Psychological and pedagogical factors to foreign language teaching and learning

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Psychological and pedagogical factors to foreign language teaching and learning

Anpilohova Tetiana, Polukhina Maryna

Anpilohova Tetiana Senior Lecturer, National Aviation University, Kyiv, Ukraine. Polukhina Maryna PhD in Psychology, Head Specialist, Ministry for Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

Annotation. The article provides the world ranking of English language skills, describes the problems that significantly hinder the study of English in Ukraine and suggests the recommendations to overcome them as well as analyze the motivational sphere and psychological comfort of students when learning a foreign language. There are instrumental and integrative motivations that are mentioned in this article. The pedagogical approach to organize the process of learning as a vital component is revealed.

Key words: English language proficiency, motivation, moral satisfaction, education system.

Анотація. У статті подано світовий рейтинг знань англійської мови, описано проблеми, які суттєво перешкоджають вивченню англійської мови в Україні, запропоновано рекомендації щодо їх подолання, а також проаналізовано мотиваційну сферу та психологічний комфорт студентів під час вивчення іноземної мови. Існують інструментальні та інтегративні мотиви, які згадуються в цій статті. Розкрито педагогічний підхід до організації процесу навчання як важливої складової.

Ключові слова: рівень володіння англійською мовою, мотивація, моральне задоволення, система освіти.

Table 1. Proficiency bands in countries of Europe [1]

Experts believe that the imperfect education system, lack of modern quality textbooks and inadequate qualifications of teachers significantly hinder the study of English in Ukraine. We need investments, modern material and technical base, change of the program and professional teachers.

In addition, the program lags behind the needs of the time. Sometimes the material that students have to cover in two lessons actually needs much more practice. It is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the perception of new information of each student, to look for an individual approach. That is why, after finishing school, we have few people who have the necessary skills for professional activities, employment or study abroad. In accordance with the latest reforms applicants are required to learn a foreign language when entering the university, it will significantly increase the motivation to learn.

The Ministry of Education and Science has developed and approved a Concept for the Development of the English Language in Universities. The document provides for the organization of language courses and intensives, proficiency in English at least B1 (Intermediate level - intermediate level) will be a prerequisite for admission, B2 (Upper intermediate - level above average) - for graduation. In addition, some of the relevant disciplines are proposed to be made in English and to conduct regular "knowledge screenings", in particular, to introduce mandatory external examination in a foreign language after the bachelor's degree.

By 2023, a B1 level of English will be required when entering the bachelor's degree. This includes compulsory "screening" test in English by all entrants (for example, external evaluation or standardized foreign tests) in order to establish the level of language proficiency.

If the level of the entrant is below B1, it does not deprive him of the right to participate in the competition for admission to higher education in the normal mode, but such entrants before the beginning of the school year (before September 1 or October 1) must pass language intensive to achieve level B1.

Higher school standards will stipulate that a bachelor's degree student, regardless of major, must learn a foreign language at B1 + level if he or she wants to obtain a diploma. For senior levels - masters and doctors of philosophy with an academic component - level B2 will be required.

Within the framework of the project "English for Universities" 2 studies were conducted and the status of English in higher education institutions of Ukraine was analyzed, especially in teaching English for professional communication and teaching various subjects in English. The results of the study suggest:

Overview the number of hours / increase hours per English course for professional communication;

Supporting teachers who give lectures in English, namely providing teachers with the opportunity to improve their speaking skills in English courses;

New forms of professional development of teachers in groups of professional skills, which are created by teachers in their educational institutions;

More effective coordination by universities in teaching subjects in English and some other issues [2].

Unfortunately, none of these recommendations is being implemented.

However, often the teacher comes across a contradiction between the desire of students to communicate well and easily in a foreign language, and the fact that some of them do not want to spend a lot of time on independent learning activities. They (students) believe that the necessary knowledge can be formed by themselves in the classroom and without much effort on their part. It is clear that such misconceptions are associated with a lack of cognitive interest in learning a foreign language and are often due to a lack of motivation.

Motivation in learning a foreign language performs a function that includes three aspects:

- a motivated student strives to work on the language productively, doing high-quality homework, seeks opportunities to learn more, uses additional material;

- a motivated student sees a goal in front of him, has a strong desire to master the language and achieve success;

- a motivated student enjoys the process of learning a foreign language, enjoys solving mental problems.

All three elements - effort, purpose, and pleasure - distinguish people who are more motivated from those who are less motivated. Each element alone is insufficient to characterize motivation. Some students make an effort, but do not enjoy learning the language. Others may want to learn a language, but some circumstances hinder their efforts. Motivation is a complex phenomenon. There are instrumental and integrative motivations. Instrumental motivation is characterized by the student's desire to get practical and concrete results when learning a language (for passing an exam, traveling abroad, getting a job). The goal is pragmatic, does not require the infusion of a native speaker into society. Integrative motivation is determined by the student's desire to learn a foreign language in order to be able to perceive and describe reality by means of another language, to assimilate in the society of native speakers of a foreign language. An integrative form of motivation is the most important component in helping a student develop the necessary level of language proficiency, not only for work, but also for understanding himself as part of society. Integrative motivation underlies the successful mastering of stylistic varieties of language and pronunciation, close to the sounding speech of native speakers. Insufficient motivation to learn a foreign language among students of non-linguistic faculties may be based on incorrect goal setting and self-doubt. This leads to the formation of a sense of helplessness, lack of independence, in which success in mastering a foreign language is perceived as unattainable, independent of the efforts invested. A strong motivational stimulus is the feeling of the achieved result. Understanding progress, even if it is small, has a positive effect on increasing the desire to continue learning new things. And here, praise from the teacher goes a long way in keeping the student's interest. To increase the motivation for learning a foreign language and the formation of intercultural communication, it is also necessary to use various types of tasks in the classroom, strive to avoid monotony and repetition, and organize the process so that each student takes an active part in all types of activities [3].

When studying foreign languages, such components of the motivational sphere as cognitive, intellectual need, the need to achieve goals and communicate are of vital importance. The cognitive need in this case is associated with professional motives, since with the help of a foreign language, students expand their professional knowledge and horizons. The need to acquire new knowledge in the specialty becomes the motive of speech activity when students realize that a foreign language is a means of extracting personally significant, professionally valuable information from foreign literature. The practical use of this information during speech activity causes a feeling of satisfaction of cognitive needs and positively affects the attitude learners for a foreign language. Intellectual need as a component of the motivational sphere student can also be implemented by means of a foreign language. Language is a system built as a result of a high level of abstraction. All the variety of foreign language speech practice is embodied in a limited set of abstract rules that are necessary for the practical mastery of a foreign language, but in themselves do not yet achieve this goal. It is necessary to form specific language representations in students - speech models (landmarks); for successful speech activities, they must learn to independently think, reason and derive such guidelines - the rules of speech activity. In this way, their intellectual need can be realized [4].

In order to improve students' attitudes towards the language, from day to day you need to keep them feeling the progress in mastering the language as a skill (and not in learning it as a science). Only through the skills of communication and learning new things from the world, first of their personal, and only then - professional interests we can obtain motivated students. The second reason for the problem is the inability for a student of any level to master a foreign language, since it is taught not by those who know it in practice, but by those who know its theory, and therefore they do not teach the language as a skill, but study it as a science. In this context, it is important to enable teachers of English to improve their skills in postgraduate education and attend various types of courses.

The learning process must bring the student moral satisfaction from his own achievements. In other words, the student must want to learn. Moreover, for this it is necessary that he not only wants to achieve the result, but also feels as comfortable as possible throughout the process of achieving it. We usually do not take this psychological factor into account.

Therefore, the psychological factor (motivation and psychological comfort) is the first and most important component of the learning process on the way to mastering the language.

The next important component of the process is the pedagogical one. Pedagogy involves learning combined with education. In this case, the concept of education in our case implies the possession of skills that meet the requirements of the environment. The pedagogical approach to language teaching implies not only the responsibility of the teacher for the student's assimilation of the material during the lesson, but also responsibility for the result of the whole process. Psychological preparation of a student for learning a foreign language is a solution of an equation with two unknowns. The first of them is an unknown method of learning, and the second is the actual foreign language as well as the importance to the psychological state of the learner, or a leading role in all stages of the learning process.

Despite the obvious importance of solving the problems of foreign language teaching in both theory and practice, their essence has not yet been disclosed and systematized in due course. In this search, we must proceed from a qualitatively new state and society, from the laws on education, the law on languages, taking into account the achievements of foreign countries and trends in language education in the international community. Today's contradiction is the loss of initiative in creating a new system of education that meets the requirements of a society whose lives are undergoing radical changes.

1. EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) [Електронний ресурс] Режим доступу: https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/ (дата звернення 20.01.2022)

2. Концептуальні засади державної політики щодо розвитку англійської мови у сфері вищої освіти) [Електронний ресурс] Режим доступу: https://www.britishcouncil.org.ua/programmes/english/higher-education/policy-on-english (дата звернення 21.01.2022)

3. Боровкова И.В. Формирование межкультурной компетенции и стойкой мотивации к общению на иностранном языке [Електронний ресурс] Режим доступу: https://cyberlemnka.ru/artide/n/formirovame-mezhkulturnoy-kompetentsii- i-stoykoy-motivatsii-k-obscheniyu-na-inostrannom-yazyke.pdf (дата звернення 20.01.2022)

4. Хуснулина Р.Р. Психолого-педагогические аспекты обучения иностранному языку [Електронний ресурс] Режим доступу: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/psihologo-pedagogicheskie-aspekty-obucheniya-inostrannomu-yazyku (дата звернення 21.01.2022)