LECTURE 1-3

1. Methodology as a science, its links with other sciences.

2. Its components, terms and a system of teaching
3. Classifications of activities
4. Methods and approaches of teaching foreign languages and cultures
viewed diachronically

I. Methodology as a science, its links with other sciences.

The basic elements in any teaching situation are: the learner, the
teacher, the subject matter, the aims of instruction. These elements are
related to each other, so the methods of language teaching are based
on at least 3 cornerstones: a) what is known about the nature of the
language; b) what is known about the nature of learning and the
learner; c) the aims of instruction.

Methodology

Phychology Linguistics Pedagogy

Psycholinguistics Linguocultural studies

Sociolinguistics

1 . M e t h o d s of foreign language teaching & Pedagogy

One branch of pedagogy, called didactics, studies general ways of teaching in
schools. Methods, as compared to didactics, studies the specific ways of
teaching a definite subject. Thus, it may be considered special didactics. In
foreign language teaching general principles of didactics are applied and, in
their turn," influence and enrich didactics. For example, the so-called
''principle of visualization" was first introduced in teaching foreign languages.
Now it has become one of the fundamental principles of didactics and is used in
teaching all school subjects without exception.

2 . M e t h o d s of foreign language teaching & Psycho1ogy

We cannot expect to develop learners’ competence effectively if we do
not know and take into account the psycho1ogy of skills and the ways of
forming them, the influence of formerly mastered skills on the formation of
new ones etc. To master a second language is "to acquire another code,
another way of receiving and transmitting information. To create this new
code in the most effective way one must take into consideration certain
psychological factors: the role of the mother tongue at different stages of
teaching; the amount of material for pupils to assimilate at every stage of
instruction; the sequence and ways in which various skills should be
developed; the methods and techniques which are more suitable for
presenting the material and for ensuring its retention by the pupils, and so
on.

Effective learning of a foreign language depends to a great extent on the

learner’s memory. That is why a teacher must know how he can help his
students to successfully memorize the language material they learn and
retain it in their memory. We should create favourable conditions for
involuntary memorizing, e.g. not just learn long lists of words, but make them
contextualized, visualized and actually work with these words in various
activities and use them for communication.

3. M e t h o d s of foreign language teaching & Physiology

 Methods of foreign language teaching has a definite relation to physio1ogy
of the higher nervous system. Pavlov's theories of "conditioned reflexes" of. the
"second signalling system"-and of "dynamic stereotype" are the examples.
Each of these interrelated theories bears a direct relation to the teaching of a
foreign language. Pavlov's theory of "dynamic stereotype" furnishes the
physiological base for many important principles of language teaching, e. g.
for the topical vocabulary arrangement.

Since one of the forms of human behaviour is language behavior, we must

bear in mind that pupils should acquire the language they study as a
behaviour, as something that helps people to communicate with each
other in various real situations. Hence a foreign language should be taught
through such situations.

4 . M e t h o d s of foreign language teaching & Psycho1inguistics

Psycholiquists focus their attention on the stages of the process of
producing an utterance: a motive and intention (our wish or necessity to express
an idea about something), internal programming when we are planning in our
inner speech what to say and in what order to say it. Then our thoughts are
materialized. This is the stage of lexical and grammar structuring, i.e. we choose
the words and types of sentence we are going to use. The last stage is outer
speech, when we pronounce the utterance aloud.

5 . M e t h o d s of foreign language teaching & Liguistics

Methods of foreign language teaching are most closely related to
l i n g u i s ti c s a n d successfully use, for example, the results of linguistic
investigation in the selection and arrangement of language material for
teaching. Many prominent linguists have not only developed the theory of
linguistics, but tried to apply it to language teaching.
 6. Methods of foreign language teaching and Sociolinguistics
(Linguocultural Studies)

Sociolinguistics supplies us with the knowledge of mechanisms of

interaction and interrelation between languages and cultures, everything that
makes a national map of the world: norms of speech behavior, speech etiquette,
material and spiritual culture, including literature etc.

II. Methodology: Its components, terms and a system of teaching

Methods of foreign language teaching is understood here as a body of

scientifically tested theory concerning the teaching of foreign languages in
schools and other educational institutions. It covers three main problems:

(1) aims of teaching a foreign language;

(2). content of teaching, i. e. what to teach to attain the aims;

(3) methods and techniques of teaching, i .e . how to teach a foreign

language to attain the aims in the most effective way;

(4) teaching aids(with the help of which we teach)

The aims are determined by the state standards, Curriculum and the type of
school. They correlate with A Common European Framework of Reference:
Modern languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. There are five main aims
in teaching FL at schools: practical, affective, educational, developmental and
professionally orientated (in senior forms).

The Practical aim of teaching FL and Cultures is developing Learner’s

Communicative Competence in the target foreign language, i.e. ability to
understand and interact with native speakers according to the norms and
cultural traditions in the conditions of direct and indirect communication.

Communicative Competence embraces several kinds of competences:

  Speech competences in listening, speaking, reading, writing and
mediating (translating and interpreting)
 Language competences ( in phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, spelling)
 Linguosociocultural competence (sociocultural competence,
sociolinguistic competence, social competence)
 Strategic competence (developing effective learner strategies, e.g. how
to use a dictionary, and communicative strategies, e.g. compensation
strategies – fill in hesitation pauses)

Affective aim includes developing the culture of communication appropriate in

modern civilized societies, tolerance and respect to other cultures and other
language speakers, positive attitude to mastering foreign languages and
cultures etc.

Educational aim presupposes developing learner’s worldview through cultural,

linguocultural and sociocultural knowledge, intercultural knowledge (e.g.
contrastive studies of the two systems of language means, native and foreign).

Developmental aim is targeted at developing learners’ motivation to studying

foreign languages and cultures, developing learners’ communicative abilities,
helping learners to become autonomous.

Professionally orientated aim is closely connected with different profiles

introduced in senior forms: mathematical and physical, biological and
chemical, humanitarian, including philological, sports, esthetical etc. The aim
presupposes developing professionally orientated language competences (e.g.
vocabulary, terms), speech competences (e.g. reading and discussing
professionally orientated texts), linguosociocultural competences (e.g. making
presentations at scientific conferences).
Aims, or goals are broad, while planning a lesson they are realized through
concrete objectives set by the teacher and written in the lesson plan, to
enable learners speak about their hobbies and pastimes using verbs in Present
simple. Mind that it’s much better to think of learning objectives, not teaching
objectives.

The content of any teaching curriculum is described in the syllabus, i.e. what is
to be learned within a definite period of time, e.g. a year. The content
involves:

 Teaching material arranged in topics, situations, areas of communication

 Teaching language skills: listening skills, reading skills, writing skills, oral
skills
 Teaching linguistic material: phonetical, vocabulary, grammar, spelling
 Teaching speech patterns of different levels ( phrase, sentence, sentence
unity, text)
 Teaching cultural knowledge and skills of intercultural communication
 Developing learning and communicative strategies.
Teaching foreign languages and cultures is based on several didactic and
methodological principles.

Main didactic principles of foreign language teaching:

 The principle of visualization (visual aids and auditory aids)

 The principle of retention (to remember well, recycling of the material
etc)

 The principle of conscious approach (understanding language

phenomena, modeling situations, using rules, using learner’s native
language)
 The principle of learners’ cognitive, emotional and speech activity
  The principle of continuity and logical development
 The principle of accessibility and inclusive classroom

Main methodological principles:

 Communicative approach (teaching process should be approximated to
the real process of speech communication)
 Development of integrated language skills
 Interconnected and interrelated teaching of languages and cultures
 The principle of dominating role of activities (you can master skills only
by practicing them, so about 85 % of time should be devoted to
activities)
 The principle of authentic materials and authentic tasks
In describing methods, the difference between a philosophy of language
teaching at the level of theory and principles, and a set of derived procedures for
teaching a language, is central. In an attempt to clarify this difference, a scheme
was proposed by the American applied linguist Edward Anthony in 1963. He
identified three levels of conceptualization and organization, which he termed
approach, method, and technique.

The arrangement is hierarchical. The organizational key is that techniques carry

out a method which is consistent with an approach...

... An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of

language teaching and learning. An approach is axiomatic. It describes the nature
of the subject matter to be taught... (It is in your head, these are views on
language, language learning and language teaching)

... Method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material,
no part of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected
approach. An approach is axiomatic, a method is procedural. Within one
approach, there can be many methods... (Method is on paper, it reveals itself
in curriculum and syllabus)

... A technique, or an educational technology is implementational — that which

actually takes place in a classroom. It is a particular trick used to accomplish an
immediate objective. (A procedure that can be observed in the classroom).
Techniques must be consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an
approach as well.

We can single out problem educational technologies, project technologies,

interactive technologies, game technologies, computer technologies, mobile
learning etc. They are realized through activities – short tasks which are parts of
the lesson.

Classification of Teaching Aids

Curriculum/Syllabus – a description of the contents of a course of

instruction and the order in which they are to be taught. It may be based on a
grammatical items and vocabulary; the language needed for different types of
situations; the meanings and communicative functions which the learner needs to
express in the target language.

Course-book: student’s book, workbook, teacher’s book, an activity

book, a test book, a guide for the teacher, CDs etc.

Reference books: dictionary, grammar book, specialized reference books

(idioms, prepositions, phrasal verbs, collocations etc)

Visuals: real objects, pictures, photos, flash cards, worksheets, charts,

maps, overhead projector, CD player, computer, mobile phone

III. TYPES OF ACTIVITIES

Activity (exercise, task) is a specially organized students’ activity aimed at

mastering the operations that activity consists of.
There exist different classifications, one of the most generally accepted is
classification suggested by N.K. Sklyarenko.

Criteria used for that and types of activities that are singled out are as follows:

1. communicative character: -communicative (some scholars are against that,

communicative tasks – Tarnopolsky)

- semi-controlled

- totally controlled (drills)

2. motivation: - motivated

- non-motivated

3. receiving or giving information: - receptive

- receptive-reproductive

- receptive-productive

- productive

4. availability of support: - without any support

- with specially created support

- with some natural support

5. mode of interaction: - individual

- in chorus

- as a whole class

- in pairs

- in small groups

- in teams

6. the character of assessment: - immediate or delayed

- total or selected at random

-teacher-assessment
 - self-assessment

- peer assessment

7. mode of doing: - oral

- written

8. the role of Mother tongue: - monolingual

- bilingual

9. function: - teaching

- testing

10. place of doing: - in class

- in a laboratory

- at home

 Another classification: skill-developing (arranging sentences in order, close

test, substitution, transformation, dictations etc) v. skill-exploiting (filling in
forms, doing crosswords, taking notes during the lecture, writing a letter, a
postcard etc)

Still another classification depends on the purpose of activity:

 warm up (warmer) (serves as an ice-breaker, helps to establish rapport at

the beginning of the lesson, to improve the psychological climate in the
group, to immerse in the English language environment)
 lead-in (serves to tune in the learners to the topic of the lesson, to focus on
the material under consideration etc)
 presentation activity (serves to introduce and clarify a new learning item:
voc.unit, gr.item, learning strategy etc)
 practice activity (involves performance, some learning item has been
presented and now controlled activity, often a model for performance is
given, e.g. a sample dialogue to practice speech patterns or a sample
activity to do your own on a different material
 memorization activity (involves memorizing some info or learning
material, e.g. SS may be asked to memorize a voc. List which they will later
use in a speaking task. Contemporary approaches discourage mere
 memorization in favour of activities in which learning is achieved through
doing smth with the material to be learnt
 comprehension activity (demands Ss to develop or demonstrate their
understanding of written or spoken texts. May require different levels of
comprehension: literal (explicit info), inferential(conclusions and
predictions on the inferred info), evaluation (making judgements based on
personal or other values)
 application activity (require learners to use in a creative way knowledge or
skills previously presented and practiced
 strategy activity (develop particular learning strategies and approaches to
learning, e.g. to develop the strategy of using predictions to guide one’s
reading)
 affective activity (has no specific language learning goal, it is intended to
improve motivational climate of the classroom and to develop the Ss
interest, confidence and positive attitude to learning)
 feedback activity (to get feedback on learning or on some aspect of
performance of the activity
 assessment activity (to diagnose areas which need further learning or to
evaluate student performance)

IY. Methods and approaches of teaching foreign languages and cultures

viewed diachronically

1. Grammar translation approach is a method of foreign language teaching

which makes use of translation and grammar study as the main teaching and
learning activities. In the 18th - 19th centuries it was used to teach “modern”
languages the way classical languages were taught (Latin, Greek). The best known
representatives of that approach were Maydinguer (Germany) and Ollendorf
(GB). In tsarist Russia it was the main method till 1917. Grammar translation
method later developed into textual translation metod (Hamilton in GB) It
emphasized reading rather than the ability to communicate in a language.
Language was viewed as a system of rules, a learner was viewed as an empty mug
to be filled with knowledge and a teacher as a jug full of that knowledge. The
language structures were regarded as mainly the same in all the languages (e.g.
Grammar Blago: 7 cases of nouns in English). A typical lesson consisted of the
presentation of a grammar rule, a study of lists of vocabulary, a text for reading
and translating, and a translation exercise. Context and meaning were often
completely ignored, e.g. “The horse of my father was kind. The philosopher pulled
the lower jaw of the hen.” Mistakes should be immediately corrected and
learners punished for their carelessness. “All languages are now dead. Still
existing languages have been killed by the teacher in the classroom”.
Positive results: Language analysis, analogies with the native language,
translation exercises, teaching culture through literature, writing essays.
Negative results: languages were not taught as a means of communication,
pronunciation aspect was totally ignored, form and meaning were separated
most of the time, original texts from classical literature were very difficult for
understanding.

2. Direct method appeared in the middle of the 19th century as reaction to

GT and had the following features: only the target language should be used in
class; meanings should be communicated “directly” by associating speech forms
with actions, objects, mime, gestures and situations; reading and writing should
be taught only after speaking; grammar should be taught inductively, i.e. starting
with examples, teaching through imitating the model supplied by the teacher.
Numerous repetitions were compulsory. Mistakes were viewed negatively,
though a learner was given a chance to self-correct. Later some modifications of
the direct method appeared, e.g. oral method by Harold Palmer. The scholar
believed that for several months learners have to listen to spoken language, to
immerse in the speech flow without speaking themselves, then speak and some
moths later start reading short texts.
Positive results: techniques of teaching spoken language (e.g. substitution
tables, question and answer exercises, dialogue models), ways of introducing new
words, using pronunciation exercises, using the principle of continuity and
gradation in the system of exercises(from easy to more difficult).
Negative results: teaching grammar only inductively, complete exclusion of
the native language in class.

3. Audio-lingual approach (Army method, How-to-get-to-the-bathroom

method) was prominent in the 1950s and 1960s in the USA and many other
countries (Charles Fries, Robert Lado). It was based on structural linguistics
(language is viewed as a system of signs, the written language as an artificial and
inaccurate way of fixing the sound form) and behavioral psychology (stimulus –
response - reinforcement). It emphasized the teaching of speaking and listening
before reading and writing; used dialogues and drills; discouraged use of the
mother tongue in the classroom; often made use of contrastive analysis.
Positive results: based on scientific data, attempts to develop
communicative skills, worked out a new system of exercises (substitution,
transformation, expansion, completion, sentence combining).
Negative results: exaggerated the importance of structures, vocabulary
was often ignored, functional aspect was not taken into account, the mechanic
repetition of structures was often boring, learner’s native language was excluded.
 4. Audio-visual approach is another one that is based on behaviorism and
views on language as a system of signs for communication. It also teachers
speaking and listening before reading and writing; does not use the mother
tongue in the classroom; uses recorded dialogues with film-strip picture
sequences to present language items; uses drills to teach basic grammar and
vocabulary. It was developed in France in the 1950s (its best known
representatives are Guberina (Yugoslavia), Rivenc, Michea, Gugenheim (France).
and was based on the belief that language is learned through communication in
situations.
Positive results: the language of real communication was used in teaching,
situations were introduced alongside with the language material, and visual aids
were amply used.
Negative results: importance of mechanic practice was exaggerated, and
learner’s native language was excluded.

5. Communicative approach emphasizes that the goal of language learning

is communicative competence. It has been developed by British applied linguists
in the 1960s. (Henry Widdowson, Brumfit, Littlewood). In Russia Passov
developed its ideas.
The main principles and features of CLT:
 language as a means of communication;
 teaching language in a meaningful context (specifying notions, functions,
functional exponents based on the learners’ needs analysis);
 prioritising meaning over form;
 focus on skills;
 task-based learning;
 focus on sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence as well as linguistic
competence;
 the correlation between accuracy and fluency(viewed not in abstract but in
context), the role of grammar;
 errors as learning steps;
 the roles of a teacher and a learner.

The roles of the teacher:

 organizer (organizes the learning process)
 manager (gives instructions and directs the activity of learners)
 model (presents new material, is imitated by learners)
 informant (supplies new information, presents new material)
 monitor (goes around the class, listens to the pairs or small groups
and takes notes without interrupting their work)
 councilor (teacher gives advice how to approach an activity in the best
way, what to do to avoid mistakes or to correct them etc)
 communication partner
 facilitator (provides material guidance, creates conditions , situations
which enable learners to work on their own)
 life-long learner
 The roles of a learner:
 the subject of the educational process (not the object)
 communication partner
 active participant
 autonomous learner
Characteristics of a communicative task:
 communicative purpose
 information/opinion gap
 communicative situation
 learners’ choice of the language material
 authenticity of materials
 minimal degree of the teacher’s control.

Implications of the communicative approach for classroom practice: creating

conditions for communication in the classroom .

Positive results: learning foreign language as a means for communication,

attempts to communicate are encouraged from the very beginning,
communicative competence is the desired goal, anything which helps the learner
is accepted, contrastive analysis and translation included.
Negative results: accuracy may suffer, the teacher cannot know exactly
what language the students will use and often cannot preplan the course of the
lesson, a number of mistakes during pair and group work may remain uncorrected
and not explained, a teacher needs more preparation for the lesson and heavier
work during it.

6. Innovative approaches.
I. Comprehension-based approaches:
a) Total Physical Response (TPR). (James Asher)The teacher gives
commands for single actions and learners physically respond. TPR offers a route
to the acquisition of comprehension skills which underlie the natural acquisition
of communication skills;
b) The Natural approach. Learners of any age are able to take in speech
input if most of it is comprehensible through pictures, actions. It respects the initial
pre-production period, expecting speech is to emerge not from artificial practice
but from motivated language use. Attention is paid to interpersonal and personal
negotiation. Fluency is often achieved at the cost of accuracy.

II. Production Based Learning.

Silent Way Learning.(Galeb Gattegno) The main principle – teaching should

be subordinated to learning. The teacher doesn’t speak much, his verbal input is
restricted to minimum. Verbal output is elicited from the learners with the aid of
“scatter charts” of words and affixes, rods. There is no praise or criticism, the
teacher corrects and guides by means of gestures and silent lip movement. The
atmosphere promotes cooperation and support.

III Humanistic and Phycho-suggestive approaches:

a) Community Language Learning (Curran) stresses the importance of

treating the learners as individual human beings and requires the teacher to be a
sympathetic counselor, guide, friend rather than an authority and instructor. It
places emphasis on the learners’ personal feelings and their reactions to language
learning. Learners say something they want to talk about, in their nature language,
the teacher translates learners’ sentences into the foreign language, and the
learner then repeats the phrase to other members of the group.

b) Suggestopedia was developed by Lozanov. It makes use of dialogues,

situations, music, visuals, images and relaxation exercises to make learning more
comfortable and effective and to make maximum use of the brain’s capacity to
combine the conscious and the unconscious for learning. All these promote
learning superconductivity, a perfect state of learning receptiveness enabling
learners to process massive input into intake with no forgetting. This method was
used for developing intensive learning methods by Kitaygorodskaya and others.

LECTURE (3)4?

Teaching Pronunciation

1. Pronunciation skills and importance of their development

2. Methodological classification of sounds and ways of introducing new
sounds
3. Stages of teaching pronunciation and a set of activities
4. Teaching techniques of reading

1. Pronunciation skills and importance of their development

The importance of teaching pronunciation depends on two main reasons:

1) to help the students understand the spoken English they hear;
2) to help make their own speech more comprehensible and meaningful to
others.
 Phonetics in our schools is taught according to the principle of
approximation. It means that phonetic material is limited (e.g. not all
intonation patterns are studied), certain decrease of accuracy of articulation is
permitted (as long as articulation is clear and communication effect is achieved)
and somewhat low tempo of speech may be allowed. Phonetic material is
selected according to the principles of appropriacy to language norms,
frequency of usage, and correspondence to the needs of communication. It is
arranged in cycles and concentres, systematization and revision phases are
preplanned. Thus, it is unnecessary to get learners acquainted with the notions
of phonemes and allophones but they are to understand that long or short
sounds can change the meaning of the word. Phonetic knowledge (rules) is
needed only when they help learners master the pronunciation skills quicker.
The order of studying the selected material is defined by the objectives of
teaching speaking, listening and reading. The work at pronunciation is also
integrated with the work on grammar and vocabulary. For beginners phonetic
material is introduced and practiced at every lesson. It starts with some
phonetic drills, songs, poems, tongue-twisters. Besides phonetic training, they
provide tuning the learners into English. For intermediate and advanced
learners the work on pronunciation goes on but it focuses on preventing some
phonetic mistakes and developing fluent pronunciation sub-skills.
Pronunciation sub-skills include automatic actions of sound production and
sound reception.
Intonation sub-skills include automatic speech actions of producing and
perceiving intonation patterns.
Aspects of pronunciation to focus on:
• individual sounds;

• word stress;

• sounds in the flow of speech;

• intonation, including rhythm and stress in utterances.

Sounds in the flow of connected speech can undergo some changes, weakened
forms may appear (e.g. schwa), some sounds are not pronounced in the same way
as in isolation, e.g. they may be assimilated, sometimes intrusive sounds can
appear etc.
 2. Methodological classification of sounds and ways of introducing new
sounds

Groups of sounds Methods of practicing the sounds

1 The sounds similar in articulation
No additional explanation and long
to the sounds of native speech practice is needed
2 The sounds which seem similar to Explanation of the articulation is
the sounds of the native languagenecessary, demonstration and
but differ from them in some practice are needed. Most mistakes
essential aspects learners make in articulating these
sounds.
3 The sounds which have no Detailed explanation of the
analogues in the native language articulation should be given, long
practice is necessary. New
articulation basis is to be formed
and it may cause a lot of difficulties.

Ways of introducing new sounds:

1. Imitation.
2. Description of articulation (the way it is formed in the mouth).
3. Comparison with the sound of the mother tongue.

Step-by-step procedure:

1. Introduce a new sound in connected speech.

2. Pronounce it clearly in a word 4 times then separately.
3. Explain the articulation of the introduced sound. Show the difference
between English sound and the one in the mother tongue.
4. Pupils pronounce the sound after the teacher, first in chorus in a low
voice, then – individually in a loud voice.
5. Pupils pronounce words, pairs of words, phrases with the new sound.

3. Stages of teaching pronunciation and a set of activities

Teacher’s actions Learner’s actions

 Demonstration of the example  Reception of the example
 Control of the learners’  Imitation of the example
pronunciation  Reproduction of the example
 Correction of the learners’  Production of the meaningful
pronunciation mistakes sound sequences
 Problems:

 What students can hear;

 What students can say;
 The intonation problem.

When to teach pronunciation:

 At a whole lesson
 In discrete slots
 During integrated phases
 Using opportunities offered by the course of the lesson

A set of phonetic exercises.

I. Receptive and recognizing exercises – develop students ability to

discriminate sounds and sequences (listen and differentiate sounds or
intonation patterns).

 Recognition by giving signals (raising your hands when you hear the
sound, stressed word, stressed syllable etc), by counting how many
times you hear the sound, by signaling that you hear English (not
Ukrainian) sounds etc.
 Differentiation of sounds (minimal contrasting pairs)
 Identification of sounds (in the flow of speech)

II. Receptive and reproductive exercises – develop students’ pronunciation

skills, i.e. their ability to articulate English sounds correctly and to combine sounds
into words, phrases, sentences easily enough to be able to speak English. They are
based on “listen and imitate” technique (students listen and reproduce sounds or
intonation patterns).

 Listen and repeat

 Agree or disagree
 Short answers
 Substitution
 Transformation (especially, when mastering intonation patterns, e.g.
change these orders into requests< intonation should rise instead of
falling)
  On your own (e.g. There some toys on my table. You can get them if
you ask for them with proper intonation).

4. Teaching techniques of reading

Explanation of the relations between sounds and letters: in reading

learners are decoding ideas by establishing sound-letter correspondences. The
skills of reading in the native language ate transferred into reading in a foreign
language.
To develop the techniques of reading the following methods can be
used:
 Alphabet reading (by learning the names of letters), however, it
does not often work
 Whole words method (recognizing words on paper), leads to
learners memorizing a lot of words, however, does not work with
unfamiliar words
 Sound analysis and synthesis method (worked by Ushinsky for
teaching reading in the native language), combines analysis of
the material and its imitation.
 Applying reading rules and key words. Often saves time and
helps to read unfamiliar words. Teacher should draw attention to
some peculiar cases which are exclusions of the rule.
Nowadays teachers try to combine several methods whenever it’s
more cost-effective.
When forming the techniques of reading the teacher should take into
consideration some objective difficulties of the spelling system:
 The number of sounds (44) and the number of letters (26) do not
coincide; and if we count graphemes, there are 104 of them (nice
– light);
 The number of sounds and letters in a word may differ as well
(daughter – 4 sounds), nephew (5 sounds);
 The same letters or the same combinations of letters can denote
different sounds (snow, sugar, vision, his);
  The same sound can be denoted by different letters (cat, kitchen,
school, question);
 The existence of the so called “silent” letters (kite, through,
Wednesday).
The school curriculum demands that by the end of the 1 st form learners
should name all the letters of the alphabet and read the words and phrases
they learnt in oral speech. By the end of the 2 nd form learners should read
aloud and silently words, phrases and short texts (up to 100 letters) that
contain the language material they learnt orally. In the 3d form this work
continues but gradually more attention is paid to developing reading skills.
Later the demands to the techniques of reading are not included into the
curriculum.
Activities that are aimed at developing techniques of reading include two
main phases:
1) Grapheme recognition and differentiation:
 Read the letters
 Read the letter in different positions
 Choose the letter from the row of letters
 Count letters and sounds in words
 Match capital letters with corresponding small ones
 Show/write the letter that denotes the sound pronounced by the
teacher
 Choose the words that begin with the letter …
2) Establishing grapheme-phoneme correspondences
 Name the type of the syllable (pin, kite, girl, form, park, bag, pine)
 Match the pictures to words
 Group words according to the types of syllables
 Make up new words by changing the first letter
 Make pairs of words that rhyme
 Read the new words according to the rules
  Find the hidden words and read tem
 Find the odd one out

Assessment of the techniques of reading is done through reading aloud

according to the following criteria:
1) Tempo of reading;
2) Observing grapheme-phoneme correspondences;
3) Keeping to stress norms;
4) Keeping to the norms of pausing;
5) Using appropriate intonation patterns;
6) Understanding of the text (language material) read.

LECTURE (4)5?

Teaching Grammar

1. The Role of Grammar in teaching foreign languages and the

composition of grammatical competence

Grammar enables pupils to use linguistic forms meaningfully and

accurately. Grammar is an essential aspect of written and oral communication
as well as listening and reading comprehension.
Grammar helps learners to pursue regularities and patterns of the language
and gives a clear idea of the target language as a system of patterns: word
order, verb forms, structures etc. But language is seen not only in terms of
forms but also in terms of functions different grammar items play in
communication.
Grammar competence includes knowledge of grammar, grammar skills and
grammar awareness. The last deals with learner’s ability to analyse grammatical
structures they use, compare it with their native language, compare their skills
and knowledge with those of a native speaker, understand their mistakes and
correct them etc. By grammar here we mean pedagogical grammar, i.e.
linguistic scientific description of the language grammar system transformed,
abridged and adapted for teaching purposes. Not all grammar items are learnt
in schools but some specially selected grammar minimum – active and passive.
The former includes those items that should be mastered by learners and be
used by them to express their ideas in oral or written speech and, naturally, also
understood in reading or while listening. Passive minimum consists of the
grammar phenomena learners can understand but not use in their own speech.
There are some principles of selecting items for active or passive minimum.
Active:
 Frequency of use in oral speech
 The ability of the item to be used as a pattern
 Exclusion of synonymous structures
Passive:
 Frequency of use in writing
 The ability of an item to perform different functions and express different
meanings.
By grammar skills we mean two types of grammar skills: receptive (functioning
in listening and reading) and reproductive (functioning in speaking and writing).
Receptive and reproductive skills differ not only by the speech skill in which they
function but also by their character, the sequence of operations they are made
of. Receptive grammar skills: perceiving a grammar item, recognizing
(identifying) it and matching the item to its meaning. Reproductive grammar
skills start with selecting a certain item to express some idea, putting it into the
necessary form and using it when producing an utterance orally or in writing.
Difficulties in developing learner’s grammar competence are mainly
predetermined by the nature of the grammar material under study:
 Interference of the learner’s native language, i.e. in using prepositions
 Presence or absence of certain grammar phenomena in the learner’s
native language (articles in English or seven cases in Ukrainian noun
system; fixed word order, sequence of tenses etc)
 Correspondences in the meaning and usage of grammar items (may not
coincide at all)
 The way of expressing grammar categories (number, case, person etc)may
differ
Difficulties may be connected with the learning and teaching context:
  Grammar items are presented not in meaningful context but in
isolation, thus it will cause additional difficulties when pupils try to
use items in situation
 Lots of terms and rules and exceptions (when young learners
master rules instead of structures)
 Only mechanical non-communicative exercises are used, learners
get unsure of the importance of grammar and if it is of any use;
 Just whole class mode is used, learners become passive.

II. Stages in teaching grammar

They used to single out 3 main stages in the process of teaching grammar:
presentation – practice – production (PPP model). More important nowadays is
considered MMM model (meeting the new language – manipulating the
language and making language one’s own). This change signifies turn to mainly
inductive teaching: first learners observe (it is called guided noticing), then
hypothesize and then experiment with the language. A grammar item is
introduced in meaningful context, in communication. The teacher supplies a lot
of examples, uses a picture or two pictures (e.g. What has changed?), some
realia (Puts some objects on the table, asks children to close their eyes and
quickly moves something on the table. Children are to guess what she has
moved), personalizing (writes the names of five people on the blackboard and
tells the class about each of them using Present Perfect with just, e.g. My son
has just started school, my friend Nina has just gone to Greece on holiday etc),
elicits sentences with the structure and asks learners to perform some actions
by analogy (tells the class what she has done this morning and then asks
individual learners this question, gradually elicitating present perfect sentences),
asks to imitate some examples, guess and recognize some regularity
themselves, i.e. to formulate the rule. This inductive way is most effective for
beginners or when we deal with grammar items that have counterparts in
learners’ native languages. It has both advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages: it makes learners active thinkers and compare grammar items in
both languages, and help learners understand their native language better.
Disadvantages: it takes much time, besides the teacher should be sure that all
learners understand the rule correctly.
Certainly, introduction can be performed in the didactive way, when after
the presentation the teacher formulates the rule herself, draws a time line, gives
an algorithm, a table, a formula etc and then gives more examples to illustrate
it. This way is more appropriate for intermediate and advanced learners with
difficult grammar items specific for the target language only. Advantages: saves
time, creates conditions for more exact understanding by all the learners and
can help to overcome mother tongue interference. Disadvantages: the rule and
examples have nothing to do with learners’ experiences; learners are usually
passive and forget the rule easier and sooner than in the former case.
Nevertheless, at the first stage the learners get acquainted with new
grammar material and perform actions according to the speech pattern. The
second phase is called practice in stereotyped situations when a new grammar
item is practiced at phrase/ sentence level. The third phase presupposes using
the new item in various utterances at the text level in various situations. The
second and third stages embrace a number of activities.

III. A set of activities for developing grammar competence

Receptive and receptive-reproductive semi-controlled activities and some
non-communicative drills make up a system of activities used for developing
grammar competence.
Receptive activities include:
 Recognition activities (e.g. read the text of the activity given below. Copy
out the numbers of sentences comprising the Perfect Infinitive Passive.)
 Differentiation activities (e.g. Listen to some questions and possible
answers. Decide if the verb forms in bold type are the same or different/
1. Where are the children? a)They must have gone to the lake; b) They
have gone to the lake (different)
 Identification activities (Read the sentences comprising various forms of
the Infinitive. Put the numbers of sentences into the table below
Active Passive
Simple
Progressive
Perfect
 Matching (e.g. the structure to the function)
 Multiple choice according to the context (e.g. Read an e-mail message
from your American friend Bill Clarke. But the message looks like a
puzzle: almost each verb I it has two or three variants for you to choose
from. Solve the puzzle by copying out the correct verb form according to
the context.)
  Checking comprehension of grammar structures (by multiple choice, by
identifying the function, interpreting the meaning, e.g. Read the
sentences and say which driver is more careful. The car stopped when
the lights changed. The car was stopping when the lights were changing.)
Receptive-reproductive activities
 Imitation (e.g. Agree with me if I am right. Say “You are right!” and
repeat the true statement or “I’m afraid you aren’t right” if the
statement is false. Do not repeat the false statement.)
 Substitution activity
 Question and answering activity
 Transformation activity
 Completing sentences
 Combining sentences
 Using the grammar item in your own sentence in a situation
 Using a grammar item in your own utterance according to the situation

LECTURE 5 (6)?

Teaching vocabulary

1. Lexical competence and its composition

2. Stages of teaching vocabulary. Ways of presenting vocabulary.
3. Activities for practicing vocabulary

I. Lexical competence and its composition

Lexical competence embraces lexical knowledge, vocabulary skills and lexical

awareness (cf. grammar competence). The question arises: how many words
should learners know and what it means to know a word.
 Different languages include different number of words: Ukrainian dictionary by
Boris Grinchenko – about 70 thousand words, modern Ukrainian dictionary – 135
thousand, Shevchenko’s dictionary – 20.5 thousand. Modern English dictionary –
980 thousand words, W. Churchill – 60 thousand, Shakespeare - about 20
thousand. To take part in the elementary talk one needs about 300 vocabulary
units (the include words, set expressions and clichés), to understand any general
(non-special) text 8000 vocabulary units are needed. So lexical minimum should
be selected – active and passive. Who selects it? Scholars, methodologists, those
people who compile curricula and write course-books. The criteria for selecting
vocabulary minimum are as follows:

 Combinability (ability to collocate with other words, preference is given

to units of broad combinability);
 Semantic value (ability to express important notions in the spheres of
communication prescribed by the curriculum);
 Stylistic neutrality (unlimited usage)
 Frequency of use (according to the Birmingham Corpus the first 15 most
frequent words in English are: the, of, and, to, a, in, that, I, it, was, is, he,
for, you, on)
 Polysemy ( head, leg, body)
 Ability to form new words and to perform several syntactic functions
(thus more nouns than adverbs etc)

Active and passive vocabulary taken together form learners’ real vocabulary,
besides there exist potential vocabulary – lexical units whose meaning a learner
can guess. Here we refer:

 International words similar in form and in meaning to lexical units in the

mother tongue;
 Derivatives and compound words made up of familiar elements;
  Words formed by conversion;
 Some indirect meanings of familiar words;
 Words whose meaning can be inferred from the context.

What does it mean to know a word?

To know a word in a target language as well as the native speaker knows it,
means the ability to:

1) Recognise it in its spoken and written form;

2) Recall it at will;
3) Relate it to an appropriate object or concept;
4) Use it in the appropriate grammatical form;
5) In speech, pronounce it in the recognisable way;
6) In writing spell it correctly;
7) Use it in the correct collocation (with the words it correctly goes with);
8) Use it at the appropriate level of formality;
9) Be aware of its connotations and associations.
So components of knowing a word may be put under the three categories:
meaning, form and distribution.
Meaning: denotation; connotation; polysemy (main and other meanings)
and semantic relations – lexical systems (homonymy, synonymy, antonymy,
hyponyms and superordinates)
Form: phonology, spelling, morphological composition
Distribution: collocation, register (formal – informal, style

Acquisition of vocabulary cannot happen just mechanically (learning a dictionary

is absurd). We should help learners build certain associations. Besides, words are
stored in our minds in certain webs, groups. Each mental lexicon is unique since it
incorporates the person’s life experience, needs, interests etc. So teachers should
take it into consideration and find some individual ways for different learners.
Acquisition of vocabulary is a social process: we do it in communication and
retention of words and their recall depend on their active use in communication.

II. Stages of teaching vocabulary. Ways of presenting vocabulary

Here we speak about the same PPP model or MMM model as in teaching
grammar. Historically, four different approaches to teaching vocabulary have
been used:

1) Intuitive: the meaning of a word is revealed directly (a word – an object,

act, phenomenon, quality etc) without addressing the native language,
practicing is done through imitation, numerous repetitions, production
takes place in the conditions similar to natural ones.
2) Cognitive and comparative: both word meaning and form are explained,
translation and comparison with learners’ mother tongue are used, drills
are mainly suggested, production is limited to pedagogic tasks.
3) Functional: meaning and function are inferred from context, the
conditions are created for motivated use of vocabulary units, acquisition
of form, meaning and distribution takes place in interconnection,
practicing presupposes learners’ own choice and collocation of words,
semi-controlled activities and communicative tasks are used.
4) Intensive: numerous presentations of a great number of vocabulary
units in polylogues, both translation and monolingual ways of explaining
the word meaning are used, practicing is done in meaningful context,
imitation takes place with the help of paralinguistic means, production –
in guided communication, role plays etc.

Nowadays methodologists use mainly functional approach, though some

elements of other approaches may be applied if appropriate.
 Ways of presenting vocabulary differ. The choice depends on the nature of
the vocabulary unit (concrete, abstract, can show visually or can’t, belongs to
active or passive vocabulary, has native language equivalents or not etc), school
stage (primary, secondary, senior), learners’ age, the level of their competence
etc. The best way is usually time-saving and reliable, several ways may be
combines if appropriate.

Ways of presentation are divided into those using translation and not using
mother tongue. The former include:

 Translation of a word by supplying a native equivalent (word);

 Translation by several possible synonyms (e.g. go – йти, їхати, летіти,
пливти);
 Translation of a sentence (used in intensive methods)
 Explanation or definition in the native language.

Ways that do not make use of learners’ mother tongue are further subdivided
into visual and monolingual.

Visual ways of presenting vocabulary include demonstration of objects, pictures,

gestures, actions, miming etc.

Monolingual ways consist of presenting words with the help of:

 Context, a sentence that illustrates the word meaning

 Contrasting the nit to familiar antonyms and sometimes synonyms
 Definition (describing a new unit with the help of familiar ones, e.g. a
teenager – a person from 13 to 19 years of age;
 Explanation in English (e.g. sir – a respectful term to address a grown-up
man).
For better retention combined ways of presenting vocabulary are often used
and different ways to help students acquire vocabulary:

 Word cards (word – picture –part of speech – synonym – antonym –

definition – example sentence)
 Clines or scales (help a learner rank or order words ,e.g. line with two
poles: interesting – boring, rank activities, places, school subjects,, books
etc)
 Venn diagrams ( two or three overlapping circles which can be used by
learners to visualize the relationship between two sets or compare and
contrast characteristics of items
(e. g. two circles, one male relatives: dad, brother, uncle, nephew; one
female: mum, sister, aunt, niece; and these circles overlap and there:
cousin, parent)
 Charts and tables

beard moustache eyelashes eyebrows

hair + + + +
on the face + + + +
above nose + +
level
below nose + +
level
man + + + +
woman + +
remove it + +
thin it + +
attributes bushy thin long bushy
At the stage of practicing drills and semi-controlled activities are used. Learners
perform actions in stereotyped situations.

At the stage of production learners use newly acquired vocabulary units in their
speech in various situations according to the communicative intention or
understand oral and written texts where new vocabulary items are used.

III. Activities for practicing vocabulary

Drills (non-communicative exercises)

 Imitation of words, collocations, clichés, set expressions (saying them after

the teacher or the speaker) with proper stress, focusing on some sound etc
 Word-building analysis (root, prefix, suffix etc)
 Grouping the words (according to the part of speech, prerfix, topic,
negative/positive connotation etc)
 Supplying hyponyms to a hyperonym (superordinate)(e.g. furniture, tree,
flower, clothes etc)
 Odd man out ( a word that doesn’t belong)
 Gap filling (sentence level)
 Matching (a word to its definition, antonym, synonym, native equivalent)
 Mind maps (=networks = cluster diagrams)

Activities for developing receptive lexical skills:

 Reading vocabulary units aloud (to establish sound-graphic form
correspondences)
 Matching a unit to its dictionary form and finding out its meaning in this
very collocation;
 Filling in gaps in the text
 Sentence completion
 Choosing some units from the text (those units that belong to a certain
topic, situation, have the same root etc)
 Deducing the meaning of words from their stem-building elements.

Activities for developing reproductive lexical skills:

 Imitation of the speech pattern
  Answering alternative questions
 Substitution
 Utterance completion
 Utterance expansion
 Answering questions of different types
 Using vocabulary units in learners’ own sentences
 Combining sentences into a monologue or a dialogue utterance
 Using vocabulary units in mini-texts.

The final activities are usually some communicative tasks. E.G Tell us what you
do in winter. On Sunday? After classes?

Developing lexical skills learners simultaneously master some lexical

knowledge that will provide for developing lexical awareness.

LECTURE 6 (7)

Teaching Listening Comprehension

1. Competence in Listening comprehension. Factors that influence the level

of listening comprehension
2. Difficulties which can be encountered in teaching listening comprehension
3. Stages of teaching listening and activities used at them

I. Competence in listening comprehension. Factors that influence the

level of listening comprehension

Competence in listening comprehension presupposes learners’ ability to

listen to authentic texts of different types and genres with different levels of their
comprehension in direct or indirect communication. This kind of competence
includes skills and sub-skills, knowledge and communicative abilities.

Skills and sub-skills of listening comprehension embrace the following

ones:

 To recognize the communicative function of the text (e.g. invitation,

persuasion etc)
 To obtain the gist (main ideas) from a text
 To identify specific details
 To distinguish main ideas from supporting details
  To predict the content of the text or the development of the
discourse
 To infer the context of the discourse
 To recognize the speaker’s attitude towards the topic and towards
the interlocutor or listener
 To infer the necessary information from the context
 To ignore unfamiliar language material, which is not important for
understanding, etc.

The level of listening comprehension depends on the learners’ intellectual

abilities development: anticipation, critical evaluation of the information they
listen to, ability to analyze, classify and systematize received information etc.

Receptive phonetical, grammar and vocabulary skills are also important.

Knowledge includes linguistic knowledge, socio-cultural, pragmatic, socio-

linguistic background knowledge (e.g. knowledge about communicative behavior
of native speakers, addresses sir, so cannot be both teenagers).

We cannot ignore affective sphere: learners’ motivation is of paramount

importance (thirteen or thirty drops – your life may be at risk).

Listening comprehension refers to oral speech, communication can be

direct or indirect (through some devices: radio, disc, video, computer etc) It is
reactive (not the initial step in communication). It is receptive (we receive
information). It is internal by its character (takes place in listener’s mind) and
results in understanding expressed verbally or by a non-verbal reaction.

II. Difficulties which can be encountered in teaching listening

comprehension

It is not so easy to comprehend authentic oral speech. Difficulties are

usually divided into three categories:

1) subjective listener’s difficulties;

2) objective linguistic difficulties;
3) objective difficulties caused by the environment.

Subjective listener’s difficulties include:

 ability to focus, to concentrate

  motivation
 auditory memory;
 flexibility of thinking
 speed of reaction;
 ability to transfer from one logical operation to another
 tiredness
 health etc

Objective linguistic difficulties include:

 phonetic difficulties (underdeveloped skills of sound identification

and differentiation, intonation, logical stress; changes of words and
sounds in speech, like reduction, assimilation etc)
 lexical difficulties (unfamiliar words, words in indirect meaning,
idioms, polysemantic words, homonyms, paronyms, ‘false
translator’s friends’ etc)
 grammatical difficulties (long sentences, complex structures, unusual
word order, grammatical homonyms, e. g. his or he’s etc)
 type and genre of text (e.g. monologue is easier than a dialogue,
narration is easier than argumentation etc)

Objective difficulties caused by the environment include:

 tempo of speech (140/150 words a minute)

 the number of presentations (2)
 duration of the recording (primary school - 1 min, basic – 2-3 min,
senior – 3-5 min)
 quality of the soundtrack (loudness, background noises etc)
 live or recorded
 other environmental conditions (stuffy room, outside noise, after PT
etc)

In order to overcome problems the teacher can provide some visual

support during listening, may do some grammar or vocabulary activities before
listening, should tune in to the topic of the listening, provide a real purpose for
listening, divide the text into manageable fragments, make longer pauses
between the parts of the text, play again the part that causes greater difficulties
etc. Audiotexts should be interesting for learners, correspond to their age, life and
learning experience, have a simple and logical composition (no flashbacks), some
extra elements (repetitions, rhetorical questions, phatic words, pauses and pause
fillers etc).

III. Stages of teaching listening and activities used at them

There are three main stages of teaching listening: pre-listening, while-

listening and post-listening.

Pre-listening stage is used for:

 Eliminating language or content difficulties that may be caused by

listening to the soundtrack
 tuning the learners in: helping to anticipate, to predict the text
content by its headline, illustrations, key words etc
 motivating learners to listen: giving a purpose, a definite task.

During while-listening stage students practice in one kind of listening:

listening for gist (main idea, main facts, global understanding), listening for
obtaining some specific information (e.g. from some pragmatic text) and listening
for detail (maximum of precise and complete understanding).

Post-listening stage presupposes checking learners’ level of understanding

in different ways and using the information from the text to develop other skills
(speaking or writing).

Activities used at the pre-listening stage:

 asking questions on the text topic

 predicting text content using headlines, key words, pictures
 doing phonetic, vocabulary and grammar exercises (e.g.
differentiation of minimal pairs; differentiation of the grammar
function and meaning of lexico-grammatical homonyms, The brakes
of the car are very good. The driver brakes very often etc)

Activities used at the while-listening stage:

 ordering the pictures;

 completing the picture;
 matching texts with titles;
 matching texts to the pictures;
 follow the route;
  labeling;
 gap filling;
 true/false statements;
 listing (things, events, characters)
 multiple choice (global understanding)

Activities used at the post-listening stage:

 true/false (understanding details)

 multiple choice (understanding details)
 identifying relations between speakers;
 inferring attitudes;
 expanding the list
 questions-and-answers
 summarizing
 retelling episodes from the text;
 discussing topical questions;
 writing compositions, essays, letters etc. (skills integration)

Later when speaking about assessment and testing we’ll consider ways of
checking listening comprehension once more.

LECTURE 7 (8)

TEACHING READING

1. Reading as a communicative skill and its characteristics. Aims of

teaching reading at school.
2. Reading strategies. Types of reading.
3. Stages of teaching reading and types of activities used at them.

I. Reading as a communicative skill and its characteristics. Aims of

teaching reading at school.

Reading functions in the sphere of written communication, it is receptive and

reactive and takes place mainly in a silent form (reading aloud is a phonetic
activity). Reading results in comprehension, in decoding the author’s ideas.
 Readers may react verbally or non-verbally, or remember the information till
they need it.

Competence in reading is similar to that in listening: it includes skills, sub-

skills, knowledge and communicative abilities. Among skills we can single out
those to:

 Find out the main information

 Predict the content
 Differentiate main facts and supportive ideas
 Find the necessary information in the texts of pragmatic character
 Ignore unfamiliar language material which is not important for
understanding the content
 Understanding explicitly stated information
 Understanding information when not explicitly stated
 Understanding the communicative value of sentences and utterances
( their function)
 Understanding relations between parts of the text through cohesion
devices
 Having basic reference skills (what pronouns stand for)
 Interpreting text by going outside it (what is in the lines, what is
between the lines and what is beyond the lines).

Besides, reading involves technical skills, grammatical and lexical receptive skills.

Among psychological and physiological mechanisms of reading scholars include

visual perception, inner speech, division of text into chunks, anticipation
(prediction), memory, analysis and synthesis. Practically all of them work
simultaneously. And all of them should be gradually developed with special
exercises.

Reading comprehension, as well as listening comprehension, can be described at

several levels:

 Comprehension of fragments ( is not the aim of teaching)

 Global understanding
 Understanding details
 Critical understanding
According to the school curriculum, at the end of primary school children should
have competence in reading at A1 Level, that is, should be able to read both
silently and aloud short texts which contain familiar language material and read
and understand easy texts (about 300 printed characters long) where they can
guess the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Basic school leavers should have their competence in reading developed up to A2

Level: read and understand texts about 800 characters long that contain
unfamiliar words, guess their meaning using context, pictures, comments, analogy
with their native language, scan texts to find the necessary information.

Senior schoolchildren are supposed to have their reading competence developed

up to B1 Level. Texts are to contain at least 1900 characters, should be on current
topics about modern life of teenagers here and abroad, about current events etc.
Texts differ in their format and genre: fiction, articles, letters, brochures etc. But
all the text should be interesting for learners of a certain age, should correspond
to their intellectual level, should contain information from different spheres of
our life, information of intercultural character, scientifically sound and from
reliable sources, be in different forms (narration, description, dialogue,
monologue, letter etc).

II. Reading strategies. Types of reading

Teaching reading presupposes developing learners’ reading strategies: what

we do and in what sequence, how quickly, what is the aim etc. In fact, there are
about 50 of them, and it’s no wonder, since we read different texts in different
ways. It depends mainly on our aim and the kind of text. So it is very important to
set certain tasks before reading, for the learners have some definite purpose to
read and to choose the appropriate reading strategy. Usually a reader combines
several strategies, e.g. predicting, noticing and understanding cohesive devices,
guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words from content etc. According to the
strategy that dominates, there are 4 main types of reading:

 Skimming (looking through the text quickly to get the main idea, to
understand what the text is about and whether it is worth reading). The
speed is about 1.5 pages per minute. Learners are taught this in senior
forms.
  Scanning (looking through the text to find a particular piece of
information, especially often used when reading pragmatic texts). It is
also a quick type of reading. It is often used for assessment.
 Intensive reading (reading texts in order to understand 100 % of
information, so it is accuracy orientated). But you are to make sure that
this is reading, not translation and just language analysis, the object is
still to infer information. It is rather slow – about 50-60 words a minute
but it shouldn’t be slower – it should remain reading! The length of texts
for intensive reading is shorter than in texts for scanning or skimming
but their content and language material is often more complicated. The
texts include texts of different types and genres: fiction, publicist,
popular science, pragmatic; they can be authentic, abridged or adapted.
 Extensive reading (reading longer texts, often for pleasure). It is fluency
oriented, it involves global understanding. It is not a quick type of
reading (home reading or reading some additional material).

III. Stages of teaching reading and types of activities used at them

The type and the communicative aim of reading predetermine the number and
kinds of activities. But irrespective of that, teaching reading includes 3 stages:
pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading.

At the pre-reading stage the teacher tunes learners in, may inform them of some
facts from the life of the author or from history, biology, ecology, etc depending
on the kind of text and its topic and the type of reading learners are going to be
engaged in. The teacher may elicit from learners what they know about the
author or topic, what other books by that author they have read etc. All that work
should motivate learners to read the forthcoming text, trigger their interest.

Pre-reading stage is also used to facilitate further reading, to eliminate some

difficulties: phonetic (personal names, geographic names may be written down on
the board and practiced), grammar (some exercises be done, analysis or
translation of some difficult structures can take place), vocabulary (some words
that belong to learners’ potential vocabulary can be suggested for guessing their
meaning etc). Students may be asked to predict the content of the text or the
topic by the headline to the text. With intensive reading the number of pre-text
activities is the greatest, with scanning – the smallest.
At the while-reading stage learners get the task or tasks to perform (so the aim of
reading is set), read the text silently during a limited period of time and do the
task(s). Depending on the type of reading the tasks may include finding answers
to the questions, true-false statements, filling in the table, matching titles to
paragraphs, ordering paragraphs etc.

At the post-reading stage learners perform some activities checking their

comprehension and use the information inferred from the text in other skill
developing activities (speaking, writing). Comprehension is checked with the help
of question and answering work, multiple choice, completion of sentences,
matching (e.g. characters to opinions), etc. Learners can make up a plan of the
text, retell it orally or in a written form, write an argumentative lesson, take part
in the discussion of the problems touched upon etc. Certainly, the character of
activities depends on the type of reading and the level of comprehension it
presupposes. You cannot check understanding of details in case of skimming, for
instance.