Content of psychology of foreign language teaching.

Plan:

1. The content of psychology of foreign language teaching.

2. The components of contents.

The content of psychology of foreign language teaching or what to teach is one of the main problems the Methods deals with. In this chapter an attempt is made to touch on the chief components which, we think, should constitute the content of foreign lan­guage teaching in schools; a more detailed consideration will be given in appropriate chapters dealing with teaching various aspects of the language and language skills.

The first component of “what to teach” is habits and skills which pupils should acquire while learning a foreign language. According to the aims of learning this subject they are: hear­ing (listening comprehension), speaking, reading, and writing. The level of habits and skills is determined by the syllabus for each form. However, quantitative and qualitative char­acteristics of skills, or the so-called terminal behaviour, are not defined yet for different types of schools and stages of instruction. This is one of the problems for methodologists to investigate and solve. Nevertheless, some attempts have been made in this respect. Thus in school syllabi we can find some directions as to the level of skills that should be reached in each particular form and their development from form to form. For example, the requirements for hearing and reading skills differ in the 9^th and 10^th forms. In the 9^th form pupils should be able to understand oral language on the basis of the material previously learned and within the topics cov­ered, while in the 10th form the material for hearing should include 1-2 unfamiliar words for pupils to guess their mean­ing, and to understand a text received by ear, based on the material learned and on a topic close to those pupils have worked at. This is a new “qualitative step” for pupils in under­standing oral language. If in the 9^th form pupils should read with the speed of 1 000 signs per academic hour, in the 10^th form the speed of reading is 1 300.

The second component of “what to teach” is language (tex­tual) material, arranged in topics and serving as starting points for the development of oral language and written lan­guage, which allows the teacher to reach the practical, educa­tional, and cultural aims set by the syllabus. For example, in the junior stage (the 5^th and 6^th forms) pupils should speak and read about school, home, town and countryside, nature, physical training and sports. In the senior stage the textual material should cover the following topics: the life of the youth in the USSR and abroad; sport in the USSR and abroad; industry, agriculture, and science in the USSR and abroad; history and geography of the country whose language pupils study, art and literature in the USSR and abroad. Topics for speaking and reading are developed from form to form, i. e., the pupil’s ability to read and speak on a certain topic is widened as his vocabulary and grammar is enriched.

The third component of the content of foreign language teaching is linguistic material, i. e., phonology, grammar, and vocabulary carefully selected for the purpose. The selection of linguistic material, the compiling of the so-called minima, for instance, minimum vocabulary and minimum grammar, has always been one of the most important and difficult prob­lems to be solved and, although a great deal of work has been done in this respect, we are still on the way to its solution. A limited body of linguistic material is required by pupils who have about 600 class hours at their disposal spread over six years (extensive course), and at the same time it must be large enough to serve as a sound basis for developing pupils’ language skills.

To sum up what has been said above, the content of foreign language teaching involves:

1 - language skills: hearing, speaking, reading, and writing;

2 - language (textual) material;

3 - linguistic material; vocabulary; grammar, phonologi­cal minima.

In conclusion it should be said that the content of teaching in our schools is laid down in the syllabus and realized in teaching materials and in the teacher’s own speech.

Control questions:

1. What content is in psychology of foreign language teaching?

2. What components are in contents?

Recommended literature:

1. Психология обучения неродному языку. И.А.Зимняя, М., 2000

2. Психология обучения иностранным языкам в школе. И.А.Зимняя, М., 1991

3. Психология развития. Грейс Крайг, Санкт-Петербург, 2000