The article discusses changes and new methods of teaching English in universities. Particular attention was paid to the communicative method, which has started becoming most dominant.
Keywords: communicative approach, communicative method, academic study and analysis, tool for interaction, communicative method, changes, monitoring, experience
В статье рассматриваются изменения и новые методы в обучении английского языка в вузах. Особое внимание уделено коммуникативному методу, так как он занимает более доминирующее положение в обучении.
Ключевые слова: коммуникативный подход, коммуникативный метод, инструмент интерактивности, акдемическое обучение и анализы, изменения, мониторинг, опыт
With the communicative approach, language is seen as a tool for interaction — it is not simply a subject for academic study and analysis. Students look at the use of language both from a linguistic point of view (grammar, lexis, collocation, etc) and from a social or situational point of view (who is speaking, why are they speaking, what is appropriate in this context, etc).
Because of the increased encouragement to participate fully, students gain confidence through direct experience in what they can achieve, motivating them to use the language more frequently and allowing them to learn more quickly.
The work we are intended to describe is the philosophy and practice of a problem which explores of why teachers must change their approach to teaching grammar, and how they might do so. It emphasizes that change should occur on three levels — materials, actions and beliefs — and suggests ways in which this could be done by teacher educators, or by groups of teachers engaged in autonomous professional development.
Why change?
As in many parts of the world, English language teachers have changed, in Uzbekistan from a traditional approach to teaching formal grammar rules to a more communicative method to teaching how to use grammar meaningfully in context.
A new series of textbooks was introduced, and we had to use them.
I noticed that students in my class can do the grammar exercises, but they don’t use this grammar well if they want to say something about themselves I wanted the students in my class to enjoy grammar more. Most of them don’t like rules very much. They find them boring.
In my country we need better English to develop international business contexts.
In my country we want to expand tourism, so the government wants more people to be able to use English to speak to tourists from many countries.
The Ministry of Education reformed we have to change the way we teach. Interestingly, in some countries there is change towards teaching English grammar more explicitly, and with more of a focus on form.
After these questionnaires we searched for new changes in teaching grammar and below there are two examples of grammar teaching courses:
When we studied grammar the rules were presented traditionally they seemed to be boring for each student. Traditionally grammar rules can be presented as rules with a focus on form. For example, in the present simple tense, regular verbs in English take an ‘s’ on the 3rdperson singular (he walks, she walks, it walks). This kind of information is very useful, but it doesn’t tell you when to use the present simple, or what it means.
When we were transferred to another faculty, communicative language learning opened a new world to us. Communicative methods to presenting grammar usually include a focus on meaning and use as well as form. I searched a lot of material and adopted the following method by Thormbury “He mentioned that using the generative context of a story to present grammar is one of communicative approaches in teaching grammar.” [8]
Another scientist K. Lynn Savage speaking about grammar in his “Teaching grammar in adult ESL” presented guided practice of grammar lesson “Once the teacher has presented the target grammar and checked that students understand the new structure’s form, meaning, and use, the lesson moves onto the guided practice stage, “in which the learner manipulates the structure in question while all other variables are held constant”.
In this stage, learners make their first attempts at using the target grammar in meaningful — but controlled — contexts.
In guided practice activities, either the teacher or the textbook provides models for all the language that students will produce. Student responses are meaningful but not truly communicative, since there is usually only one oral limited choice of correct utterances. The overall goal of this stage is to help students build fluency with the target structure, that is, to begin using the structure without hesitancy or translation and with understandable pronunciation.”
Also Savage defined the following to be the main issues of guided practice:
– the teacher’s role in guided practice;
– activities that provide guided practice,
– error correction in guided practice activities,
– the importance of guided practice.
Guided practices are helpful to provide a crucial bridge between the teacher’s presentation of a new grammar structure and students’ application of the new structure in communicative situations. By strictly controlling the context in which students use the target structure, we enable students to “gain control of the form without the added pressure and distraction of trying to use the form for communication. [9] Most students need many opportunities for controlled practice of a new grammar pattern before they can use in communication.
In the next section Savage tried to show the role of a teacher in guided practice and divided the stages of the lesson to modeling the activity, students task comprehension, teachers’ monitoring and taking feedback. When the lesson moves into the practice stage, the teacher’s main role is to guide or direct students in their first attempts to use the new grammar structure in context. The following tasks and activities are included in this role: Modeling the activity. The most common guided practice activities consist of exchanges between students working in pairs. To build up students’ readiness for the task, the teacher can lead the class through a progression consisting of 1) modeling both parts of the dialog; 2) having students listen and repeat; 3) taking one role and having students take the other; 4) dividing the class into two parts and having each group take one of the roles. Finally, students participate in pairs. To check that students understand the task. One way to check understanding is to have a student or students do the first item in an exercise. Another way is to have a student volunteer explain the task. Yet a third way is for the teacher to ask questions about the process (“Who listens and writes first, Student A or Student B? When Student B writes, what does Student A do?”).
Monitoring.
While students are working on their own, the teacher circulates to check that students are doing the task correctly and assists them as needed, including correcting individual students’ errors in grammar and pronunciation. While monitoring, we may also collect examples of errors for follow-up exercises. Finally, we determine when students have had sufficient guided practice and are ready to move on to the next stage of the lesson.
Providing feedback. After the activity has concluded, the teacher should provide feedback on grammar and pronunciation errors those are common to all the students.
Teaching language to the students through Communicative methods makes use of real-life or simulated real-life situations in order to promote effective language use. The teacher sets up a situation that is likely to occur in real life and encourages the students to perform a task. Appropriate language is pre-taught using a variety of techniques, and practiced in context.
The target language is used for all classroom interaction, the classroom itself being a real-life situation in which effective communication takes place. Students are encouraged to ask questions, interact with each other and take control of activities to reach their own outcomes.
Learning is seen as the responsibility of the learner, and the teachers find themselves talking less and listening more than in a traditional classroom. The teacher sets up an activity and then allows the learners to perform — the performance of the activity is the immediate goal, with feedback and further input from the teacher coming later.
With the communicative approach, language is seen as a tool for interaction — it is not simply a subject for academic study and analysis. Students look at the use of language both from a linguistic point of view (grammar, lexis, collocation, etc) and from a social or situational point of view (who is speaking, why they are speaking, what is appropriate in this context, etc).
Because of the increased encouragement to participate fully, students gain confidence through direct experience in what they can achieve, motivating them to use the language more frequently and allowing them to learn more quickly.
References:
- Seliger H. W. and Shohamy E. Second language research methods. — Oxford: Oxford University press, 1990.– p.64.
- Simon A. and Boyer G. E. Mirrors for behaviour. — Philadelphia: Research for Better Schools, 1998. — p.29.
- Smith L. M. and Geoffrey W. The complexities of an urban classroom. — New-York: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1990. — p.214. Tudor I. Learner-centredness as language education. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. — p.78.
- Thornbury S. Watching the whites of their eyes: the use of teaching-practice logs.− London: ELT Journal, 1991. − 45 (2), 140–146.
- Weick K. E. Systematic observational methods. In G. Lindzey and E. Aronson, editors. The Handbook of social psychology, vol. 2. –Addison: Wesley,1968.−p. 357–451.
- www.chicagopress.com.
- www.monabaker.trans.com.
- Thormbury, 1999.,Аpproасhes to lаnguаge leаrning аnd teасhing: Towаrds асquiring сommuniсаtive сompetenсe through the four skills”p59-62.
- Сelсe-Murсiааnd Hilles,,1998: “Сommuniсаtiveсompetenсe: Аpedаgogiсаllymotivаted model with сontentspeсifiсаtions”p27
