6.4. System of exercises

Creating a rationally organised system of exercises is the key to the problem of effective teaching a foreign language. The importance of the system of exercises consists in the fact that it is supposed to provide organising both the process of learning and the process of teaching.

In terms of organising the process of learning, the system of exercises should provide:

• selection of the necessary activities which respond to the character of a certain speech habit or skill;

• determination of the necessary sequence of exercises;

• distribution of the language input and correlation of its components;

• systematic and regular performance of certain activities;

• interconnection of different kinds of speech activity.

In terms of organising the process of teaching, the system of exercises requires material realisation in printed matter of a textbook.

6.4.1. Basic notions of a system, subsystem, complex, series, cycle, group of exercises

Any system is understood as something whole, integer, which, in its turn, is the unity of orderly distributed and interconnected parts.

Thus, N.I. Gez represents the system of exercises as an organisation of interconnected operations, distributed in the order of gradual increase in language and operational difficulties with an account of speech habits and skills formation and development with due regard to the character of real-life speech acts.

Methodology usually distinguishes between two types of system of exercises: a general system of exercises and a special, or particular, system of exercises.

The general system of exercises (S) is aimed at language acquisition taken as a whole. S.F. Shatilov defines the general system of exercises as a joint necessity of such types, kinds and varieties of exercises, which are performed in a definite quantity and sequence and take into account natural development of skills and habits in different types of language activity. Language activity is the realisation of personal communicative skills for communicative intercourse in a given communicative situation. Skill is an individual capacity to communicate in given situational settings. According to Shatilov, the general system of exercises provides for a maximum top level of mastering a foreign language under the set circumstances.

The special system (Ss) is aimed at acquisition of some particular type of language activity. Thus, we may speak of four special systems of exercises: the system of exercises for listening, the system of exercises for speaking, the system of exercises for reading and the system of exercises for writing. Sometimes special systems are called sub-systems of exercises.

In their turn, each of the four sub-systems may include several complexes (C) of exercises for teaching specific skills, e.g. a dialogical skill, i.e. dialogical speech, or a complex of exercises for teaching a monological skill.

Each complex comprises three series of exercises for teaching speech and technical habits. In case of teaching speaking, they are:

1. exercises aimed at teaching pronunciation habits;

2. exercises aimed at teaching lexical habits;

3. exercises aimed at teaching grammatical habits of speaking.

All three series are closely interrelated and interconnected.

Each series consists of a number of cycles for teaching definite habits, e.g. a cycle of exercises aimed at teaching articulation habits and intonation habits of speaking; a cycle of exercises aimed at teaching the syntactical side of speaking; a cycle of exercises aimed at teaching morphological habits of oral speech.

A cycle may fall into smaller groups of exercises aimed at teaching definite language items. A group of exercises allows performing operations with one language item in interconnected sequence. Each exercise included into the group aims at the lexical, grammatical, pronunciation or intonation side of one language item. The concern of an exercise is to perform primary operations with the four sides of the language item. It is to make up operational orientation basis for the formation of a speech habit later on.

A similar structure of the system of exercises may be found in teaching other types of language activity or communicative skills. Graphically the structure of the system of exercises may be represented as follows: