CC BY
22
ПРЕДСТАВЛЕНИЕ НАУЧНОЙ РАБОТЫ
COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE IN TEACHING ENGLISH IN ESP CLASSROOM
Islamova Guzal Tulkunovna, National University of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
E-mail: yasmina.isl@mail.ru
Abstract. This article contains Proficiency, Pedagogy and Performance in teaching English which describes the author's beliefs of what constitutes good teaching. The beliefs include the importance of using meaning-bearing and comprehensible input in the classroom, the use of task-based activities to facilitate language learning, and understanding the role of the teacher in the classroom.
Key words: Proficiency, Performance, competence, task-based activities, numerous integrated and interactive materials, to facilitate, creative ways of teaching English in ESP classes
Teaching English through English: Proficiency, Pedagogy and Performance
Understanding the relationship between language proficiency and teaching ability has recently re-emerged as a focus in second language teacher education, particularly through work on teacher cognition and teaching knowledge. As Freeman has observed, the ability to teach English through English requires consideration of a number of related issues, since in language teaching, language is both the content of teaching as well as the means by which it is taught [4]. 'Unlike mathematics or other school subjects, in language classrooms, the medium becomes the message. Language in the classroom plays two roles simultaneously ... as the lesson content and as the means of teaching that content'.
Mitchell [5] viewed language proficiency as the basis for the teacher's ability to engage in improvisational teaching:
No functional syllabus, "authentic " materials, or micro-computer program can replace the capacity of the live, fluent speaker to hit upon topics of interest to particular individuals, continually adjust his/her speech to an appropriate level of difficulty and solve unpredictable communication problems from moment to moment,
ВЕСТНИК НАУКИ И ТВОРЧЕСТВА
or to "scaffold" the learners at FL speech. In all this the teacher and his/her interactive skills are decisive.
Comments such as those of Mitchell above also reflect the viewpoint -prevalent at the time and still widely held - that language proficiency (ideally referenced to that of the native speaker) is key to a teacher's ability to teach in a second or foreign language. Yet the present reality is that most of the world's language teachers do not have nor need a native-like ability in their teaching language to teach their language well: they need to be able to teach with the language, which is not the same thing and which is the focus of this article.
Language ability has also been linked to the teacher's sense of his or her professional identity: 'For non-native English teachers, language proficiency will always represent the bedrock of their professional confidence' (Murdoch, 1994: 254). Hence, teachers often see improvement in their language proficiency as central to their professional development as language teachers and to their identity as knowledgeable professionals:
As a non-native English speaker I was worried about my language skills at first when I started to teach English... As the lessons progressed I became more confident in my teaching and I actually forgot that I was a non-native speaker of English while I was teaching because I became so engrossed (and interested) in delivering my lessons. (Raul C.; cited in Richards and Farrell, 2011: 5).
As teachers gain experience in teaching and become more confident in using English to teach they come to assume an 'insider' identity as a language teacher (Pennington and Richards, 2016):
Teachers' perceptions of their language proficiency also contributes to beliefs about their own effectiveness, known as teacher efficacy - that is their ability to effectively perform in their role as language teachers.
Language and the Language Teacher's Professional Competence
Competency in English language teaching draws on content or subject matter knowledge, teaching skills, and the ability to teach in English - a skill that is usually viewed as influenced by the teacher's language proficiency. According to conventional wisdom the more one knows of a language, the better prepared one is to teach it. Hence it is commonly assumed that a teacher who is a native speaker of his or her teaching language (English, French, Chinese etc.) is at an advantage compared to one who is not a native-speaker of the language - an assumption that Freeman(2016:182) describes as the legacy in language teaching 'of the valuing of "nativeness" as a criterion for being a "good" language teacher', another aspect of what has been referred to as 'native-speakerism'. In the case of English, the teacher for whom English is not his or her first language is sometimes known as a non-native English speaking teacher or NNEST.
How do we know that students have learned a language? We can assess students using formative and summative assessments but how do we know that
ВЕСТНИК НАУКИ И ТВОРЧЕСТВА
students will actually be able to use their language in real-life, authentic situations? In short, how do we know that our students are competent in the target language? One way to judge this competency is through students' performance. However, how do we know that this performance is an accurate measure of what students actually know? In this section we will examine these questions further by looking at competence versus performance.
What is the difference between competence and performance?
Chomsky separates competence and performance; he describes 'competence' as an idealized capacity that is located as a psychological or mental property or function and 'performance' as the production of actual utterances. In short, competence involves "knowing" the language and performance involves "doing" something with the language. The difficulty with this construct is that it is very difficult to assess competence without assessing performance.
Why is it important to make a distinction between competence and performance?
Noting the distinction between competence and performance is useful primarily because it allows those studying a language to differentiate between a speech error and not knowing something about the language. To understand this distinction, it is helpful to think about a time when you've made some sort of error in your speech. For example, let's say you are a native speaker of English and utter the following: We swimmed in the ocean this weekend.
Is this error due to competence or performance? It is most likely that as a native speaker you are aware how to conjugate irregular verbs in the past but your performance has let you down this time. Linguists use the distinction between competence and performance to illustrate the intuitive difference between accidentally saying swimmed and the fact that a child or non-proficient speaker of English may not know that the past tense of swim is swam and say swimmed consistently.
How do competence and performance apply to the language classroom?
As we have learned, competence and performance involve "knowing" and "doing". In the recent past, many language instruction programs have focused more on the "knowing" (competence) part of learning a language wherein words and sentences are presented and practiced in a way to best help learners internalize the forms. The assumption here is that once the learners have 'learned' the information they will be able to use it through reading, writing, listening and speaking. The disadvantage of this approach is that the learners are unable to use the language in a natural way. Having been trained to learn the language through "knowing", learners have
ВЕСТНИК НАУКИ И ТВОРЧЕСТВА
difficulty reversing this training and actually "doing" something with the language. In brief, it is difficult to assess whether the learners' insufficient proficiency is due to limitations of competency or a lack of performance.
In order to focus learners more on the "doing" part of learning, which allows a more accurate measure of learners' language proficiency, a more communicative approach to teaching can be used. This type of approach concentrates on getting learners to do things with the language. If we think of B-SLIM we can see that this relates to the Getting It and Using It stages of the model. By encouraging students to eventually "learn through the language" as opposed to strictly learning the language there is a more balanced focus on both competence and performance.
Factors that Influence Language Learning for students:
1. Prior Linguistic Knowledge. Is the language they're learning their first foreign language?
Student has studied and acquired a language, their skill at learning another will increase. Language learners have the ability to translate skills from one language to another because they're able to recognize the rules and patterns of language, even if the vocabulary is different.
2. Learning Environment. How does the student feel in the classroom?
Another key factor is how comfortable students feel in their language learning
environment. Does their classroom feel cold and tense, or positive and relaxing? What's the school's culture and beliefs about language learning? We've found that a student's learning environment has an impact on their motivation—a low anxiety language learning environment increases the chance for acquisition.
3. Teaching Strategies. How is the language taught?
The strategies a language teacher uses have a big impact on language learning. How does the teacher help students understand the concepts of a language? How does the teacher take different learning styles into account, as well as different levels of comprehension? For example, watching a film in the target language and writing and performing skits in the target language reach multiple learning styles. Offering an immersion experience helps students connect the language learning to their everyday lives, but rote vocabulary memorization and grammar drills create 'meaning-less' language lessons.
4. Student Personality. Is the student introverted or extroverted?
A student's personality can affect how they learn a second language. More introverted students have been shown to take longer to acquire a language because they're more hesitant to make mistakes. Extroverted students, on the other hand, are more likely to go out on a limb and try out their newly learned vocabulary. To ensure that both personality types succeed, it's important to create an environment where students understand that mistakes are part of the learning process and it's more important to speak than to be perfect.
5. Age. How old is a student when they start learning a foreign language?
While students of all ages can learn a foreign language, there is consensus
that certain aspects are affected by the age of the learner. It becomes harder for
ВЕСТНИК НАУКИ И ТВОРЧЕСТВА
students to have native pronunciation from the teen years. Some students also find that it's more difficult to fully acquire a foreign language as they get older, but this isn't true of everyone.
References:
1. Andrews, S (2001) The language awareness of the L2 teacher: Its impact upon pedagogical practice. Language Awareness 10(2/3): 75-89.
2. Andrews, S (2003) Teacher language awareness and the professional knowledge base of the L2 teacher. Language Awareness 12(2): 81-95.
3. Bartels, N (ed.) (2005) Applied Linguistics and Language Teacher Education. New York: Springer.
4. Freeman, D (2002) The hidden side of the work: teacher knowledge and learning to teach. Language Teaching 35(1): 1-13.
5. The hidden side of the work: teacher knowledge and learning to teach. Language Teaching, Mitchell (1988: 166)
