Костюченко Олексій, студент першого курсу

Люлько Михайло, старший викладач

Національний університет біоресурсів і природокористування України

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Language is the easiest way to communicate your thoughts to another person. That is why an increasing number of people are trying to learn a second foreign language in order to communicate with people living in other foreign countries who speak that language.

You can use available resources like books, newspapers, movies, music, the radio and TV to your advantage and all the new technologies to achieve your target. The modern use of information technology and the internet can help you a great deal in learning a language very easily. Online courses and dictionaries, web resources like podcasts, blogs, magazines, posts along with the TV and the radio can all help you to learn the language quite easily.

Nowadays, progress in technology is constantly moving forward. This is reflected in education and teaching.

The introduction of modern information technologies into the system of education gives an opportunity to improve the mechanisms of the education system management by means of communications chain use, methods forms and content in compliance with the  of student’s personality development under current conditions of the society informatization. It helps in forming the skills of acquiring knowledge, carrying out research, using computer systems for diagnostics, testing and knowledge control independently.

The most powerful source of the students’ cognitive activity, developing their creativity, interests, skills and other mental characteristics is innovative technologies. Innovative educational technologies are, first of all, information and communications technologies, closely connected with computerized education application. Knowing a foreign language, especially English, which has become the language of international communication, makes a specialist of any sphere more competitive at labour-market. Inestimable help for students in mastering a foreign language can provide Internet. The global web gives a unique opportunity for foreign language learners to use authentic texts, communicate with native-speakers, creating natural language environment and forming the abilities of intercultural cooperation.

Nowadays teaching foreign languages at higher educational establishments undergoes great changes. New information technologies, such as Internet, audio and video complexes, multimedia training computer programs are widely used.

Multimedia technologies are a set of different means of teaching: texts, graphic presentations, music, video and animation in the interactive mode. New training environment creates additional opportunities for students’ creativity development, promotes their curiosity, and fosters their interest to the research work.

Purposeful use of the Internet materials at foreign language classes of non-linguistic higher educational establishments gives an opportunity to effectively solve a number of didactic tasks. They are:

- improving reading skills;

- enlarging the vocabulary with the modern foreign words;

- improving monological and dialogical speech skills, discussing the materials of the web;

- Forming stable motivation to foreign language activity while discussing the problems, interesting for everybody.

Equipping higher educational establishments with computers enables to actively use computer programs in teaching foreign languages. It is practically proved, that they have some advantages over traditional methods of teaching. Computer programs provide huge information capacity, intensification of each student’s independent work, creating communicative situation personally significant for everybody, increasing cognitive students’ activity, and promoting motivation.

Modern multimedia programs are an effective means of mental work conditions optimization. The forms of work with computer training programs at the foreign language classes include learning the vocabulary, working on pronunciation, teaching monological and dialogical speech, teaching writing and grammar. At the English language classes we can solve a number of didactic problems using the Internet materials, enlarge students’ vocabulary and form their reading skills, improve their writing skills, create stable motivation for learning a foreign language.

Computerized means of control increase the efficiency of independent work, immediacy of getting results, objectivity in giving marks.

Using multimedia programs doesn’t exclude traditional methods of teaching, but harmoniously combine with them at all levels: familiarization, training, application and control. But using computer allows not only to increase the efficiency of study, but also to encourage students to further independent learning of the language. In order to achieve best results, it’s necessary to study carefully all components of the educational process.

In the XXI century intensification and modernization of education require the application of such innovative technologies, which tend to cultivate a creative personality in the intellectual and emotional dimensions. Such innovative technologies are: developing study, projecting, problem study, level differentiation, test system, gaming study, plunging in a foreign language culture, cooperative study, self-education, autonomy, integration, health caring, research, information communicative and personality-oriented technologies. Under such conditions cognitive versatile actions are one of the main components of educational standards.

One of the ways to brisk up the work of students while teaching foreign languages is projecting (method of projects), when a student makes independent planning, creating, defending his project; i.e. takes active part in the process of communicative activity. Training project is a complex of searching, investigating, calculating, graphic and other kinds of activity, carried out by the students independently in order to solve an urgent problem practically or theoretically. The main tasks of projecting methods are:

- self-actualization and self-perfection of the students, increasing the motivation of study, cognitive interest formation;

- implementation of the acquired abilities and skills, developing speech habits, the abilities to competently and reasonably present the researched material,  to moderate debate;

- showing the level of culture, education and social maturity.

Method of projects helps develop language and mental skills, stable interest to learning a foreign language, need of self-education.

So, innovative technologies, having been mentioned above, significantly enrich and diversify the process of teaching foreign languages. Intellectual, creative search comes up to take the place of monotonous work. It helps to create a personality of a new type, active, purposeful, directed on constant self-education and development. Thus, information technologies favour the efficiency increase of the study process, its individualization, active pedagogical cooperation of teachers and students; create optimal conditions for creative use of information in students’ independent cognitive activity. Computers application encourages the optimization of teaching management, efficiency increase of study process, saves teachers’ time for the work with teaching material, simplifying its search, analysis, selection and gives an opportunity of application of new organizational forms of teaching.

Literature:

1. Gary Motteram “Innovations in learning technologies for English language teaching” – British Council, 2013.

2. Gavin Dudeney, Nicky Hockly “How to… teach English with technology” – Pearson Longman, 2007.

3. Bonk, C.J. and C.R. Graham. Handbook of Blended Learning: Global Perspectives, Local Designs. San Francisco, CA. Pfeiffer Publishing, 2005.

4. Driscoll, M. “Blended Learning: Let’s Go beyond the Hype.” E-learning. 1. March, 2002.