V. Kasyanova

Kostanai State University named after A.Baitursynov, Kazakhstan

Control in the process of teaching a foreign language

The quality of teaching a foreign language depends on the proper organization and management of educational process. The degree of mastering a foreign language is reflected in different levels of verbal skills formation, which, in turn, must meet the requirements and objectives of the phased training. However, one should consider the fact that in practice there often appear some differences between the training program and the actual results. In this regard, management of educational process must be based on feedback, i.e. systematic information on how the students learn the material. In the learning process this feedback is provided by systematic control. Control plays an important role in teaching, as it gives a teacher the opportunity to observe, analyze, adjust the course of academic work and objectively assess the students’ progress. Proper organization of control helps to provide a flexible management of educational process.

The data the teacher regularly receives as a result of observation contain the information first of all on the quality of students’ assimilation of the training material and secondly give the evidence that methods of teaching meet the specific needs of learning a foreign language. Performing certain exercises and activities, the students are informed about the process and the evaluation of their learning activities in the form of the teacher’s comments, as well as the keys to tasks, in accordance with which the students themselves carry out and self-correct their speech acts. The content of training suggests that in the process of teaching students should learn some and enough training material in order to master the verbal activity. The quality of mastering the material that is being studied leads to the successful formation of language skills and this process is largely determined by how the students assimilated the necessary theoretical information. However, the practical role of theoretical knowledge is often overlooked, which is manifested in the formal nature of the testing and evaluation of knowledge. In this case, the results of the control do not show the real picture of students’ learning specific material and they do not reflect the development of their language skills and make it impossible to introduce necessary adjustments in the educational process. In this case the organizing role in the formation of knowledge of certain language skills is not implemented. This does not mean that the control should be kept to the tasks of a theoretical nature.

The object of the control should become the quality of learning that influences the success in the necessary skills formation and supports its continued development. Assimilation of knowledge at classes of a foreign language is checked through the students’ speech activity. In this case, knowledge and skills are checked simultaneously. In some cases it is advisable to check the knowledge of the rules. For example, before fulfilling some tasks you can ask on the basis of what rule a student is going to make this action, i.e. to exercise prior control. This will help the students to avoid possible mistakes. The teacher’s questions should encourage the students to speech activities (not "Tell the rule," but "What is the form of the verb?” or “Why is it necessary to use this form here?" etc.). Various oral and written exercises involving the students in speech activity are used as the primary means of control. The nature of these exercises depends generally on the objectives of the control. So exercises which require anything to add, replace, insert, etc. are used to control synthesis and design skills. Analytical skills are checked by the tasks on selection, grouping and separation of some events. The criterions for assessment are quantitative and qualitative indicators for each type of speech activity. For example, the quantitative indicators of reading are the text size and speed; of speaking - the number of speech units used in speech. The completeness of the topic and the nature of the correct use of the language material are the quality indicators of speaking.

Let’s consider the types of the control which are widely used in teaching a foreign language. Preliminary control is designed to define the initial level of students on the basis of which we construct training in general. Usually it is held at the beginning of the academic year. Preliminary control is usually performed at the first lesson, which takes place in the form of a student's assignments, designed for the use of the studied material. A kind of the preliminary control is testing, aimed at determining the level of students’ language skills. Groups are formed on the basis of the test data and the training program for each group is defined. Final control reveals students’ levels in different kinds of speech activity. This type of the control is carried out at the end of each semester with special assignments. The aim of interim control is to determine the intermediate level of mastering a specific part of the curriculum, i.e. the degree of the development of language skills and abilities that have been the objects of work within a certain series of lessons. The frequency of this control is determined by the calendar-thematic plan, which records types of activity and forms of control. Monitoring is carried out at each lesson in the process of learning the material. This control reveals specific "current" difficulties of the students. Open control is based on an arbitrary form of attention, when the students are aware of the controlled nature of their activities. Secret control is based on involuntary attention, because students work is not aimed at the control but teaching. Preliminary as well as final and interim types of control are of open nature. Preliminary and current control can be not only open, but secret. The following forms of control are used at foreign language classes: 1) front, group, individual and differentiated, 2) oral and written.

Assessment of results is a challenging aspect of the control, which requires the teacher’s objectivity and skills. Assessment provides a qualitative description of the course of the educational process. Knowledge is assessed in scores (maximum score – 100). An important requirement for the evaluation of the results of training is its objectivity. The scores obtained should be motivated so that students couldn’t doubt the fairness.

Literature

1. Harmer, Jeremy. How to teach English. An introduction to the practice of English language teaching. – Longman, 2004.

2. New Perspectives on Call for Second Language Classrooms / Ed. by Sandra Fotos; Charles M. Browne. – Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.