Traditional approach

Teaching a foreign language, as methodologists state, means the formation of pupils’ habits and skills in listening, reading, speaking and writing. Psychology, ways of forming them, the influence of formerly acquired habits and skills – those are factors important in relation to this. Effective learning of a foreign language depends on the learner’s memory. Voluntary and involuntary memorizing is possible when learner’s attention is focused not on fixing the material in memory through numerous repetitions but on solving mental problems dealing with the material.

Methods

General aspects of a foreign language teaching

Lecture 1

MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD

Vowels: 1) loss of the neutral sound of unstressed endings (in the 15^th c.) 2) loss of vowels in intermediate syllables: chapiter – chapter, medicine 3) change of [er] into [ar] with some exceptions: ferre – far, sterre – star, but occasionally this change did not take place: certain, prefect, etc. when it didn’t change into [ar], it eventually developed into [e:], but ‘clerk, ‘Derby’.

The Great Vowel Shift began in the 15^th century: all long vowels were narrowed and the narrowest were diphthongized:

Take [ta:ka] – [teik]; beat [be:t]/[ bi:t]; meet [me:t]/[mi;t]; like [li:ka]/[laik]; boat [bo:t]/[bout]; tool [to:l]/[tu:l]; house [hu:s]/[haus]. All those changes show one general tendency: narrowing of long vowels and diphthongization of the narrowest of them. All these changes occurred gradually, without being noticed by the speakers.

Influence of [r]: when a long vowel was followed by ‘r’, new phonemes came into being: (ia], [ea], [ua]: fare [fa;r] – [fea]; tire [ti:r] /[taia], power [pu:ar] /[ paua].

Some words have sounds which do not correspond to the general law of the shift.

Long [u:] remained unchanged when followed by a labial consonant: droop, room; [i:] remained unchanged in words borrowed from French: machine, police, etc.; long open [e:] did not always change into [i:], it was shortened in some words head, death, etc.

Other changes:

- short ‘a’ into ‘ae’: hat, cat; but when it was preceded by [w] it developed into [o]: what, was, ec.

- In the 16^th c. 2 new long vowels arose [a:], [o:]

- [a:] – before: bath, father, brass, cast, ask, clasp, calm

- [o:] – before: cork, port, autumn, dawn

- long [u:] was shortened before [k]: book, cook; also in good, foot, etc.

- rise of long [e:] – fir, sir, fur, curtain, worm, word, heard, learn

- short [u] changed into [^]: cut, but, love, son, rough, enough; blood, flood; remained unchanged before labial consonants: pull, full, bull, etc.

- unstressed vowels were reduced either to [i] or [a]: begin, wishes, mountain, etc.

1. Methods

a) Traditional approach. Grammar translation method

b) Communicative approach. Direct method. Famous methodologists

2. Aims, contents and principles

a) Aims

b) Contents

c) Principles

3. Teaching aids and materials

Methods of foreign language teaching have a definite relation to physiology of a higher nervous system. According to Pavlov, habits are conditioned reflexes, which means they are performed automatically in response to a definite stimulus as a result of a previous repetitions of the same action. Thus, necessity of frequent repetition and revision is obvious in attaining the aim of developing habits. Language is one of the forms of human behavior. Thus, learners must acquire speech response to different communication situations, which means study the language as behaviour.

Methods of foreign language teaching are closely related to linguistics. Interrelation between thinking, speaking, grammar, vocabulary etc. are problems linguists deal with. The results are used in teaching a foreign language. Besides, linguists research in selecting and arranging language materials for teaching languages.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11