organizational forms of foreign language teaching

organizational forms of foreign language teaching

1. Types of organizational forms of teaching

2. A lesson in language practice

3. The structure of a lesson

4. The effectiveness of a lesson

5. The structural unit of a lesson

1. Types of Organizational Forms of Teaching

Organizational forms of teaching are variants of pedagogical communication between a teacher and pupils in the process of classes. Such forms are the component of the system of teaching and realized according to the objective of language teaching in the interaction with the methods and means of teaching chosen for its achieving.

Immediate and mediated organizational forms of teaching occur at language classes reflecting the character of communication among its members.

Immediate teaching is realized in the form of group (collective) or individual activities. A group form occurs within the framework of the class lesson system of studies, when introduction, retention, and activization of study information occurs in the process of teacher’s communication with all the participants of teaching. An individual form is realized at working with every pupil according to an individual plan, when he or she receives a personal task from a teacher and teaching is done in the form “a teacher – a pupil”. Such a teaching may occur within the framework of group classes though its conducting is connected with the difficulties because of a great number of learning groups.

Mediated teaching occurs without a personal contact of a teacher and a learner mainly through written speech or means of replacing it. Here an independent individual learner’s work with a textbook and technical aids (at home and in the class) occurs. Distant teaching is one of the forms of mediated teaching, realizing an individual form of language classes.

Organizational forms of teaching regulate (define) the correlation between an individual and collective in teaching, the degree of pupils’ participation in study-cognitive activities and the character of supervising it on behalf of a teacher.

As applied to university and college teaching the following organizational forms are distinguished: lecture-room practical class (a lesson in language practice), extracurricular practical class, laboratory class, lecture, seminar, consultation, colloquium, teaching practice, test, examination, interview, home teaching.

2. A lesson in Language Practice

A lesson is the principal organizational unit of practical language teaching. The predominance of collective forms of teaching in combination with various individual forms, aimed at achieving a set objective is characteristic of it.

In methodological literature two approaches to the classification of the types of foreign language lessons are spread.

At the first approach (пассов 1989) the basic criterion for classifying lessons is the orientation of language classes either at forming speech habits or developing speech skills. In this connection three types of lessons are distinguished: the first – lessons of forming speech habits; the second – lessons of perfecting speech habits; the third – lessons of developing speech skills. Within the framework of each type of lessons different types are distinguished according to: a) character of the habit formed (phonetical, lexical, grammatical); b) the form of speech (monological, dialogical); c) the character of the lesson (explaining unfamiliar material, discussion, a cinema lesson, etc.).

This lesson typology is built on the conception of stage formation of speech activity types as the ways of language acquisition. The given lesson types are simultaneously the stages of language acquisition – from the formation of habits to the mastery of speech skills. It is noteworthy, however, that in the given typology there are no lessons aimed at language acquisition, being the basis of at first for the habits and then skills formed.

The second approach (бим 1988) is based on the types of speech activities formed by means of a studied language. The availability of two types of activities (cognitive-communicative and communicative proper) gives grounds to distinguish two types of lessons for the followers of this approach: the first – lessons, aimed at acquiring means and technologies of communication (or speech as a way of forming and formulating thoughts (I.A. Zimnyaya); the second – lessons of developing communicative activities in various kinds and forms of their manifestation.

At the lessons of the first type pupils master linguistic units and ways of their application both in educational and natural conditions of communication. Inside this type lessons are classified depending on the speech aspect that is formed (phonetical, lexical, grammatical). The lessons of the second type are preferably aimed at applying speech means in various types of activities. In this connection the lessons of developing oral (listening, speaking) and written (reading, writing) speech are distinguished, which are combined with one another according to the principle of interconnected teaching of speech activity types. This approach to lesson classification is not “enough theoretically elaborated” (бим 1988, 119).

Generalizing the experience of foreign language teaching one may speak about three types of lessons, having been applied in modern methodology.

The first. Lessons aimed at acquiring: a) the elements of language system on phonetical, lexical and grammatical levels, the result being knowledge acquiring about a language system; b) the ways of using acquired knowledge on speech level (the formation of proper habits).

The second. Lessons aimed at mastering communication activities. The objective of such lessons is developing speech skills in various types of activities on the basis of knowledge acquired and habits formed. Within the framework of this type the following lessons are distinguished:

1) lessons of mastering receptive types of speech activities (lessons of listening, writing, and written speech, oral and written translation from a foreign into mother tongue);

2) lessons of mastering productive types of speech activities (lessons of speaking, reading, oral and written translation from one’s native tongue into foreign).

The third. Combined lessons. They are aimed at interconnected knowledge, habit and skill acquisition within the framework of one lesson. Under the conditions of the philological institute of higher education, where specialization in the field of a foreign language is envisaged, the division into aspect and combined lessons is sustained most consistently. At this point classes of acquiring various levels of language system are realized not only in distinguishing some particular aspects in work (lessons of phonetics, vocabulary, grammar), but also particular disciplines (stylistics, discourse (text) analysis, translation). Meanwhile the aspect training at a practical orientation of classes has always a complex character as the final objective of teaching is forming and developing speech skills in various types of activities.

Thus, aspect teaching is aimed at differentiative formation of knowledge and speech habits, which are a part of speech skills. The synthesis of knowledge and habits, the formation of their interaction in speech are always of a complex character. In such a case one should understand complex teaching and a combined type of lessons realizing such a teaching as conducting lessons aimed at forming language basis, its retaining with the help of exercises and application in the process of speech communication within the framework of one lesson (or a series of lessons).

3. the Structure of a Lesson

A lesson as an organizational unit of teaching includes stable and variable components. Stable components include the beginning of the lesson, its central part and the end. Within the framework of the mentioned components variable ones are distinguished, which depend on the objective of classes and the stage of teaching (explaining unfamiliar material, the use of visual aids, the discussion of the studied material, etc.).

The beginning of a lesson. Its purpose is to prepare pupils for classes, to formulate their objective and give instructions. The beginning of a lesson may be a teacher’s greeting, writing the date and theme on the blackboard, the discussion of the exercise done at home. A teacher’s greeting often passes over to the conversation with a class about some event, the weather, etc. In the course of the conversation a teacher stimulates pupils’ discussion of the questions raised by him or her.

The introductory speech (it is also called a speech drill) is called upon to create the atmosphere of communication at a lesson and prepare the transition to its basic part, which may be preceded by a home task, taking place in the form of a collective or individual questioning, a conversation with pupils. At the end the objective of the lesson is formulated, the instruction is given. Realizing the objective of the lesson by the pupils increases the motivational aspect of teaching.

The central part of a lesson includes the explanation of unfamiliar material, its retaining in the course of doing training exercises, speech practice, work with the text, etc.

The explanation of unfamiliar material may have inductive (from observing language facts a teacher leads the pupils to the conclusion in the form of a rule, language law) and deductive (at first a rule is given, which is then confirmed with examples, illustrating the use of a language phenomenon in speech) character. It may be practical (e.g. at familiarizing with lexical-grammatical material, where visual aids are extensively used) and theoretical-practical. It is recommended to give 10-12 minutes for introducing unfamiliar material, considering further training with the introduced material to be the most important. As a result of explanations the pupils acquire knowledge of linguistic units and rules of their use in speech. At introducing unfamiliar material one should pay attention to its accessibility to all the pupils of the study group and constantly assess its mastering.

The end of the lesson includes summing up, control, work assessment, setting home task. For various levels of language proficiency within the framework of State Standard typical tests are elaborated, allowing to check the mastery of language system and speech activities within the framework of a syllabus (Горячев 1999).

4. The effectiveness of a Lesson

The effectiveness of a lesson largely depends on a teacher’s professionalism. He or she must be able:

1) to plan correctly the time of a lesson (explaining – retaining – practice – assessment);

2) to clearly and purposefully explain the material;

3) to use the material, which is interesting and accessible for pupils;

4) to direct correctly pupils’ work (answering questions, speech practice, etc.);

5) to use technical and visual training aids;

6) to use the modes of individual, group, choral and pair work;

7) to stimulate pupils’ activeness at a lesson;

8) to ensure the motivating aspect of a lesson.

The problem of Teacher Talking Time (TTT) and Student Talking Time (STT) correlation deserves special attention. Getting students to speak – to use the language they are learning – is a vital part of a teacher’s job. In general terms, a good teacher maximises STT and minimises TTT.

However, in J. Harmer’s opinion, good TTT may have beneficial qualities (Harmer 2002, 4). If teachers know how to talk to pupils – if they know how to rough-tune their language to the pupils’ level – then the pupils get a chance to hear language which is certainly above their own productive level, but which they can more or less understand. Such ‘comprehensible input’ (a term coined by the American methodologist Stephen Krashen) – where pupils receive rough-tuned input in a relaxed and unthreatening way – is an important feature in language acquisition. A teacher must speak more at introducing unfamiliar material, during the explanation of tasks, when assessing pupils’ work, announcing the results or summarizing what is happening.

However TTT can be terribly overused. The drawbacks of a lesson occur when a teacher speaks too much. Listening to the teacher’s voice droning on and on, the pupils lose the concentration of attention and interest in classes. Therefore the main rule in a foreign language work is to stimulate pupils to speak in a foreign language as much as possible.

5. The Structural Unit of a Lesson

The question what to regard the structural unit of a lesson still remains debatable. Some investigators consider the element of a lesson (its smallest structural-functional unit) to be an exercise as all the main features of the educational process are inherent in it and at the same time an exercise is the smallest piece of a lesson, having an independent meaning (Пассов1977, бим 1988). Others (Теоретические основы…, 1981) consider a link of a class to be a structural unit of a lesson, which includes a concrete task, language and speech material, teacher’s and pupils’ actions in realizing the task.

A point of view has been widely spread, according to which one should regard a concrete task (or a block of tasks) as a structural unit of a lesson organization at doing which the pupils reach a certain level of language proficiency on a concrete lexical-grammatical material. The task is considered to be the most equivalent unit for all the organizationally not uniform parts of a lesson in comparison with an exercise or a link of a lesson.

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