LECTURES 1-2

1. Methodology as a science, its links with other sciences.

2. Its components, terms and a system of teaching

3. Classifications of activities

4. Methods and approaches of teaching foreign languages and cultures viewed diachronically

1. Methodology as a science, its links with other sciences.

The basic elements in any teaching situation are: the learner, the teacher, the subject matter, the aims of instruction. These elements are related to each other, so the methods of language teaching are based on at least 3 cornerstones: a) what is known about the nature of the language; b) what is known about the nature of learning and the learner; c) the aims of instruction.

Methodology

Pedagogy

Phychology

Linguistics

Psycholinguistics

Linguocultural studies Sociolinguistics

1. Methods of foreign language teaching & Pedagogy

One branch of pedagogy, called didactics, studies general ways of teaching in schools. Methods, as compared to didactics, studies the specific ways of teaching a definite subject. Thus, it may be considered special didactics. In foreign language teaching general principles of didactics are applied and, in their turn," influence and enrich didactics. For example, the so-called ''principle of visualization" was first introduced in teaching foreign languages. Now it has become one of the fundamental principles of didactics and is used in teaching all school subjects without exception.

2. Methods of foreign language teaching & Psycho1ogy

We cannot expect to develop learners’ competence effectively if we do not know and take into account the psycho1ogy of skills and the ways of forming them, the influence of formerly mastered skills on the formation of new ones etc. To master a second language is "to acquire another code, another way of receiving and transmitting information. To create this new code in the most effective way one must take into consideration certain psychological factors: the role of the mother tongue at different stages of teaching; the amount of material for pupils to assimilate at every stage of instruction; the sequence and ways in which various skills should be developed; the methods and techniques which are more suitable for presenting the material and for ensuring its retention by the pupils, and so on.

Effective learning of a foreign language depends to a great extent on the learner’s memory. That is why a teacher must know how he can help his students to successfully memorize the language material they learn and retain it in their memory. We should create favourable conditions for involuntary memorizing, e.g. not just learn long lists of words, but make them contextualized, visualized and actually work with these words in various activities and use them for communication.

3. Methods of foreign language teaching & Physiology

Methods of foreign language teaching has a definite relation to physio1ogy of the higher nervous system. Pavlov's theories of "conditioned reflexes" of. the "second signalling system"-and of "dynamic stereotype" are the examples. Each of these interrelated theories bears a direct relation to the teaching of a foreign language. Pavlov's theory of "dynamic stereotype" furnishes the physiological base for many important principles of language teaching, e. g. for the topical vocabulary arrangement.

Since one of the forms of human behaviour is language behavior, we must bear in mind that pupils should acquire the language they study as a behaviour, as something that helps people to communicate with each other in various real situations. Hence a foreign language should be taught through such situations.