A. V. Pavlovych
National Technical University of Ukraine “KPI”
Importance
of Information Perception in Foreign Language Teaching.
Foreign
language learning implies perceiving and acquiring information. This is the
prerequisite of mastering a foreign language at a sufficient level allowing to
communicate and understand speech in oral and written forms.
In
foreign language taking into consideration peculiarities of information
perception is essential as it includes overall efficiency of teaching and
knowledge acquiring. A proper way of providing information is fundamental to
success of pedagogical activity of a foreign language teacher.
Information
perception of a person is realized by means of their sense organs. In this
respect, all of them play a significant role but sight and hearing are
especially important as with their help a person acquires the main part of
information. In providing information the best results are achieved when visual
and audial information is combined since organs of hearing and organs of sight
increase the stimuli ratio and exert influence upon a long-term memory.
Researches have confirmed that a human being remembers 15% of information
obtained in an audial form and 25% of information obtained in a visual form,
provided that both these forms of information transfer are combined a student
can perceive up to 65% of information content. It follows from this that the
role of audio-visual teaching facilities (films, educational videos, computer
video tracks accompanied by speech and music) is very important. According to
Ananiev`s statements perception undergoes three levels through visual system
which are sensation, perception and imagining; through audial system it
undergoes only one level which is imagining. It proves that information is
perceived better during reading than during listening. It has been
scientifically proved that during listening up to 20% of information is lost
for there are always distracting factors (reaction to extrinsical stimuli). It
is interesting that each 5-10 seconds a human brain “switches off” during
information perception that is why it is necessary to repeat information in
different ways. In general each person has their own representative system by
means of which they predominantly perceive information being received.
A
type of mental activity is very important for information perception. According
to the data of neuropsychologists 48%
of people think in a logical way and 52% think in a creative way. In this
process 24% of people thinking in a logical way go over to a creative thinking
and 26% of people thinking in a creative way pass to logical thinking. Some
people are good at remembering numbers, other people remember dates well etc.
Most psychologists think that retention of some specific material depends a lot
on the type of a person`s thinking, on the way of world perception.
Perception
is considered as a consistent reflection of the world, an object, situations
and events, which appears under a direct influence of physical stimuli on
receptor areas of sense organs. Perception is an active process connected with
putting forward hypotheses. Different people can see different things even
while observing the same object. [1]
Learning
a word is a process that includes perceiving and reproducing a word. One has to
understand a definite word in speech and reading, be able to use it in speaking
and writing. It is important to know syntactic and semantic properties of a
word, its lexical structure (its connection with other words).
Acquiring
foreign language vocabulary comes from reading, as words are learned in
context, not separately, though using a dictionary is indispensable. While reading
it is possible to comprehend the context a word is used in, and try to infer
the meaning of new words. Reading provides whole language, not merely a list of
words. While reading it is possible to remember language patterns. Reading enriches our vocabulary but it is
also important to be able to use words in speaking or writing which comes down
to active vocabulary. The latter requires practicing new words in speaking and
writing. Different forms of exercises can help with that: flash cards, fill-in-the-gaps
exercises, finding synonyms or antonyms, translation, written tasks etc. [2]
On
the other hand using words in speaking is specifically important as
communication is a spontaneous process which requires fluency. Using personally oriented teaching is
an effective way of helping students with learning new words and using them in
speech. Life-related situations can be very motivating and useful in foreign
language vocabulary acquiring. Communicative approach is a very effective way
of foreign language teaching as it helps to use previously learned information
in speaking using new words and grammatical structures in new contexts.
In
terms of personally oriented teaching, it is possible to give students
possibilities to improve their knowledge of a foreign language. One of aspects
of such language teaching is learning and memorizing vocabulary. Role-play
games, communicative exercises, discussions, reports, presentations are all
means of foreign language vocabulary acquisition that can supplement foreign
language teaching in the the use of the above-mentioned approach.
In
foreign language taking into consideration peculiarities of information
perception is essential as it includes overall efficiency of teaching and
knowledge acquiring.
1. Tovazhnanskii L. L., Romanovskii O. G., Bondarenko V. V., Ponomaov O.
S., Chervanova Z. O. (Ed.) (2005). Fundamentals of Pedagogics of Higher
Institutions. Kharkiv, Ukraine: NTU “HPI” [In Ukrainian]. http://buklib.net/books/36624/
2. Nick C. Ellis (Ed.) (1995). The Psychology of Foreign Language
Vocabulary Acquisition: Implications for CALL. International Journal of
Computer Assisted Language Learning http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ncellis/NickEllis/Publications_files/CALLPaper.pd