Contemporary issues of science and education (Современные проблемы науки и образования). Учебное пособие
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Topic 7. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
10. In what contexts, according to the communicative method of teaching foreign languages, can students practice language functions?
Task 4. Express your point of view on the following issue: What is the main meaning of the following concepts: content-based instruction, task-based teaching and process-based approach?
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Topic 7. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
Topic 8
ADVANCED TECHNIQUES
IN COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has changed the way languages are taught, focusing on active interaction and real communication instead of passive learning and textbook exercises. As a language teacher looking to implement
CLT in your classroom, it’s essential to employ advanced techniques that go beyond traditional methods. Some of the advanced CLT techniques provide the teachers with actionable strategies to enhance their language teaching pedagogy.
Incorporating real-life scenarios
One of the most effective advanced techniques in communicative language teaching is the incorporation of real-life scenarios. This approach helps your students apply their language skills in practical, everyday contexts, making learning more relevant and engaging. For instance, role-playing activities such as ordering food in a restaurant, asking for directions, or simulating a job interview can significantly enhance the students’ communicative competence.
Real-life scenarios also encourage students to think on their feet and use their target language spontaneously, which is crucial for developing speaking fluency. The teachers can create these scenarios based on the interests and needs of their students, ensuring that the activities are both meaningful and motivating. Additionally, incorporating cultural elements into these scenarios can provide the students with a deeper understanding of the language and its use in different contexts.
Moreover, real-life scenarios can be integrated into various classroom activities, such as group discussions, presentations, and debates. This not only makes the learning process more dynamic but also helps the students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for effective communication.
Utilising technology in the classroom
In today’s digital age, utilising technology in the classroom is an indispensable part of advanced CLT methods. Tools such as language labs,
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Topic 8. Advanced Techniques in Communicative Language Teaching
interactive software, and online learning resources can greatly enhance the learning experience. For example, Sanako’s language teaching software offers a range of functionalities that support interactive and engaging language learning activities. Sanako Connect is a virtual service for conducting remote interpretation classes.
Technology can facilitate various communicative activities, such as virtual exchanges with native speakers, online discussion forums, and multimedia presentations. These activities provide the students with authentic opportunities to practice their language skills and receive immediate feedback. Additionally, technology can help the teachers track students’ progress and tailor the instruction to meet individual needs.
Furthermore, incorporating technology into language teaching can make learning more accessible and flexible. Online platforms and mobile apps allow the students to practice their language skills anytime and anywhere, making it easier for them to integrate language learning into their daily lives. This flexibility can lead to increased motivation and better learning outcomes.
Collaborative learning strategies
Collaborative learning strategies are another key component of advanced communicative language teaching. These strategies involve students working together in pairs or groups to complete tasks, solve problems, and create projects. Collaborative learning not only promotes interaction and communication but also helps the students develop important social and teamwork skills.
One effective collaborative learning strategy is the use of group discussions and debates. These activities encourage your students to express their opinions, listen to others, and negotiate meaning, which are all essential skills for effective communication. The teachers can facilitate these activities by providing clear guidelines and support, ensuring that all students have the opportunity to participate and contribute.
Another collaborative learning strategy is project-based learning, where students work together to create a final product, such as a presentation, video, or written report. This approach allows the students to apply their language skills in a meaningful and authentic context, while also developing their research, planning, and organisational skills. The teachers can support project-based learning by providing resources, guidance, and feedback throughout the process.
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Topic 8. Advanced Techniques in Communicative Language Teaching
Focus on fluency over accuracy
In traditional language teaching, there is often a strong emphasis on accuracy, with students being corrected for every mistake they make. However, in communicative language teaching, the focus is on fluency over accuracy. This means encouraging the students to use the language freely and confidently, without worrying too much about making mistakes.
Focusing on fluency helps the students develop their ability to communicate effectively and spontaneously. The teachers can support this by creating a positive and supportive classroom environment, where students feel comfortable taking risks and experimenting with the language. Activities such as free speaking exercises, storytelling, and improvisation can help the students build their fluency and confidence when using their target language.
While accuracy is still important, it should not be the primary focus in communicative activities. Instead, the teachers can provide corrective feedback in a way that does not interrupt the flow of communication. For example, the teachers can take note of common errors and address them in a separate feedback session, or use gentle correction techniques that do not disrupt the conversation.
In conclusion, advanced techniques in communicative language teaching, such as incorporating real-life scenarios, utilising educational technology, employing collaborative learning strategies, and focusing on fluency over accuracy, can greatly enhance the effectiveness of your language pedagogy. By adopting these techniques and leveraging tools like Sanako’s language teaching solutions, the teachers can create a more engaging, dynamic, and effective language learning experience for their students [2].
Tasks
Task 1. Review the information in the text. Please explain the meaning of the following terms: role-playing activities, speaking fluency, critical thinking, interactive software, Sanako Connect, multimedia presentations.
Task 2. Read the article again and complete the sentences with information from the text.
1. The use of technology in foreign language classes makes the learning process more _______________________________________________________.
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Topic 8. Advanced Techniques in Communicative Language Teaching
2.Online platforms and mobile applications allow students to
_______________________________________________________________.
3.Thanks to technology, the flexibility of the educational process is created, which contributes to _______________________________________________.
4.Collaborative learning strategies involve _________________________.
5.Co-education allows students to develop _________________________.
6.Group discussions and debates are effective _______________________.
7.The necessary skills for effective communication are _______________.
8.When conducting co-curricular activities, teachers provide ___________.
9.When implementing project-based learning, students _______________.
10.Project-based learning gives students the opportunity to develop ______.
11.The role of a teacher in project-based learning is to _________________.
12.In the communicative method of teaching foreign languages, the main attention is paid to __________________________________________________.
Task 3. Answer the questions about the content of the article.
1.What is the difference between communicative teaching of foreign languages and traditional?
2.Why are minor mistakes not corrected in the communicative teaching of foreign languages?
3.How can teachers facilitate effective communication in foreign language classes?
4.What types of activities contribute to the development of fluency and confidence in the use of the language being studied?
5.How can teachers provide corrective feedback in the communicative method of teaching foreign languages?
6.What main methods of communicative teaching of foreign languages can you name?
7.How can the Sanako virtual service be used in the communicative method of teaching foreign languages?
8.What examples of role-playing games can you name?
9.What should real-life scenarios created by the teacher be based on?
10.Which elements in real-life scenarios will allow students to better understand the language?
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Topic 8. Advanced Techniques in Communicative Language Teaching
Task 4. Express your point of view on the following issue: Which techniques of communicative foreign language teaching: incorporating real-life scenarios, utilising technology in the classroom, collaborative learning strategies and focus on fluency over accuracy are the most effective and why?
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Topic 8. Advanced Techniques in Communicative Language Teaching
Topic 9
STRATEGIES TO INCREASE MOTIVATION
IN LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Motivation plays a key role in all facets and types of learning. But it’s perhaps most important in language learning, where progress can be difficult to see on a day-to-day basis. Learners with a positive attitude to their course and their studies are more likely to continue working hard and to keep going when times are tough. Although not everyone who is motivated to learn does eventually achieve their goal, many learners who do are frequently highly motivated individuals.
Maintaining high levels of student motivation is vital for language educators. Reeve (1996) confirms that: «Student motivation is influenced by both internal and external factors that can start, sustain, intensify, or discourage behaviour». Sparking these elements into life is therefore a key part of the teacher’s role, but how can you do this regularly and effectively?
This article describes effective strategies for inspiring students and maintaining their motivation for learning new languages.
Understand your students’ motivations
In order for an educator to motivate a student, it’s important that they understand the learner’s motivation for learning languages in the first place. The extensive research investigating the link between language learning and motivation identifies two main types of motivation. Some learners have an intrinsic motivation for learning – they want to learn a language because of an internal force to do so. Usually they have an interest in the language or they just love learning or are perhaps more open to self-improvement.
On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is powered by an external source. Learners are studying a language for a particular purpose – to get a job, a qualification, to travel or perhaps because a parent has sent them to language school to study.
Of course, people’s motivation for learning frequently changes and their levels of motivation will also fluctuate – often seemingly on a class by class basis!
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Topic 9. Strategies to Increase Motivation in Language Learners
Prioritise pair and group work
One of the most motivating ways to learn a language is through close collaboration and communication with other students, giving learners the opportunity to practice their communication skills. In turn, one of the quickest ways to demotivate a student is to minimise their participation and involvement.
Students learn best by speaking, listening, making, writing, creating and solving in the active learning mode instead of passive learning. Small-group activities and pair work facilitate these active learning opportunities and boosting self-confidence can also increase their motivation to learn. They also allow all students (even the quietest ones) to express their ideas and working cooperatively can also reduce behaviour incidents and build a mutually supportive classroom environment.
Create the right classroom environment
Creating a classroom environment that is conducive to learning and where students feel able to grow and succeed is clearly a key element in building students’ motivation. Allowing students to personalise their learning space can also have a positive, motivational effect.
One key element to consider is where students sit and how the classroom is oriented. Wherever possible, try to create a layout which maximises eye contact, both between teacher and student and also between students. Linked to this, it’s important that students are all physically included and that no-one is sitting alone or outside pairs / groups. The classroom also needs space for students to move from group to group, but not so much space that the atmosphere is quiet and there’s little engagement in the lesson.
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Topic 9. Strategies to Increase Motivation in Language Learners
Provide a clear path of success
Professor Zoltán Dörnyei from Nottingham University is an expert in motivation studies. His work in the field has clearly identified that learners who are able to construct clear mental images of themselves as successful second language speakers tend to more often achieve their goals. Dörnyei explains that educators «should take the perspective of trainers and cheerleaders, helping learners to imagine themselves in their ideal L2 personae and thus leverage their motivation to better their learning outcomes».
Perhaps the best way to do this is to provide a step-by-step plan that gives each learner a clear and achievable route to achieving their goals. As such, ensuring that and showing how each lesson and activity clearly contributes to those targets is vital. Constantly reminding students of the objective they are working towards can also pay dividends [7].
Tasks
Task 1. Review the information in the text. Please explain the meaning of the following terms: language educators, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, self-improvement, communication skills, active learning, classroom environment.
Task 2. Read the article again and complete the sentences with information from the text.
1.Learners with a positive attitude to studies keep going when times are
_________.
2.Educational motivation is influenced by the following factors:________.
3.External factors that enhance motivation include ___________________.
4.The level of educational motivation varies depending on ____________.
5.Collaboration gives learners the opportunity ______________________.
6.The level of motivation can be reduced by ________________________.
7.Active learning of foreign languages involves _____________________.
8.Self-confidence can also enhance _______________________________.
9.The atmosphere in the classroom, which supports each other, assumes
_______.
10.Providing students with the opportunity to individualize their personal space contributes to _______________________________________________.
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Topic 9. Strategies to Increase Motivation in Language Learners
11.In foreign language classes, all students must interact closely with each other in order to __________________________________________________.
12.Creating clear mental images of themselves allows students to ________.
Task 3. Answer the questions about the content of the article.
1.Why is motivation important in learning foreign languages?
2.What is Reeve's definition of motivation? How can you comment on this definition?
3.What are two types of motivation?
4.What is extrinsic motivation?
5.What is intrinsic motivation?
6.What determines the level of motivation development?
7.How can collaboration and communication affect the level of motivation?
8.What kind of atmosphere in the classroom helps to increase motivation?
9.Why does creating clear self-images increase motivation to learn foreign languages?
10.How does the presentation of a step-by-step plan contribute to the achievement of goals in learning foreign languages?
Task 4. Express your point of view on the following issue: Which type of motivation: external or internal has a more significant impact on obtaining better results in the process of mastering a foreign language?
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