At the present stage of the development of modern methodical thought, the basic structural unit of the educational process in a foreign language is that the lesson is seen as a complex act of communication, the main purpose and content of which is practice in solving problems of interaction between subjects of the pedagogical process, and the main way to achieve the goal and master the content serve motivated communicative tasks of varying degrees of complexity.
It is generally accepted that communication in the process of teaching a foreign language can be «one-sided» and «multilateral». In the first case, we mean the organization of the educational process with the predominance of frontal forms of work, when the teacher asks, / prompts the student to speech activity — the student answers.
As for «multilateral» communication, for him the typical forms of work are group and collective, in which each student has the opportunity to express himself as an independent and full participant in a certain activity.
It is during the organization of «multilateral» communication at the lesson of a foreign language that all the participants in the educational process interact and opportunities are created for revealing the personal potential of each student. Mutual express polls and interviews in the training group, information exchange, finding your own couple, making group decisions, coordinating joint actions, discussing «according to the rules» and other tasks allow students to practically learn a foreign language.
As the experience of teaching a foreign language and the experience of numerous teachers of practice shows, it is not always possible to organize speech interaction in a lesson using traditional methods and forms of work. The basic methodical innovations today are connected with application of interactive methods and receptions of training to a foreign language. Interactive methods are methods that allow you to learn how to interact with each other; and interactive learning, built on the interaction of all students, including the teacher. However, in the latter case the character of interaction changes: the activity of the teacher gives way to the activity of the trainees.
The essence of interactive learning is the special organization of the learning process, when all students are involved in the process of cognition. The joint activity of students in the process of mastering the teaching material means that each contributes its own individual contribution; there is an exchange of knowledge, ideas, and methods of activity. Moreover, this happens in an atmosphere of benevolence and mutual support, which allows not only receiving new knowledge, but also translates cognitive activity into higher forms of cooperation and cooperation.
The objective of using interactive methods and techniques in teaching foreign languages is the social interaction of students, interpersonal communication, the most important feature of which is the ability of a person to «take the role of another», to imagine how the partner perceives it, to interpret the situation and design his own actions.
Within the lesson of a foreign language, teachers use the following interactive methods and techniques:
– work in small groups, in pairs, rotational triplets, «two, four, together»;
– Carousel method / «ideological» roundabout;
– An aquarium; — brainstorming;
– Openwork saw;
– Brownian motion;
– Decision tree;
– Receiving a mental (intellectual) card;
– Conferences / discussions;
– Role-playing / business games;
– Debate.
This list can be replenished. Each teacher is able to come up with and implement in the educational process effective methods and methods of organizing speech interaction of students in a foreign language lesson. Many of these techniques I use in my lessons.
«Carousel» — an interactive method of work, in the process of which two rings are formed: internal and external. The inner ring is formed by the students sitting motionless, and in the outer ring the pupils change every 30 seconds. Thus, they manage to say a few topics in a few minutes and try to convince them that they are right. Using this method allows you to effectively practice etiquette dialogues. The implementation of the «ideological merry-go-round» reception assumes the following algorithm of work:
- Each member of the micro group (4–5 people each) receives a blank sheet of paper and all are asked the same question. Without a verbal exchange of opinions, all participants write on their sheets of paper spontaneous wording of the answers to it.
- Lists with records in the mode of time deficit are circulated clockwise to neighbors in the micro group. When receiving a sheet with entries, each participant must make a new record without repeating the existing ones. The work ends when everyone returns his sheet. At this stage, the records are not analyzed and evaluated.
- In micro groups there is a discussion of the answers, proposals and answers formulated by the participants. Exchange of results of developments of micro groups. All micro groups offer in turn their language from the final list. If the wording does not meet the objections of other groups, it is included in the final general list. The «Aquarium» is a «performance» where the spectators act as observers, experts, critics and analysts. Several students play the situation in the circle, while the others observe and analyze it. So, for example, when studying the topic «How do teens express their individuality?" In 10th grade, you can offer «aquarium dialogue»: the text of the dialogue can be anything, for example, the conversation of representatives of several youth subcultures. The task of the actors is to convey the appropriate features, features of that / other subculture, and the task of the audience is to determine which subculture the speakers presented. Roles can be offered both by the teacher himself, of course, secretly from the audience, or the students themselves can choose the subculture whose views they share and want to present / discuss.
The method of «brainstorming” is an operative method of solving the problem on the basis of stimulating creative activity. The participants of the discussion are offered to express as many possible solutions as possible, of the total number of ideas put forth, the most successful are selected, which can be used in practice. The options for using this method in a foreign language lesson can be the following:
- Begin a lesson from brainstorming as a voice charging — Warming Up, asking students questions: What are your associations with...? What do you associate with...? What immediately comes into your mind when you hear...?
- Invite the students to relax, tune in to the topic of meditation, take pens and write down the thoughts that come to their mind on that / other topic / problem. Brainstorming as an interactive device for organizing a group discussion at the pre-text stage. Using this technique involves a step-by-step implementation.
Step 1- warm-up (lasts 3 minutes). For several lessons, the theme «Is It Easy To Be Young?" can be studied. The teacher suggests to hold brainstorming with the participation of all the students of the group and to name as many of the ideas that they associate with this topic. A mental map (cluster) is drawn up, among ideas «Teenage Problems» appears.
Step 2 — the union of students in mini-groups.
Step 3 — work in mini-groups for 7 minutes. The teacher clearly sets out the problem or issue that needs to be addressed. So, for example, it can be suggested to hold a brainstorming session in mini-groups on the problem of the text, which is to be read to the students of «Young People — Old Problems». The task of the students is to express and write down as many ideas as possible (even the most absurd ones) and then, after reading the text, to draw a conclusion about the problems that adolescents in the whole world are concerned with, and which concern only our adolescents. We take a «mental map», maps of knowledge, «mind map», «intelligence map», «ideological grid», «memory card», «mental map». Such cards are diagrams, that represent various ideas, tasks, theses connected with each other and about the card allows us to cover the whole situation as well as keep a lot of information in the mind simultaneously in order to find the links between the individual sites, the missing elements, remember the information and be able to reproduce it even after a long time.
Mental map «on the topic» Teenage Problems «can be seen in the figure. The option of the mental map is the “Fishbone ". The «head» of this skeleton indicates a problem that is considered in the text. On the very skeleton there are upper and lower bones. On the upper students note the reasons for the problem being studied. Opposite the upper bones are the lower ones, in which the students write down facts reflecting the essence of the problem in the course of reading. The fact gives the problem clarity and real outlines; it allows talking not about the abstract, but about the concrete solution of this problem.
The «Brownian movement» approach assumes the movement of students in the class with the purpose of collecting information on the proposed topic while working on the grammatical constructions studied. Each participant receives a list of questions-quests: «Interview your group-mates what subculture they belong to or share ideas with» or «Who can help teenagers cope with their problems?" The teacher helps formulate questions and answers and ensures that the interaction is conducted in English. Take Jigsaw («openwork saw»). Students are grouped in groups of 4–6 people to work on educational material, which is divided into logical and semantic blocks. The whole team can work on the same material, but each member of the group gets a topic that he develops especially carefully and becomes an expert in it.
Meetings of experts from different groups are held, and then each one reports in his group about the work done. The students are interested in ensuring that their comrades conscientiously fulfill their task, this may affect the overall final evaluation. Reports on the whole topic are given to each student individually and the entire team as a whole. At the final stage, the teacher can ask any student in the group a question about the topic. Questions can be asked not only by the teacher, but also by members of other groups. Students of one group have the right to supplement the answer of their comrade. At the end of the cycle, all students can undergo an individual control in the form of a control slice. In this case, the results are summarized. The team with the highest score is rewarded. Such work in the lessons of a foreign language is organized at the stage of creative use of language material. Schematically, it is possible to present work on this method in the following way:
1) Home groups: A — B — C — D; A-B-C-D; A — B — C — D
2) Expert groups: AAA; BBB; CCC; DDD
3) Home groups: A — B — C — D; A-B-C-D; A — B — C — D
At the final stage, students can be asked to complete the test. The results are summed up, and the score is given to the whole group, or the best group is called. The use of this technique is also possible when working with vocabulary or with educational text.
In conclusion, it should be noted that all interactive methods and techniques develop communicative skills, help establish emotional contacts between students, teach them to work in a team, listen to their comrades' opinion, and establish more close contact between students and the teacher. Practice shows that the use of interactive methods and techniques in a foreign language lesson relieves nervous tension among schoolchildren, makes it possible to change the forms of activity, to switch attention to the core issues of the topic of employment. Ultimately, the quality of the material supply and the effectiveness of its assimilation significantly increases, and consequently, the motivation to learn a foreign language from schoolchildren.
References:
- Augustine, D.K., Gruber, K. D., & Hanson, L. R. (1989–1990). Cooperation works! Educational Leadership, 47, 4–7.
- Chiu, M. M. (2008).Flowing toward correct contributions during groups' mathematics problem solving: A statistical discourse analysis. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17 (3), 415–463.
- Deutsch, Morton (1949). «A theory of cooperation and competition». Human Relations. 2: 129–152.
- Heeden, T. 2003. The reverse jigsaw: A process of cooperative learning and discussion. Teaching Sociology 31 (3): 325–332.
- Johnson, D.W. (2009). «An Educational Psychology Success Story: Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning». Educational Researcher. 38 (5): 365–379.
