Content of FLT in a secondary school

The content of FLT or “what to teach” is laid down in the syllabus. The content of FLT includes three components:

1. psychological component It answers the question “what to teach” in psychological terminology- habits and skills. The syllabus determines the following 4 skills the students should acquire while learning a foreign language: speaking, reading, writing, listening. In the syllabus teachers can find directions as to the level of skills that should be reached in each particular form and their development from form to form.
2. linguistic component It includes language material such as sentence- patterns, utterance- patterns, pattern- dialogs, texts, topics It also includes linguistic material, such as phonology, grammar and vocabulary., which is carefully selected. A great deal of work has been done in compiling the minimum vocabulary and minimum grammar.
3. methodological component Students should be taught how to learn the foreign language. For example, how to memorize words and keep them in memory, how to perform drill exercises in a most effective way, how to perform creative exercises.

1. Principles of FLT in a secondary school

Methods of teaching foreign languages is based on the following methodological principles (Rogova):

1. scientific approach It implies careful determination of what and how to teach to achieve the aims set by the syllabus.
2. communicative approach It means students should be involved in oral { listening, speaking) and written (reading, writing) communication throughout the whole course of learning a foreign language. This principle determines the content of teaching, selection and organization of the material, the use of teaching aids.
3. differential approach Each language activity requires special attention on the part of the teacher. For example, there is the difference in teaching oral and written speech, listening and speaking, prepared and unprepared speech and so on.
4. integrated approach Students do not assimilate phonetics, grammar, lexis as discrete components of the language, but they grasp them in sentence-patterns, pattern-dialogs, related to certain situations and in this way pronunciation, grammar and lexical habits are developed. Secondly, students use speaking, listening, reading and writing skills as interdependent parts of a language experience in order to exercise their communicative competence in as many ways as possible.
5. accessibility Since students learn the target language for communicative needs the material should be arranged in a most suitable way for the purpose.
6. durability It implies the ability of the students to keep in their memory linguistic and language material they have studied. The durability is ensured by:

vivid presentation of the material, when students are involved in the process of presentation, their thinking and senses are at work;

by constant revision or drill;

by the use of the material by the students for communicative needs;

by systematic supervision and control on the part of the teacher.

1. conscious approach It implies comprehension of the material by the students through the rules, situations, context and other linguistic means(synonyms, antonyms, definitions, etc), translation into the mother tongue, visual presentation(objects, pictures, gestures, facial expressions), through singling out some features which are characteristic of this material.
2. activity Learning a foreign language is impossible without active participation of the students throughout the whole course of study. If students are not involved in the act of communication in the target language they soon lose interest in the subject and become passive at the lessons. The main sources of activity are: motivation, desire and interest.
3. taking into account the learners’ native language In teaching and learning the foreign language and the mother tongue are closely connected and influence each other. The students can transfer language skills acquired in the native language to those in the target language, for example in learning to write. But the mother tongue often interferes with the target language, for example in acquiring pronunciation habits. In learning grammar students often make mistakes because they try to transfer the structure of their native language to that of the target language. The teacher can’t eliminate the mother tongue of the students. He should use it as a means of teaching whenever it helps students in acquiring knowledge necessary for developing habits and skills.
4. individualization Students learn a foreign language differently. The teacher should assess the progress of each individual in the class and find the way how to manage the classroom activity so that the slowest learners are not depressed by being left behind and the fastest and the most able learners are not frustrated by being held back. Individualization is achieved through the use of individual cards; the use of additional material; the use of computer programs; by special selection of exercises for bright, average and dull students; by arranging students’ communication in the target language so that each student can do his best as a participant of the work in class.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11