Дата публикации: 20.03.2022
Khassanova Aida
Undergraduate of Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication speciality
Kh. Dosmukhamedov Atyrau University, Kazakhstan
Abdol Eleonora
Department of Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages, candidate of pedagogical sciences, senior lecturer
Kh. Dosmukhamedov Atyrau University, Kazakhstan
Abstract
The article discusses the features of using audio materials in a foreign language lesson. The author emphasizes that the use of audio materials helps to better understand statements in the language of another people, in particular in English. The work provides an example of an exercise on English audio material.
Key words: instructional materials, listening comprehension, verbal communication, audio material, oral speech.
Instructional materials are the tools used in educational lessons, which includes active learning and assessment. Basically, any resource a teacher uses to help him teach his students is an instructional material. Instructional materials refer to the human and non-human materials and facilities that can be used to ease, encourage, improved and promote teaching and learning activities. They are whatever materials used in the process of instruction. These are:
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Visual material-such as picture, diagram buildings, projectors, teachers themselves chart, real objects, books, newspapers journal, magazines, pamphlets, handout or modules were also are some important visual materials use in the classroom.
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Audio materials – such as tape record cassette, cartridge, radio, dice, television, teleconferencing, language laboratory, teachers’ voice. They appeal to the sense hearing.
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Audio-visual materials which include television, video recording, motion picture with sound tracks, slide and films projection with sound tapes, films multimedia. They appeal to both sense hearing and sight.
The category of foreign language teaching aids (FL), which can most of all bring students closer to natural communication in FL, includes authentic audio materials. Listening skills, in turn, contribute to the successful implementation of oral communication in a foreign language [1].
N.V. Elukhina argues that "the acquisition of a foreign language and the development of speech skills is carried out mainly through listening" [2, 197]. Listening is used at all stages of teaching foreign languages.
Komkov I.F. believes that the development of listening skills as a type of speech activity is one of the independent tasks of teaching a foreign language [3].
The term ‘listening comprehension’ has been defined by different authors. According to Anthony ―listening comprehension is the understanding of sounds in utterances without the aid of any visual representation or medium. It is an aural-oral exercise involving only pure verbal responses and making use of the hearing organ and the brain [4, 1]. The teaching of listening comprehension has long been ―somewhat neglected and poorly taught aspect of English in many EFL programs. The neglect of this aspect of English language was accompanied with an on-going debate about which of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) is the most crucial for the learning and acquisition of a Second Language [5, 235- 273]
The three levels of comprehension as explained by Williams are the literal level, inferential level and the critical/evaluative level [6]. The literal level is simply what the text says and what actually happens in the story. This is a very important level of understanding because it provides the foundation for more advanced comprehension. It focuses on listening to the text. It involves identifying the important and essential information. The inferential level involves determining what the text means. Determining inferential meaning requires you to think about the text and draw a conclusion. The critical level means analyzing or synthesizing information and applying it to other information. Furthermore, the critical level of listening comprehension helps the listeners to be a good thinker and critique, and by extension have a clearer understanding about the text. From the above, it can be deduced that for learners to comprehend and perform well in any given listening text, they must be able to understand the three levels of listening comprehension: literal, inferential and critical; as this will enable them to interact and approach listening text.
Listening can be seen as both a goal and a learning tool for a foreign language. So, in situations of real communication, listening acts as an independent type of speech activity. This usually happens when we listen to announcements,radio and television news, instructions and assignments, lectures, speech of the interlocutor, performances by actors, etc.
In everyday life, we tend to combine listening to speech with other actions: observation, speaking, writing. However, for successful interaction with a communicant, it is necessary, first of all, to understand what is at stake.
The most difficult in the listening process is the logical understanding mechanism.
However, to understand spontaneous oral speech, there is no possibility of multiple perception of the same material. In real communication, people have to listen a lot, and the further reaction and actions of the interlocutor depend on how accurately and fully the information received is perceived. It follows from this that learning to perceive a foreign speech by ear is one of the priority goals of teaching a foreign language.
In the lesson, it is almost impossible to form any speech skill or language skill in isolation. Using audio materials in the lesson, we cannot ignore the development of phonetic, lexical and grammatical material. In addition, audio texts offer certain information to thinking, which, in turn, serves as the basis for the formation and development of speaking and writing skills. In this situation, listening is a teaching tool (speaking, writing, etc.). It is almost impossible to draw a clear line here. Speaking, for example, cannot be learned without listening. Together they form one act of verbal communication. Listening is derivative, secondary in the process of communication, it accompanies speaking and is synchronous with it.
To implement effective listening training, it is necessary to clearly understand and understand the psychological characteristics of this type of speech activity.
The process of listening to speech is characterized by an active purposeful nature associated with the implementation of complex mental and mnemonic activities, the success of which is facilitated by a high degree of concentration of attention. The success of listening depends, in particular, on the specifics of the presentation of the auditory material, namely:
a) from the number of presentations;
b) on the volume of the speech message;
c) from the principle of useful redundancy;
d) from support and reference points of perception;
e) from the rate of the speech message.
Both in domestic and foreign methods, it is customary to distinguish three stages of working on listening:
- pretext stage (introductory conversation, removal of difficulties, presentation of the installation);
- the stage of the actual hearing (presentation of the text);
- post-text stage (control of the comprehension of the listened text).
Previously, the ability to listen to a foreign speech was limited mainly to listening to the teacher's speech. Thanks to technical means, it is now possible to listen to recordings of foreign oral speech performed by native speakers.
It is recommended to start teaching listening with such types of training when the student not only hears, but also sees the speaker. In a classroom setting, this can be a teacher's speech, showing an educational film, watching a television educational program or video recording.
The tasks for developing listening skills are different at different stages of learning. They depend on the educational tasks set by the teacher and become more complex as the complexity of the material being studied increases. In order for this type of learning to be of interest to students or not to bore them, the teacher needs to diversify as much as possible the tasks for listening and the types of control of understanding.
Let's give an example of working on an English-language audio material.
Listening text:
A: Could you please introduce yourself?
B: My name is Mr. Philpott. I’m a tourist from London.
A: Could you answer some of our questions, please?
B: Yes, of course. What would you like to know?
A: What part of London do you live in?
B: At the moment I live not far from the center of London. I live in the area called Bloomsbury.
A: Do you like it there?
B: Yes, I do. It’s a very nice area. It’s very close to a beautiful park, Regent’s Park.
1. Pretext stage. Preparation for the topic of the text: The lesson begins with the teacher's conversation on the topic of dialogue.
Preparation of understanding of language material (lexical).
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Insert the desired preposition:
I’m a tourist … London.
What part of London do you live …?
… the moment I live not far … the center … London.
It’s very close … a beautiful park, Regent’s Park.
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Difficult words are written on the board:
Area, Bloomsbury, Regent’s Park
2. Text stage. Before the initial listening to the text, the goal is to extract specific information from the text (Who? What? Where? When? ).
The teacher draws the attention of children to the following questions:
- Who is a tourist from London?
- Where does he live at the moment?
- Is it far or near the center of London?
- Does he like the area there?
Students read and translate questions.
Decide which title is the best for the dialogue:
- Tourist from London
- Mr. Philpott speaking
- Regent’s Park
After checking the understanding of the questions, the recording is turned on. Then, after the initial listening, the students briefly answer the questions posed.
3. Post-text stage. Before secondary listening, target settings detail information (Why? Which? How much? etc.).
- How many questions did the correspondent ask?
- What’s the name of the London area?
- Why does Mr. Philpott like to live there?
Students read and answer questions.
Then the children work at the blackboard. Complement missing information.
- My name is Mr. Philpott. I’m a … from London.
- Could you answer … of our questions, please?
- I live not far from … . I live in the area called … . It’s very close to… .
The teacher asks to restore the missing replicas:
A: Could you please introduce yourself?
B: …
A: Could you answer some of our questions, please?
B: …
A: What part of London do you live in?
B: …
A: Do you like it there?
B: …
At the end of the lesson, the students act out a dialogue in pairs.
The effectiveness of the use of audio material in teaching listening depends not only on the precise definition of its place in the learning system, but also on how rationally the structure of the audio lesson is organized, how the educational capabilities of the video material are coordinated with the learning objectives.
There are, of course, many non-standard forms of teacher's work that activate the attention, and hence the interest of schoolchildren in a foreign language. But working with audio materials in foreign language lessons cannot and should not be ineffective for students. Ultimately, the use of audio materials in foreign language lessons is “one of the possibilities for the formation of a ‘linguistically interesting personality ’, capable and willing to participate in communication at the intercultural level” [7,477].
List of references:
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Milrud R.P., Goncharov A.A. Theoretical and practical problems of teaching understanding of the communicative meaning of a foreign language text. - 2003. - No. 1.
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Elukhina N.V. Foundations of the theory of teaching understanding of foreign language speech. M., 1987.197 p.
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Komkov I.F. Methods of teaching foreign languages. Minsk, 1979.
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Anthony, A., A. (2009).Linguistics in language education. Published by Ganis Press. p.1
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Rost, M. & Ross, S. (2012). Learner use of strategies in interaction: Typology and Teachability in language learning. Modern Language Journal. p.41, 235- 273.
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Williams, D. (1990). English language teaching: An Integrated Approach. Ibadan: Spectrum Books Ltd.
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Galskova, N.D. Theoretical foundations of educational policy in the field of training students in foreign languages: dis. Dr. ped. Science / N. D. Galskova. M., 1999.477 p.