therefore used sparingly.

Literature:

1. Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. London: Longman.

2.         Nunan, D. (1991). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press.