Methodological approaches in teaching a foreign language in non-profiled universities (pragmatic-motivational aspect)

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Odesa National Academy of Music V. Nezhdanova (Odesa, Ukraine)

Department of Foreign Languages

Methodological approaches in teaching a foreign language in non-profiled universities (pragmatic-motivational aspect)

Alla Lisovska

Candidate of Philological Sciences

Associate Professor at Department of Language

Training Odesa State University of Internal Affairs

Tetyana Gremalyuk

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences

Associate Professor

Tetiana Rychka

Associate Professor

Abstract

speaking skill education teaching

According to the modern trends and the latest educational reform in Ukraine, one of the key competencies for students is learning a foreign language. This competence should be formed regardless of the profile of the student's education in higher education. While for foreign language students the development of communicative skills is one of the most important components of learning, for non-profilled specialties such as musicologists, biologists or lawyers, this field of study may seem atfirst glance purely nominal and uninvolved in professional life. However, this statement is incorrect, because a foreign language, although not being the main object of study, is instead an indispensable means of communication. Specialists who do not speak a foreign language have limited access to sources of information, scientific and educational publications, and it is impossible for them to communicate with foreign colleagues, limiting the horizons and perceptions of new ideas and facts, which is unacceptable for professional development. Due to this, there is a need to develop in non-profiled students along with the skills of everyday communication, professional communication skills as well.

Teaching a foreign language is characterized by number of effective methods and each of them has its own merits. None of the methodological approaches can be referred as the most successful since they are prescriptive and lack of flexibility. Teachers should be able to employ different techniques which fit well into the context of their work and thus can benefit from various approaches. This article focuses on analyses of three approaches in teaching, namely Grammar-Translation Approach, Lexical Approach and Communicative Approach, which are currently the most popular ones in Ukraine. The chosen approaches are described through theoretical framework, their advantages and disadvantages are listed as well. The aim of the research is to provide practical implementation of the three approaches based on three interconnected lessons with different structures and specific goals. Each lesson is a ready-made product for implementation in educational activities, and contains comments on the tasks and the need for adjustments and corrections, the purpose of each of them, and options for changing them if necessary.

Key words: grammar-translation approach, lexical approach, communicative approach, application, motivation, lesson plan.

Алла Лісовська, кандидат філологічних наук, доцент кафедри мовної підготовки Одеського державного університету внутрішніх справ, доцент кафедри іноземних мов Одеської національної музичної академії імені А.В. Нежданової (Одеса, Україна)

Тетяна Гремалюк, кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент кафедри іноземних мов Одеської національної музичної академії імені А.В. Нежданової (Одеса, Україна)

Тетяна Ричка, доцент кафедри іноземних мов Одеської національної музичної академії імені А.В. Нежданової (Одеса, Україна)

Методологічні підходи до викладання іноземної мови у нефахових закладах вищої освіти (прагматично-мотиваційний аспект)

Анотація

Згідно з останніми тенденціями і новітньою освітньою реформою України однією з ключових компетентностей для здобувачів освіти є володіння іноземною мовою. Ця компетентність повинна бути сформована незалежно від профілю навчання здобувача освіти у вищому навчальному закладі. Водночас для студентів-філологів іноземних мов розвиток мовленнєвих навичок є одним із найважливіших компонентів навчання; для нефахових спеціальностей, таких як музикознавці, біологи або юристи, такий напрям навчання, на перший погляд, може здатися суто номінальним і незадіяним у професійному житті. Проте це ствердження є хибним, адже іноземна мова, хоч і не є основним об'єктом вивчення, але являє собою незамінний засіб комунікації. Для фахівців, які не володіють іноземною мовою, обмежено доступ до джерел інформації, наукових та навчальних друкованих видань, а також унеможливлюється спілкування з закордонними колегами, лімітуючи кругозір та сприйняття нових ідей і фактів, що є неприпустимим для професійного розвитку. У зв'язку з цим і виникає необхідність формування у студентів непрофільних закладів вищої освіти разом із навичками повсякденної комунікації також і навичок професійної комунікації.

Викладання іноземної мови характеризується низкою ефективних методів, і кожен із них має свої переваги. Жоден із методологічних підходів не можна назвати найбільш вдалим, оскільки вони є директивними і не досить гнучкими. Вчителі повинні вміти використовувати різні методики, які добре вписуються в контекст їхньої роботи, і таким чином можуть отримати користь від різних підходів. Ця стаття присвячена аналізу трьох підходів у викладанні, а саме: граматично-перекладацького підходу, лексичного підходу та комунікативного підходу, які наразі є найпопулярнішими в Україні. Обрані підходи описані через теоретичну базу, також вказані їх переваги та недоліки. Мета дослідження - забезпечити практичну реалізацію трьох підходів на основі трьох взаємопов'язаних уроків із різною структурою та конкретними цілями. Кожен урок - це готовий продукт для впровадження в освітню діяльність, що містить коментарі до завдань та необхідність внесення коректив і виправлень, мету кожного з них та варіанти їх зміни у разі необхідності.

Ключові слова: граматично-перекладацький підхід, лексичний підхід, комунікативний підхід, застосування, мотивація, план заняття.

Formulation of the problem

The variety of approaches to teaching English as a second language reflects different views on what language is made up of, how languages are learned and what practices are effective in certain classroom environment. Despite numerous works, types of approaches in teaching a foreign language are widely discussed as their practical usage often remains misinterpreted. A number of books, articles and related works explored the matter for the past years and came to the conclusion that different types of approaches may appear as either evolutionary (which is more common) or revolutionary teaching. This article aims to emphasize main aspects and principles of approaches as well as provide a pragmatic aspect of the matter by means of step-by-step lesson plans on topic “Culture”.

Resent research

In this part of the article the authors aim to focus on theoretical framework of main approaches in teaching English as a foreign language, such as the Grammar-Translation Approach, the Lexical Approach and the Communicative Approach. The main aspects are described for each of the approaches separately. The Grammar-Translation Approach was originally called the classical method mainly used in the teaching of Latin and Greek starting from the 16th century and later in the early 19th century was adopted to develop learner's proficiency in reading and translation skills. Among the main goals of the approach is developing a good knowledge in learning and memorizing grammatical rules of a foreign language (deductive method) to be able to manipulate its morphological and syntactical system. Furthermore, it is developing ability to accurately translate texts from native into foreign language and vice versa, associated with the ability to learn the grammatical system of the target language. According to the Grammar-Translation Approach, the learning and teaching of languages consist of the following principles:

it is a teacher-centered method and the learner's native language is the medium for instruction, little teaching is done in the target language;

learnersneedtobeabletoreadtheliteraturewritten in the target language and learn all the relevant vocabulary and grammar. Learners do not play any active role and there is little interaction between learners;

literary language is superior to the spoken language. The main focus of teaching is to develop the learner's ability to read, write, and translate, while content of the text is treated as a translation exercise. Communication is not set among the goals for learners;

the focus is on accuracy and not fluency. The grammar is taught systematically (following a sequencing grammar syllabus) through explicit extensive and elaborated teaching of grammatical rules. The main assumption is that a second language is learned through the deduction of the grammatical properties of a target foreign language. When learners have developed a conscious and explicit representation of that language, they can apply this ability in the production of sentences through translation from one language to the other;

errors are corrected immediately as one of the main goals of the approach is accuracy;

vocabulary is presented in the form of isolated word lists; it is learned through translation from the native language.

Despite considering significant drawbacks (e.g. lack of focus on developing reading and speaking skills as in comprehension and speaking proficiency), in modified form it continues to be widely used in some parts of the world nowadays as well. It does not require native English speakers as teachers which is preferable in some countries and Ukraine is among them which clarifies popularity of this approach here.

One of the approaches which has greatly influenced language teaching practices is the Lexical Approach. It should be said that this approach has been known since 1993 when Michael Lewis published his book “The lexical approach: The state of ELT and the way forward”. It is acknowledged that lexis is an essential component in language acquisition. Limited knowledge of it could lead to learners' frustration since they cannot convey what they want to express when speaking or writing. To this regard, Folse points out that “however, with poor vocabulary communication is constraint considerably. You can get by without grammar; you cannot get by without vocabulary” (Folse, 2004: 2). This might be overcome by working it systematically to increase lexical competence and overall communicative competence.

The concept which the Lexical Approach is based on is the usage of methods and techniques of teaching a foreign language, aimed at understanding and using not only single words but phraseological units, conjunctions and word combinations. Linguistic fluency as the ability to rapidly appropriate stock phrases to conversations is the main aspect of the approach. Fluency does not depend on having a set of generative grammar rules and a separate stock of words as on having rapid access to a stock of lexical chunks. Speakers need both a prefabricated, automated element to draw on as well as a creative, generative one. While communicating, native speakers constantly, even unconsciously use collocations without regard for grammatical soundness or word meaning and learners are taught to reach the same levels as well.

Developed in the 1980s as a reaction to grammar based approaches, “Communicative Approach in language learning is an approach that is used in learning a foreign language that emphasizes on the improvement of communicative ability”, that is “the ability of applying the language principle in order to produce grammatical sentences and understand when, where, and to whom' the sentences used” (Richard, 1997). In the Communicative Approach, the main focus is on developing communicative competence and the objective is to present a topic in context in an “authentic way”. Language learning is indicated through learning to communicate using the target language appropriate to the situational model, the roles of the speakers, and the register with differentiations between a formal and an informal style. According to Michael Canale, communicative ability is formed by four competences:

grammatical, which relates to vocabulary, word formation, and sentence meaning;

sociolinguistic, which objective is to understand and produce accurate utterance in accordance with the context in which the utterance happen;

discourse (cohesive and coherence), which relates to the ability in combining the form and the meaning of a language;

strategy, which refers to the ability of overcoming the obstacles and simultaneously improving the effectiveness of communication.

One of the fundamental goals of the Communicative Approach is to reflect real life communicative situations by means of personalizing and localizing language, adapting it to the learner's needs and using authentic resources such as videos and recordings, texts and articles written by native speakers, manuals, bulleting, reports, poetry and prose. However, the Communicative Approach critics suggest that not enough emphasis is put on the teaching of grammar and instead students are allowed to produce utterances, despite being grammatically incorrect, as long as the interlocutor can get some meaning from them. Nevertheless, a structural language teaching can eliminate such issues combining the Communicative Approach with other approaches for studying grammar.

Presentation of the research material

Teaching a foreign language to Ukrainian students is quite a challenging task because of a list of reasons and among the others are mixed abilities class, motivation and involvement issues, limited time frames, different studying goals, etc. It tends to be based mostly on keeping learners motivated and providing constant guidance throughout the task. In this part of the article, the authors focus on general principles of tasks and differentiating tasks according to Teaching Approaches as well as specifying the role ofthe teacher in each of them. For the approaches, a short step- by-step lesson plan on topic “Culture” is provided.

Richards and Rodgers describe the Grammar-Translation Approach as “a tedious experience of memorizing endless lists of unusable grammar rules and vocabulary and attempting to produce perfect translations of stilted or literary prose”, and they continue, “it is a method for which there is no theory. There is no literature that offers a rationale or justification for it or that attempts to relate it to issues in linguistics, psychology, or educational theory” (Richards, Rodgers, 2001: 4). However, this approach is useful enough for grammar practice, as it is suitable for any age, language level, a revision task as an instrument for developing accuracy.

In this article the Grammar-Translation Approach implementation is based on a grammar topic “Present Perfect Tense” as a part of a Module “Composers of the XIX century”. The lesson starts with teacher's explanation of the grammar tense (traditionally using native language, however, target language is more preferable) - main rules, paradigms, usage, forms, examples, ways of translation into native language. After, the student is given a drill task and a gap-fil task for practicing accuracy of the Present Perfect Tense. The approach doesn't require usage of target language of the lexical unit, but we recommend it nevertheless.

When the student is accurate in using the grammar tense, a translation task is provided. The first step is translation from the native into target language and the second one is reversed. During the translation task the role of a teacher is a supervisor, on-spot correction is needed. The task may be transformed into a more complicated one by translating not sentences but passages or full texts for further accuracy (a text based on the lexical topic is again preferable, for instance “Famous composers of the XIX century”). After reading, comprehension questions which require answers in target grammar are provided.

The last step should be writing a composition based on some aspects of the reading text using Present Perfect Tense as well as a target language of the unit on topic “A composer of the XIX century who can inspire nowadays”. Such kind of task sums up lexical collocations of the unit and grammar topic and is one of the most effective productive tasks at the end of the unit.

The aim of teaching English as a foreign language is developing communicative skills by focusing on successful language rather than accurate language. The originality of the Lexical Approach lies in its claims about the nature of language. With highly realistic view about language, based on the supremacy of lexis over grammar. A general concept “lexical chunks” is widely used within the proposed lesson plan on topic “Wind instruments”, referring to any pair or group of words that often appear in authentic sources (collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms, politeness formulas, introductory phrases).

The general goals of the lesson are to help students develop skills for independent learning by providing opportunities to experience lexical chunks in authentic texts, encouraging students to analyze, generalize, research and experiment with lexical chunks and providing opportunities to discover chunks for themselves. The lesson is based on an authentic article written by an American musicologist named “Wind instruments: a long way to mastering the saxophone”. Instead of the text, there could be an audio or video file, however, after listening or watching, a script is provided for further work with collocations.

Before reading, students are provided with several sentences from the article and are asked to discuss their place in the text, providing them with universally engaging themes through the text. While reading independently students are analyzing information and comparing it with knowledge from other university subjects, their personal experience etc. which allows students to personalize texts. The next task is to answer the questions about the text in pairs, however, such questions are based not on the facts but rather attitude.

The next part of the lesson is devoted to lexical chants. Firstly, learners are asked to find in the text collocations synonymic to the phrases provided by the teacher. They are translated into native language (stating if they are collocations or not in Ukrainian) and then divided into groups: frozen or fixed, semi-frozen or semi-fixed, adjective plus noun collocations etc. Secondly, they try to form more semi-frozen or semi-fixed collocations with one of the words. For instance, what other nouns can be use after the adjective “shiny new” (shiny new instrument, shiny new shoes) and “broken” (broken valve, broken heart, broken window). A gap-fil task or a matching task is given after the analyses.

One of the tasks may be to underline all the verb plus noun collocations and try to make a list of all possible verbs with the noun. For instance, a collocation “be in trouble” from the text may be varied as expect/make/discover/get into/ask for trouble. Then the weakest and the strongest collocation are chosen. Such tasks direct attention to specific lexical chunks already encountered in the text, help to analyze these chunks and direct students to different means of analyzing lexical chunks.

At the end of the lesson learners do a productive generalization activity and talk about their own experience with wind instruments intensifying it with collocations and lexical chant “must have been”.

In Communicative Approach communicative activities are essential in the process of learning a foreign language. They should be presented in a situation or context and have a communicative purpose. Jeremy Harmer emphasizes that communication tasks motivate and set the goal of communication, prioritize content over form without limiting the choice of language means and attract variety of linguistic means. Keeping in mind the goal of effective communication, Communicative Approach focuses on meaning and appropriate usage of language, both fluently and accurately, in order to integrate four language skills (speaking, writing, reading and listening). The typical activities of this approach are: games, problem-solving tasks, information gap tasks, pare and group work, and role-play - all of them with one fundamental principle - constant interaction and exposure to the target language.

The role of the teacher is that of a motivator, a guide, a facilitator or an instructor. The topics are selected and graded regarding age, needs, level, and learner's interest. Tasks may consist of three aspects - fluency, accuracy, and complexity. They may include classifying, predicting, inducing, taking note, concept mapping, questioning, personalizing, brainstorming, reflecting, and authentic assessment. Each student in a pair or group has an opportunity to give opinion, share ideas and participate in discussions. Trial and error is considered part of the learning process and any kind of correction are made after the communicative task is over.

In this article, a lesson structured in accordance with Communicative Approach technics is based on the topic “The Influence of Singing on a Person's Mood”. As a warm-up activity learners are asked about their taste in music bands or solo singers as well as their own ability in singing. The goal of the task is to get learners interested in the topic they are familiar with without introduction of any new vocabulary. This task should not involve every learner present and does not contain any pressure, the type of communication is learner-teacher.

Then the students are divided into small groups. During the set time period their task is to come up with as many words as possible associated with 1) emotion and mood, 2) places to sing, 3) reaction on singing. This brainstorm activity includes elements of a challenge and competition which keep learners motivated, interested and focused as well as elicits active vocabulary for further reading task. No correction is needed at this point.

The third task is a pair work where learners are asked to discuss pictures or words taken from the text they are to read later (e.g. singing/positive/anxiety/ depression/community/mental health, etc.). The goal is to focus learners' attention on more specified aspect of the general topic “Singing” as well as develop predicting and reflecting skills. Such activity provides involvement of each student in the class in active language usage by sharing ideas without any on-the-spot correction from the teacher or peer correction.

The next activity is introduction of the article with a sentence similar to the following: “Researchers have found that singing in groups could have positive effects on reducing anxiety and depression” with further reading using scanning and skimming techniques. This part of the lesson is not focused on developing communicative skills. Although, the last after the text activity should contain a pair of group discussion of the text having been read. As an example, it could be a set of questions to answer, a project work or survey based on the topic “Mood changes - before and after singing - depending on the music genre” as well as a dialogue or a role-play on the topic “A visit to a psychologist”. The goal of such tasks is to build confidence and fluency, reflect on and summarize knowledge of a topic whilst enhancing creativity and imagination.

Conclusions

Languages serve as means of communication, however, the approaches in teaching a foreign language should be chosen wisely in order to help students talk fluently, express themselves confidently and present social issues in their environment as quickly as possible. The role of motivation is essential as motivation directs learner's behavior toward particular goals (extrinsic motivation). It leads to increased effort and energy, initiation and persistence of activities as well as enhance cognitive processing. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation, as the act of doing an activity for joy which is sometimes used in language learning classrooms, is an additional aspect for involvement in the learning process as well as an “ice breaking” activity. Extrinsic motivation can lead to intrinsic motivation, in the sense that students may embark on a task for reasons associated with extrinsic motivation but become intrinsically motivated through the process of engaging with the task and learning to value it. The teacher's impact here is to keep balance and mix teaching approaches for the students to stay involved, interested and motivated as well as practise and develop skills and concepts within their ability.

Bibliography

1. Folse Keith S. Myths about Teaching and Learning Second Language Vocabulary: What Recent Research Says. University of Central Florida, 2004, pp. 1-13.

2. Harmer J. The Practice of English Language Teaching: Longman, 2007. 448 p.

3. Larsen-Freeman D., Anderson M. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching: Oxford University Press, 2014. 318 p.

4. Lewis M. The Lexical Approach: The State of ELT and a Way Forward. Thomson Heinle, 2002. 224 p.

5. Nation S.P. Beginning to learn foreign vocabulary: A review of the research. RELC Journal. No. 13 (1), pp. 14-36.

6. Noer Doddy Irmawati. Communicative Approach: An Alternative Method Used in Improving Students' Academic Reading Achievement. Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2012, pp. 90-101.

7. Scrivener J. Learning teaching: Essential Guide to English Language Teaching: Macmillan, 2011. 418 p.

8. Richards Jack C., Richards Jack Croft, Rodgers Theodore S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 270 p.

9. Richards Jack C., David Nunan. The Dilemma of Teacher Education in Second Language Teaching, Second Language Teacher Education: Cambridge University Press, 1990. 340 p.

10. Whitton D. Teaching and Learning Strategies: University of Western Sydney, 2019. 216 p.

References

1. Folse Keith S. Myths about Teaching and Learning Second Language Vocabulary: What Recent Research Says. University of Central Florida, 2004, pp. 1-13.

2. Harmer J. The Practice of English Language Teaching: Longman, 2007. 448 p.

3. Larsen-Freeman D., Anderson M. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching: Oxford University Press, 2014. 318 p.

4. Lewis M. The Lexical Approach: The State of ELT and a Way Forward. Thomson Heinle, 2002. 224 p.

5. Nation S.P. Beginning to learn foreign vocabulary: A review of the research. RELC Journal. No. 13 (1), pp. 14-36.

6. Noer Doddy Irmawati. Communicative Approach: An Alternative Method Used in Improving Students' Academic Reading Achievement. Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2012, pp. 90-101.

7. Scrivener J. Learning teaching: Essential Guide to English Language Teaching: Macmillan, 2011. 418 p.

8. Richards Jack C., Richards Jack Croft, Rodgers Theodore S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 270 p.

9. Richards, Jack C., David Nunan. The Dilemma of Teacher Education in Second Language Teaching, Second Language Teacher Education: Cambridge University Press, 1990. 340 p.

10. Whitton D. Teaching and Learning Strategies: University of Western Sydney, 2019. 216 p.

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