GENERAL PROBLEMS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

METHODS OF TEACHING ENGLISH

Рогова Г. В.

Методика обучения английскому языку. (На англ. яз.) Учебное пособие для педагогических институтов и факультетов иностранного языка Л., «Просвещение». 2000.

216 с.

Предлагаемая книга представляет собой курс лекций по методи­ке преподавания английского языка и предназначена для студентов колледжей, педагогических институтов.

В ней нашли отражение следующие цели и задачи об­учения иностранному языку, обзор основных направлений методики. содержание обучения, организация школьного обучения, контроль знаний учащихся, внеклассная работа, обучение иностранному языку дошкольников и младших школьников.4И (АНГЛ)

ОТ АВТОРА

Во многих педагогических институтах и на факультетах иност­ранных языков преподавание методики обучения английскому языку ведется на английском языке, в связи с чем возникла необходимость в создании учебного пособия "Methods of Teaching English". Пособие предназначено для студентов педвузов, однако оно может быть также использовано учителями английского языка в их практической работе.

-Methods of Teaching English" представляет собой курс лек­ций читаемый автором на факультете английского языка МГПИ им, В. И. Ленина, и охватывает" все основные разделы программы. В нем ставится цель, с одной стороны, изложить концепцию кафедры методики, выработанную на основе многолетней научно-исследователь­ской работы, с другой — помочь студентам овладеть методической и отчасти общепедагогической терминологией, встречающейся в англий­ской литературе (для этого автор сознательно включает в книгу не один, а несколько терминов, существующих в английской методической литературе для передачи одного и того же понятия, например, для понимания речи со слуха используются слона: hearing, listening com­prehension, auding, aural comprehension).

При изложении каждой темы автор придерживается следующего принципа: выделяются основные проблемы, с которыми сталкивается учитель при обучении иностранному языку в школе, раскрывается суть каждой из проблем, предлагается се решение. Излагая материал,
автор стремится показать, что действия учащихся с материалом должны быть адекватны формируемой деятельности. Напри­мер. если употребление слов в речи связано с работой речи—отбором слов и включением их » высказывание (словес­ную цепь, по Н. И. Жинкину) то при изучении лексики упражне­ния должны быть направлены на то. чтобы учащиеся умели быстронаходить в памяти нужное слово и употреблять его. Если чтение связано с овладением графемно-фонемными соответствиями и расширением поля чтения, чтобы уметь быстро извлекать необходимую информацию из печатного текста, то и упражнении должны быть направлены на овладение техникой чте­ния вслух и про себя и на извлечение смысловой информации из текста. Поскольку автор делает попытку предложить методическое реше­ние, исходя из сути формируемой деятельности, то он счел возможным в данной работе ограничиться лишь принципиальным подходом к реше­нию методических проблем. Что касается конкретных рекомендаций по работе в каждом классе школы, то они являются предметом обсуж­дения на практических занятиях и во время педагогической практики в школе. С этой цепью и каждой главе книги студентам предлагается серия вопросов-заданий для обсуждения и нахождения практического решения проблемы на конкретном материале, выбранном студентом или указанном преподавателем. Эти вопросы-задания можно также использовать в качестве теп для докладов на спец.семинаре, курсовых и дипломных работ.

Автор отнюдь не считает излагаемую о пособии концепцию един­ственно приемлемой. Он дает студентам возможность самостоятельно изучить, а затем подробно и аргументированно обсудить иные точки зрения по тон или иной проблеме. В конце каждой главы дается спи­сок литературы, отражающей различные точки зрения по изложенной проблеме и конкретные вопросы для дискуссии.

В целях облегчения подготовки студентов к обсуждению темы на английском языке в книге дается список слов и выражений по курсу методики обучения иностранным языкам в школе (примерно 300 сло­варных статей, каждая из которых включает словосочетания, упо­требляемые в методической и педагогической литературе).

Кинга состоит из 17 глав, библиографии и списка слов и выра­жений по методике обучения иностранным языкам в школе.Автор выражает глубокую благодарность коллективам кафедры методики МГПИ им. В. И. Ленина, МГИИИЯ им. Мориса Тореза. а также А. П. Старкову, Л. П. Пушкаревой, А. Г. Гиляновой за внимательнее прочтение работы и ценные критические замечания.

Part One

GENERAL PROBLEMS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Chapter I

Methods of Foreign Language Teaching and Its Relation to Other Sciences

Methods of foreign language teaching is understood here as a body of scientifically tested theory concerning the teach­ing of foreign languages in schools and other educational institutions. It covers three main problems:

(1)aims of teaching a foreign language;

(2)content of teaching, i. e. what to teach to attain this aims;

(3)methods and techniques of teaching, i. e. how to teach a foreign language to attain the aims in the most ef­fective way.

Methods of foreign language teaching is closely related to other sciences such as pedagogics, psychology, physi­ology, linguistics, and some others.

Pedagogics is the science concerned with the teach­ing and education of the younger generation. Since.Meth­ods also deals with the problems of teaching and educa­tion, it is most closely related to pedagogics. To study for­eign language teaching one must know pedagogics. One branch of pedagogics is called didactics. Didactics studies general ways of teaching in schools..Methods, as compared to didactics, studies the specific ways of teaching a definite subject. Thus, it may be considered special didactics. In the foreign language teaching, as well as in the teaching of mathematics, history, and other subjects taught in schools, general prin­ciples of didactics are applied and, in their turn, influence and enrich didactics. For example, the so-called "principle of visualization'' was first introduced in teaching foreign languages. Now it has become one of the fundamental prin­ciples of didactics and is used in teaching all school subjects without exception. Programmed instruction was first ap­plied to teaching mathematics. Now through didactics it is used in teaching many subjects, including foreign lan­guages.

Teaching a foreign language means first and foremost the formation and development of pupils' habits and skills in hearing, speaking, reading, and writing. We cannot ex­pect to develop such habits and skills of our pupils effec­tively if we do not know and take into account the p s у с h о l o g y of habits and skills, the ways of forming them, the influence of formerly acquired habits on the formation of new ones, and main other necessary factors that psychology-can supply us with. ЛI present we have much material in the Held of psychology which can be applied to teaching a foreign language. For example, N. I. Zhinkin, a promi­nent Soviet psychologist in his investigation of the mecha­nisms of speech came to the conclusion that words and rules of combining them are most probably dormant in the kinetic center of the brain. When the ear receives a signal it reaches the brain, its hearing center and then passes to the kinetic center. Thus, if a teacher wants his pupils to speak English he must use all the opportunities he has to make them hear and speak it. Furthermore, to master a sec­ond language is to acquire another code, another way of receiving and transmitting information. To create this new-code in the most effective way one must take into consid­eration certain psychological factors.

Effective learning of a foreign language depends to a great extent on the pupils' memory. That is why a teacher must know how he can help his pupils to successfully memorize and retain in memory the language material they learn. Here again psychological investigations are significant. For example, the Soviet psychologist, P. K. Zinchenko, proved that in learning a subject both voluntary and in­voluntary memory is of great importance. In his investigation of involuntary memory P. K. Zinchenko came to the con­clusion that this memory is retentive. Consequently, in teaching a foreign language we should create favourable conditions for involuntary memorizing. P. K. Zinchenko showed that involuntary memorizing is possible only when pupils' attention is concentrated not on fixing the material in their memory through numerous repetitions, but on solv­ing some mental problems which deal with this material. To prove this the following experiment was carried out. Students of group A were given a list of words lo memorize (voluntary memorizing). Students of group В did not re­ceive a list of words to memorize. Instead, they got an English text and some assignments which made them work with these words, use them in answering various questions. Dur­ing the next lesson a vocabulary test was given to the stu­dents of both groups. The results were approximately the same. A test given a fortnight later proved, however, that the students of group В retained the words in their memory much better than the students of group A. This shows that involuntary memorizing may be more retentive under cer­tain circumstances. Experiments by prominent scientists show that psychology helps Methods to determine the role of the mother tongue in different stages of teaching; the amount of material for pupils to assimilate at every stage of instruc­tion; the sequence and ways in which various habits and skills should be developed; the methods and techniques which are more suitable (or presenting the material and for ensuring its retention by the pupils, and so on.

Methods of foreign language teaching has a definite rela­tion to p h у s i о l o g у of the higher nervous system. Pav­lov's theories of "conditioned reflexes", of the "second sig­nalling system" and of "dynamic stereotype" are the exam­ples. Each of These interrelated theories bears a direct rela­tion to the teaching of a foreign language.

According (o Pavlov habits are conditioned reflexes, and a conditioned reflex is an action performed automat­ically in response to a definite stimulus as a result of previ­ous frequent repetitions of the same action. If we thoroughly study the theory of conditioned reflexes we shall see that it explains and confirms the necessity for frequent repeti­tions and revision of material pupils study as one of the means of inculcating habits. Pavlov named this the second signalling system.

Consequently one of the forms of human behaviour is language behaviour, i. c., speech response to different communica­tion situations. Therefore in leaching a foreign language we must bear in mind that pupils should acquire the language they study as a behaviour, as something that helps people to communicate with each other in various real situations of intercourse. Hence a foreign language should be taught through such situations.

Pavlov's theory of "dynamic stereotype" also furnishes the physiological base for many important principles of language teaching, e. g., for the topical vocabulary ar­rangement.

Methods of foreign language teaching is most closely related to linguistics, since linguistics deals with the problems which are of paramount importance to Meth­ods, with language and thinking, grammar and vocabulary, the relationship between grammar and vocabulary, and many others. Methods successfully uses, for example, the results of linguistic investigation in the selection and arrangement of language material for teaching. It is known that structur­al linguistics has had a great impact on language teach­ing. Teaching materials have been prepared by linguists and methodologists of the structural school. Many prom­inent linguists have not only developed the theory of lin­guistics, but tried to apply it to language teaching. The following quotation may serve as a proof of this:

"It has occurred to the linguist as well as to the psycholo­gist that the foreign language classroom should be an excel­lent laboratory in which to test new theories of language acquisition."'

Methods of foreign language teaching like any other sci­ence, has definite ways of investigating the problems which may arise. They are:

(1)a critical study of the ways foreign languages were taught in our country and abroad;

(2)a thorough study and summing up of the experience of the best foreign language teachers in different types of schools;

(:() experimenting with the aim of confirming or refut­ing the working hypotheses that may arise during investigation. Experimenting becomes more and more popular with methodologists. In experimenting methodologists have to deal with different data, that is why in arranging research work they use mathematics, statistics, and probability theory to interpret experimental results.

In recent years there has been a great increase of interest in.Methods since foreign language teaching has many attrac­tions as an area for research. A great deal of useful research work has been carried out. New ideas and new data pro­duced as the result of research are usually developed into new teaching materials and teaching techniques.

It should be said that we need research activities of the following types: descriptive research which deals with '"«hat to teach"; experimental and instrumental research dealing with "how to teach". More research is now needed which compares different combination of devices, various teaching aids, etc.

Recommended Literature:

Anitchkov I., Saakyants V. Methods of Teaching English in Secon­dary Schools. M. — Л.,..Просвещение", 1966. с. II—'26.

Общая методика обучения иностранным языкам в средней школе. Под ред. А. А. Мнролюбова. И. В. Рахманова. В. С. Цеглнн. М„ 1967, с. 83-1II.

Беляев Б. В. Очерки по психологии обучения иностранным язы­кам. М.. 1965. с. 5—10.

Questions for Discussion:

1.Compare several viewpoints on Methods as a science.

2.Give reasons to confirm that Methods is an independent science

—Methods possesses its own field of research. True or false?

—Methods is incorrelated with other sciences and is fed by them. In what way?

Methods utilizes various kinds of scientific investigation. Consider the kinds you find necessary.

Chapter II