Forming primary school children’s sociocultural competence by using linguistic country studying content

SHEE “Donbas State Pedagogical University”

Sloviansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine

Abstract. The aim of the article is to study the role of linguistic country studying content in learning the English language and the ways of forming primary schoolchildren's linguistic country studying competence. According to reforming the system of foreign language education in Ukraine it should be selected in the context of intercultural paradigm. Linguistic country study solves a number of problems, including the main philological problem of adequate understanding of the foreign speech which is the basis of linguistics. While interpreting the foreign speech, pupils should understand it, selecting the appropriate equivalents in the native language. The author thinks that authentic linguistic country studying materials contribute to the qualitative understanding and producing foreign speech. The stages of the work with authentic content are presented in the article. The author singles out the following stages: incentive-motivational one includes the forming communicative tasks and increases the pupils' level of motivation; content-operational stage aims at presenting and semantization of new lexical items and the use of training exercises; concluding one is focused on using lexical items in pupils' speech. The examples of practical tasks are given for each stage. Linguistic country studies deal with the linguistic units that most clearly reflect the cultural characteristics of the people - native speakers and their living place. Thereby lingvoregional aspect of sociocultural competence in the English language teaching involves lexical background vocabulary and national realias. It is proved that using linguistic country studying comments intensifies the process of mastering background vocabulary and national realias of English-speaking countries, which are the components of sociocultural competence and provide forming pupils' communicative skills at the elementary level.

Key words: foreign language education; English-speaking communication; linguistic country studying authentic content; sociocultural competence; communicative competence; background vocabulary; national realias.

Анотація. Метою статті є обґрунтування ролі лінгвокраїнознавчого контенту в навчанні англійської мови та шляхи формування соціокультурної компетентності учнів початкової школи. Відповідно до реформування системи іншомовної освіти в Україні зміст навчання іноземної мови має бути побудовано на засадах оволодіння нею у контексті міжкультурної парадигми. На думку автора статті, автентичний лінгвокраїнознавчий контент сприяє якісному розумінню та продукуванню іншомовного мовлення. У статті представлено етапи роботи з автентичним контентом. Зауважено, що застосування лінгвокраїнознавчих коментарів інтенсифікує процес оволодіння фоновою лексикою та національними реаліями англомовних країн та формує іншомовні комунікативні вміння та навички учнів на елементарному рівні.

Ключові слова: іншомовна освіта; англомовна комунікація; лінгвокраїнознавчий автентичний контент; соціокультурна компетентність; комунікативна компетентність; фонова лексика; національні реалії.

Аннотация. Целью статьи является обоснование роли лингвострановедческого контента при изучении английского языка и пути формирования социокультурной компетентности учащихся начальной школы. В соответствии с реформированием системы языкового образования в Украине содержание обучения английскому языку детей младшего школьного возраста должно отбираться в контексте межкультурной парадигмы. По мнению автора статьи, аутентичный лингвострановедческий контент способствует качественному пониманию и произведению иноязычной речи. В статье представлено этапы роботы с аутентичным контентом. Отмечено, что использование лингвострановедческих комментариев интенсифицирует процесс овладения фоновой лексикой и национальными реалиями англоязычных стран, которые входят в состав социокультурной компетентности и способствуют формированию англоязычных коммуникативных умений и навыков на элементарном уровне.

Ключевые слова: иноязычное образование; англоязычная коммуникация; лингвострановедческий аутентичный контент; социокультурная компетентность; коммуникативная компетентность; фоновая лексика; национальные реалии.

Problem setting in general. At the end of the 80-s of previous century using the Internet starts at the education. It causes a new paradigm in foreign language teaching. The number of the Internet users is increasing rapidly in the world. Taking into account this tendency, the methodologists prove that this resource is really unique in comparison with television or radio. The Internet is one of the most innovative technologies in education that helps increase students' motivation in learning, reflects the realization of student-centered approach to learning and contributes to collaborative work. It provides students with powerful communication medium, offers them better understanding of a topic in variety of ways and gives students the opportunity to explain their work to others, using text, graphics, animations, pictures, video and sound.

The latest papers and publications on the problem. Analysis of educational, scientific and methodological literature shows that the problem of implementation of the Internet technologies into foreign language teaching in our country is studied by S. Beshenkova, G. Hershunskii, I. Mashbits, I. Robert, R. Semerenko.

Mattew Fox, John D. Holder, Mike Weaver were the first teachers who used the Internet as a teaching method in the twentieth century. Their experience was not very successful because of unlimited speed and much time needed to do the tasks. However, they noticed the improvement in students' reading, but not speaking skills.

The aim of the study. The goal of this article is to analyze ways of incorporating the Internet into English language teaching and into the process of forming students' communicative competence in English.

Presentation of basic research material. To study effectively students should know foreign languages as studying means a permanent looking for information. To get the objective and accurate information one should read it in original language. And while equating the source students are mastering the foreign language. As the surveys showed the most popular language among the Internet users is English. There are 536, 6 million of English-speaking users [2].

Today, they are interrelated tendencies we learn English to get the information on the Internet and we use the Internet to improve our English.

Dede Teeler is convinced that some Internet services have primitive beginnings. He reported that most of the current text-only Internet tools are leftovers from a bygone era of more primitive computer technology. As the Net incorporates more and more multimedia features some of these text-only applications become obsolete, some are superseded by more user-friendly programs, and the others are adapted [6, p. 3].

In the report “Regardless of Frontiers”, which was prepared by Global Internet Liberty Campaign, the authors stressed on that the Internet comprised of a number of different technologies and infrastructures. That's why it is:

- global - it immediate access to information from around the world. With simple e-mail, it is as easy to send a message to another continent;

- decentralized - the Internet was designed by purpose to be decentralized, to work without gatekeepers, and to accommodate multiple, competitive access points. The absence of gatekeepers means that material can almost always be published outside the control of governments, monopolies or oligopolies;

- open - the Internet has low barriers to access. The costs of creating and disseminating content are extremely low;

- abundant - the digitization of information and the ability to transmit it over the telephone network, combined with the decentralized nature of the Internet, mean that the Internet has essentially unlimited capacity to hold information;

- interactive -the Internet is designed for bi-directional communication: all Internet users can be both speakers and listeners. The Internet allows responsive communication from one-to-one, from one-to-many, and from many- to-one.

- user-controlled - the Internet user can skip from site to site in ways that are not dictated by the content providers or by the access provider [1].

Implementation of the Internet resources has two main functions which play an enormous role in forming English communicative competence: telecommunicate and informational.

The Internet offers a number of information sources and services, such as e-mail, mailing lists, discussion groups, the system of newsgroups, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, chats, MOO, creating blogs and personal sites. The access to the information is getting easier due to reference catalogs (Yahoo!, InfoSeek/UltraSmart, LookSmart, and Galaxy), search engines (Google, AltaVista, HotBob, Open Text, WebCrawler, Excite). But while using the information from these resources students should approach selectively. It can be of low quality because nowadays anyone can upload the information [5, p. 15].

E-mail is the electronic postal service. Communication through the e-mail may be organized as a project. The project may be successful if it is properly planned, das an interesting theme and corresponds to the pupils intelligence level. As a rule some groups of students from different countries take part in the language projects. In this case the language should be used as foreign, but the native one. The main advantage of e-mail projects is possibility to communicate with real partners. It's important to use authentic text while teaching English instead of specially made for students texts.

Mailing lists are an automated exchange of e-mail messages about a chosen topic, each one being a kind of supervised discussion group. They are often called discussion lists or listservs.

The system of newsgroups is a worldwide network of open discussion groups on thousands of subjects. They are open in that they are not usually supervised or moderated and can be read by anyone that is interested. They are interesting spaces for debate, and there are several dedicated to educational themes.

Chat is a popular way to communicate in real time, that is, instantaneously. Whatever you type into a chat program is immediately visible to the other participants on their computers. You can chat to strangers from around the world who share your hobbies or interests, or even arrange to meet family or friends for a virtual reunion.

MOO is a meeting place on the Net, one of several kinds of multi-user environments that have evolved from adventure games and role-playing simulations. MOOs are also used for serious educational purposes; some have special areas with interaction at a slower pace set up for students from around the world [6, p. 34].

There are special sites designed for English language teaching. For example, an incredible collection of tools and resources for learning and teaching English as a foreign language, including a grammar glossary, printables, and teacher handouts can be found on UsingEnglish.com, EverythingESL, and Colorin Colorado. Education World is designed as a kind of Web portal for educators, a place for teachers to gather and share ideas, as well as a complete online resource where educators can find lesson plans and research materials [4, p. 95].

The highest stage in English teaching is using the Internet as a course book. It is suitable for any course designed around the specific needs of a particular group of students. There is a growing trend toward these specialized courses, and published coursebooks and textbooks cannot cater for the specific needs of particular groups of students. This is where the Internet steps in. Not to replace the classroom, or the teacher - or in fact, any of the other classroom tools that are currently in use - but as a source of material, an instrument for real communication, a supply of internationalism and even a tool for edutainment.

In addition, the Internet has, as we have seen earlier, the advantages of providing up-to-date, authentic material in English, and opportunities for real communication with native and non-native speakers. It can also allow students to discover language for themselves in a more immediate way than by reading a textbook.

If a teacher has decided to use the Internet for the core material of the Internet-based course, he will have to analyse his students' needs, plan the course content and methodology, research his material, and plan activities in detail. It is also necessary to consider how new language from the Net can be recycled, how students should their work, and how to assess this work. Every teacher should remember that realistic linguistic and communicative goals need to be ebtablished and the Internet-based activities and tasks must support those goals.

`Ephemeral' (lasting for a short time) might be the best way to describe electronic writing and communication. This means that a student benefits of using the Internet in the classroom is a reduction in the amount of paper produced - the so-called paperless classroom. Reading texts may remain on a remote computer. Exercises can be handled online. Homework and writing exercises may be submitted on the CDs or by e-mail. So one of the things that yhe teachers will need to think about at this point in the design process is how they are going to recycle the new language encountered on the Net and what tangible record the students will take away with them. A student portfolio might answer these needs, and provide a document for later assessment. It might include various handouts and reports, a reflective log of Internet sessions, notes on vocabulary including new-found collocations, printouts of e-mails sent and received, a CDs with the bookmark file of web pages visited, a bank of Screenshots from sessions, projects such as presentations, designing web pages, a newsletter, together with their notes on the process of working on them. Students can then refer to their individual portfolios and groupwork for vocabulary and structures to focus on during cyclical review sessions [6].

Summary. The paper presents the possibility of the practical use of the Internet tools in the process of learning English. Nowadays the main characteristics of the Internet are globalization, decentralization, openness, abundance, interactiveness, and being user-controlled. It is indicated that process of communicative skill forming is impossible without the up-to-date Internet resources, but for achieving the best results they should be properly integrated in the learning process. The teachers can use specially made for this purpose sites. Teachers can also use widely such recourses as e-mail, mailing lists, discussion groups, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, chats. But the opportunity to use the Internet as the coursebook while teaching English is considered as the highest level of the methodological competence. To follow these demands the special teachers' training programmes should be implemented in pedagogical collages and higher education establishments.

children sociocultural linguistic studying

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