Methodology of the formation of senior pupils’ foreign lexical competence

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Methodology of the formation of senior pupils' foreign lexical competence

Козюра Ірина, Серняк О.М., канд. пед. наук, доцент

The article deals with the basic concepts the formation of senior pupils' foreign lexical competence. The forms and stages of the formation of foreign language lexical competence of senior pupils have been considered. With the purpose of the formation of senior pupils' foreign lexical competence some teaching methods and activities for the EFL classroom have been suggested.

Key words: lexical competence, foreign language teaching, senior pupils, teaching techniques, EFL classroom.

The indicator of fluency in foreign languages and evidence of the presence of a foreign language communicative ability is the use of speech as an instrument of communication. In the structure of foreign language teaching, the main task is the formation a foreign language communicative competence of a student. That is why the main goal of teaching a foreign language is providing students' ability to use a foreign language as a means of communication in educational, work related or daily activities.

A foreign language acquisition is closely related to the knowledge of vocabulary. Hence, the ability to use a foreign language as a means of communication closely connected to lexical competence. Therefore, the development of lexical skills is considered as the most important component of the content of teaching a foreign language.

Representatives of Ukrainian and foreign methodology of foreign language teaching (C.J. Richards, T.S. Rodgers, N. Schmitt, L. Taylor, V.A. Bukhbinder, S.F. Shatilov, O.M. Solovjova, V.S. Tsetlin) have contributed a lot to the development of the formation of foreign language lexical competence. Theoretical models constructed by applied linguists were followed by works written by classroom teachers (A.K. Arends, V.S. Rubin, O. Pometun, L. Pyrozhenko).

The problem of the formation of foreign language lexical competence of senior pupils remains topical and needs to be regarded in the context of competency approach which gives a possibility to synchronize formation of foreign lexical competence with other competencies.

The aim of the article is to review the basicpostulates of the formation of foreign language lexical competence as well as demon strate some ways of implementation of effective learning techniques suggesting how to improve students' communicative skills by enhancing their foreign language lexical competence.

Scholars define lexical competence as the ability of a speaker to properly designate his/her own thoughts and utterances, as well as their speech comprehension of others based on the complex and dynamic interaction of relevant skills, knowledge and lexical awareness. Consequently, lexical competence includes lexical skills, knowledge and general language skills, linguistic awareness of their use in all kinds of speaking activities [2].

According to E.S. Kononikhina, the unit of teaching lexical material is regarded aslexical unit. While working with lexical units, a very important stage is the presentation of the lexical unit together with developing the knowledge of its semantics and its combination with other words, and the process of its assimilation and use in various typical and unusual situations as well[1].

J. Coleman and J. Klapper claim that because the presentation of the foreign word is short, it does not guarantee the proper and quick mastery of the word. The scholars don't approve of the method of learning words by heart, especially when the teacher demands learning the words by heart and does not provide students with enough practice of this lexical unit [3].

In the process of the formation of lexical competence of students, S. Nikolaieva distinguishes the following stages [2]:

1) the stage of presentation of new words to senior pupils-somatization of new words;

2) the stage of practice and bringing to the automatic use of new words, which involves:

3) automationat the level of word forms, free phrases and phrases / sentences;

4) automation in dialogue or monologue speech, the development of which helps to improve the level of formation of lexical competence [5, p. 139].

The most important prerequisite for the formation of senior pupils' foreign lexical competenceis their high motivation. To encourage pupils' active language activity it is necessary to create the psychological and pedagogical conditions that interact with the principles of speaking activity, comprehensiveness and consciousness during the learning process.

Visibility plays an essential role of emotional causative thing necessary for the formation of senior pupils' lexical competence, helping them to create specific images, overcome the difficulties of designing their thoughts in English [6]. Hence, a visual image that is associated with a specific vocabulary is perceived more vividly.

With the demonstration of a particular picture, visual perception is combined with the auditory one, which results in the correct perception of the lexical material and contributes to its strong learning in the senior pupil's mind. To introduce the linguistic material, it is necessary to use a large number of exercises with readymade samples that contain the means of natural and figurative visibility, as well as the large number of exercises necessary for the development of pupils' imagination.

With the purpose of developing effective perception and reproduction of linguistic materialan important role is played by visual and vivid information. In our view, the use of bright objects, unforgettable pictures, the creation of emotional life situations causes emotional experiences, live memories, the need to express their own thoughts.

Our intention is to share our experience in implementation of effective methods and techniques in the EFL classroom. Let us proceed with some sample activity we successfully use while implementing communicative approach to the formation of senior pupils' foreign lexical competence.

The communicative approach to teaching lexis in the EFL classroom makes itnecessary to use new and interesting methods and techniques like such as «Correct Me», «Fill-in-the- Blank Story», «MysteryObjects», «Scrambled Pictures», «Build a Story», «Spontaneous Dialogues» [3; 4]. In our view, all of them are interesting and can be used on different levels of practising lexical units.

The procedure of «Fill-in-the-Blank Story»presupposes reading a short story or paragraph to the class. The next step involves reading of the story again but leaving out certain words which pupils have to fill in (orally or in a written way).

Another effective technique is entitled»Build a Story». With newly learned words and word combinations written on the blackboard, a pupil makes up a sentence using one of them, the second pupil makes up a new sentence using another word. In a chain, each pupil makes up a related sentence using their word to create a story.

The teacher must take into consideration that in the process of the formation senior pupils' foreign lexical competence it is essential to take into account mental, psychological and age features of senior pupils, their general preparation and abilities. Gradual training is also very important in the formation of senior pupils' foreign lexical competence. Hence, working on one topic, it is necessary to organize work on the basis of transference from simple material to more complex one, following a certain sequence, aimed at the processing of individual models to general practice in the classroom. Therefore, the use of the principle of graduality in teaching EFL can give an appropriate effect. The use of certain models in a coherent statement on a given topic should be also taken to consideration [4, p. 82].

In conclusion, as an essential component of speech activity the foreign vocabulary acquisition is an integral component in the system of teaching a foreign language. The formation of the foreign lexical competence of senior pupils presupposes the use of new interesting teaching techniques and graphic and visual images while developing students' skills of spontaneous monologue and dialogue speech.

lexical competence communicative education

Література

1. Кононихіна Е.С. Формування лексичних навичок при навчанні іноземній мові молодших школярів / Е.С. Кононихіна // Фестиваль педагогічних ідей «Відкритий урок»

2. Методика навчання іноземних мов у середніх навчальних закладах / О.Б. Бігич, Н.О. Бражник, С.В. Гапонова [та ін.]; під керівн. С.Ю. Ніколаєвої. - К.: Ленвіт, 2002. - 328 с.

3. J.A. Coleman, J. Klapper Effective Learning and Teaching in Modern Languages / J.A. Coleman, J. Klapper, Routledge, 2005. - 236 p.

4. Richards C.J., Rodgers T.S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching / Richards C.J., Rodgers T.S, Cambridge: CUP, 1994. - 171 p.

5. Schmitt N. Vocabulary in Language Teaching / Schmitt N. - Cambridge: CUP, 2000. - 224 p.

6. Taylor L. Teaching and Learning Vocabulary / Taylor L. - N.Y.: Prentice Hall, 1990. - 93 p.

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