DEVELOPING STUDENTS` COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS WHILE TEACHING ENGLISH.
“We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same.”
Martha Graham
Communicative skills do not simply refer to the way in which we communicate with another person. It encompasses the ways with we respond to the person we are speaking: body and facial gestures the pitch and tone of our voice and a lot of other things. The importance of communicative skills is not just limited to the management world, since effective communication is now required in all aspects of our life.
Communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, including listening, observation, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluation. Use of these processes is developmental and transfers to all areas of life: home, school, community, as well as work . It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur.
Fundamental beliefs about curriculum and assessment - If there is one unifying theme that crosses all disciplines, it is communication. Communication is our window into academic excellence. Reaching levels of excellence and accuracy of expression mandate mastery of formal English. These are the capabilities that cultivate potential and unlock possibilities for the future of each student.
The objective of the language teaching at school is to provide students with the opportunity to develop their language and communicative skills. Doing so enables them to follow international developments in their own field and to function with ease in any communicative situation required for their careers. A further objective is for students to continue developing their language skills after they have finished studying. The aim being to develop the students' intercultural understanding.
Thus, students are taught versatile communicative skills which cover all aspects of a language.
According to this statement, if you want to become a good dancer, you don’t just watch or read about dancing, you should practice things the dancers do. The same is true for becoming an English speaker – the students need to speak English in order to learn English. The theme of my research is “Developing Student`s Communicative Skills while Teaching English”.
This theme was chosen after much deliberation. Throughout the learning process we face the problem of Communicative Skills do not have enough skills in dialogical speech.
When we say a person knows a language we chiefly mean he understands the language that is spoken and can speak it himself. In teaching a foreign language it is necessary to think about what motivates pupils to speak.
In this research I would like to suggest the ways to increase the amount of Student Talking Time and quality of student practice of spoken English . These techniques include using pair and small group work, creating problem solving activities, minimizing teacher’s explanation and information-giving, developing effective questioning or “drill” techniques, using interactive games and choosing the appropriate topics for conversations.
Oral speech in the classroom should always be stimulated and encouraged. Sometimes during our lessons we try to develop communicative skills through the exercises directed to words` memorizing , paradigms and grammar rules. We should pay attention to training all components of communication, and by just translating speech patterns from one language to another. There are dialogues offered by text books which are recommended to be learned by heart. Students learn them like a poem and then it turns out they can’t use the same models in their spontaneous speech. We don’t give due attention to substitute and transformative exercises. That’s why the students have some difficulties in properly using the speech items they have learned in communicative patterns. Such types of activities don’t lead to activating speaking skills.
For developing spontaneous communicative skills students need a series of components which can reproduce communicative model in the required situation or context.
1. The process of studying interaction in the group :
-to use various schemes and tables;
- to use various types of reading and listening;
-to develop written language;
-to traine to make a dialogues.
2. To use active methods of studying :
- projects` method;
- work with Computer Technology.
3. Problematic exercises:
- summary reports;
- projects;
- games;
- presentations;
- tests.
Communicative activities give students practice in using the language under controlled conditions, which in turn develop fluency. To help students speak on different topics, teachers may give topical patterns , so that all students can be involved in the conversation, especially in mixed ability groups. They will be able to transfer the topical pattern skills to other situations.
The problems of meaningful speaking are many asking for interapting, breaking in, presenting the information in order to define the main problem, expressing negative attitude politely, speaking tactfully, changing the subject, guessing, expressing arguments, etc.
To develop communicative skills is difficult as speach requires alternating use of students’ abilities; first to understand the speaker and then to express their own thoughts and ideas.
Another difficulty in dialogical speech is that a student should not only react but also give a stimulus, in turn to his companion. Other way it is more of an interview with a series of questions and answers, rather than a natural fluid dialogue.
As a result of our work we’ve got supplementary materials that can be used by teachers who face the same problem. They can use these materials in whole or in part . The ideas of our exercises (board games, guided dialogues, lexis games, etc.) can be used in any unit and with other textbooks, forms and groups.
The more students speak in the lesson, the better the lesson .When students had positive reaction to the exercises, the activities suggested they did the tasks willingly. At the end of every unit the students were offered a speaking assessment. All of them fulfiled with it successfully. We also asked them to fill in the questionnaires and got positive response.
The following results show :
- When students speak more, they have a greater opportunity to practice the new material.
- Students have more chances to experiment with new vocabulary, idioms, phrasal verbs or grammar structures.
- They can mix previous vocabulary and grammar structures with the target language of the lesson, as well as spontaneous conversations concerning their individual interests.
But it is important to think about:
- Do students know the vocabulary needed to speak on the topic? If not, you can present or review the key words.
- Are the teacher’s instructions clear enough for the learners to know exactly what to do? Always provide support for completing the tasks. Good Speaking Activities should be motivating and should build confidence in the students; this will encourage them to try harder.
- Is the seating arrangement appropriate in the classroom? Are there any other reasons that might prevent student’s talking and fail the task completion, such as a task that embarrasses a learner, or problems with partners? In this situation try to help them.
Be careful of the following:
- Low level students benefit from a silent period of understanding, and responding to instructions, before being fluent communication that might make them feel embarrassed.
- Many students worry about how others will react to their speaking. In this case I always ask shy students to try their speaking first in pairs, then in small groups and only later I involve them in an open class discussion.
In conclusion I would like to say that one of the most effective ways of increasing communication and maximizing student’s talk time is to create comfortable classroom with positive atmosphere where spontaneous speaking is valued and everyone has a chance to talk. We must remember that the effective language teacher, like all effective teachers, realizes that the teacher’s role in the classroom is to be a facilitator and the students should be the central focus . Practice is the best tool of learning and as English language teachers we should give our students every chance to practice their language in the classroom.
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