Begin your discussion and post by, briefly describing the grade/subject area you teach or plan on teaching. Then answer thefollowing:
- Discuss how learning/interest/activity centers can be applied to your classroom
▫ Do you plan on using them? Why or why not?
- Explain how learning/interest/activity centers contribute to a positive classroom environment
The topic of the 4th week reminded me the research I made in 2007 while working at school. It was my first year and I wantedto be the best creating something new. Hence, is my final report.
In the 21st century, society is faced with the problems of mastering one or more foreign languages and using them directly intheir work and social activities. These problems have emerged as a result of the increasing complexity of the requirements fora modern specialist - in addition to higher education, any specialist must know the state language and one or more foreigninternational languages, which include: English, German and French. The population of the Republic of Kazakhstan is alreadyforced to solve this problem, due to the introduction of the state language in all spheres of society. In this connection school isan important link for getting necessary knowledge and skills for rising generation. And the role of the school in solving theproblem of foreign language acquisition at the initial stage of education is particularly great. The school can provide not onlyqualified specialist teachers, long enough time to learn any subject, but also methods, proven over the years. However, besidesthe necessary tools and conditions for learning any foreign language, each pupil also needs psychological preparation for thisprocess, as he is faced with many difficulties. This is a comparison of a foreign language with their native language, and thedifference in grammar, vocabulary, understanding of certain phrases. Any language reflects the culture of the people whospeak it, and it becomes a real problem both for the pupil who grew up in a certain society and who finds it difficult toperceive an unfamiliar language and a foreign culture, and for the teacher who faces reluctance of the pupil or group toperceive new knowledge, which consequently reduces the knowledge and the teacher's work becomes meaningless.
Objective: to identify and solve the problems of foreign language acquisition at the initial stage of learning a foreign language,as well as to help the novice teacher to find a starting point that will help set the main goals and define the tasks that need tobe solved first. After all, it is not only the pupil who experiences difficulties at the initial stage of learning a foreign language,but also the teacher. And no matter how many years of experience in the field of education, every time before entering theclassroom every teacher feels the familiar excitement and uncertainty.
In connection with this objective, the following tasks are set for the study:
1) To study and analyse the literature on the problems of mastering a foreign language at the initial stage of learning (toidentify the main difficulties of students arising at the beginning of learning a foreign language).
2) To carry out experimental and pedagogical work on the problems of mastering a foreign language at the initial stage oflearning (to analyze the main difficulties faced by the pupil (group) and the teacher in the process of teaching a foreignlanguage at the initial stage, to determine the main requirements for the teacher at this stage).
3) Formulate the conclusions of this paper and provide recommendations based on the researcher's practical experience.
The object of the study is the 1st, 5th, 6th and 7th grades of Linguistic School-Gymnasium No. 18.
The research method was a free observation, participant observation, oral questioning, questionnaires, interviews, naturalexperiments, comparative, comparative, and statistical analyses.
In order to find out pupils' attitudes towards English, English lessons, and time spent learning English outside the schoolcurriculum, pupils were asked to respond anonymously to the "attitudes towards English" questionnaire. Particular attentionwas drawn to the question of how long a pupil had been studying a given language, and the results can be presented in the form of a diagram. Out of 133 pupils who studied English:
This diagram shows that there are children with different levels of background in the groups and the teacher has to developtasks that activate the students regardless of their level, as well as foster mutual support, mutual assistance, teamwork and theneed to use new technologies in lessons where more successful or more experienced students can share their subjectknowledge (teach) with beginners in line with the curriculum.
Problems:
- Pronunciation and listening comprehension problems;
- Speech problems of a logopaedic nature (problems related to the pronunciation of certain sounds);
- limited vocabulary of the foreign language;
- different grammatical structures of the mother tongue and foreign language;
- psychological problems arising from making contact with children;
- problems related to the linguistic differences between German (main language) and English (second language) (sentencestructure, phonetic structure of the language, grammatical structure).
Stage 1: Developing a positive attitude towards English
At this stage I:
Applying modern educational technologies in lessons, I achieved interest of pupils in learning a foreign language (selection ofliterature, historical information, features of culture and language for the general development of pupils in this subject).
My personal interest in the subject has influenced the emergence of interest in the children and this is the beginning of arelationship between me and the students.
Stage 2: Building rapport with the class (group)
During this stage I studied the structure of relationships between pupils (who was friends with whom, who had conflicts withwhom), I found out the positive and negative sides of these relationships, had discussions with pupils, their class teachers,parents, and the school psychologist. With this information, I tried to form groups with a psychologically favorable climate andto neutralize as many conflicts between students as possible, not only in my classroom but also in everyday school life.
Stage 3: Formation of disciplinary norms and attitudes
During the lesson I explained the rules of behavior at the lesson and punishment for breaking these rules (no obscene words,offense, the humiliation of classmates, punishment: writing down in the class diary about pupils' behavior at the lesson withdetails, notifying the class teacher and parents, doing extra homework).
Stage 4: Development of a knowledge evaluation system
At this stage, I develop a system for rating students' knowledge (taking into account the position of English as a secondforeign language): 100-89% completed tasks - excellent, 88-77% - good, 76-60% - satisfactory, less than 60% - poor. I try toexplain why I give this particular grade and the number of mistakes in each type of work.
Stage 5, where I check that there are no psychologically negative factors in pupils' knowledge of the subject.
If there is no tension in the classroom and my students are attentive and comply with my requirements without any hesitationor discussion, it means that the background for my students' direct knowledge of the subject has been formed and that the educational work has been carried out successfully. Pupils have appreciated my moral and spiritual qualities and perceive meas a Teacher.
However, the stages listed above have taken place, and are taking place now, not in a chronological sequence, but accordingto the need to solve specific tasks.
Recommendations:
1)Taking into account the position of the first and second language learners.
2)Creating clear guidelines on the criteria for assessing pupils by the foreign language teacher.