Педагогические науки/ 2. Проблемы подготовки специалиста

Ніколаєнко О.В.,

Ушата Т.О.,

Чернігівській державний інститут економіки і управління

THE ROLE OF a VIRTUAL LANGUAGE ENVIRONMENT IN TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Information and communications technology is becoming an integral part of our life in modern society, a means of communication for greater and greater amount of people. The Internet resources are an invaluable base for creating information environment, getting education and self-education, for satisfying professional and personal interests and needs. Thus, great attention is paid to the education system informatization, a linguistic one in particular.

Ukrainian system of education is not an exception. It also undergoes great changes, connected with all fields of society activity informatization. It presupposes the increase of quality requirements to future specialists training, i.e. the increasing significance of general and professional education. As a result, changes taking place in economic, political, social and cultural spheres of society need new understanding of professional higher education goals.

The goal of teaching a foreign language at higher educational establishments is forming a foreign language competence which will be determined by the ability to hold conversation in interlocutors’ personal presence and also by means of different Internet services, as at the current stage of technological development an Internet conversation is not considered as an additional one, but as a separate, equal type of human conversation.

Under the conditions of conversion to European and world standards of education and to Bologna system of education the problem of studying foreign languages is becoming more and more urgent. The experience available in this branch proves that difficulties in mastering foreign languages don’t reduce with the lapse of time. Studying foreign languages lasts for a long time end requires great efforts, but very often it doesn’t bring desired results. Such a situation promotes searching for new, efficient methods of teaching, which would use modern achievements in different branches of knowledge as much as possible, psychology, philology, technical and economic sciences in particular to make the process of learning foreign languages easier.

Analyzing the difficulties while studying foreign languages we should mention that they are primarily psychological ones. The main problem that impedes effective mastering a foreign language is the absence of corresponding, adequate language environment. From the point of view of psychology the process of learning a foreign language should be considered as a process of adaptation to the available social environment conditions. Language environment is an information component of a social one, where information is transferred by means of a language. So, learning a foreign language can be considered as a process of adaptation to a certain language environment. Besides, the authentic language environment, which is created by native-speakers, is absent. It must be appropriately modeled, or else it’s impossible to adapt completely to it. Thus, there are following strategic tasks, which should be solved in the process of studying foreign languages:

- Creating a full-fledged language environment (with the features approximated to the real one as much as possible).

- Arranging the activity, directed at the adaptation to the created language environment and managing this process in order to optimize it.

It’s generally known that with the help of traditional methods based on text-books and learning aids the process of study will be too slow and difficult to realize. Such mastering a foreign language is rather inefficient. It’s not a success to improve the situation even with the limited use of audio and video learning aids. Though, modern level of hardware gives new opportunities in this field.

It’s very difficult to create a real language environment outside the realm of a certain language operation, and it’s almost impossible to substitute it in some traditional ways. Though, it may be rather fully substituted by a virtual language environment. Virtual language environment (VLE) is a language environment, reproduced by means of modern hardware under the direct absence of native speakers. In this case authentic native speakers will be present and will create the necessary and adequate language environment, but indirectly. The effect of their presence will be complete as much as possible due to the use of modern audiovisual instructional technologies.

VLE is created by carrying out different training tasks using audial and audiovisual instructional technologies, where language material is represented in a language, which is being learnt: listening to reports and presentations with the synchronous video information, listening to radio programs with synchronous doing tasks, listening to audio books on a certain topic, watching TV programs and pieces of news, watching country study materials, watching video films on DVD, learning material and doing tasks interactively using training programs, discussing the information got form the instructional technologies, solving some problem situations modeled and represented by means of instructional technologies, including using games etc.

Surfing the Internet provides certain opportunities in training process intensification. Students are given different tasks concerning searching for some information etc.

One more issue that should be settled while studying foreign languages is arranging this process in such a way that it should progress in optimal forms and yield positive results. This task was successfully performed due to modern scientific researches in the sphere of psychology of the activity. The matter is that mastering foreign languages can be considered as a process of conscious activity. Requirement and motivation component of training activity involves the need for self-actualization in life in general and in a certain activity, a professional one in particular; other needs which a person intends to satisfy while mastering foreign languages; likings, and also a corresponding motivation to the choice of this activity. The need of knowing a foreign language, which may be realized not only in a certain professional activity, but also in everyday communication, while having rest and at leisure, forms an appropriate motivation of mastering certain languages, thus a person starts their learning. Task setting component involves life purposes, which a person intends to achieve by means of mastering a certain language, performing professional duties, reaching a certain level of professional skills, realizing personal professional and educational desires, including those abroad (employment, travelling etc.). Sense and emotions component involves the existence of a certain emotional state of a person to the activity he is engaged in, and also a certain emotional attitude towards the results of learning a language and its assessment by the people around.

It’s important to select the information, which is represented by means of instructional technologies for creating a proper VLE, in such a way that it would be interesting and useful for the students. It may be professional information (if the group of students, selected, is of a particular profession) or other urgent information.

As for the classes level of complexity and so the level of mastering a foreign language according to these methods of teaching, it should be mentioned that they are suitable for teaching students with different initial levels of foreign language knowledge. However, most of audio and video materials correspond to the intermediate level of complexity. These materials are fiction (audio books) and movies. That’s why it’s easier to arrange mastering a foreign language according to these methods for the students, who have already got some initial language skills (they know letters, sounds, transcription some hundreds of commonly used words etc.) The material that is available for creating VLE enables such students to successfully master a foreign language at an everyday level.

These methods are also suitable for teaching a foreign language to the students who have never learnt this language before or know almost nothing. Then we should start learning it from the alphabet, sounds, the easiest words etc. Though, we should take into account that it’s more difficult to create the VLE for the students of this level because there is a lack of necessary audio and visual materials of the appropriate level. They are mostly audio stories for children, cartoons etc.

These methods are also suitable for the students who would like to master a language at an appropriate professional level, who speak it fluently in everyday life. Though arranging classes for such student you are necessarily to be confronted with difficulties of creating the appropriate VLE, as the choice of audio and video materials of a high professional level of complexity is limited on the domestic market.

All those methods mentioned above presuppose using the Information and Communications Technology (ICT). ICT is a set of computer, information and communications technologies, which provide creation, storing, processing and transferring information between students and teachers, among students, teachers and other members of the process of study, which are closely integrated in this process, and which are its components, and which are widely used by teachers and students.

ICT are widely used at higher educational establishments. They have become an integral part of the process of study, as e-books, multimedia, Internet resources etc. have appeared.

Information and Communications Technology is aimed at providing as much information as possible by means of digital training aids. The goal of ICT is to teach a student, a future specialist, computer literacy in professional environment, to provide student’s communication with native-speakers, as real so virtual ones, to translate texts from one language to the other etc.

Multimedia programs give an opportunity to a teacher to combine text, graphic, animation, video and sound information. Simultaneous use of some channels of training information perception gives an opportunity to raise the level of learning training material. Multimedia programs are also used to imitate complex real processes, situations, to visualize abstract information by means of dynamic presentation of the processes, to show the fragments of TV programs, movies, virtual excursions etc. You may use the available multimedia tutorials and make your own supplements to your classes.

ICT in the process of study is used for:

- Individualization and differentiation of the process of study as it’s possible to learn a language with individual rate of mastering the material;

- Exercising control with the feedback and error diagnosis, and assessing the results of study;

- Exercising self-control and self-correction;

- Training in the process of mastering instructional material and students’ self-education;

- Conducting practical classes under imitation conditions within computer programs;

- Getting the members of the study process ready to life activity under the information community conditions.

These methods of mastering a foreign language are suitable not only for class work, but also for independent students’ work at home.

The suggested theoretical and practical approaches, used in creating these methods of learning foreign languages, are efficient and are worth improving. The introduction of the developed methods, while working with different students, gives an opportunity to intensify the process of study and to considerably improve the results of mastering foreign languages. The application of these methods at higher educational establishments will give an opportunity to upgrade teaching foreign languages to a new level, which meets modern world requirements to the process of study.

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