- •Methods of Foreign Language Teaching and its relation to other sciences.
- •Speak about the fundamental principles foreign language teaching should be based upon and name the specific principles which, you think, must be observed in teaching English at schools.
- •Aims of Foreign Language Teaching
- •Content of Foreign Language Teaching
- •Grammar Translation Method. Principles and techniques.
- •Direct Method. Principles and techniques.
- •Total Physical Response. Principles and techniques.
- •Audio-lingual method. Principles and techniques
- •Principles and techniques of Suggestopedia.
- •Communicative language teaching. Principles and techniques.
- •How do you understand the term “communicative competence in teaching a foreign language”? Types of Communicative Competence in foreign language teaching.
- •Intercultural communication and its role in foreign language teaching.
- •Grammar is very important in foreign language learning. Why? What were the most common difficulties you had in teaching English grammar at school?
- •How do you think, what is meant by correct pronunciation? What will you do to improve you student’s pronunciation skills? Prepare pronunciation drill for one of the lessons for beginners.
- •Comment on the main stages of teaching grammar. What will be if after presenting a new grammar material a teacher passes to production stage at once?
- •Comment on the main stages of teaching vocabulary. Principles of selection of lexical minimum at school.
- •What is the difference between extensive and intensive listening? What will you do if students don’t understand the listening material?
- •What are the reasons for pupils poor comprehension of the target language when spoken? Comment on the main stages of teaching listening skills. What techniques will you use to develop hearing?
- •The statement level.
- •The discourse level
- •20. The importance of teaching reading. Ways of reading.
- •1. Styles of reading
- •2. Active reading
- •22. State the role and place of writing as a communicative skill in teaching English.
- •23. Planning is a necessary prerequisite for effective teaching. Say why. List some questions you would ask yourself before planning a lesson. Stages of a lesson plan.
- •24.Assessment in teaching a foreign language at school. Forms of assessment.
- •In your opinion what characteristics of a good test are? Characteristics of a Good Test
- •Test types.
- •27. Testing techniques.
- •28. Express your opinion on advantages and disadvantages of using tests for evaluating students’ knowledge.
- •29. Teachers’ skills, attitude and knowledge that teachers need to acquire.
- •30.Part of a good teacher’s art is the ability to adopt a number of different roles in the class. Express your opinion on who teachers are in class.
- •31.What levels of language knowledge do you know? What do these levels mean, in practice, for the students and teachers? What will you do if students in your class are all at different level?
- •Ilr Level 0 – No proficiency
- •Ilr Level 1 – Elementary proficiency
- •Ilr Level 2 – Limited working proficiency
- •Ilr Level 3 – Professional working proficiency
- •Ilr Level 4 – Full professional proficiency
- •Ilr Level 5 – Native or bilingual proficiency
- •32. Types of lessons used in teaching English
- •33. What ways of young children learning to foreign languages do you know?
- •34.Teaching monologue. Characteristics of monologue.
- •35.Teaching dialogue. Characteristics of dialogue speech.
- •36.The use of modern technologies in teaching English.
- •37.Do you think that student’s motivation is important in learning a foreign language? Speak on the kinds of student’s motivation.
- •38.What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?
- •39. What are learning styles and strategies? Give a definition and some examples for each one.
- •40. The theory of multiple intelligences.
- •42. Express your opinion: Not all oral exercises mean speaking. Comment upon this statement. What are the reasons for students’ poor comprehension of the target language when spoken?
- •Express your opinion on the theme: Modern technologies in teaching Foreign Languages ( Pair work, Case Study, Project work)
- •45 Express your opinion: What is cooperative learning? What are some of the most important benefits of cooperative learning?
- •46. Express your opinion on the theme: The notion of Intercultural Communicative Competence and its role in flt process.
- •48. Express your opinion on the theme: The main stages of work with video.
Speak about the fundamental principles foreign language teaching should be based upon and name the specific principles which, you think, must be observed in teaching English at schools.
The methodology of FLT is based on fundamental principles of didactics:
- the principle of conscious approach;
- communicative approach;
- activity;
- visuality;
- accessibility and durability;
- individualization;
The Principle of Conscious Approach. It is one of the leading principles because conscious learning plays an important role in language acquisition, enlarges intellectual capacities of learners, and helps to understand new concepts and express new ideas in the target language. The acquisition of a FL means the transition to thinking in a second language. For this it is necessary to acquire the ability of establishing direct associations between concepts and their means of expression in the target language.
The Principle of Activity. The didactic principle of activity presupposes a constant accumulation of knowledge and active participation of learners in the process of instruction. We usually differentiate between intellectual, emotional and speech activities, which, if taken together, ensure favourable conditions to master the language.
The Principle of Visuality. The principle of visuality or ostensive principle is realized in direct and visual modes of semantizing or explaining meanings, i.e. in the demonstration and naming by the teacher of objects, pictures and actions wherefrom the learners infer the meanings of words and expressions used. Visuality in methodology of FLT creates favourable conditions for sensual perceptions and brings another reality in instructive and educative process.
The Principle of Accessibility. In FLT this principle is realized in conformity with teaching strategies to the pupils’ capacities so that they don’t experience insurmountable difficulties. The teaching materials should meet requirements of linguistic and psychological factors:
1. correspond to the age and mental abilities of the learners; be neither difficult nor easy;
2. be properly graded;
3. be heuristic in form and structure;
4. be presented in such a way that the pupils have to solve one problem at a time.
The Principle of Durability. This principle assumes particular importance in FLT because it is largely concerned with a constant growth of language and speech units, words, word-combinations, idioms, clichés which are to be stored and retained in the pupils’ memory so that the learners could use them in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing.
The Principle of Individualization. This principle takes into account individual peculiarities of the learner, his background knowledge, what he knows, his spheres of interest, etc., i.e. cognitive styles. Cognitive styles have been defined as characteristic mental and psychological behaviours that “serve as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment”.
Except for the basic didactic principles Methodology of teaching English uses specific principles that are applied in teaching a foreign language. Since the aim of teaching English at school is to teach the pupils how to use the target language for communicative needs’, one of the main methodological principles is the principle of communicative approach. It means that the pupils should be involved in oral and written communication throughout the whole course of learning English.
There are four types of language activities to be developed in pupils: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Each language activity has its own set of actions that are characteristic of this activity, thus special exercises are needed which should be adequate to each activity. So in teaching a particular language activity the teacher faces specific problems that should be solved since the development of each activity requires certain techniques and exercises. This is the application of the principle of a differential approach in teaching English, i.e. each language activity requires special attention on the part of the teacher.
The principle of an inteerated approach is another methodological principle. Pupils do not assimilate sounds, grammar units, lexical items as discrete components of the language, but they acquire them in sentence-patterns, pattern-dialogues related to certain situations. Pupils should use their skills in the four language activities as interdependent parts of their language experience.
The principle of durability implies the ability of a pupil to keep in his memory linguistic and language material he learns of ready access, i.e. the pupil can use units of the language whenever he needs them for oral or written communication. The durability is ensured: – by vivid presentation of material; – by constant revision and drills; – by the use of the material on the part of the learner for communicative needs; – by systematic control; – by constant supervision of pupil’s habits and skills on the part of the teacher.
The principle of conscious approach to language learning means that the language material is acquired consciously, the pupil understands what he learns. Such approach usually contrasts with “mechanical” learning throughout repetitive drill. So the pupils should acquire the rules of the language in order to be able to follow them in the act of Communication.
The principle of activity implies that the pupils should be active participants in the learning process. Activity arises under certain conditions.
The principle of visualization is very important in teaching English since the process of knowledge gaining begins with sense perception. The use of visualization makes the lessons emotionally coloured, gets the pupils interested and awakens their thought. It creates natural or almost natural situations for the use of the language as a means of communication.
The principle of individualization is getting very important at present. There always are some individuals in the class who learn more slowly than others, or faster than others. The teacher has to assess the progress of each individual in the class and find the way how to manage the classroom activity so that the slowest learners are not depressed being left behind and the fastest learners are not frustrated by being held back. This principle is achieved: by using the individual cards; by specific selection of exercises for each group of pupils in the class; by the use of additional material, etc.