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53МЕТОДИКА ОБУЧЕНИЯ И ВОСПИТАНИЯ
Дискуссия как метод обучения иностранному языку взрослых студентов
Глоткина Антонина Александровна,
старший преподаватель кафедры И-13 «Иностранный язык для физико-математических и инженерных специальностей» Московский авиационный институт (национальный исследовательский университет) E-mail: [email protected]
Повышение эффективности занятия по иностранному языку становится одним из главных вопросов современной педагогики, особенно когда речь касается взрослой аудитории. В статье рассматриваются основные характеристики взрослой аудитории и особенности методов обучения при работе с ней. Выдвигается предположение, что метод дискуссии будет являться одним из наиболее оптимальных вариантов практики устной речи, так учитывается опыт студентов и их желание применить его на практике при обсуждении вопросов, касающихся их профессиональной деятельности на иностранном языке. Рассматриваются возможные форматы проведения дискуссии и описан метод работы с разноуровневыми группами при обсуждении. Проанализирован один из самых сложных этапов дискуссии, а именно её начало, предложены возможные варианты эффективного начала обсуждения. Также отмечены ключевые позиции хода обсуждения и основные критерии его успешного проведения. В статье уделено внимание заключительной стадии обсуждения, а именно анализ ошибок, представлены возможные способы работы с ошибками, прозвучавших в речи студентов.
Ключевые слова: андрагогика, дискуссия, круглый стол, дебаты, групповое обсуждение, видео и аудио материалы, разноуровневые группы, исправление ошибок.
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Introduction: Adults as language learners: their requirements and wishes while studying a foreign language
At university a master's degree is optional, nevertheless, the stereotypes push students forward and after their bachelor's degree they move on studying their speciality further, plunging themselves deeper in theory and curricula. There is nothing wrong with it, however, the pitfalls lying ahead will cause a great number of issues for them. Naturally, students could be divided into two groups: one camp continues their studying smoothly after spending 4 years in their alma mater, the other camp returns to universities after spending several years working for companies. Additionally, there are adults who are overachievers and do not want to lower the bar. This category combines work and studying trying to do their best in both places which certainly has the impact, undeniably, a handful of them can boast great attendance and academic success.
Understandably, teaching adults must be considerably easier as the issues of discipline and motivation should not be raised for this audience: the majority of them pay for their education and they perfectly know what the money is worth, their expectations are high. Yet what is going without saying it is special needs they have and certainly special methods of teaching that are highly demanded, as for adults efficiency of each lesson is number one priority.
What differs adults from young learners and adolescents? Practicality stands out for them, as they value more experience over theoretical knowledge. Keeping in mind their purposefulness, it is absolutely ruining to neglect their requirements and needs. Teaching vocabulary and grammar for the sake of teaching will not have tangible results, on the contrary, it will cause frustration and disappointment with the process. That is why relevance towards their professional sphere will be definitely of great interest for them.
Among other distinctive features of adults there is maturity and competence. Applying their life experience students enrich their language practice. So while teaching adults the central issue is how to support their interest towards active participation and critical reflection of cases, which will allow learners to master the language and hone their skills as interlocutors.
The above mentioned attributes became the changing point for pedagogy in the 1980s when the term an-drogogy was coined and popularized. Life experience and the previous educational experience significantly
influence the learning style of adults, which gives the foundation for a new branch of science. The founder of this branch M. Knowles illustrated the remarkable features of adults as learners [4]:
• they long for autonomy;
• their experience is a «building block» for their studying;
• they are prepared to acquire knowledge according to the goals and targets of their social role;
• they find practical knowledge precious;
• their internal motivation is a crucial element. Adjusting lessons to their interests will tremendously improve their level and providing clear short-term goals will help students to achieve success at each stage, which they will value hugely [2].
The target and forms of discussion
Communicative language teaching has gained its grounds and widely-spread in educational institutions. Students expect to pick up language instead of cramming grammar rules and lists of phrases and idioms. What seems clear, it is their desire to learn via action and communication applying their knowledge, primarily because the language itself entails the notion of communication. Groupwork helps the students to activate their language knowledge [2], and discussions play an indispensable role in this process.
An academic discussion is a well-organized exchange of ideas and opinions in a group so that students could find various points and views for the topic in question. The significant step in organization of a successful discussion requires thorough preparation and special conditions to guarantee a positive result [1]:
• students should be equally informed about the facts of the topic under discussion;
• it is necessary to support the diversity of opinions and views about the matter;
• it is urgent to motivate open and polite criticism and rejection of arguments after explanation of the position;
• various approaches to the subject in question should be encouraged to express during the discussion;
• and finally students need to find common ground. The forms of discussion which are helpful during
the lessons could be the following:
• a roundtable discussion;
• a panel discussion;
• debates.
While conducting a roundtable discussion a group of students (about 5 people) exchange their opinions on the topic inside this group and with the rest part of the students.
A panel discussion provides some time for active participants to study the topic, analyze the theme, find more facts according to the major question of the topic. And the further step is to present a report by each participant of the panel that should be under scrutiny of the rest of the group so that they could express their opinions on the thoughts and ideas of the panel.
Debates are the special format of discussion where participants are divided into two groups with opposite opinions.
Discussion in mixed-level groups
Quite frequently teachers encounter the situation when classes are mixed, which is problematic and requires special skills from a teacher to motivate students of different skills and levels to participate actively and contribute into the process.
Fortunately, various abilities of the students enable teachers to be creative with the formats of discussion. The following method could be helpful to meet students' expectations and stimulate their desire to practice their language skills. While applying this method of discussion a teacher needs to provide a topic or a problem, then the group is divided into smaller groups with leaders who will present the opinion of their subgroup. Subgroups will have time to concentrate on the problem and brainstorm the arguments to support their vision. During the next stage of this discussion the representatives outline the position of their subgroup, the other students can help their representatives by sending notes with additional ideas. The discussion can be restricted by the time limit. After the final stage there should be critical reflection with the involvement of the whole group and their feedback about the results of the discussion. The most beneficial aspect of this method lies in the fact that it requires the contribution of each student.
The beginning of discussion
A lot of concerns are related to the initial stage, as the exact process of discussion is less restricted than other activities during the lesson. Students need to act within the frames which were agreed with the teacher, they need to be familiar with the steps, their roles and procedures of the further discussion.
To avoid any sort of vulnerability and discomfort, special attention has to be paid to the psychologically comfortable environment, which will definitely be a key to success.
Moreover it is vital to think over the possible approaches of introduction of the discussion, among them could be the following options:
• a short case study or a description of the problem;
• a short video or podcast;
• current news items;
• controversial questions or opinions. Quick remarks and a dynamic beginning should be thought-provoking and provide «mental pabulum», so that students could easily move towards next stages of their discussion.
The role of questions and pauses in discussion
The productivity of the discussion increases if a teacher pays special attention to the open-ended questions. This involves such questions that do not imply the only one correct answer, but they spark creative thinking and encourage students to look for new ways and perspectives in the theme. One thing has become clear
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due to the research of psychologists and sociologists -time matters [3]. The pause about 3-5 seconds between a teacher's question and a student's answer can make a tremendous change:
• it can extend the duration of a student's answer;
• the number of answers grows, as students' confidence increases proportionally;
• students have more time to come up with nontrivial ideas and arguments, which leads to more questions from the other students;
• slow-starters feel much more positive about their participation;
• in such a way interaction of students is boosted. The positive effect is absolutely stunning, there is
a promising shift in students' involvement in discussions and expression of their opinions, their motivation strengthens, which results in an uplifting effect [6].
Error correction
A feedback session could be a very efficient tool for teaching. Certainly there could be concerns whether or not we should pay attention to the mistakes of our students, when probably the message they have is much more significant than the accuracy of their speech. However, according to the research students really welcome the correction [5]. That does not mean that every single mistake should be analyzed, yet serious cases and difficulties can be grouped and examined thoroughly.
What should be a subject of consideration it is correcting a student in the middle of their speech. In most cases it is inappropriate, nevertheless, some students prefer to be interrupted instead of waiting for the feedback at the end of the lesson. What is more, some mistakes could be dramatic for understanding the message that a student wants to put forward. So there cannot be a unified recipe, and most teachers rely on their experience in this case.
Perhaps, one of the fundamental things is to focus not only on mistakes but on the language that was used correctly and appropriately by a student. Drawing attention to their good examples from their speech, which is really engaging for them and it gives them motivation to speak with confidence. Referring to both positive aspects of their speech and mistakes gets the feedback session to the next level, which could be characterized as a productive dialog but not a severe criticism of what was said.
Conclusion
It must be stressed that communication skills are vital today for the career growth and direct communication with foreign partners is becoming a part of building successful business relations. That is a signal to master the language skills.
To boost communication skills students need to put all efforts into language practice, while teachers' task is to maximize the result for them via thorough analysis of their needs and attention to their expectations. The effectiveness of discussion as a method of teaching speaking is highly recognized. And due to
thoughtful guidance of teachers students will definitely feel the growth of confidence and will upgrade their speaking skills so necessary for their communicative competence.
Bibliography
1. Gall M.D., Gall J.P. The discussion method// NSSE Yearbook 75: The Psychology of Teaching Methods / Ed. By N.L. Gage. Chicago, 1976. -P.166-216
2. Harmer J. Teacher Knowledge. Core concepts in English language teaching. Pearson Education Limited. 2012. - P. 89
3. Heize A., Erhard M. How much time do students have to think about teacher questions? // ZDM 2006. Vol. 38, No. 5. - P. 388-398
4. Knowles M. Andragogy in Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1984/ - P. 12
5. Lyster R., Saito K. Interactional feedback as instructional input: A synthesis of classroom SLA research. Language, Interaction and Acquisition/ Language, Interaction et Acquisition. 1 (2). 2010. -P.276-297
6. Walsh J.A. Sattes B.D. New rhythm for responding // Educational Leadership. 2015. Vol. 73. - No.1
discussion as a method of teaching adults a foreign language
Glotkina A.A.,
Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University)
To raise the efficiency of foreign language classes is becoming one of the major issues of modern pedagogy, especially while dealing with adults as language learners. The article focuses on the main characteristics of adults as students. There is a description of teaching methods and strategies how to work with them. Discussion is supposed to be the most optimal method to practice language skills, as the experience of students and their desire to put into practice their knowledge are taken into account, while they discuss professional issues in a foreign language. Possible formats of discussion are examined and there is a suggestion how to optimize the work with mixed-level groups of students. Special attention is drawn to the initial stage of discussion, as it is believed to be one of the hardest stages, there could be found some solutions of the effective beginning. The article provides information on the key stages of discussion and the criteria of success, moreover, error correction as a final stage is analysed.
Keywords: androgogy, discussion, a roundtable discussion, debates, a panel discussion, videos, podcasts, mixed-level groups, error correction
References
1. Gall M.D., Gall J.P. The discussion method// NSSE Yearbook 75: The Psychology of Teaching Methods / Ed. By N.L. Gage. Chicago, 1976. - P. 166-216
2. Harmer J. Teacher Knowledge. Core concepts in English language teaching. Pearson Education Limited. 2012. - P. 89
3. Heize A., Erhard M. How much time do students have to think about teacher questions? // ZDM 2006. Vol. 38, No. 5. - P. 388398
4. Knowles M. Andragogy in Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1984/ - P. 12
5. Lyster R., Saito K. Interactional feedback as instructional input: A synthesis of classroom SLA research. Language, Interaction and Acquisition/Language, Interaction et Acquisition. 1 (2). 2010. - P. 276-297
6. Walsh J.A. Sattes B.D. New rhythm for responding // Educational Leadership. 2015. Vol. 73. - No.1
