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Since the need to teach a foreign language has arisen in human society, the task has been to find effective ways to achieve this goal. In our time, this problem has found a partial solution in modern teaching methods. This is a partial solution because, despite their effectiveness, these methods do not allow us to take into account the individual characteristics of students in the group. But modern methods of teaching foreign languages take into account the specifics of the learning process. It uses not only information about the language system, but also information about how language functions as a means of communication, what is the place of speech activity in human behavior, what motivates a person to engage in communication, and so on. In other words, modern methodology is also based on psychological data.
Human, as we know, is a social being. This means that it is possible to exist and develop in human society only in the process of constant interaction, communication with other members of it. And I will not reveal a secret if I say that the dominant means of communication among people is language.
Language as a means of communication functions through speech activity, which, in the form of speech actions, is included in acts of behavior when an individual needs to come into contact with other members of this environment to satisfy his needs. The specificity of the situation in which an individual (speaker) includes speech actions in his acts of behavior is that it contains the addressee of these actions —the listener.
Training should provide automated knowledge of the system of speech actions in a foreign language, as this is the basis for recreating the real situation of the implementation of acts of communication in a foreign language in the educational process.
Researchers of children's speech (U. Penfield, E. Lenneberg, and others) it has long been established that the ability to learn a language decreases with age. It is most effective in the first years of life, then, by about 10-12 years, its level decreases slightly. Thus, in early childhood, language ability is most effective.
In the initial period of teaching oral foreign speech, there are quite complex problems since younger students have a level of proficiency in phonetic, grammatical, and lexical material equal to zero. Therefore, before a teacher there is a need to develop these skills, it is possible through the use of modern methods.
Modern methods are based on practical orientation, play, the creative nature of training, communication, and other forms of work organization. Another advantage of modern teaching methods is that they can be used at all stages of the lesson, and the same tasks can be interpreted differently.
One of the most suitable modern teaching methods is the game. Since the game facilitates the involvement of students, promotes involuntary memorization, creates a favorable atmosphere, and, most importantly, encourages speaking. The game has various forms: role-playing games, business games, quizzes, and so on.
I made the analysis of my lessons and I can pick out the most frequently used games, that provides oral communication between young students:
Game "Crocodile". A straightforward game that helps to develop learners` imagination activates the language skills (while being accessible to learners with any vocabulary), and helps to create a good atmosphere in the classroom.
Rules of the game: There are cards with words on the table, the learner should take a card with the word and show it, the other learners should guess the word.
This game can be used for training or consolidation of new words, as relaxation, in the middle of the lesson, and even at the end of the lesson, as a reflection.
The game "Because". Usually, I use this game as a warm-up at the
beginning of the lesson. It helps to improve speaking and listening skills.
Rules of the game: the teacher tells a sentence and chooses a learner who repeats the sentence and complements it using the word "because", the next learner repeats the last part of the sentence and also complements.
Example: The teacher says, "I love to eat fruits", then the next person repeats and completes the sentence "I love to eat fruits because they are useful".
The Game Coordinates. I often use this game to introduce a theme of the lesson or to introduce words, the game is good for all basic skills, also useful for speaking.
Rules of the game: the teacher, using a table with letters and a row of vertically and horizontally indicated coordinates, encrypts a word or even a sentence, after which he tells the coordinates of the letters, and to guess the students must find the
letters correctly, write down the words, and then pronounce them and translate.
I also like to use a different interpretation of ball games or any mini project work in which students need to draw something and describe it with simple sentences.
Starting to learn English, students primarily want to learn how to speak. Even the minimum number of speech units that they learn in the first lessons already allows them to feel the communicative function of the language, which in turn has a positive effect on the motivation of learning, without which learning English is unthinkable.
Therefore, if active teaching methods are used in the process of developing speaking skills, then the effectiveness of teaching speaking will increase.
Also, active teaching methods help to diversify even the most boring lesson; to consolidate studied material; to improve vocabulary and pronunciation more interestingly, and of course, to increase the interest in learning English.
Such lessons are interesting not only for students but also for teachers.
In conclusion, I can tell, that the use of active methods teaching methods helps to create the necessary conditions for the development of the ability to think independently, navigate in a new situation, find approaches to solving problems, establish contacts, listen, cooperate, and communicate.