VIII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2016

Language came into life as a means of communication. It exists and is alive only through speech. When we speak about teaching a foreign language, we first of all have in mind teaching it as a means of communication.

Techniques the teacher uses for teaching speaking. There are two forms of speaking: monologue and dialogue. Since each form has its peculiarities we should speak of teaching monologue and teaching dialogue separately.

In teaching monologue the methodologists easily distinguish three stages according to the levels which constitute the ability to speak: (1) the statement level; (2) the utterance level; (3) the discourse level.

Some exercises are useful both for developing dialogic and monologic speech.

Therefore the pupil's utterance involves 2-4 sentences which logically follow one another. At this stage pupils learn to express their thoughts, their attitude to what they say using various sentence patterns. Thus they learn how to put several sentences together in one utterance about a subject, an object, etc.

After pupils have learned how to say a few sentences in connection with a situation they are prepared for speaking at discourse level. Free speech is possible provided pupils have acquired habits and skills in making statements and in combining them in a logical sequence. At this level pupils are asked to speak on a picture, a set of pictures, a film-strip, a film, comment on a text they have read or heard, make up a story of their own; of course, this being done within the language material (grammar and vocabulary) pupils have assimilated. To help pupils to speak the teacher supplies them with “what to speak about”. The devices used for the purpose are: visual aids which can stimulate the pupil's speaking through visual perception of the subject to be spoken about, including a text read; audio aids which can stimulate the pupil's speaking through auditory perception of a stimulus; audio-visual aids when pupils can see and hear what to speak about [1; 19].

The three stages in developing pupils' speaking should take place throughout the whole course of instruction, i. e., in junior, intermediate, and senior forms. The amount of exercises at each level, however, must be different. In junior forms statement level is of greater importance as a teaching point.

A dialogue consists of a series of lead-response units. The significant feature of a lead-response unit is that the response part may, and usually does, serve in its own turn as a fresh inducement leading to further verbal exchanges, i. e., lead > response > inducement > response. A response unit is a unit of speech between two pauses. It may consist of more than one sentence. But the most characteristic feature of a dialogue is that the lead-response units are closely connected and dependent on each other. The lead is relatively free, while the response depends on the first and does not exist without it.

In teaching dialogue we should use pattern dialogues as they involve all features which characterize this form of speech. There are three stages in learning a dialogue: (1) receptive; (2) reproductive; (3) constructive (creative).

1. Pupils “receive” the dialogue by ear first. They listen to the dialogue recorded or reproduced by the teacher. The teacher helps pupils in comprehension of the dialogue using a picture or pictures to illustrate its contents. They listen to the dialogue a second time and then read it silently for better understanding, paying attention to the intonation. They may listen to the dialogue and read it again, if necessary.

2. Pupils enact the pattern dialogue. Three kinds of reproduction are distinguished:

Immediate. Pupils reproduce the dialogue in imitation of the speaker or the teacher while listening to it or just after they have heard it. The teacher checks the pupils' pronunciation and intonation in particular. The pupils are asked to learn the dialogue by heart for homework.

Delayed. After pupils have learned the dialogue at home, they enact the pattern dialogue in persons. Before calling on pupils it is recommended that they should listen to the pattern dialogue recorded again to remind them of how it "sounds".

Modified. Pupils enact the dialogue with some modifications in its contents. They change some elements in it. The more elements (main words and phrases) they change in the pattern the better they assimilate the structure of the dialogue.

In teaching speaking the problem is what form of speech to begin with, and what should be the relationship between monologue and dialogue. This problem may be solved in different ways. Some methodologists give preference to dialogic speech in teaching beginners, and they suggest that pupils learn first how to ask and answer questions which is mostly characteristic of a dialogue, and how to make up a short dialogue following a model. Others prefer monologic speech as a starting point. Pupils are taught how to make statements, how to combine several sentences into one utterance in connection with an object or a situation offered [2].

These approaches to the problem are reflected in school textbooks now in use. A. D. Starkov and R. R. Dixon in their textbooks prefer to begin with dialogic speech. They start by teaching pupils how to ask various types of questions.

Speech is a process of communication by means of language. For example, (1) a pupil tells the class a story about something which once happened to him; (2) the teacher asks questions on the story read by the pupils at home and starts a discussion; (3) pupils speak on the pictures suggested by the teacher, each tries to say what others have not mentioned; (4) pupils listen to the story and get some new information from the text; (5) they see a sound film and learn about something new from it, etc.

Oral exercises are used for the pupils to assimilate phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary. They are mostly drill exercises and the teacher turns to them whenever he works at enriching pupils' knowledge in vocabulary and grammar, at improving pupils' pronunciation, etc. For example, reciting a rhyme or a poem is considered to be an excellent oral exercise for drilling pronunciation and for developing speech habits. Making up sentences following the model is an excellent oral exercise for fixing a sentence pattern and words which fit the pattern in the pupils' mind. Making statements with the words or phrases the teacher gives is another valuable oral exercise which allows the teacher to retain them in his pupils' memory through manifold repetitions.

Oral exercises are quite indispensable to developing speech. However, they only prepare pupils for speaking and cannot be considered to be “speech” as some teachers are apt to think and who are often satisfied with oral exercises which pupils perform following the model; they seldom use stimuli for developing pupils' speaking in the target language [3; 37-49].

When pupils are able to make statements in oral communication within grammar and vocabulary they have assimilated their speech may be more complicated. They should learn to combine statements of various sentence patterns in a logical sequence. Pupils are taught how to use different sentence patterns in an utterance about an object, a subject offered. First they are to follow a model, and then they do it without any help.

In order to get a better understanding of what speech is we are to consider the psychological and linguistic characteristics of speech.

References:

1. Maslyko E.A. Reference book of the teacher of a foreign language: Handbook. - Мн.: The higher school, 1999, p. 19.

2. Winter I.A. Psikhologicheskaya characteristic of hearing and speaking as types of speech activity. - "Foreign languages at school", 1973

3. Bulls N. I. Training is общение.//National education of Yakutia - 1992 No. 2 of page 37-49

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