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Международный информационно-аналитический журнал «Crede Experto»: транспорт, общество, образование, язык №3 (12). Декабрь 2014 (http://ce.if-mstuca.ru)
УДК 378.225 ББК 74.5 I-70
Л. А. Иванова Иркутск, Россия О. М. Вербицкая Иркутск, Россия
МЕДИАКОМПЕТЕНТНОСТЬ КАК НЕОБХОДИМОЕ УСЛОВИЕ УСПЕШНОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ В ВИРТУАЛЬНОЙ РЕЧЕВОЙ СРЕДЕ
В статье идёт речь об одной из самых актуальных проблем современного высшего образования - формирование и развитие медиакомпетентности в сфере преподавания иностранного языка.
Ключевые слова: медиаобразование, медиаграмотность, сетевое общение, общение на иностранном языке, межкультурная коммуникация.
L. A. Ivanova Irkutsk, Russia O. M. Verbitskaya Irkutsk, Russia
MEDIACOMPETENCE AS A NECESSARY CONDITION OF SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION IN VIRTUAL SPEECH ENVIRONMENT
The article deals with one of the most burning issues of modern higher education - media competence's forming and development in the sphere of foreign language teaching.
Key-words: media education, media literacy, mediatized socializing, foreign language communication, intercultural interaction.
In the 60-s of the XXth century the word combination "media education" began to be used in the leading countries of the world (Great Britain, the USA, Canada,
© Иванова Л. А., Вербицкая О. М., 2014
Australia, France, Federal Republic of Germany and others). In pedagogic science a specific direction has been formed which originates from English media education and Latin: media, called for helping students adapt better in the media environment, master mass media and communication language, be able to analyze the information received by means of media etc.
In this way a new term appeared and subsequently was perceived by home scholars in the field of pedagogics. In the Russian official sources the term "media education" was introduced later: by A. V. Sharikov at the symposium on educational issues held in Ryazan in 1986.
One may assume that the interest for media education is rather connected with the informational safety problem's origin without the solution of which a full-fledged development of not only a personality, but of the society is not possible.
A question arises; to what extent this enthusiasm for media education is justified? The very notion "media education" has a lot of definitions. It means both a process of transmission and assimilation of knowledge, abilities and skills connected with mass communication, and a direction in pedagogics supporting the idea of learning by the students' mass communication mechanism etc. One the one hand, the development of society, of a man and all his activity aspects has always been connected with the appearance of different sorts of discoveries in the sphere of mass communication means. In various articles the researchers point out that from 1621, since the time of Michael's ruling, the first tsar from the House of Romanovs, up to 1701 "The Chiming Clock" - the Russian State's newspaper - had been published. As archival documents witness, an interesting history of formation and development has the first Russian printed newspaper which was founded by Peter I. On January 13 (on the second of January, according to old calendar) in Moscow, by Peter the Great's order, the first of surviving issues of the first print Russian newspaper came out: "Vedomosti about war matters and other issues worth of knowledge and recollection, which came about in Moscow State and other neighboring countries". Nevertheless, it must be noted, that the first issues of "Vedomosti" in the opinion of historians were also handwritten. It may be said by right that among a good deal of the ruler the Great Peter's
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deeds there was a creation of print newspaper which could be noticeably replicated and spread in many corners of Russia and abroad. Leonardo da Vinci was familiar with pinhole camera, in Napoleon's times magic lantern was already anachronism. In 1839 Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre carried out the first experience of facsimile -daguerreotype. In 1893 Thomas Alva Edison to whom mankind is obliged not only due to the invention of telephone, but also of a "peep-show", brought the humanity to the threshold of cinematography discovery. At this problem worked the Americans -Latham and Armat, the Russians - Timchenko, Samarski, Akimov, a Polish scientist - Proszynski, an Englishman - Paul. And the French photo fabricators - the brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière - became the inventors. One may confirm without any exaggeration that these "prototypes" of modern mass communication means formed social procurement, in particular, in the field of education. Namely then, for instance, many scientists became interested in cinematography in educational context. Advanced scientists and pedagogues of the time considered cinematograph as a wonderful alternative for traditional educational models, broadening teaching possibilities.
In the Russian pedagogical literature the question about "cinematography" use at school was raised in 1897. Its unlimited possibilities are being considered in the field of up-bringing, education, cultural and historical inclusion. So far unsophisticated experiments of screen representation of well-known historical events witness this.
In this very period of definition, educational potential's evaluation of cinematograph another pedagogical problem emerges - the struggle against negative impact of the films which are capable to lead the viewers away from culture and real life, to immerse into dreamland, the world of various entertainments, to blunt emotional and mental abilities, even to suggest vicious ideas, morbid inclinations, to push to immoral acts.
Thus, since the first years of cinematograph existence in pedagogical model of its use, cinematographic education problem has emerged, the question about mediator (no matter who it is: a critic, a teacher or a film itself), capable to control successively interests, needs, to bring up the viewer effectively using the richest artistic possibili-
ties of an engendered art's impact. That is why the very notion "media education", as paradoxical as it may seem, is not innovative.
Though, on the other hand, such an intensified interest to media education at all educational hierarchical levels means, as it may bee seen, a particular demand today. It may be observed with all evidence in the sphere of foreign languages teaching as well. Let's try to account for it.
In connection with globalization processes in our world and information technologies' development the problems of intercultural communication are put in the focus of attention. At present time education has to solve a very complicated problem -to prepare the youth for life in the conditions of cultures' dialogue, i.e. for intercultural communication. To achieve this goal pedagogical process must be organized with consideration of numerous foreign language media texts and text formats. They circulate in global information space created by modern mass communication means. The question of a personality's media competence forming is becoming very acute. After comparing different points of view on essence's definition of the notion "media literacy", after generalizing and analyzing the experience of home and foreign media pedagogues, under media education goals in the process of foreign language teaching we understand proactively planned and formulated joint-study result of foreign language and the language of authentic mass communication means.
There is a demand nowadays for the following member of society - a personality capable of interacting with foreign language media information's streams in global informational space: to carry out the search, to analyze, critically evaluate and create media texts spread with the help of different mass media and communication means, in all their variability. These personality's qualities are mainly formed in the system of higher education by means of all subjects. After all pedagogic aims are the consequence of social ones and social essence of education. Foreign language cannot stand off from the solution of this problem.
The new society's requirements to the level of a personality development and accomplishments, new information life conditions must change substance, means and methods of pedagogical process. In this situation emerges a natural and rather urgent
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necessity of new conceptions, methods and foreign language teaching techniques. For the time being a new technology of media competence's forming of secondary linguistic personality is becoming a burning issue.
Thereat, we proceed from the fact that media education and "foreign language" have a common genesis. We are going to explain that.
The two phenomena are based on the idea of communication. Communication is a human connection, socializing, semantic interaction between people. An intelligent man - homo sapiens - is, first of all, communicating man - homo communicans. Having analyzed the essential informational-communicative problems, we came to the conclusion that communication is becoming increasingly complex social and cultural phenomenon which touches upon different types of activity in all countries and is an inseparable part of political, social, economical, cultural, scientific, educational and technological evolution.
It is well-known that the language is the most important means of communication and is used by people to interact between individuals and individuals' groups. Foreign language teaching is a teaching how to use this means. Today the subject "foreign language" has one of the leading tasks -communication acquisition. Etymological and semantic identity of the term "communication" and "socializing" are pe r-suasively proved by the scientists. Mass communication possesses the widest semiot-ic potential and delivers mediated character of socializing, offered by modern technique of information's transmission and receiving.
Since socializing may perform at the same time as a process of interaction between people and as an informational process on numerically big, dispersed audiences, i.e. through mass communication means, consequently, students during foreign language acquisition may master not only interpersonal communication, but also mediatized one, what is especially topical in the conditions of communicative infrastructure's strengthening. From the point of view of media education, the property of mediatized socializing implies the choice of not only verbal code of communication, but also of non-verbal one, with the use of artificial and mixed communicative codes providing interaction between a man and machine. To our mind, foreign language
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mediatized socializing is an interaction of a person with belonging to another language mass communication means, the substance of which is apprehension of comparative value of this media stuff, its emotional-semantic relationship and hidden constituent. Therefore, it is the development of students' media competence what the modern pedagogical strategy of foreign language teaching must foresee. And to this very social requirement correspond both media education and foreign language as well. We believe that the substance of these two phenomena, on the one hand, media education with its strongly pronounced social and cultural character, setting goal of media competence's forming, on the other hand, foreign language (foreign language lesson) are so intertwined and interdependent that the only right way is their integration.
This idea is not a new one. In the last decades it is observed in authorial foreign languages teaching conceptions (Verbitskaya, 2011; Zharkovskaya, 2010; Ivanova 1999, 2010, 2011; Novikova, 2004; Ryzhykh, 2006; Fraifeld, 2006; Chicherina, 2008 and others) and in pedagogical practices which are being formed. Nevertheless the way from innovative ideas in theory of teaching to their realization in pedagogical practice turns out to be long and thorny. However, it is an open secret that educational establishments are the most delayed-action social institutions (A.Toffler).
We would like to understand what are the causes preventing implementation of media competence's forming technology.
One may assume that there psychological barriers some pedagogues have, namely: absence of desire to change, technophobia etc. But the most important thing as interviewed respondents point out is the fact that media education doesn't fit well into educational system of foreign language teaching, traditional interpretations of mass communication means' role in the educative process and the misgivings that media education's introduction into the educative process would lead to radical "breakage" of the former conceptualizations of a pedagogue.
Probably one may agree with this to a certain degree, especially, if to take into account the fact that the attitude to media education among teachers is highly different. A certain polarization of viewpoints is being observed: from well-defined opti-
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mistic to diametrically opposed, sceptical-negative attitude to media education in the educative process. As a rule, a considerable part of pedagogues show their committal to traditional forms and methods of training and feel suspicious and sometimes even hostile about the idea of media education's implementation into foreign language educative process.
The answers to this questionnaire reflect quite objective pedagogues' evaluation related to media education. In such situation one may hardly count on systematical and all-round implementation of media education into foreign language educative process. Moreover another aspect of the problem must be taken into consideration and namely: the attitude towards the enthusiasts of media education on the part of their colleagues and educational establishments' heads. Unfortunately, as our research showed, this attitude is at times so negative that some pedagogues have to cease their media educational activity or not to start it at all.
From our point of view, the cause of such situation consists, first of all, in the fact that in teachers' training high schools there was no targeted educational guidance on media competence's forming of the future pedagogues, to say nothing of education which was carried out in absolutely different social and cultural situation connected neither with practically free media stuff's market, nor with stormy mass communication means' development and space virtualization.
To our mind, nowadays, it seems justified to consider media competence's forming technology as a necessary constituent in foreign language teaching. To sum it up, it should be said that media literacy in pedagogical process is the imperative of our era.
Literature
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