My methods and ways that help students to raise the level of their knowledge

MY METHODS AND WAYS THAT HELP STUDENTS TO RAISE THE LEVEL OF THEIR KNOWLEDGE – QUALITY IN MASTERING ENGLISH

My name is Svetlana Parfyonova. I am a teacher of English at a lyceum # 94, Ufa. I want to present for your consideration highly effective methods of teaching English I use in my work.

It is deeply rooted in the advanced methods of Russian and foreign outstanding Methodists’ works. You know of course, the well-known Methodist E.Passov and his method of teaching foreign languages. I want to mention a Doctor of Pedagogical Science, Professor V. Bespalko and a Candidate of Pedagogic Science, docent of Togliatti Polytechnic Institute V. Bulavin and their works on the “Didactic analysis of objectives, content of teaching and terms for specialists training”. Besides them, I would like to mention an American professor – Ruppert K.Shaw and his unique and interesting method “Warren Reading Foundation” materials that represent Fundamentals of the Warren Foundation System of Study - ELPS-English Literacy Progression Series (Seattle, USA, the director of Warren International Foundation).

I widely use these methods in my everyday work. Of course, experience and fruitful methods come with in the course of training. I’ve been working at school more than 40 years and I’ve tried many different methods and their combinations of teaching English. I know that all depends on a teacher, his point of view, his experience, knowledge and attitude towards the subject.

The object of my work is to demonstrate the main methods and ways which help students to raise the level of their knowledge, quality in mastering English by maximum involvement them into activity during each stage and by using objective evaluation of their progress level which is carried out by tests, special tasks for carrying out an activity of the definite level.

Communicative - Cognitive Activity is the principal type of pupil’s activities at English lessons.

The aim of Communications directs to:

1. to excite pupils’ demand in foreign languages activity;

2- to form the accordant motivation for stimulating thoughts of pupils;

3- to teach them to acquire new knowledge, linguistic knowledge and lingual means of communication.

As we know, today’s ideal is the all-round development of personality. To attain these ideal pupils must have all-round knowledge in English.

In order to help students to make their speech fuller and exact – the tasks must be enriched with the help of additional materials, which are included in order to change the character of student’s speech.

For example: the task “Will you ask somebody information?” or “Would you take an interest in smth?”

Can be added by: “Please, give your attitude towards…” or “Will you make your own suggestion..?. To stimulate pupils’ speech a teacher had to form exact tasks for tests.

For example: The topic is “Meeting with English and American boys and girls (of the same age)”.

I present this in the form of “Meeting-Acquaintance” lesson.

(“Pleased to meet you”- 5^th Grade)

(“International Camp” – 6-7^th Forms)

(“Quiz-lesson “What? Where? When?” or “Do you know … (Great Britain? – the USA)?” – 8-9 Forms)

According to the practical aim of studying English, the work with vocabularies, grammar, and phonetics is directed to the development of children’s skill in order to form lexical and grammatical decoration of Oral and Written Speech as Comprehension of texts with new words and grammar while reading or aiding.

The pupils’ ability is checked with the help of speech level control or tests.

The 5^th Form pupils are eager to master English as fast as possible. They want to read, write and speak the sooner the better. That’s why the 1^st term stage of the year is the most responsible as it determines the success of the whole period of education. I start with the studying of the English alphabet with the help of songs), phonetics and signs of transcription. Then schoolchildren are taught to read words, sentences and texts (from different sources, books and WF materials). The students like to sing songs. They like a song “The ABC” on melody of a Russian song “A grasshopper sitting in the grass”.

They are taught some useful grammar rules from the students’ book “Spotlight”. I use also the book by B. Monk “The secrets of English vowels and consonants” with the help of a “Magic Tree”, 4 types of Reading”, “The secrets of good English Pronunciation”, etc. The students make their own vocabularies for new words, useful expressions and word-phrase. It is very important to review sometimes grammar materials using “Grammar Tables”, “Sentence Wheels” and so on.

The students like to work with poems, songs, riddles, crosswords. They try to compose their own crosswords, play dramas, scenes from fairy tales, make small books with poems, stories, rhythms. These help to make visual aids according to different themes.

The 6-7^th Form students are taught how to form their speech using grammar materials. Intensive (Snowball) studying of grammar goes on, the main task of such work is to provide students with the unity of mastering by means of English language and developing students’ speech.

Of course, I try to use video films, make presentations and show the pupils films pointing out English grammar in usage.

To deep in students’ motivation in studying English is the most difficult task of every teacher. To compensate this I take materials from additional materials such as : “The foreign languages at school”, the supplement “English” to the newspaper “The 1^st of September”; different books: “Britain in brief” by Oschepkova and Shustilova; “This is London” by Markov; “The USA: Geography, History…” by Oschepkova; “Humorous stories about famous people well-known in history” by I. Kuklina; “In Britain” by Michael Vaughan-Rees; “In the USA” by Martha Bordman; “In the English-speaking world” by Carol Goodwright; textbooks by Cambridge University Press, “Oxford Progressive English for Adult Learners” by A.Hornby, etc.

We increase the knowledge about Great Britain, the USA and Canada in comparison with the life in our country. The knowledge obtained on History, Geography, and Literature is used at English lessons as well. The pupils are interested in culture, history, education, arts, traditions and customs; the ways of people behavior and their life; hobbies, favourite sports, authors of books. Thus they are fond of all what is connected with English language and people who speak this language.

One of the interesting types of the work at lessons is “Role Plays”.

The aim of the Role Plays is to teach the students how to compose dialogues, monologues; to form students’ ability and knowledge; to give their own attitude towards different tasks. We distribute roles among the students and they perform them during the lessons. Often I use the Subject Role Plays in senior forms (with objects: pictures, photos, toys, books, etc.).

I can name some types of the Subject Role Plays (with objects)- “At a Doctor”, “At school”, “In Transport”, “Go Sightseeing” (how to get to some places) etc. the effectiveness of such work will increase if you determine the sufficient time for such type of work.

For junior forms, I provide – 5 minutes, for 7 forms – 10 min., and for senior forms-15 minutes. The usage of this method allows us to solve academic study, tutorial and general educational aim.

It is necessary to underline that we cannot reach much progress without technical aids. We try to equip our classrooms with modern lingua installations, tape-recorders, computers with necessary equipment. We have tables in phonetics, grammar, sights of English-speaking countries, the ABC and magnetic boards.

While in Togliatti (from 1996), I began using very interesting textbooks with cassettes and video films. That was the material of the method of English Literacy Progression series as a springboard to excellence in scholarship for all areas. We know that every teacher is a teacher of reading. All school subjects require reading skills. Teachers can successfully use any level of this method without learning the information about this. All they have to do is to make their students listen to the tapes and follow the instructions exactly. Ruppert K. Shaw, a director of Warren International Course in Seattle, classifies the Warren Foundation as educational, scientific and charitable method.

This “Reading” programme teaches much more than reading. Students use it to get knowledge of listening, proper pronunciation, writing and spelling. The “Warren Reading Foundation” materials represent a controlled programme of study based on sound pedagogical, philosophical and psychological theory.

There are 4 main techniques that are combined to achieve phenomenal results.

1. Stress motivation and positive self-concept.
2. Begin reading recognition with phonemes using short vowel sounds before progressing to long vowel sounds. Exploit the student’s existing language awareness.
3. Avoid role-memory word lists and emphasize instead varied, multi-sensory learning, stressing concurrent visual, audial and tactile stimulation.
4. Structure all materials to a “curve of learning” pattern of reinforcement to insure maximum retention by the students.

You may read the information about this type of methods on teaching English from the magazine “Foreign Languages at School” (1994-2000).

For the conclusion I should like to point out that any rise of a language mastering level. The improvement of a study process and the efficiency of each lesson depends not only upon a number of study- pedagogical and methodical ways as well, as the methods and their differentiated combinations used by a teacher during the study process. They mainly depend on maximum involvement of students into study cognitive speech activities during each stage of the lesson, upon correct formation of test tasks and on objective control, evaluation of a language mastering level that are determined by simple formulas.

Coefficient of efficiency of a lesson is determined by the formula:

C ef =Sm*t, where :

       MT

-C ef – coefficient of efficiency;

- S – the sign of sum;

- m – the number of students carrying out some work according to the aim of the lesson (L- level);

- t – time of the lesson stage when this work is done;

- M - total number of students in a group;

- T – total time of the lesson (according to the plan).

The coefficient of efficiency of the lesson determines the degree of the time (MT- man-minutes) usage productivity in order to achieve the aim of the lesson.

Classes will be more effective when the study activities of students during each stage of the lesson correspond more to the aims of education (mastering levels).

Taking into consideration the fact that majority of students’ personality qualities: moral self-feeling, psychological state, aggressiveness, confidence, benevolence and motivation rising in the language mastering depends mainly upon that now the control and evaluation of pupils’ knowledge level/ quality control. The tests must be prepared beforehand.

The essential element of test task (test task of “I” level) for carrying an activity of the definite level is the pattern – complete and correct answers for the test task prepared by the teacher. The scale of coefficients and their corresponding marks are:

• Coef. – 0,6……0,7……..0,8………0,9
•         60%    70%    80%      90-100%
• Marks -  2       3       4          5

Finally, all the methods that I have just named and presented for you were implemented into study processes of many secondary and high schools of education in Russia. For more details and full information, you may read in the scientific works by V. Bespalko and V. Bulavin. They are the known scientists in Togliatti, Samara region.

ЛИТЕРАТУРА

1. Беспалько В., Булавин В. «Методические указания по объективному контролю качества знаний учащихся и оценке эффективности урока», М.Т.СССР, М.,1987
2. Беспалько В., Булавин В., «Методические указания по дидактическому анализу целей, содержания обу1989.
3. “English Literacy Progression Series” Warren Foundation, Seattle, Washington, 1988