On The Boundaries Of A Flexible Model Of Teaching Foreign Languages

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of "intensive elements", which can be divided into two groups: method-dependent and method-forming elements. The latter can be transferred to a lesson using the technology of another method (flexible model of teaching), making the learning process more enjoyable and effective. Teaching of the Russian language as foreign is moving away from psychological coherence, creative intuitiveness and atmosphere of live communication in the direction of computer linguodidactics, Internet contacts and pure grammar. In this connection, the "intensive elements" are especially urgent, since they can help to properly arrange some methodological concepts. The article presents some of these elements. Referring to the first group of elements helps clarify the problem of a teaching unit. The framework of the flexible model contains all the richness of "intensive elements", MF elements, except for the two above-mentioned, MD elements. These include the learning unit – the utterance and a large amount of material, including the loaded beginning.

Keywords: Flexible model of teaching, method-dependent and method-forming elements, learning unit

Introduction

Today, teaching of the Russian language as foreign is moving away from psychological coherence, creative intuitiveness and atmosphere of live communication in the direction of computer linguodidactics, Internet contacts and pure grammar. In this connection, the "intensive elements" are especially urgent, since they can help to properly arrange some methodological concepts.

This does not mean that a holistic cognitive style is preferable to an analytical one (A.A. Leontyev's classification), especially since the group of learners may include representatives of both styles of knowledge assimilation. Taking both into account will ensure the very "integration of personality" mentioned by Maslow (2006), one of the founders of humanities psychology. Starting from the idea of two types of creativity, Maslow distinguishes two levels of creativity. The primary level is improvisation, and the secondary level is purposeful work that leads to the creation of art works. Tracing the path of the individual from the primary level to the secondary one, the pioneer of humanities psychology seems to be turning the pages of textbooks on intensive education and "The Pure grammar" (Laskareva, 2009). "By 'integrated creativity' I mean the kind of creativity that implies both processes in the correct sequence" (Maslow, 2006, p. 52).

The elements of the intensive have been actively mastered since the 1980s. At that time, all methods were popular, and they were actively converging with the goal of "learning optimization" (Kapitonova & Shchukin, 1987). This is how a flexible teaching model was created: the so-called "intensive elements" were interwoven into the fabric of the consciously practical method (tradition). Skalkin (1981) called this model a "sausage". The advent of new teaching methods (primarily distance learning) makes relevant the introduction of certain intensive methods with the goal of improving the quality of students' learning process (learning a foreign language in particular).

Problem Statement

The article deals with the main elements of the intensive course in terms of im/possibility of being used in the traditional methodology of teaching foreign languages. The practice has shown that there are exactly 2 such elements that can only be implemented in the intensive technology or intensive method (IM). They cannot be transferred to the structure of a traditional lesson without changing its technology at the same time, i.e. they depend on the method that evoked them and thus can be called method-dependent elements (MD elements).

On the other hand, the vast majority of "intensive elements" are naturally included into the structure of a traditional lesson, without changing its technology. Oddly enough, they include elements that form the identity of the intensive. These elements can be called method-forming (MF elements).

There are 49 such elements. Each teacher usually chooses those that are close to their personality type, i.e. there are as many implementations of the flexible teaching model as there are teachers who use the intensive elements. The goal of this creative work is to provide worthy attention to the psychology of the second subject of the learning process, the learner himself, so that the student can enjoy and profitably experience the lesson.

The communicative method was developed and theoretically justified in the 1980-90s. Passov (1989), who provided the theoretical justification of the method, actually imposed his method on the frame of the intensive, while preserving the principle of consciousness. He removed all the excesses, i.e. those "intensive elements" that did not correspond to his ideas about the lesson. For example, he reduced the use of chorus answers due to the fact that there is a "noise background", etc.

This significantly decreased the level of creativity, since chorus answers may be used in the intensive as part of speech practice: the words spoken by chorus are perceived by the whole group on the emotional level and are memorized better.

The advantages of the method are described below. Passov (1989) presented communicativeness in a different way, raising it to a more abstract theoretical level. With the advent of the communicative method, methodological theory and practice have been enriched by many techniques aimed at ensuring the communicative needs of students. The psychological approach has significantly given way to the didactic one (in comparison with the intensive).

Thus, adherents of the flexible teaching model have at their disposal 49 intensive elements, and representatives of the communicative method are limited in their choice at the condition of strictly following the principles of their theorist. However, if a certain technique seems to be convincing and effective, then there are no prohibitions on its use either.

The communicative orientation was so strong in the methodological theory and practice in the 1980–90s that the existence of a "special, communicative method of teaching" was doubtful (Rozhkova, 1997). This method has its own unit of teaching – speech action (communicative task), which is probably an argument in favor of its status as a method. However, for working out this specific unit, both traditional technology and the technology of intensive are used.

Research Questions

It is obvious that it is not possible to cover all 49 method-forming intensive elements within the present article. We shall touch upon the main ones. It is necessary to determine how certain elements of the intensive can be adapted to the traditional model.

It is also necessary to identify the method-dependent elements of the intensive course that cannot be used by the traditional system. This requires focusing in detail on the study of the main such element – the unit of teaching. We shall touch upon the main ones.

The method-forming elements are united into 8 groups, each of which provides a particular psychological and didactic goal. Let us take a group of method-forming elements that ensure the process of information assimilation by students in a direct, imperative, automatic, accurate and rational way.

The teacher gives some information to the audience, but there is no guarantee that it will be assimilated due to. Barriers are the body's defenses,. What are these barriers?

1. Critical thinking or logic.

When a student thinks: "It's not interesting, it's not necessary, it's not reasonable."

2. Intuitive-affective barrier.

When a student thinks: "I have no confidence in this."

Many teachers, adherents of the traditional approach, stumbled on this barrier when they learned about the new method. For example, some time ago the intensive course seemed to be so revolutionary that teachers preferred the old methods.

3. Aesthetic barrier.

When a student thinks: ""

4. Ethical barrier.

When a student thinks: "This is contrary to my moral principles."

5. Social barrier.

When a student thinks: "This does not correspond to my political views, religious beliefs, ethnicity."

For example, citing A.P. Chekhov's "Lady with a dog" to a Muslim audience may provoke two barriers at once – ethical and social, since this work of fiction runs counter to the Muslim worldview system.

It is important to remember that it is impossible to overcome such barriers. One can only conform to them by means of.

1. Authority of the source

When a student thinks: "." It is believed that Aristotle incorrectly counted the legs of a spider, and for two hundred years no one counted them. It is an example of an unquestionable authority. However, knowledge of a subject and contact with the audience are not enough to earn credibility. Where the teacher's authority begins and ends is usually incomprehensible. Nevertheless, the teacher should always aim at earning maximum authority, because this will help both him and the student to save energy when studying the subject.

2. Infantilization

This implies the transformation into children. This also stopped traditional teachers on the threshold of this method. They felt that if they were working with postgraduate students, they should match the seriousness of this status. Meanwhile, Antsiferova (1991), who deals with the problems of personal development, defines the game as "the type of functioning of a person that is a condition for" But it's not just about the game. Lozanov (1978) said that infantilization is.

3. Duplicity.

This can be exemplified by the grammatical topic "Degrees of comparison of adjectives". The teacher divides the group into 4 teams of 3 participants, gives them cards and asks them to represent what they read on the cards using pantomime. Students show "close – closer – closest"; "heavy – heavier – heaviest", etc. the Other teams must guess what they showed.

This task is multifunctional. The visual and audio image of the grammatical form is understood, the meaning is transmitted and guessed in gestures and voices, perceived by ear and again understood. While there is no task to use any grammatical form, nevertheless, we train the grammatical form and do it in the form of a game. According to psychological approach, everything, which is non-specific penetrates mind easier than logic. Adherents of suggestive approach consider exercise as a part of life, so it is important how we live. If the teacher's task (grammatical) is hidden for the student, and he, then creativity wakes up, i.e. the exercise (a segment of life) is lived. In addition, works at full capacity and turns on speech mechanisms.

4. Emotional coloring

The student conducts the same speech block through several different emotions. For example, the phrase "you are leaving today" is pronounced in a sad, surprised, happy, coldly official voice, etc. Example from the textbook "Once upon a time..." L.V. Miller, L.V. Politova. For beginners. Page 43. Picture: a man asks a woman: "Whose letters are these?" She replies: "These are his letters, and these are hers." Students may produce a dialogue, playing the roles of a jealous husband and his wife. In another case, it will be the boss and his secretary.

5. Rhythm, tempo, timbre, color, light, facial expressions, gesture, music

Of all the above, let us focus on the color. What effect color has on a person can be understood from the following example. A group of respondents was interviewed with the aim to find out what their favorite dish is. The dishes were exquisitely prepared. Then, the light in the room was made blue, and the dishes no longer looked attractive to the respondents. As a result, most of the respondents refused to eat.

Realizing that color may have a strong impact on people, let us understand what feeling each color gives us (in color psychology – the meaning of color). At least, teachers can choose the color of clothes we wear in educational institutions. The color of walls and furniture in the classroom is also important. G.A. Kitaygorodskaya has already fulfilled this dream in a new school named after her, which was designed by the Swedes.

Let us talk about the meaning of each color. For example,. Against the background of black and white, an event of any emotional content can occur, i.e. these are background colors, so they are not forbidden in the audience at all. By the way, walls in the school of G.A. Kitaygorodskaya are white with a faint creamy tinge, and chairs are black.

color scheme brings peace and tranquility.

(pure colors, not their shades) bring joy, while color causes a muscle clamp, which is proved by real examples. When the British painted the inside of the phone booths red, no one could stand to be in them and talk for more than 3 minutes.

Max Lusher's book "Lusher's Color Test" contains information not only about colors, but also about their shades.

6. Personal interest in the material

This is the sign that you can use to check whether a book is really "intensive" or not. If you see tasks such as "", "" and other imperatives that do not personally concern anyone, this is not an intensive task. In the intensive course, all tasks are addressed to someone from the group in one way or another. Students get so used to living the common life and interests of each other that even if they receive a neutral task, they fill it with the material of the group's life. For example: "". The following scheme is written on the board. " The student says: "When I saw Inga, I thought how well this blouse suits her." Or in another case: "" Other tasks are aimed at helping someone in the group, doing something for a classmate and so on. Social psychologists call this feeling of belonging to a group "we are a feeling". This is directly related to motivation.

7. Pleasant experience of the lesson

Loni Gold, a Canadian of Swedish origin, once visited the Kitaygorodskaya school, where he showed the virtuoso skills of a suggestive teacher. He realized the importance of a pleasant experience of the lesson and argued that a teacher with a sense of guilt is not suitable, because he will not be able to create a joyful atmosphere in the class. This statement looks controversial, but in any case, it is important that the teacher can be happy and share joy with others.

There are still a number of barriers:

1. Psychological barrier. Lack of communication.

It is compensated by a role (a certain role is given in the intensive course at the first lesson and is maintained until the very end of the course. This role-mask serves as a means of protection for a non-communicative person). Besides, lack of communication can be compensated by a general atmosphere of trust and goodwill.

Relations of dislike and distrust are extinguished at the beginning. Cooperative relations (win-win) are welcomed (Kovalchuk, 2008), while competitive relations (win-lose) are not. If the task is performed in teams, there is no losing team. When a discussion is held at an advanced stage, all opinions are listened to with equal interest. Only the desire for greater reasonableness is welcomed, especially since "there is a common goal – to find a solution to the problem" (Kovalchuk, 2008, p. 26). Everyone has an equal attitude of sympathy, and everyone has the same attitude. In particular, when a teacher evaluates students' works in class or in writing, they cannot say either "you are the worst" or "you are the best", since this creates disharmony and undermines cooperative relations.

2. Psychological barrier. Motivational barrier.

It is known that without a motive, the statement will not be uttered. This can be demonstrated by the example of a patient who has damaged the frontal lobes of the brain. He wants to eat, and he can talk about it, but he doesn't say anything. There are motives that occur in different parts of the brain (Luria, 1998).

On the example of interviews with interesting creative people, you can see that the question can affect a person. As a result, a creative speech act is produced. It is not just the form of a question or demand, but the internal response to it. If it is the formulation of one's own thought, the clarification of a concept, then the inner motive works.

Example 1.

In the manual on business Russian, one of the tasks is: "Invite your interlocutor to smoke and present your organization." Then there are points from "a" to "k, l, m, n" that this presentation must pass through.

Example 2.

Situation. You're on a plane. Before takeoff, an explosive device was found in the luggage of a member of your group. You know him well enough and realize that it's not his fault. You go to the police station together to declare him not guilty.

In the second case, you are personally interested in rescuing your friend. An internal motive arises, stimulating a volitional creative speech act, while a program of utterance is also formed. In fact, the same communicative task as in the first case is performed – representation – not only of the organization, but of the person. However, the same task is performed in different ways.

In other words, in order to increase motivation, it is necessary to personally interest the student so that he knows why he needs to speak.

Leontiev (2001) said that to make something interesting means to create a motive. By itself, the meaning of interest, good or trouble is deeply indifferent to man. In order not to be indifferent, the perceived objective meaning must turn into meaning for the subject, acquire a personal meaning. If motives signal about themselves in the form of experiencing interest, ... their function on the part of consciousness is that they “evaluate” the vital significance for the subject of objective circumstances and his actions in these circumstances – they give them a personal meaning. ... This is meaning that creates the partiality of human consciousness.

From the reasoning of Leontiev, it follows that the inner motive has the function of meaning formation and directs human activity. If the teacher creates conditions for the emergence of such a motive, he should not worry about anything else.

Ilyin (2006), denoting the components of the motive, says: "Ideally, the motive should provide answers to the questions: why, what for, why exactly, what is the meaning" (p. 25). It follows that to be motivated means to see the meaning of what is being said for yourself, to understand why you should say it now and in this way.

The Kitaygorodskaya school chose the theme "The fate of the four Andaman tribes". Who would care about this topic? Rhetorical question. But the students were given roles. In the legend that accompanied the role (Kovalchuk, 2008), there was always something that made you worry very personally about this or that solution to a problem situation. Creative speech acts followed one another, thanks to personal interest. This is what creates the inner motive. Absolutely nothing prevents the use of role cards in traditional teaching methods.

The lack of motivation in traditional teaching, I think, is due to the fact that the tasks are addressed to some abstract Student. While we are working on the linguistic form, the tasks can be addressed to an abstract Student, but if we expect to receive a creative speech act, then a specific persona should be asked to extricate himself from a specific situation that personally concerns him. Moreover, the situation should be offered, and not the character for the person. A task that imposes a character that is unusual for a person cannot stimulate internal motivation, and, therefore, does not stimulate a creative act. All that we have in this case is reproductive. In the intensive, a role is given, but the student is not asked to change his character.

The role in the intensive is not always given. There are such types of discussion as a round table or panel discussion, where participants speak on their own behalf. Then, accustomed to strong internal motivation, suggestopeds use provocative judgments (Thought Provokers) (Kovalchuk, 2008), when some judgment are sharpened to an extreme degree (for example: all education must be paid), which provokes internal disagreement and is an impetus or the motive giving rise to the program of the creative act.

3. Actually psychological and at the same time language barrier. Operational barrier.

It is necessary to provide means (lexical, grammatical, syntactic, etc.) first and only then give the task. If your are giving this task for the first time, do it yourself first and see if your students already know all the words and forms. If not, the barrier will work.

If you think about all these barriers and try to conform to them, then as a result information penetrates directly, imperatively, automatically, accurately and economically – all of the above describes suggestiveness. Suggestion is an imperatively introduced flow of information.

Another group of "intensive elements".

It is known from psychology that muscle relaxation leads to the internal brain activity of perception. Therefore, our task is to relieve muscle clamps. There are 12 ways to remove muscle clamps. In this article, we will present only one of them.

Trust and kindness.

Back in 1979, A.N. Leontiev wondered what the lack of trust and kindness was leading to. This leads to a weakening of attention, a weakening of control over mistakes, a deterioration in working memory, a decrease in performance, a decrease in the level of motivation, and, finally, to didactogeny. Didactogeny is a painful, negative attitude towards the studied subject.

And vice versa, simply friendly people were teachers from God in those days when the very word psychology was not yet known.

The opposite of kindness, Ilyin (2006) defined it as hostility, which can obviously be attributed to pathological phenomena in teaching.

And is the strictness revered in the tradition so good? In traditional methodological literature, they do not write about strictness or kindness, but there is an unspoken opinion that a strict teacher has advantages: you will not spoil him, there is order in the classroom, homework is completed. Of course, strictness can only be a mask, under which the teacher, in fact, is full of affection and care for his students at heart.

Although all of the above may seem insignificant for a traditional teacher, representatives of humanitarian psychology and Georgy Lozanov among them, as well as all his followers, put this at the forefront, since the teacher's trust and kindness removes muscle clamp and opens the way for creativity. That is why trust and kindness can be called the method-forming element of the intensive.

There are 11 more tools for removing muscle clamps and 26 more elements from other groups, but we will not talk about them in this article.

At the same time, there are also method-dependent elements that are not transferable, and require work according to a specific technology inherent in a particular method.

Unit of learning.

A large volume of material, including a loaded beginning, which ultimately also means a large volume of material.

So, the unit of learning.

Discussions about the unit of learning should start with the idea put forward by L.S. Vygotsky (as cited in Passov, 1989). Its essence is that it is fruitful to divide any object not into elements, but into units, because the latter retain the properties of the whole object, while the elements do not. As, for example, a water molecule retains all its properties, but the hydrogen and oxygen atoms do not.

If you look at the linguomethodological discourse, it turns out that there are almost innumerable applicants for a unit of learning, and all of them will not be discussed within the framework of the article.

Only in the Dictionary of methodological terms (Azimov & Shchukin, 1999) they are called 4 – exercise, sentence, utterance and text.

with or sentence from a polylogue. We introduce it, pronouncing in chorus together with the students, speaking, emotionally empathizing, acting in accordance with the spoken, intoning in a certain way. At the stages of development and training in communication and practice in communication, students use the utterance in communication tasks. At the stage of analysis, this sentence (utterance) becomes a grammatical model (grammar for “Aha-reaction).

In intensive education, there is also a concept – management of speech activity (Kitaygorodskaya, 2009). As the unit of learning is mastered, it should weaken, decrease.

management of speech activity predetermines the choice of specific speech means. This happens during the introduction (speech participation) and in some communication tasks such as "acquaintance". are used.

management of speech activity means for solving a communicative task. For example, the communicative task "At the doctor's." "The patient to the doctor's question" What is your temperature?" replies: "I am just now measuring" (), but there it is used under different circumstances). The reaction of everyone who hears this says that there can be no ready-made model for such a statement. Imagination turns on speech mechanisms, and creativity reveals this little paradox.

Minimal management of speech activity – limits only the area of language and speech means.

Purpose of the Study

"Intensive elements" can be divided into two groups: method-dependent and method-forming elements. Method-forming can be transferred into the fabric of the lesson using the technology of another method (flexible teaching model), making the learning process itself more pleasant and effective. Referring to the first group of elements helps clarify the problem of a teaching unit.

Research Methods

The paper uses communicative and comparative methods.

Findings

It is not a secret that a consciously practical method (tradition) works on a linguistic phenomenon in all its manifestations: lexical and grammatical units, syntactic structures, logical elements of text coherence, etc.

Starting with the explanation of new material, then through a system of exercises (imitation, substitution, transformation, etc.), up to the exit into speech, we nurture. Any segment of speech with formal semantic division (word, word form, word-combination, utterance, text) is.

At the same time, the text is. There are textbooks and manuals in which on the; there are others that just work on the idea of the text, in which the text is presupposed by a number of exercises that practice that can be drawn from the proposed text. Before the text, they contain only lexical exercises that introduce the difficult vocabulary of the text, and short historical and culturological comments. The work with the text is almost the same in Basic Russian, in the sense that the text is preceded by the exercises, but there is a difference: the textbook is a "methodical constructor" in which the grammar with exercises and texts with exercises are divided into different sections, i.e. such a structural element of the lesson as the text (Latysheva, 2005).

From the very first appearance in the very first textbook, the text gradually draws attention to itself and as students gain knowledge about the language, the text becomes more independent of language exercises.

And finally, the definition of a foreign language learning unit. (l.u.).

Learning unit (LU) is a dose of language or speech material that students work with (act on) from familiarization to mastering the technology of the accepted method.

Usually the technology of a particular method is developed for the proposed learning unit. Thus, offers a linguistic phenomenon as a learning unit (signs of language are used in speech). offer a as a learning unit. The named LU are not transferable, that is, they are method-dependent.

In contrast, – a communicative task – is capable of being transferred into the fabric of another method, the MF element, since no special technology has been developed for this LU.

appearing in the early stages of learning, gradually This is especially noticeable at the highest level of learning.

The same is. A large amount of material was offered by Lozanov (1978), as is known, for the purpose of learning "without pressure", when the student's brain chooses what it has a disposition for, when strictly measured material is not imposed on the student's brain, which the student can and learn and reproduce in the next lesson. ("I told you! Didn't You listen?"). Lozanov (1978) said that in this way traditional teachers "build castles for their students" (in other words, a prison).

It is impossible to deliberately assimilate such a volume of material (about 300 lexical units) for the proposed time (microcycle – 6 lessons). That is, working on it involves the technology of the intensive and IM, such as: four presentations during the introduction of an unprecedented volume of material (including the very first polylogue – the so-called loaded beginning), while the student does not have a feeling of boring repetition; the goals of each presentation are thought out so that the feeling of novelty is not lost. On the contrary, everyone who has experienced it, did not leave a feeling of constant involvement in some delightful action. And the stages of development and training in communication, practice in communication presuppose the "density of communication", in which for more than 40 years of the method's existence there was not a single student who would have given up before such a volume of material. The situation planned by G. Lozanov took place – the student went to the limit of activity.

Conclusion

Thus, the framework of the flexible model contains all the richness of "intensive elements", MF elements, except for the two above-mentioned, MD elements. These include:

1. the learning unit – the utterance.

2. a large amount of material, including the loaded beginning.

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