Филологические науки/3. Методика  преподавания языка и литературы.

 

Магистр филологии Ерсултанова Г.Т., магистр Сейдуллаева А.Х.

Алматы менеджмент Университет, Казахстан

 

FORMATION OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN THE PROCESS OF LANGUAGE LEANING: DEVELOPING COMPREHENSION

         It is very important to understand what the learners read in a book. They should be able to give their opinion about what is written. There is a growing realization of the importance of providing learners with regular exposure to suitable spoken and written texts which illustrate natural discourse in context. It is also increasingly realized that good listening and reading skills need to be explicitly developed and fostered through a range of appropriate activities which provide learners with a purpose and guidance in coping with texts. The aim is to develop confident, autonomous listeners and readers who appreciate they do not have to understand everything and to provide them with successful experience which leave them positively disposed towards exploiting opportunities for listening and reading outside class.

This requires an approach which takes into account the factors involved in the comprehension process and which is based on sound criteria for choosing suitable texts matches to the interests and capabilities of the learners. One way of ensuring this match is to negotiate with learners so that they have some say in choosing texts and tasks and can take greater responsibility for their own learning.

         Understanding is an interactive process between what is read or listened to and learners’ background knowledge and experience, through which they bring meaning to text. In this process their understanding is dependent on:

•        Knowledge of the vocabulary;

•        Knowledge of topic;

•        Knowledge of the grammar;

Learner should understand that they do not need to understand all the words in the text. It is important to get the idea what the author wanted to show us and discuss the problem written in.

The theoretical rationale for a comprehension-based approach at early stages of teaching second languages came initially from studies of first language acquisition, in which the development of listening comprehension ability precedes and underlies the development of speaking ability, and later, in school, fluent reading of age appropriate texts precedes and facilitates the development of L1 composition skills. Further support for a comprehension-based approach to second language teaching has come from empirical research (1). An initial second language "incubation" or "internalization" period, where learners concentrate on under- standing the meanings of oral and written texts, is thought to help them to "formulate a map of meaning and form in their minds and to internalize the associations between form and meaning" (2). If learners are allowed to focus on language as a vehicle for meaning, it is thought that they will gradually assimilate syntactic and vocabulary knowledge in the target language. This receptive knowledge will form the basis for the production of utterances in the language. Some researchers go so far as to claim that production skills will "emerge" without explicit practice, as students receive and internalize large quantities of comprehended input (1). Requiring learners to produce in early stages is seen as not only frustrating and anxiety-causing for them, but also as counterproductive to an efficient learning process (1). It is thought that forcing production in the absence of adequate language knowledge causes students to fall back on first language knowledge, leading to the L1 and L2 "transfer" phenomena observed in their speech and writing (3), and possibly even to the fossilization of inaccurate forms (4). Following this rationale, instruction in the comprehension-based approach begins with a period during which the learner is required only to comprehend written and oral texts, and not to produce them -although production is encouraged. The incubation period in the comprehension-based approach is claimed to result in more accurate production, as learners are given sufficient exposure to native speaker models and enough time to internalize accurate oral and written representations of the forms and structures of the target language. Empirical evidence has demonstrated that extensive listening before production results in more accurate pronunciation (1). Less is known about the effect of early emphasis on comprehension in the development of grammatical, vocabulary and discourse level knowledge. Krashen  suggests that second language grammar is acquired through the understanding of meaning and that initial emphasis on formal aspects of language is counterproductive; formal knowledge is acquired incidentally while the learner is focused on meaning. There is considerable empirical evidence from Canadian French immersion programs and other contexts where comprehension is emphasized almost exclusively in the initial stages that such development indeed takes place (5). Recent research, including that with French immersion students, suggests, however, that learner analysis of language form as an aid in comprehending and creating texts may be important in developing grammatical accuracy in some aspects of speaking and writing-notably those that lack salience in communicative language use (Allen, Carroll, Burtis and Gandino, 1987; Burger, 1989; Harley, 1992; Swain, 1985, 1988; Van Patten, 1990) and may even enhance comprehension ability (6). Proponents argue that learners need to know how formal structures organize and represent meaning, and that learners should therefore be made explicitly aware of the links between grammatical structure and meaning in oral and written input.

 

References

1.      Rezida A. Fahrutdinova, Iskander E. Yarmakeev & Rifat R. Fakhrutdinov; the Formation of Students’ Foreign Language Communicative Competence during the Learning Process of the English Language through Interactive Learning Technologies (The Study on the Basis of Kazan Federal University); Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication, Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Kazan, Russia, 2014.

 

2.     Е.С. Кубрякова. – М.: Языки славянской культуры, 2004. – 560 с. 7. Назаров А.И. Обобщенная модель познавательной деятельности индивида / А.И. Назаров //  Психологическая наука и образование. – 2000. – № 3. –С. 40-60.

3.     S.S.Kunanbaeva,  http://group-global.org/kk/node/5449

4.     McGuire William (1981). "Theoretical Foundations of Campaigns." In Ronald Rice and William Paisley (eds.), Public Communication Campaigns, Sage.

5.     http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/viewFile/42407/23168

6.     S. S.  Kunanbaeva,  Theory and practice of modern foreign language education; Almaty, 2010.