— Listen and say which season it is: It is cold. It often snows. Children can skate and ski.
(d) exercises which help the teacher to develop his pupils' logical thinking:
— Listen to the sentences and say whether they are logically arranged: Her name is Mary. This is a girl.
Drill exercises are quite indispensable to developing pupils' skills in listening comprehension.
Speech exercises are designed for developing pupils' skills in auding. Several groups of exercises may be suggested:
1. Exercises which teach pupils to understand texts different in content, form, and type. Pupils are asked to listen to a description or a narration; the text may be a dialogue, it may deal with the life of people whose language the pupils study, or with the pupils' environment.
— Listen to the story. Your task is to define its main idea. You should choose one among those suggested by the teacher.
— Listen to the story. Your task is to grasp as much information as you can. While auding try to put down key words and sentences; they will help you to convey the context of the story.
2. Exercises which develop pupils' skills to understand a text under different conditions. Sound producing aids should be extensively used for developing pupils' auding, as pupils are supposed to understand not only their teacher's speech, but other people speaking the target language, including native speakers. Besides, sound producing aids allow the teacher to supply pupils with recorded speech different in speed and voice.
Before pupils are invited to listen to the text the teacher should ensure that all the words and grammar are familiar to the pupils otherwise language difficulties will prevent them from understanding the story. Thus, if there are some unfamiliar words, the teacher introduces them beforehand; he either puts them down on the blackboard with the mother tongue equivalents in the sequence they appear in the text, or he asks pupils to pronounce the words written on the blackboard if he plans a talk on the text afterwards, and pupils are to use these words in their speech.[5]
Then the teacher should direct his pupils' attention to what they are going to listen to. This is of great importance for experiments prove that if your aim is that your pupils should keep on talking on the text they have heard it stimulates their thinking and facilitates their comprehension of the text.
The following tasks may be suggested to draw pupils’ attention to what they are auding:
— Listen and try to grasp the main idea of the story. You will be asked questions later on.
— Listen and try to grasp the details. You will have to name them.
— Listen and make a plan of the story.
— Listen to the story and try to finish it (think of the end of the story).
— Listen to the story. You will ask questions on it afterwards.
— Listen to the text. You will retell it afterwards.
— Listen to the story. We shall have a discussion on it. Etc.
When pupils are ready to listen, the text can be read to them. If it is the teacher who reads or tells the story, he can help pupils to comprehend the text with gestures. If the text is recorded, a picture or pictures can facilitate comprehension. The pupils listen to the text once as is usually the case in real communication. Then the teacher checks their comprehension. If they have not understood it, they are told to listen to the text again. The teacher can use a dialogue to help pupils to understand the text after they have listened to the story for the first time, i. e., he may ask questions, make statements on the text for pupils to agree or reject them.
Checking pupils' comprehension may be done in many ways depending on the stage of instruction, pupils' progress in the language, and other factors. In any case, however, it is necessary to proceed in order of complexity from mere recognition to reproduction. The procedure may be:
| general questions special questionswrong statements | The teacher checks his pupils’ comprehension only. |
| pupils’ questions on the text making a plan telling the text according to the plan (it may be donein a chain-like way) reciting the textgiving the gist of the textwritten reproduction of thetext discussing the text | The teacher checks pupils' comprehension and develops their speaking skills on the basis of the text heard. |
Skills in hearing must be built up gradually. The teacher begins with a story containing 3—4 sentences. He uses pictures, gestures to help pupils to understand it. Gradually he can take longer sections and faster speeds with less visual help and in more difficult language. The teacher must bear in mind that careful grading in all these ways is of the utmost importance. Texts, stories to be read or recorded should be interesting and fairly easy.
2.3 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.
1. 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 situations.
The sentence pattern is filled with different words. Thus pupils can express various thoughts. For example:
I can see a ... .
P u p i l 1: I can see a blackboard.
P u p i 1 2: I can see a picture.
P u p i l 3: I can see a map, etc.
I am fond of ...
P u p i l 1: I am fond of music.
P u p i 1 2: I am fond of classical music.
P u p i 1 3: I am fond of pop music, etc.
We are proud of ...
P u p i l 1: We are proud of our country.
P u p i 1 2: We are proud of our sportsmen.
P u p i 1 3: We are proud of our school, etc.
Pupils are invited to perform various drill exercises within the sentence patterns given:
— substitution: I have a book (a pen);
— extention: I have an interesting book,
I have an interesting book at home;
— transformation: He has a book,
He has no book;
— completion: If I 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)
P u p i l 1: This is a cat.
P u p i l 2: This is a black cat.
Say the opposite.
Teacher: I live in Gorky Street.
Pupil: I do not live in Gorky Street,
Teacher (pointing to the boy): He likes to play hockey.
Pupil: I don't like to play hockey.
When pupils are able to make statements in the foreign language 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.
2. 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.
Teacher: Say a few words about it. (He points to an object.)
Pupil: This is a pencil.
The pencil is green.
It is on the table. I like the pencil.
Or Teacher points to a boy.
Pupil: This is a boy. His name is Sasha. He lives in Gagarin Street.
Get information and sum up what you have learnt from your classmates.
Teacher: She cut her finger.
Pupil: Who cut her finger?
Class: Ann.
— When did she cut it?
— Yesterday.
— What did she cut it with?
— With a knife.
— Why did she cut her finger?
— Because the knife was sharp.
Pupil: Yesterday Ann cut her finger. She cut it with a knife. The knife was sharp.
This exercise is 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.
3. 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.[8]
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.
Rule for the teacher: In teaching monologue instruct pupils how to make statements first, then how to combine various sentences in one utterance and, finally, how to speak on a suggested topic.
We have already spoken about the linguistic characteristics of dialogue. Some more should be said about its structure.
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.
— Where is the book?
— There, on the shelf.
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. We may distinguish three kinds of reproduction:
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:
— Will you help me, sonny?
— What shall I do, Mother?
— Will you bring me a pail of water?
— Certainly I will.
The use of pictures may be helpful. Besides pupils use their own experience while selecting the words for substitutions.
The work should not be done mechanically. Pupils should speak on the situation. As a result of this work pupils master the structure of the pattern dialogue (not only the contents), i. e., they can use it as a model for making up dialogues of their own, that is why pattern dialogues should be carefully selected.
The first two stages aim at storing up patterns in pupils' memory for expressing themselves in different situations, of course within the topics and linguistic material the syllabus sets for each form.
3. Pupils make up dialogues of their own. They are given a picture or a verbal situation to talk about. This is possible provided pupils have a stock of patterns, a certain number of phrases for starting a conversation, joining in, etc. They should use those lead-response units they have learned in connection with the situation suggested for a conversation.
At the third stage the choice of stimuli is of great importance, as very often pupils cannot think what to say, though they know how to say this or that. Therefore audio-visual aids should be extensively utilized.
Rule for the teacher: In teaching dialogue use pattern dialogues; make sure that your pupils go through the three stages from receptive through reproductive to creative, supply them with the subject to talk about.
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.[7]
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. For example:
The book is on the desk.
The book isn't under the desk.
Is the book on the desk? Yes, it is. (No, it isn't.)
Is the book on the desk or under it? It's on the desk.
Where’s the book? It’s on the desk. (Fifth Form English. Teacher's Book.)
S. K. Folomkina and E. I. Kaar give preference to developing pupils' monologic speech. For example:
I see a pen.
I see a desk.
Pete sees a desk and a pen.
As to the relationship between monologue and dialogue, it should vary from stage to stage in teaching speaking in schools. In the junior stage (5—6 forms) dialogic speech, the time which allows the teacher to introduce new material and consolidate it in conversation, must prevail. In the intermediate stage (7—8 forms) dialogue and monologue must be on an equal footing.
In the senior stage (9—10 forms) monologic speech must prevail since pupils take part in discussion and, therefore, express their thoughts in connection with a problem or retell a text read or heard. To sum it up both forms of speech (monologue and dialogue) should be developed side by side with preference for the one which is more important for pupils' progress in learning a foreign language at a certain stage.
Conclusion
Having made our work we come to conclusion, that auding or listening and comprehension are difficult for learners because they should discriminate speech sounds quickly, retain them while hearing a word, a phrase, or a sentence and recognize this as a sense unit. Pupils can easily and naturally do this in their own language and they cannot do this in a foreign language when they start learning the language. Pupils are very slow in grasping what they hear because they are conscious of the linguistic forms they perceive by the ear. This results in misunderstanding or a complete failure of understanding.