V.
Kasyanova
Kostanay
State University named after A.Baitursynov, Kazakhstan
Reading texts of
professionally-oriented contents with the students of non- linguistic
specialties
Nowadays one of the most promising directions in teaching foreign
languages is training with the specific professional goals. A qualitatively new
stage in the development of methods of teaching a professionally-oriented
foreign language at non-linguistic faculties of higher educational institutions
is dictated by the modern social order: it is necessary to teach a foreign
language taking into account the specific perspectives of the professional
activities. Today, when applying for a
job in a more or less solid organization, besides professional competence it is
necessary to have a certain level of language proficiency. The opportunity to
get an interesting job with a higher salary, to reach a career growth and
communicate with colleagues from abroad requires knowledge of a foreign
language.
To special features of teaching a professionally-oriented
foreign language first of all we refer careful selection of the text material,
the main characteristics of which are the authenticity, presence of communicative
and professional orientation and the degree of complexity, which corresponds to
the level of students’ preparation. Even at the initial stage of training, when
the level of language and vocational training of students is still
insufficient, preference is given to the use of simple authentic texts selected
from elementary textbooks in the specialty. In teaching reading this
professional orientation should be traced not only in the themes of the texts,
but also in the character of the text exercises that are the basis for the
implementation of educational activities. Meanwhile, if you have the original interesting and modern textual
material in textbooks and manuals, there is a lack of communicative exercises
aimed at the achievement of the stated communicative purpose. Methodists note
the lack of tasks that require the implementation of new techniques and methods
of training, lack of elaboration of effective exercises that you will see if
you get acquainted with textbooks of the foreign language for high schools:
uniform exercises, the traditional formulation of tasks - it all goes from one
textbook to another for decades, reducing the students’ interest in studying a
foreign language.
An
important factor that ensures the formation of foreign language skills of
professional reading is the presence of the developed system of communicative
exercises on the basis of selected texts. These exercises should reflect the
real situation of professional activity and form in the future specialist
communicative competence in reading. According to the findings of
psychologists, the consideration of the psychological factor is required for
foreign language teaching: it is directly connected with the effectiveness of
the learning process.
Motivation
of mastering a professionally-oriented reading promotes interest in the
implementation of educational activities. Tasks should guide students to use
the foreign language to solve professional problems, and to create appropriate
speech activities.
For example: After reading texts students can be given the following tasks:
- Is the classification of plows
which you find in the text recognized in our country? Relying on the text, give this classification.
- What should an engineer do, if it
is necessary to increase the engine’s speed?
Does the text contain complete
information?
- Look carefully at the picture.
Tell please, whether it reflects all the ways of storing food given in the
text?
The experience shows that tasks which are problematic by
nature and have high motivational characteristics present the greatest interest
for students and are the most effective. It is worth paying attention to the
presentation of problem tasks as they always contain a question - not only a
command for performance certain learning activities. It is this form -
"problem- the question" - actually makes it communicative, forms the
basis for an interactive interrelation between a teacher and a student.
Communicative orientation of such tasks is enhanced by the fact that they are
designed for the simultaneous fulfillment by the whole group of the students:
during a dialogue with a teacher, all the students take part in thinking over
and solving the problem and the time limit to complete the task promotes
activization of mental and learning activities.
Assignments for the development of skills in different kinds of reading
can be quite different, because the understanding of the text requires the
extraction of factual information and processing of its contents, the ability
to assess the facts and to interpret the read material:
- List the new technologies
(processing of milk, grinding flour, grain storage) described in the text.
Which ones would you recommend to use in your farm (at your company)? Give your answer, using the data from the text.
- Which of the above technologies
for processing oils have been known to you before? Which are used in
Kazakhstan?
Such problems develop in students a very important skill to
interpret and evaluate the information,
depending on the questions raised, develop the habit of using obtained in the process of reading knowledge
in a professional situation, make conclusions based on the facts set out in the
text, and this provides communicative competence in reading. Interest in the
performance of tasks, the character of the in-depth study of the text depend
not only on the structure of the text material, but also largely on the
formulation of the problem. It is therefore necessary that the tasks aimed at
developing skills of professional reading should arouse interest, they should
not be stereotypical, but expose the problem from an unexpected angle. Tasks
that are performed after reading presuppose reaction to the text, evaluation of
its content and relation to the students’ own experience:
-
Based on the information from the text, draw a conclusion, if the
described technology of soil cultivation is suitable for the conditions in your
region. Explain your answer.
- Is the described in this
advertisement equipment suitable for your company? Would you recommend the
company to buy it? Justify your answer using the information from the text.
When giving such tasks we think
about the combined development of skills to work with foreign texts (use of
different types of reading). Such exercises, in our opinion, are quite
fruitful, as they create real conditions and problems of professional reading. Preparing such complex tasks it is necessary to consider the language
level of the students as well as the level of their professional training.
Professional orientation of foreign language teaching in the conditions of non-
linguistic faculties has certain specific features at each level. Tasks that
develop skills of reading literature should be used at a higher level of
education. Problem tasks stimulate interest to a foreign language as an
academic discipline, since the professionally important information obtained in
the process of reading can be used for related activities. The highest
motivation criterion is the assessment of reading from a professional point of
view, the recognition of foreign literature as an interesting, useful,
necessary source of information for a specialist.
Making a conclusion we would like to stress the importance of
creation and use of special assignments that provide communicatively-oriented
and professionally-directed character of teaching reading in a foreign language
at non-linguistic faculties.
References:
1.
Бородина А. И. Приёмы проблемного обучения в профессионально-ориентированном
учебнике для интенсивного обучения чтению на иностранном языке / А. И. Бородина
// Новые технологии коммуникативно-ориентированного обучения иностранному языку
в неязыковом вузе. – М.: МГЛУ, 2000.
2.
Калмыкова Е. И. Современный учебник : учеб. пособие по иностр. языку как
средство гуманитаризации техн. образования / Е. И. Калмыкова // Cб. науч. тр.
МГЛУ. – М., 2000. – Вып.449.
3.
Мусницкая Е. В. Новые тенденции и актуальные проблемы формирования умений
иноязычного общения у студентов неязыкового вуза / Е. В. Мусницкая // Cб. науч.
тр. МГЛУ. – М., 2000. – Вып.454.