Педагогические науки/5.Современные методы преподавания

Shvaikovskiy A. - candidate of pedagogics

Azhazha V., Tastanbekova N.

M.Auezov South Kazakhstan State University, Kazakhstan

Teaching experience through activities useful for developing students’ motivation, creative thinking, speaking skills and vocabulary enrichment

The issues of teaching experience through activities that can be useful to develop students’ motivation, creative thinking, speaking skills and vocabulary enrichment are closely connected with the actuality of mastering a foreign language in modern conditions of the world globalization. To be successful today the person needs to know at least one additional language, besides the native language. The foreign language is being fully realized as a means of communication, understanding and interaction of people, as a means of familiarizing with other national cultures and as important means for development of mental abilities of school students and their general educational potential.

The overall objective of the educational reforms in Kazakhstan is adaptation of the education system to the new socio-economic environment. The entering of the Republic into the number of the most competitive countries of the world is tasked by our President. The education system improvement plays an important role in achieving this goal [1, 2].

English is one of the most widespread foreign languages, which are currently taught at school. As our President mentioned “English is the language of successful integration into the global economy” [3]. Mastering the bases of English gives pupils the chance to familiarize with one of the most widespread means of cross-cultural communication, the most important source of information in the modern world and its processes. Besides, foreign language gives an opportunity to enrich communicative experience, outlook, general and speech culture. Being the means of communication, English language has to be in “a ready state to the use” in arising and created situations of communication in oral speech and when reading.

A teacher has to motivate his/her students to study a foreign language. Modern psychologists and teachers admit that quality of work and its results depend primarily on motivation and needs of the individual, his/her motivation; namely motivation is purposeful activity that determines the choice of means and methods, their ordering to meet the objectives.

On the other hand the teachers should know what activities to use at the lessons because they greatly influence students’ creative thinking, speaking skills and vocabulary enrichment. Due to this fact students’ communicative competence will be enhanced that is very significant in teaching the English language nowadays.

It will not be a successful class if the students do not feel any interest at the very beginning of a class. So, a teacher should try to start a lesson in a way which keeps his\her students engaged. An interesting way of starting a lesson could be by means of the so-called warm-up activities. A warm-up stage is a preparatory stage which helps the students feel relaxed and also sets a positive mood for learning. By spending five or ten minutes for warm-up activities, learners can be motivated from the beginning of a class.

Motivation for learning is influenced by the learners’ interest in the class activities. Students will be motivated to learn when the activities and exercises for language learning are interesting for them. So, the warm-up activity used to motivate students should be interesting. It is defined that motivation is learners’ interest and enthusiasm for the learning materials and tasks used in class and it indicates their levels of attention, concentration and enjoyment.

Warm-up activity has to be related with the lesson topic so that in other stages students can get involved in different activities easily to develop their language skills. Here are some examples of warm up activities: proverb matching, jigsaw reading, back to back, odd one out.

Creativity is an essential skill that students need in order to be successful in the 21^st century. Creative students are better at making changes, solving new problems, expressing themselves through the arts, etc. Mind-mapping is one of the best ways to enhance creative thinking and develop vocabulary on the one hand and to capture students’ thoughts and bring them to life in visual form on the other hand. Beyond just note-taking, though, mind-maps can help students become more creative, memorize more, and solve problems more effectively. The act of mapping something out encourages the individual to create an internal retelling of the story.

Mind-maps can be used for pretty much any thinking or learning task, from studying a subject (such as a new language) to planning your career or even building better habits. They are great for teams to use as well, for group brainstorming and interactive presentations.

The use of mind-maps in class is useful when working on all sorts of skills. For example, students can use a mind-map to quickly jot down the gist of an article they have read. Another great exercise is using mind-maps to learn vocabulary.

Vocabulary is central to English language teaching because word possession is an essential prerequisite of speaking [4]. That is why we suggest using vocabulary games as an effective way of teaching vocabulary. The following vocabulary games for motivating learners can be used in teaching process: Apple Pass, Backs to the Board Game, Charades.

Speaking is another crucial part of the language learning process. Effective teachers suggest students some speaking strategies that they can use to expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it. Teachers help students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn. But in the English classroom we have difficulties with motivation. Students have low motivation to learn English. If students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get demotivated and lose interest in learning. Nevertheless, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking classroom can be a lot of fun, raise learner’s motivation and make the English language classroom a fun and a dynamic place to study English. The following communicative activities are useful for development of speaking skills: discussions, brainstorming, simulations, information gap, storytelling, interview, story completion, reporting.

And finally teachers can check and assess their learners’ knowledge using Socrative. It is an enquiry-based learning in action. Socrative is an engaging tool to quiz students’ understanding. By using Socrative, you can test your students’ knowledge to gauge their current level, check ‘in-lesson’ concept learning, and add interaction to classes as students respond via their mobile device [5].

Teachers should invite Socratic methods into teaching by signing up for Socrative and merge the ancient philosophy of Socrates with the modern technologies and devices that they use today.

Socrative is a system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

After setting a simple quiz you can give instant feedback, and track the students’ progress over a period of time. Students are able to access and answer the quizzes via their smart devices, either as part of the lesson or from home.

Thus we can state that efficiency of educational process depends on teacher’s teaching experience to organize lessons and intelligently select activities that motivate each student to communicate. Therefore, it is important for English language teacher to be able to choose competently the form and methods of teaching, to create conditions for students’ activity, develop communication skills, enrich vocabulary and improve students’ abilities.

References:

1. Poslanie Prezidenta Respubliki Kazakhstan - Lidera natsii narodu Kazakhstana “Strategiya Kazakhstan - 2050” – novyi poloticheskiy kurs sostoyavshegosya gosudarstva // Kazakhstanskaya pravda. - 2012.

2. Programma razvitiya obrazovaniya Respubliki Kazakhstan na 2011-2020 gody. - Astana, 2008.

3. N.Nazarbayev. Sotsialnaya modernizatsiya Kazakhstana: Dvadsat shagov k Obschestvu Vseobschego Truda // Kazakhstanskaya pravda. - 2012. - №218-219.

4. G.V.Rogova, F.M.Rabinovitch, T.E.Sakharova. Metodika obucheniya inostrannym yazykam v srednei shkole. - M.: Prosvescheniye, 1991.

5. http://www.socrative.com