6. Strengths and weaknesses of Russian approach to teaching reading.

Mature reading. Principles and stages of organizing teaching to read in ELT classes.

In Russian methodology reading, unlike abroad, it treated analytically, which means forming linguistic competencies one by one, listening competencies , anticipaton and memory; so that mature reading is finally accumulated. So there is a notion of technical side of reading , treated as sum total of 11 competencies:

Knowledge of letter-sound correspondence; Ability to vocalize correctly unknown words (isolated and in context); Corresponding form and meaning; Recognizing familiar words in an unknown text; Using structure of the text to grasp general meaning; Recognizing types of text; Using spelling rules; Reading out loud in a modulated way; Using sentence stucture to grasp general meaning; Guessing the meaning of unknown words from the context; Overcoming focus on articulation only.

Strengths of the Russian approach:

1. There is a good theoretical foundation as to phychological part of the process;

2. Physiological characteristics are also well presented (movement of the eye-ball, fixation time, apperception – and hence hiegenic demands for a textbook;

3. Russian school singles out 4 types of information, derived from the text (categories , situatuional, emotive-evaluative and imperative) and 7 levels of text perception: of words; ~ of word combinations; sentence level; general (global) understanding; detailed understanding; understanding connotations and implications; literary competency (understanding broad cultural and sociolinguistic background + adequate reaction to all types of written speech: punctuation, italics, graphs, grids; ability to transform information from one signal system to another).

4. There is a comprehensive classification of types of reading , provided by Folomkina:

5. There is a comprehensive analysis of genre peculiarities for belle-letre, science popular, scientific texts, newspaper style and a list of difficulties a learner encounters while mastering the genres and styles.

British and American methodologists consider our approach atomistic. They (e.g. Cathrine Wallace) claim that reading doesn’t boil down to ability to identify words on the card. It is ability to decode a text (reading without decoding exists in some religions where texts are learned and recited by rote and... in some Russian schools – cf. mastering “topics”). TESOl approach to reading (Smith and Goodman) is based upon treating reading as a unitary process.

Types of reading are classified as to reading purpose. There exist 3 pragmatic reasons alltogether:

1. Reading for survival;

2. Reading for academic purposes – in case it is reading and acquiring facts and opinions. Goodman (1984) singled out ‘ritualistic’ reading in class just to display ability;

3. Reading for pleasure (readers who don’t do that in their mother-tongue are unlikely to do so in a second or foreign language.

Russian is a skills approach to learning to read: e.g. phonic skill is displayed by the ability to read out loud with a ‘good’ pronunciation. EFL is a strategies approach. One more distinction is introducing the term of intertextuality (texts cannot be readily interpreted – or at least fully appreciated – without reference to other texts. Where the 2 schools practically merge is criteria for selecting texts for reading: it should be a vehicle for teaching specific grammar and lexis; it should give an opportunity to promote key reading strategies; it should have interesting and familiar content; it should be appropriate for the language level of students; it should be authentic,not specially written for pedagogic purposes; and most importantly, it should lead to a range of other activities (should be part of a process). In general, one can single out most typical, classical activities for the 3 stage (pre-reading, while-reading, post-reading), they would look like this:

PRE-READING ACTIVITIES: Predictions engendered by the title, pictures, etc; Discussion of the topic related to the text under study;

IN-READING ACTIVITIES: Checking against predictions previously made about the text; Completing charts, maps, etc; None-taking; Matching the text with headings;

POST-READING ACTIVITIES: Summarising main points; Various text-related activities engaging students in speaking and writing; A role-play; Writing a letter on behalf of one of the people mentioned in the text.

Russian methodological school has successfully researched connection of writing as a pocess with the mechanism of inner speech. Zhinkin proved interdependence of writing skills upon inner intoning of the sentence. This point of view soon found support with colleagues abroad. When we write, we self-dictate, when we reread, we intone it again. If students cannot intone well, their written product will be incoherent. Second field of research is linguistic study of a text as product of written speech. The next issue is analysis of the technical side of writing, which comprises calligraphy, graphics, orthography and punctuation, and a very comprehensive analysis of difficulties students face when mastering this technical side of writing. The approach is again somewhat atomistic, every difficulty is overcome when forming a microskill, every microskill can be formed with the help of a pin-point objective language exercise. Needless to say activities here are word-level or sentence-level. Writing activities at text-level vary from copying through guided writing to free-writing. Copying tasks comprise all kinds of cross-words, copying with underlining gap-filling; and certaingly dictations. Guided writing might take the form of labelling (learners are asked to supply either names or captions to the pictures given), slot technique (learners are to fill in the slots to produce a coherent text), parallel writing (using a text or data as a basis). A writing assignment can be based on a given layout of a text (e.g. letter would include sender’s address, greeting, reason for writing , returning hospitality, pre-closing and closing). A useful task to teach the learners various styles of writing is the role-writing, where learners get the task to write on one and the same topic a couple of times, changing the roles.

TESOL methodology lays a stress upon the pragmatic purpose of a written product and the addressee: who’s writing for whom. On this basis they differentiate between: a) self-writing (notes, shopping lists, personal reminders); b) interpersonal writing (letters, postcards, notes); academic writing (reports, annotations, reviews, speeches, etc); scientific or research work (theses, articles, reviews, presentations, etc.), occupational writing (which is extremely varied depending upon one’s work placement – forms, business correspondence, conference minutes, prescriptions, reviews etc), and creative writing (poetry, essays, short stories, novels, etc). There is further classification of written products according to general language proficiency of a student (elementary writing… advanced writing), but it’s highly empirical.

For writing a report one should know how to produce secondary texts, know the key concepts of the field, should be able to give references to sources correctly, use abbreviations and present comprehensive conclusions. Working with postcards and letters students should be aware of unwritten sociocultural code; postcards are artifacts not abstractions and should be treated accordingly. Whatever type of writing is in question, it would follow the classical 3 stage form again: reproductive writing (copying), reproductive-productive (copying with variations), and productive (making your own product). Needless to say, it requires a top-down approach – working from the model. This approach in its turn enhances reading for detail, involves use of authentic sources (newspapers, cases, briefs, memos). Scientific writing would certainly entail analysis of finished product, passing on judgment, e.g.:

Who’s the author of the text? What are the key terms of the article? Does the author present opinions of other experts in the field? What’s the personal position of the author? Is it clearly expressed? Wheat helps you to understand his or her position? Etc.

This illustration proves one point: writing is part of a process, which necessarily integrates speaking, listening and reading; to be productive it cannot be divorced from other speech activities.

Grammar Skills are subdivided into receptive and productive, but there is no clear demarkation line between the two. What is first receptive is later productive. Naturally when we select, we should select input for productive use from oral sources and for receptive use from written sources. Productive grammar selection principles: Stability of use (many sources many times), Model character, Omission of synonymy (this last principle is characteristic of Russian approach only; TESOL instructers give chance of a choice to answer the exact pragmatic intention of the utterance). Receptive grammar selection principles: Stability; Polysemy.

Scale of difficulties in presenting grammar phenomena: Mirolyubov singled out complex character of the phenomenon itself, homonimous cases, complexity of logical operations, necessary to recognize a phenomenon.

Grammar can be introduced by bottom-up and top-down way. What is it dictated by? Firstly, character of the phenomenon itself (lexical approach sometimes serves better. Secondly, presence/absence of a similar notion in Russian. Thirdly, proficiency of students, both speech and general academic proficiency. Last but not least, function of the grammar notion.

After introduction stage there follows activation stage, where the teacher might encounter 2 typical problems: ~ there are not enough pre-speech activities, or they are not varied enough; ~ thereare too many drills, or they are too lengthy. To cope with the first problem, you should remember types of activities at pre-speech stage: recognition and differentiation; substitution; transformational; questions and answers (comprehension activities); reproductive activities; translation.

In case one or more type is lacking , you should breeech the gap by giving extras.

If activities are too many, be selective; a good activity should answer one purpose, be illustrative enough, and above all, there should be avoidance of lock-step drill (preference should be given to pair work with keys, marathons, creative tasks, differentiated tasks, etc.).

Principles of organizing grammar practice:

it should be based on a good range of subject matter: factual information on topics of general interest; history, geography, psychology, politics, science; the trick here is to keep input contextualized, otherwise they have no consumer value for the learner; there should be conversational subjects of local or general interest; there should be volume and repetition (amount of spoken language produced by students!); heterogeneity (any exercise may be done at various levels of difficulty): teacher assistance should be limited; there should be success orientation: there should be a possibility to express personal viewpoints, tastes, etc. there should be visual focus; activities should be open-ended; there should be information gaps created; Everything should be as personalized as possible (omitting she and he; connecting events with personalities). there should be pleasurable tension (you should limit both the time and the size of the product); there should be smooth transition from practice activities to the next stage – grammar practice should be viewed as part of a process; finally, there should be some reserve activities and some tired activities. By reserve activities I mean either repeating selectively – items you’ve found most difficult, recalling or editing.

Self-Access: download from www.Festival1September.ru some lesson with a focus on grammar and analyze it according to a) choice of activities; b) grammar practice organization.

Learner Activation Techniques: 1 Reception with no overt response; 2.Reception with minimal response; 3. teacher student exchanges; 4. Student-teacher exchanges a reverse ping-pong where the student initiates the exchange, and the teacher responds; 5. Brainstorm – here it is important to define very clearly type of response required; use some confident and imaginative students to provide some initial examples; 6. Chain – this is a legitimate outlet for passing notes and can be done alongside with frontal work; 7. Fluid pairs; 8. Semi-controlled small group transactions (an effective type for students who are well on the way of mastering the structure); 9. Free group discussion.