Teaching and learning foreign languages in Kazakhstan



In our days, the status of a foreign language in Kazakhstan has significantly changed. The entry into the world community, the economic and socio-cultural situation in the country ensured a huge demand for knowledge of foreign languages, created a powerful motivational base for studying them. Today, knowledge of foreign languages is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. Opportunities for their study is abound, and no saying about the methods of teaching. Despite this, many questions arise that prevent the successful acquisition of languages.

One of the key problems is the psychological unpreparedness of students to learn foreign languages. Most of us continue the traditions of Soviet standards of learning, set too high standards — to speak perfectly without an accent, to write without a single mistake and to learn the grammar rules that are often not followed by native speakers; in everyday speech, they don’t strive for perfect pronunciation and the choice of correct grammatical forms. Students who have difficulty mastering certain rules don’t show interest to learn a foreign language, feel their insecurity and inability to this type of activity. Today, a completely new methodology of learning foreign languages is being formed, the purpose of which is to form communicative competence — to teach how to communicate, talk, understand and respect another culture. A foreign language, be it English, German or any other, should not be perceived by students as an academic discipline, a subject, but should occupy a higher position as an integral part of modern life, as a means of communication. Therefore, the difficult and responsible task of creating a relaxed, but practically valuable communication, interaction, language communication between students falls on the shoulders of teachers.

To solve this problem, we need the help of experienced teachers who are willing to work not only on the students' language, but also pay attention to the educational process, as we must teach respect for another culture, not forgetting our culture and customs.

Currently, there is a rapid growth in the need for advanced training and retraining of personnel. In this regard, there was a need to create new training programs for advanced training, conducting methodological seminars by qualified teachers who can pass on their experience and knowledge of teaching methods to young people.

In connection with the changing role of foreign languages, there is an urgent need to create continuity in the educational process. In general, mechanisms of succession in the field of a foreign language between primary, secondary and high schools have been established. But there must be a link between the school and university programs for successful mastering a foreign language. It is necessary to conduct seminars with the participation of university professors and high school foreign language teachers.

One of the current problems in language learning is the obsolescence of schoolbooks and textbooks. In an era of rapid development of all spheres of social activity, it is impossible to ignore the linguistic changes that occur in foreign languages, especially in English. Dictionaries are published every year in Europe, which publish new words that are included in the lexicon of a given year, as well as in dictionaries there are notes about changing the pronunciation and expanding the meaning of many words. Domestic authors of foreign language textbooks do not have time to follow these changes. The choice of training kits for foreign publishers approved by the Ministry of Education and Science can be considered justified, since these courses are systematic, based on modern concepts, taking into account the European requirements for mastering a foreign language. The solution to this problem today lies in the parallel use of domestic and foreign textbooks, which will allow students to master modern living language with the least expenditure of energy.

It remains to solve the main question: what are the course content, its structure and training methods?

Language teaching has acquired an applied character, while earlier it was relatively abstract and theorized. Even Aristotle derived the famous triad of teaching ethics, which is the best correlated with modern requirements: the logo — the quality of presentation, pathos — contact with the audience, ethos — attitude to others. This rule holds true for the speaker, the actor, the teacher of a foreign language, whose role implies the first two incarnations. The functions of the teacher in the educational process have changed significantly. The personality of the teacher in this case fades into the background, its influence on the audience, which, in turn, does not decrease, but on the contrary, increases.

But the most important thing, of course, is the methods of teaching foreign languages. One of the most serious and comprehensive methods of learning a foreign language is the lingua-social and cultural one, which implies an appeal to such a component as the social and cultural environment. Proponents of this method firmly believe that the language loses its life when teachers and students aim to master only the «lifeless» lexical-grammar forms. Someone remarked that «personality is a product of culture». Language — too. And our language errors confirm this most convincingly. We think in Kazakh or Russian and only then we translate words into a foreign language, we compare them with the rules of grammar, and then we speak a sentence. At the beginning of training, this process is too exhausting. Therefore, it is necessary to teach him to think and speak English immediately. This is how children learn to speak their native language, they literally absorb the language. But they do not know any grammatical rules. They will learn the theory much later. Many modern methods of learning foreign languages ​​are based on this principle. An English learner can use a grammatically correct expression: «The Queen and her relatives», but the British can hardly understand what «The Royal Family» means; or, for example, a phrase such as “the protagonist of his ideas” was translated by the sentence “The hero is loud- speaker of the author” (author’s loudspeaker), and ideally it was required to translate the “mouthpiece”. Such oddities are common. For example, the difference between “Don’t you want to go to the cinema?” And “Would you like to go to the cinema” is not big. And for the British, he would take the first sentence as not the best tone. “What problems are interested in?” Habitual for our business communication, not taking into account that “problems” has a persistently negative connotation. Correctly this question is: “What issues are you interested in?”.

Most techniques initially allow such «bloopers», writing them off as «ignorance of the country». But at the present stage, when interest in individual cultures and nations is constantly increasing, such mistakes are already unforgivable. And we must pay attention of our students to the style of the language, not least.

Language learning is inextricably linked with the literature on this language. It is in literature, this treasure of popular wisdom, such concepts as loyalty, friendship, true feelings, love are fully revealed. Studying English, one cannot fail to turn to the works of the founders of English literature and English literary language — Shakespeare, Defoe, Swift, Byron, and many others. In this regard, when preparing graduates in the specialty “foreign languages”, great attention is paid to the study of fiction.

Teachers often try to use elements of the theater, such as participation in scenes, role-playing games, mini-performances, so that students have the opportunity to learn a language in a specific context, a life situation. The most important thing of learning a foreign language is to cultivate, create four skills: listen, speak, read and write. The participation of students in theatrical productions is very important. Therefore, great attention is paid by the teachers of foreign languages of the region to staging short plays in English.

Many students gain invaluable experience by participating in events of this kind. This helps them to more easily overcome the internal barrier that does not allow them to speak a foreign language without hesitation and fear of being misunderstood.

In conclusion, I want to say that whatever method of learning English we choose, remember that motivation is a great importance in learning a foreign language, it means paying attention to study process by making them interested. And the key to successful learning is the regularity and systematic of lessons, and the materials, replicas, that commit to memory, will be remembered for a long time.

References:

1. Asher R. E. The encyclopedia of language and linguistics. — Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994–48p.
2. Голикова Ж. А. Learn to Translate by Translating from English into Russian. Учебное пособие.- М.: при участии изд-ва ООО “Новое знание” 2003.-286с.
3. Новый англо-русский словарь: Мюллер В. К., Дашевская В. Л. и др.;-4 изд., стереотип.- М.: Рус. яз., 1997.-879с.