Techniques the Teacher Uses to Develop Hearing

In teaching oral language the teacher has to cope with two tasks. They are: to teach his pupils to undersand the foreign language spoken and to teach them to speak the language.

 

To fulfil the task the teacher must train his pupils in listening comprehension beginning with the first lesson and throughout the whole period of instruction. These are the techniques the teacher uses for the purpose:

1. The teacher uses the foreign language:

(a) when giving the class instructions;

(b) when presenting new language material (words, sen­tence patterns);

(c) when checking pupils' comprehension;

(d) when consolidating the material presented;

(e) when checking pupils' assimilation of the language material covered.

These are the cases when the target language is used as a means of communication and a means of teaching. There is a great of auding in all the points of the lesson. This raises the problem of the teacher's speech during the lesson.

It should be correct, sufficiently loud, clear, and expressive.

But many of the teachers are too talkative. We can hear them speaking most of the time. Moreover, some teachers speak a great deal in Russian.

Conducting a lesson in a foreign language gives the teacher an opportunity to develop pupils' abilities in hearing; to train them in listening to him attentively during the lesson; to demonstrate the language as a means of communication; to provide favourable conditions for the assimilation of the. In perfect his own speaking skills; to keep his own under control, i.e., to keep himself from undue talk-ativeness.

2. The teacher uses drill and speech exercises for developing listening comprehension.

We can group drill exercises into exercises designed for overcoming linguistic difficulties, and exercises which can eliminate psychological difficulties. The first group of drill exercises includes:

(A) phonetic exercises which will help the teacher to develop his pupils' ear for English sounds:

- Listen to the following words and raise your hands when you hear the words with [ǽ]. (The teacher lays: desk, pen, ten, bag, etc.)

- Listen to the following pairs of words and say in what sound they differ: a — pin; bed —bad; eyes ice; while- wide.

(b) lexical exercises which will help the teacher to develop pupils' skills in recognizing words:

- Listen to the wordry. The Soviet Union is a large countrys and recognize the word boy

Among oilier words: a baby, a toy, a boat, a boy, a girl.

- Listen to the following words and raise your hands when you hear the words referring to plants:

Street, tree, grass, class, flower, tower.

— Listen to the following sentences and say whether the word country has the same meaning in both sentences: I usually spent my holidays in the country.

 

3. 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 we can 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.

No speech is possible until pupils learn how to make up sentences in the foreign language and how to make statements. To develop pupils' skills in making statements the following procedure may be suggested:

Pupils are given sentence patterns to assimilate in connection with different words. Thus pupils can express various thoughts. For example:

I can see a …..

Pupils 1₁: I can see a blackboard

P u p i 1₂: I can see a picture.

P u p i 1₃: I can see a map, etc.

I am fond of

P u p i l1: I am fond of music.

P u p i l₂: I am fond of classical music.

P u p i 1₃: I am fond of pop music, etc.

We are proud of...

Pupil₁: We are proud of our country.

Pupi1₂: We are proud of our sportsmen.

Pupil₃: We are proud of our school_>f-etc.

Pupils are invited to perform various drill exercises with the sentence patterns given:

— substitution: / have a book (a pen);

— extention: / have an interesting book,

I have an interesting book at home;

— transformation: He has a book,.

He has no book;

— completion: // / have time I'll....

Pattern practice, of course, makes no pretence of being communication. However, pattern practice for communica­tion is what playing scales and arpeggios is to a musician. Each pattern will have to be repeated many times with a great variety of changes in its contents until the pattern becomes a habit.

Pupils make statements of their own in connection with the situations suggested by the teacher.

Give it a name.

Teacher: We write with it. Pupil: It is a pencil (pen).

Make statements on the picture.

Teacher (silently points to the picture of a cat) Pupil: This is a cat. P u p i 1₂: This is a black cat.

Say the opposite.

Teacher: I live in Gorky Street. Pupil: I do not live in Gorky Street