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7. Запесоцкий А. С. “Дети эпохи перемен: их ценности, выбор”//Социс № 120.2006.- с. 98-104.
8. Здоров’я дитини вД родини: [моногр.]/Беленька Г. В., Бопшч О. Л., Машо-вець М. А. - К., 2006. - 220 с.
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10. Локшина О. Г Тенденци розвитку змкту шюльно! освiти в кра!нах Свропейсько-го Союзу: автореф. дис. на здобуття наук. ступеня д. пед. н.: 13.00.01 «Загальна педагопка та iсторiя педагопки» / Олена Iгорiвна Локшина.- К. - 2011-40 с.
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13. Степанова Т. М. Трансформацая змкту перед шкально! освiти в кторп розвитку вичизняно! дошюльно! педагопки (кшець ХХ1-ХХ столаття). Монография. -К.: Видавництво Д1м «Слово», 2011.- 424 с.
14. Фельдштейн Д. И. Психолого-педагогические проблемы построения новой школы в условиях значимых изменений ребенка и ситуации его развития/ Д. И. Фельдшгейн//Вопр. психологии, 2010, - № 3. - с. 47-55.
15. http://rpp.nashaucheba.ru/download/docs-15745/15745.doc.
Gladio Svetlana Viktorovna, Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics of Kiev National University of Trade and Economics, Associate Professor E-mail: [email protected] Chugu Svetlana Dmitrievna, Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics of Kiev National University of Trade and Economics, Associate Professor E-mail: [email protected]
Enhancing EFL Examination Skills
Abstract: The article discusses the idea of incorporating special techniques into the preparation of Ukrainian students for internationally recognized exams such as FCE, CAE, IELTS and TOEFL in higher education environment as part of EFL teaching. The authors emphasize the necessity to use a range of content-based tasks and
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activities relevant for training a fluent/good user of English in the EFL instruction. The issues that are examined in the article support the arguments in favour of including components of international examinations into the academic ESP/EFL curriculum in the country in order to ensure proper training and guidance to fully support students’ development and specialist knowledge to help them meet challenges of today’s global working world.
Key words: EFL, ESP, examination components, content-based teaching, academic curriculum.
Introduction. The current pedagogical challenges in the EFL/ESP field in Ukraine are caused by the necessity of integration into the international academic community that views English as the key to successful communication in different spheres, namely social, cultural, economic, political, professional and others. As foreign and second language teaching should prepare students to use a language with fluency and accuracy, it needs to aim at the communicative competency and ability on the part of the language learners to deal with various socio-cultural differences and situations successfully.
These concerns make the task of training specialists with a good command of English a major one in the academic context in the country and call for the systemic use of innovative teaching and assessment techniques in the EFL classroom. The recognition that cultural learning is an integral part of foreign language learning requires a practical approach to the issues of diverse cultural identities, social values, and behaviors, value orientations, verbal and nonverbal communication, intercultural conflict management and the like. In addition to these basic considerations, conditions that generate maintaining motivation and encourage positive self-evaluation, which in its turn, helps provide more emphasis on communicative content-based techniques, constitute the basis of the practical approach in the language classroom.
The current requirements for well-round specialists, able to work effectively in the global environment, necessitate the implementation of the new principles in the EFL methodology, classroom practices and curriculum innovations, that will result in the implications for ESP education and society at large [12].
Rationale. The theoretical postulate, we consider focal for efficient EFL learning, is the idea of metacognition, developed by N. Anderson and regarded as “thinking about thinking” that includes five components: preparing and planning for learning, selecting and using strategies, monitoring learning, orchestrating strategies, and evaluating learning [1].
In connection with the problem of the EFL exam components that should be interwoven into the curriculum to reach the strategic goal of effective language training, educationalists need also consider such essential factors as the logistics of the
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examination and its structure [11]. The aim of any EFL exam is to assess the candidate’s linguistic knowledge and communicative skills. Thus, in terms of the linguistic aspect, the examinee is expected to able to understand and be understood as well as to know specific terminology, be a fluent language user, to have advanced listening, reading, and writing skills. Besides, candidates are to know adequate ways to express different ideas reasonably in the oral and writing format. In addition, most EFL examinations aim at checking the candidate’s awareness of different registers. While developing writing skills special emphasis is to be put on the academic writing whereas EFL teachers should be well aware of the fact that the oral examination part is designed to check diverse communicative functions.
Regardless of the sufficient linguistic knowledge and communicative skills that examinees are expected to demonstrate, extra-linguistic factors — social, psychological, cultural, ethnic, religious — are not to be overlooked as the most crucial issue as to what should be focused on more, the verbal competence or the social aspect, is to be addressed properly [3; 12]. The answer is evident — both aspects are to be explored simultaneously, this way, the question how to combine these two aspects most effectively remains extremely challenging for the teachers and candidates as examination preparation requires expert knowledge, communicative and content-based methods. In terms of exam training the simplest solution is to use the so-called social-cultural approach while teaching EFL, which means using content-based texts, scripts, practically-oriented written assignments, practice of language functions in different communicative settings. Besides, the information-oriented teaching materials are of great importance in the EFL classroom as, on the one hand, they do help update students’ knowledge of the customs, traditions, patterns of behavior, body language in a foreign country. On the other hand, the language they learn becomes a strong motivational device for their future careers as they are exposed to the communicative value of the language. All in all, in the current educational context EFL educators have to face a number of challenges, the main ones being connected with the necessity to convert young immature teenagers into highly-motivated, conscientious EFL learners. The solution might be a user-friendly manual that will include activities helpful in achieving this goal.
Traditionally the four basic skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking) are tested in an EFL examination, with grammar being included on a wider scale (FCE, CAE, TOEFL) or being practically excluded (IELTS) as a separate component of the exam [7; 8; 9; 14]. All exam materials are informative and cover different aspects of life, ranging from culture to history, from technology to psychology. In addition, listening activities are aimed at checking whether the examinee is able to distinguish monologues, dialogues, conversations, accents, male, female, adults’ and children’s utterances. The student should also know the spelling rules,
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measurement systems, and topical terminology as the extracts from academic lectures may deal with cloning, nanotechnology, building, transport system and a range of other issues.
The mere ability to listen and decode information does not seem enough for an examinee to be a success. He/she should possess analytical skills and have significant background knowledge. In the speaking part there is a big chance that the person being tested will be asked to dwell on global (e. g. the problem of waste disposal in terms of the planet), local (e. g. what has changed in your home town since your childhood) or personal issues (e. g. your role model; how you made up your mind to choose your future career, etc.).
The writing part seems the most challenging as the topics for the 250-word-in-a-40-minute essay are far from being straightforward. Usually they are mind-boggling and thought-provoking (e. g. Does globalization influence home-made goods production? Do you believe violence in the playgrounds should be stopped by parents who are to teach their children to hit back?). Other writing assignments in IELTS deal with the task for candidates to describe and explain a diagram (graph, map, cycle, process, etc.) in terms of comparing and contrasting the main tendencies, changes, predictions.
As a result of long teaching experience we believe that an effective approach to address the examination challenges is based on the emphasis on practising the examination task types. The ideas designed to work out a beneficial teaching algorithm so that to meet the requirements of international EFL examinations have been incorporated in training students’ special skills through a systemic use of various tasks and techniques, the main purpose of which is to do exam-oriented tasks. Having analyzed different examination manuals [2; 9; 10; 13; 14; 15], the main aspects of training for the reading module (as one of the exam components) include essential information on examination logistics, description of task types and strategies: multiple matching; multiple choice; gapped text; identification of a writer’s views/attitudes; sentence completion; short answer questions, choosing headings, etc. and activities for developing students’ reading skills are to be designed to meet the requirements successfully. The information may be used both by the language teachers and exam candidates to prepare students for diverse reading tasks.
Another essential consideration to be addressed concern the tasks for teaching reading that are to be based on the integrated approach, as the materials and techniques offered to the students, should focus on the multi-aspect approach, when the main objective of language teaching activities is to make students use the language to meet communicative needs [4; 6; 12].
Many years of training students for international EFL examinations led to our strong belief that the foremost task of an EFL educator is to regard students as talented, resourceful and understanding learners who are to be encouraged and motivated. The
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banal qualities such as patience and optimism have never let us down in the challenging job of teaching students of different abilities, ages and levels. Speaking in more practical terms, we are convinced that it is crucial to emphasize systematization as the fundamental rule that results in quality. Traditional classes in EFL grammar should be substituted by grammar-content texts, grammar rules are to be explained by the students themselves after doing exercises and making mistakes, reading texts are to be analyzed from the point of information, not language, speaking should be done by involving students’ personal experiences, anecdotes, feelings and emotions. While teaching students express their thoughts, authentic collocations, cliches, and idioms add to the natural way of speaking as it enhances their desire to speak up freely, the way they feel and like, without being corrected or interrupted.
Another important consideration to ensure success in the EFL exam is to familiarize students with the general guidelines that deal with the logistics of the process. Candidates are to be aware of the procedure and know what to expect. This can be achieved by doing sample examination papers that are available in numerous printed and electronic sources. Understanding how the test is scored and how scores are interpreted is an integral aspect of being aware of the peculiarities of the examination. Besides, for many students setting a strategy, while defining clear goals and deadlines, developing a personal study plan and schedule, are the factors of great importance as they ensure that the student feels calm, knowledgeable and confident.
Conclusion. To sum up, the main aim in the EFL classroom is to make students use a foreign language as a universal tool for communication and study, to teach them think in a foreign language, to ensure that they are able to analyze, contrast and compare the things they are used to with the ones that are not familiar for them.
Teaching English should be considered from the perspective of its effectiveness for the future employment and is to be included into the ESP/EFL curriculum of any higher education institution to train future professionals in a proper way, to help them succeed in the competitive professional environment in the future.
In the ever-changing business world employers expect employees to be knowledgeable, culturally and socially competent. EFL classes may serve the purpose of preparing highly-qualified specialists who have the required linguistic and social skills, as to achieve the current objectives EFL teachers should use content-based material; teach authentic grammar patterns on a regular basis; link the outcome with the future career perspectives of the students, this way motivating them and making “the English-language-thing” real; encourage language learners to engage in a mindful approach to communicative interactions in the foreign language settings. The concerns explored in the article are grounded on the belief that language learners need to be able to deal with diverse linguistic tasks in a systematic, mindful way to make best use of their knowledge to enter the competitive job market.
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