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Problems in Methods of Foreign Language Teaching.

There are three main problems in Methods of FLT:

1) Why to teach i.e. aims of teaching a foreign language;

2) What to teach i.e. content of teaching;

3) How to teach a foreign language to attain the aims in the most effective way i.e. principles of teaching

1) Aims of teaching a foreign language

The term “aims” means long-term goals. They are the final results aimed at in an educational process. A teacher should know exactly what his students are expected to achieve in learning his subject at the end of the course, at the end of the year, term, month, week, and at each lesson, i.e. he should know the aims and objectives of foreign language teaching in schools or any other educational institutions.

There are three aims which should be achieved in foreign language teaching: Educational, Cultural, Practical or Communicative.

Educational aims

While learning a foreign language students understand better how language functions and this makes them understand better the functioning of their own language. The educational aims may be classified under two main headings:

1. Teaching Language systems

2. Teaching Language skills

Teaching Language systems – what we know, i.e. ‘up-in-the-head’ knowledge.

We can analyse a sentence such as Pass me the book in different ways.

We could consider:

ü the sounds, intonation, stress (phonology);

ü the meaning of the words (lexis or vocabulary);

ü how the words interact with each other in the sentence (grammar);

ü a purpose you wish to achieve when you say or write something (functions) By ‘performing’ the function, you are performing an act of communication. If you say ‘I apologize’, you are performing the function of apologizing; if you say ‘I promise’, you are performing the function of promising.

If we extend our language sample into a complete (short) conversation, e.g.

A: Pass me the book.

B: Mary’s gone home.

Then we have an additional area for analyses, namely the way that communication makes sense beyond the individual phrase or sentence, analyzing how the sentences relate or don’t relate to each other (discourse)

 

Figure 1 shows a brief analysis of the language sample from each of these viewpoints.

 

Phonological   / pa:s mi: ðә ˈbuk/ or /ˈpæs mi: ðә buk/ The stress is probably on book, but also is possible (with different meanings) on Pass or me. The words me and the probably have a weak vowel sound.  
Lexical   Pass=give me = reference to speaker the book = object made of paper, containing words and/or pictures and conveying information
Grammatical   Verb (imperative) + first person object pronoun + definite article + noun
Functional   Request or order
Discoursal   If Mary’s gone home is a reply to the request, it may suggest a reason why the book cannot be passed (e.g. I can’t because Mary took the book with her). In order to fully understand the meaning, we would need to know more about situational context (e.g. who is talking, where, etc.)

 



So we have five language systems, though all are simply different ways of looking at the same thing.

We might plan a lesson focused on only one area, e.g. grammar, or we might deal with two or three or more. An example of a commonly combined systems focus in many language lessons would be:

Grammar + pronunciation + function

(that is how the language is structured, how to say it and how it is used).

 

Language skills – what we do with language. There are four important macro language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing.

Reading, listening are receptive skills (we receive information but do not produce).

Speaking, writing are productive skills (we produce received information).

Thus, educational aim is to present the students the system of the foreign language they study and make them use their knowledge in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

 

Language systems Language skills

knowing doing

Phonology Productive – speaking, writing

Lexis or vocabulary Receptive – reading, listening

Grammar

Function

Discourse

Cultural aimto get acquainted with the life, culture and tradition of countries which language you study.

Practical aim to learn a language for communication. To develop communicative competence of students is the main aim of teaching and learning. Thus the leading role belongs to practical aims, because the others can only be achieved through the practical command of the foreign language.


Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1337


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