Linguo didactic framework of associative teaching a foreign language

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Linguo didactic framework of associative teaching a foreign language

Gusak L., Smalko L.

The author reveals the features of foreign language acquisition by schoolchildren. Junior school age is considered sensitive for learning a foreign language. Psycholinguistic studies indicate that plasticity of the brain, the need to learn new things, the ability to imitate and copy/replicate are characteristic of primary school students, which contributes to successful language learning. The article presents linguo didactic studies that formed the basis of the associative teaching the foreign language in the primary school. Technologies of associative learning and teaching are presented from the conceptual positions of the achievements of linguo didactic sciences. Two types of language acquisition are described: rational-logical (people, who belong to this type, receptively or passively master the language) and intuitive-sensitivel (people of this type are characterized by productive or active language acquisition, with the help of practical training in language activity, since language tools are formed in the process of communicative activity). A special attention is paid to the second type of mastering the language, because the associative teaching is based mainly on the practical way of mastering the language, combining verbal and non¬verbal means of communication. The first type of acquisition is no less important for pupils in their mastering the foreign language. The associative teaching/learning a foreign language is implemented as follows: from involuntary unconscious via spontaneously conscious to an arbitrary conscious learning.

Different methods and technologies of the associative teaching a foreign language are presented in the article: the method of graphic associations, the method of sound (phonetic) associations, the associative method of combination, mnemonic based method, method of using the associative fields, method of mind-mapping, method of associative symbols. Associative methods are closely connected to intensive methods of teaching aforeign language.

Key words: a foreign language, younger pupils, language acquisition, voluntary and involuntary acquisition, verbal and non-verbal means of communication, language learning, associative teaching, intensive methods, associative methods of teaching a foreign language.

Гусак Л.Є., Смалько Л.Є. Лінгводидактичні основи асоціативного навчання іноземної мови

У статті автор розкриває особливості асоціативного навчання іноземної мови молодших школярів.

Молодший шкільний вік вважається сензитивним для засвоєння іноземної мови. Психолінгвістичні напрацювання указують на те, що для учнів початкової школи характерними є пластичність мозку, потреба у пізнанні нового, здатність до імітації та наслідування, що і сприяє успішному вивченню іноземної мови учнями початкової школи. У статті представлені лінгво-дидактичні напрацювання, які лягли в основу асоціативного навчання іноземних мов в початковій школі. Механізми асоціативного навчання іноземної мови представлено з точки зору досягнень лінгво- дидактичної наукиі: описано два типи оволодіння іноземною мовою: раціонально-логічний (люди, які відносяться до цього типу, рецептивно або пасивно опановують іноземну мову) та інтуїтивно-чуттєвий (для людей цього типу характерне продуктивне або активне опанування іноземною мовою, за допомогою практичного тренування в мовній діяльності, оскільки мовні засоби формуються у процесі комунікативної діяльності). Особлива увага приділена другому типу оволодіння іноземною мовою, оскільки асоціативне навчання іноземної мови базується саме на другому, практичному способі, поєднуючи вербальні і невербальні засоби комунікації. Проте. для засвоєння мови молодшими школярами перший тип є не менш важливим. Асоціативне навчання іноземної мови в початковій школі реалізується наступним чином: від мимовільного неусвідомленого через мимовільно усвідомлене до довільно усвідомленого навчання. У статті представлено різні методи та методики асоціативного навчання іноземних мов: метод графічних асоціацій, метод звукових (фонетичних) асоціацій, комбінований асоціативний метод, асоціативний метод поєднання, тезаурусний метод з використанням асоціативних полів слів, метод побудови асоціативних мап, метод асоціативних символів. Асоціативні методи пов'язані з інтенсивними методами навчання іноземних мов.

Ключові слова: іноземна мова, засвоєння іноземної мови, довільне і мимовільне засвоєння мови, асоціативне навчання, методи і методики асоціативного навчання, молодші школярі.

Primary school age is considered to be sensitive for learning a foreign language. Psycholinguistic developments indi¬cate that children of this age are characterized by flexibility of the brain, the need for new knowledge, innate language capacity, the ability to imitate and copy/replicate. It all together creates favorable conditions for successful learning of a foreign language at primary school. In this regard, we are mostly interested in linguo didactic developments that could underpin associative learning of foreign languages. Our task is to describe and substantiate the mechanisms of associa¬tive strategy of learning and teaching a foreign language from the conceptual positions of linguo didactic science. linguo didactic teaching foreign language

The issues of successful foreign language learning have been studied by many scientists from different fields of knowledge. Let us consider a few basic concepts of teaching foreign languages theory, which are important for associative learning and teaching foreign languages to young learners.

Scientists have singled out two main types of foreign language acquisition - rational-logical (people, who belong to this type, master a foreign language in receptive or passive way - listen and read or perceive and under-stand foreign language through theoretical comprehension, grammatical analysis of language features) and intui-tive-sensitive (this type of people are inclined to productive or active mastery of a foreign language only via practi¬cal language communicative activities, and think that any language laws and rules can be assimilated in the process of communicative activity).

Associative teaching of foreign languages to primary school pupils concerns mainly the second type of foreign language acquisition, which can be also called practical. A practical way of learning a foreign language is charac¬terized by subconscious, intuitive way of learning. Under such conditions, a foreign language is acquired without mediation of native language and a pupil learns to think in a foreign language directly, spotaneously.

Personality of communicative type demonstrates a high level of auditory perception, auditory memory, high-speed processing of updating knowledge and new information. Personality of non-communicative type demon-strates successful mastery of a foreign language by an involuntary memorization, supported by visual verbal rein-forcement material. Associative teaching is focused simultaneously on both types of mastering a foreign language, combining verbal and non-verbal means of communication.

Scientists-methodologists emphasize that both spontaneous and voluntary, conscious and unconscious character¬istics are of particular importance for teaching a foreign language. We can learn a foreign language involuntary when we study it in a country whose language we study, practicing it with native speakers or using the so-called method of «governess» to master commonly-used lexics. When studying foreign languages at educational institutions we place importance on involuntary and arbitrary assimilation of foreign language material, since it is performed in accordance with the relevant programs, designated number of hours, homework assignments and so on.

As a matter of fact, spontaneous does not mean unconscious. In view of these psychological characteristics, when studying a foreign language we may move from unconscious practice in oral speech to an arbitrary system of conscious acquisition of a foreign language, from the arbitrary and deliberate assimilation of language rules to spon¬taneous and automatic speaking. Associative learning strategy in teaching foreign languages to pupils of primary school is implemented according to the following theoretical considerations: from involuntary and unconscious via spontaneously conscious to an arbitrary conscious learning. This is the way of mastering a foreign language, which pupil passes at a primary school from the first to the fourth grade and it makes him well-equipped to proceed suc¬cessfully in studying a foreign language in senior forms of school.

Associative learning strategy in its various aspects is realized in view of the individual characteristics of every pupil and taking into account the individual psychological differences in mastering a foreign language. Individual style of associative learning of a foreign language is caused by the presence of certain capabilities and skills. In the scientific literature we can come across different approaches to the definition of «skills», however, we concentrate our attention on the two major among them: active learning approach and functional-psychological approach.

The ability to study is considered to be a general ability to assimilate new knowledge and methods of activities. [14] Depending on the method of knowledge acquisition and the characteristics of neurophysiological mechanisms scholars highlight two types of teachability: explicit teachability (voluntary, conscious training) and implicit teach¬ability (spontaneous learning). [23]

The concept of psycholinguistic abilities to master a foreign language implies two aspects and we should cer-tainly differentiate between them: language capability and the ability to master the language. [9, с. 18-23] Language capability (linguistic competence by Chomsky) is the ability to master the first / native language. The ability to master a language is the ability to learn non-native / foreign language.

Scholars distinguish the following two types of abilities in foreign language acquisition context: communica-tive-linguistic and cognitive-linguistic. The first type of abilities is connected with foreign language communicative skills and implies productive command of the language, e.i speaking, understanding, reading and writing. Com¬municative-linguistic type is characterized by communicability, mobility, impulsiveness in making decisions and effective communicative behavior.

The non-verbal components of intellectual abilities prevail over the verbal-logical, and abilities of auditory perception which dominate over visual ones. [13, с. 72-86] Children with this type of foreign language capabilities study easily and naturally according to the methodology of associative learning strategy.

Cognitive-linguistic abilities as individual psycho-physiological characteristics of a person ensure quick for-mation of skills in mastering the language systems (vocabulary, phonetics, grammar). [8] Cognitive-linguistic type is characterized by greater spontaneity of actions, slowed reaction to the situation of communication, poor facial expression / mimics and gestures. In the cognitive sphere there is a dominance of verbal-logical components over figurative and the children are predominantly visual memory type. In this case children feel uncomfortable in ver-bal-motor activities.

Associative learning is extremely effective for the schoolchildren with a mixed type of abilities.

Personal qualities play the decisive role in mastering the foreign language. The researchers emphasize the need for creating conditions that would allow schoolchildren to demonstrate in full all the qualities of human individu¬ality in a collective, group and individual forms of work, i. e provide individualized learning of a foreign language. [17] Associative learning strategy provides such a possibility to actualize all kinds of learner's individual qualities in harmony.

We are born with the ability to assimilate any language quickly, without any problems and retain this talent to about 11 - 12 years of age, states a well-known psycholinguist Naomi Chomsky. [3] In the conditions of proper organization of associative learning children of primary school learn the language very quickly, and acquire it to the fluency level of elementary user without knowing grammar rules. It can be explained by the peculiarities of learning activity at this age.

S. Rubinstein noted that learning of foreign language by junior pupils begins with mastering the «live speech» through the communicative activity of children when they have to use the assimilated words to satisfy their needs and goals of communication. [21]

We study native language via life experience without any effort, since a child stays in an environment of native language from his very birth, which contributes to the speedy and effective absorption of a language. In accordance with the principles of associative learning a child must be taught a foreign language in the same way in which he assimilated the native language. [7] Some researchers (W. Butzkamm, D. Delanoff, D. Kirsch, L. Chernovatii) also point to the similarity of processes in acquisition of both native and foreign language. Like the children, mastering native language, the junior schoolchildren, studying a foreign one, assimilate speech blocks as models for actions on the basis of imitation and subsequent memorization. [1]

Having taken for granted the similarity of the mechanisms in acquisition of native and foreign languages, Aus-trian scientists under the leadership of Peltzer-Karpf and R. Zangle defined the stages of learning foreign language and their sequence regarding young learners:

1) the initial stage, the stage of the receptive-reproductive and iterative learning of a foreign language - the first and second years of schooling;

2) the reorganization stage, the stage of segmentation and analysis of speech products, search and hypothesis testing, modeling relationships - the second, third and fourth years of schooling;

3) the stability stage, the stage of setting and application of the language rules or, in other words, the stage of an orderly and coherent speech - the end of the fourth year of schooling. [5]

The analysis conducted by the researchers provided the foundations to offer a method of associative symbols as such that helps pupils to saturate their speech experience at the initial stage, to adapt children to sounding of a new language, develop their speech articulation base and accumulate a large number of lexical-semantic patterns.

At the first stage the peculiarities of perception of young learners should be taken into account. Perception at the age of 7-8 is characterized by involuntary nature and affectivity. The schoolchildren perceive, first of all, bright details or the information with specific regard to their interests.

Emotionally colored information activates the brain activities of junior schoolchildren 1,5-2 times stronger than neutral, causing the need for a supporting emotional atmosphere in the classroom, personal selection of important learning material, using associative strategy of learning and teaching. In the process of learning foreign language this initial stage of language acquisition is a major one, because it affects the success of further language acquisition. [22]

The reorganization phase begins approximately in the second half of the second grade. In the opinion of psy-cholinguists it is characterized by intensive mastering of the «critical array» of lexical units, resulting in the speech synthesis. After a child has learnt a certain amount of foreign language material, gradual dynamic processes of sorting and organizing the material starts in his consciousness. All the above mentioned factors indicate to intuitive comprehension of the language system by children. [5] It implies that the second stage of learning a foreign lan¬guage is a stage of mastering grammar.

The phase of grammar acquisition is followed by further improvement of children's speech habits: enriching vocabulary, correcting pronunciation. Their speech becomes more complicated. It is a stage of transition to a sta-ble phase of learning a foreign language at which pupils apply the rules in formulating their thoughts, and speech activities are arbitrary regulated. The second and the third stages, particularly in the terms of associative learning, are adaptive to the future learning of foreign languages at secondary school level, where teaching and learning are realized according to the established traditional methods of teaching.

From teaching experience we know that the traditional teaching methodology has several shortcomings: learning is reduced to the acquisition of ready knowledge, is focused on the «average» learner concerning the tempo rate and scope of knowledge; neglects individual psychological characteristics of pupils; is characterized by solid memory loading of the pupils, and others. With regard to foreign language teaching, the traditional methodology aims to study language as a system with a dominating role of exercises at all stages of language acquisition, while the ulti¬mate goal of the communicative principle is formation of the communication skills. To overcome these shortcom¬ings many educators seek for the ways to improve the effectiveness of foreign language teaching by introducing new approaches into the traditional methodology, using intensive techniques, individualization, differentiation, focusing on student-centered learning; in our case, it is associative learning.

Recent researches assert that methods based on associations in regard to the development of creative thinking of young learners demonstrate their high efficiency. They are the method of graphic associations, method of sound (phonetic) associations, complex associative method. All of them help pupils to overcome a number of difficulties in language acquisition in a fundamentally new way, help children to absorb better even the basics of their native language (Ukrainian, in our case).

Associative learning strategy in general is focused on modern innovative technologies of training. It meets new goals and tasks of teaching foreign languages at primary school observing the age and individual characteristics of young learners and their needs, among which the basic ones are: the need to play games (through game-playing activity the content of educational material is better absorbed), the need to move, the need for external impressions, cognitive needs.

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