Classification of exercises

Specially designed systems of exercises are used for developing skills and subskills.

An exercise is a basic unit of learning language material and acquiring skills and subskills, practicing and developing them.

An exercise is a specially designed activity in teaching circumstances which includes repeated actions we do in order to ptactice, learn and develop something.

A system of exercises is a selection of exercises aimed at the development of specific skills or subskills, their sequence is theoretically grounded.

Structure of an exercise:

- instructions: must be clear and short. The instruction forms the context, motivates pupils, explains the task to be completed.

- language pattern/example: what and how to do

- performance of the task: oral or written

- assessment of actions while the exercise is being done or after it by the teacher, by classmates (peer assessment), self assessment

Classifications of exercises according to various criteria:

1) whether information is received or produced: receptive (pupils receive verbal information via auditory or visual channel and show that they recognize it), reproductive (pupils reproduce the material fully or partially) and productive (pupils produce oral or written utterances on a sentence or text level in reaction to oral or written texts);

2) depending on the act of communication: controlled (non-communicative: pupils practice language material under their teacher’s supervision – focus on accuracy), guided (semi-controlled/communicative – pupils perform actions in communicative situations when prompts are given such as pictures, cards), communicative (free, situations are real-life);

3) according to the form of performance: oral, written;

4) use of mother tongue: monolingual, bilingual;

5) function: training/practice/drilling, for assessment;

6) place of performing: at class, at home.

Teaching pronunciation

Pronunciation is formed according to the principles of approximation because phonemic material for secondary school is limited. Thus we develop our pupils’ phonetic accuracy which make the utterance comprehensible and understandable (a certain decrease of the quality of some sounds is admitted). They acquire natural speed of speaking (about 150 words per minute).

We teach pronunciation to help learners to understand the language they hear and to make their speech comprehensible to others.

OBJECTS OF TEACHING: We develop automatic pronunciation subskills:

- individual sounds (44 phonemes) including pronunciation of long vowels in different positions

- word stress (primary and secondary)

- sounds in connected speech

- rhythm and stress in an utterance

- intonation

- weak forms of words

- linking sounds

- stress of content words in a sentence

- rising and falling patterns

Two principles of material selection:

- what is needed for communication;

- stylistically neutral material.

The sequence of presenting material is defined by the speaking and reading material taught.

The work on pronunciation is integrated with teaching vocabulary, grammar, reading and listening.

To teach phonemes we divide them into 3 groups = 3 ways of introducing new sounds:

1) those similar to the phonemes of the mother tongue: [b, m, g, i:, k, ^, …]. Imitation practice in speech patterns

2) those which seem similar but have peculiar distinctive features: [s, z, t, d, I, ǽ, …]. Imitation, description of the articulation; comparison with phonemes in the mother tongue; production of the sounds in the flow of speech

3) those specific for a foreign language: [r, n, h, v, w, η, …] + diphthongs. Imitation, description of articulation + using pictures; comparison with sounds of the mother tongue; demonstrate them in isolation and in connected speech; step by step introduce new sounds

Steps of introducing the sounds:

- the teacher presents a new sound in the flow of speech

- the teacher pronounces the sound the word several times

- the teacher explains the sound

- the teacher pronounces the sound and the pupils repeat it

- the teacher pronounces the word and the pupils repeat it

- the pupils pronounce words with the target sound

Two groups of exercises:

1) based on recognition of sounds, stresses, rhythm, intonation:

Listen and put up your hand when your hear it; Listen and count the number of sounds; Listen to the pairs of words and identify whether the sounds in both words are similar; Listen to the sentence and put up your hand when you hear a fall/rise of intonation; Listen and count pauses between the words/count stressed words; Listen to the words and underline those which are pronounced by the teacher; Listen and underline the stressed words/ indicate the pauses with vertical lines; Listen and underline the words where the teacher’s voice goes up or down

2) based on production of sounds, words, sentences, dialogues (exercises are based on principles of similarity and opposition, we can use memory chains; verses, songs, short dialogues):

Listen and repeat; Read in a loud voice; Read and organize the words according to the principle of …; Fill in the gaps with appropriate letters; Read the word combination; Read the sentences with appropriate intonation; …

For elementary students phonemic warm-up drill is essential at the beginning of the lesson.

Teaching pronunciation is connected with sound-letter correspondence. The teacher should explain rules of reading letter combinations.

Phonemic exercises with graphical support are used to practice reading aloud.

Reading aloud:

- words organized according to the principle of opposition (form – from).

- when the same letter is pronounced in a different way (cat – center)

- the same sound expressed by different letters (speech - speak)