22ORGANIZATION OF STUDENT ACTIVITIES IN SMALL GROUPS COOPERATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LESSONS IN THE FIRST YEAR OF NON-LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITIES
Mokhinbonu Fazliddinovna Pardaeva
Uzbekistan State World Languages University
ABSTRACT
Learning in cooperation is considered as one of the efficient teaching techniques that helps students socialize and learn from pre-school through to higher education and among various subjects. It involves students working together to achieve general tasks or complete group works that would be impossible or complex to accomplish by themselves. The purpose of this paper is to examine the specifics of activities in small groups of cooperation and to suggest teaching several models of learning in cooperation for the first-year non-linguistic students. For the most part, the paper discusses matters such as the stages of formation and development of communicative competence and their designation.
Keywords: Cooperative learning; planning; teaching; individual, frontal, group; didactic tasks; lexical skills; grammatical skills; Pinwheel; Think-Pair-Share; Team-Pair-Solo; 3-Step International; Academic Controversy; Jigsaw; sociocultural competence; educational, cognitive and compensatory competences.
INTRODUCTION
The mastery of knowledge, skills and abilities takes place in accordance with the logic of cognitive activity, at each stage of which certain didactic tasks are solved. The type of educational activity, the form of its organization (individual, frontal, group) and the method of teaching depend on the content of educational activity at a particular stage. The teaching method in cooperation is only one of the teaching methods used in the teaching process and the appropriateness of its use is determined, on the one hand, by its didactic properties, on the other hand, by the content of students' educational activities at a particular stage of cognitive activity and the stage of learning.
METHODOLOGY
In order to determine which model of interaction in a small group of cooperation is advisable to use to solve specific didactic tasks, it is necessary to turn
to the logic of cognitive activity, in accordance with which the following stages of the formation and development of communicative competence are distinguished:
a) familiarization with new linguistic material, b) formation of an indicative basis of action, c) formation of grammatical and lexical skills, d) improvement of lexicogrammatical skills; e) development of speech skills, creative use of speech material for solving communication problems.
Learning activity is cyclical and includes the listed stages, which are implemented in each series of lessons [5: 257]. Such planning, in contrast to thematic planning, does not provide for specific content, but "the logic of the development of students' cognitive actions and the teaching actions of the teacher ..." [1: 134]. Cycle planning allows to clearly define the role and place of each type of activity in the lesson, depending on the task and the concept used, including learning in small groups of cooperation. Moreover, it is possible to clearly define what types of tasks, exercises in each case must be foreseen. The student's educational activity is considered as a specific type of activity. "The central link of educational activity is assimilation (appropriation), and its mechanism is transfer, the internal mechanism of which is generalization" [6: 94]. I.A.Zimnyaya draws attention to the fact that in the study of assimilation, it is noted: "the entire process (assimilation) is conditioned by the moment of the first meeting with the educational material" [6: 97]. It is on how the educational material is presented to students that the success and strength of its assimilation by students will depend. The didactic task of the stage of acquaintance with new linguistic material is its perception by students and comprehension. Perception - the first link in assimilation - is inextricably linked with comprehension, "including the act of comprehension." "... To perceive the material is ... it means to comprehend it in one way or another" [4: 506]. The result of students' understanding of the introduced language material is knowledge, which is "the basis for performing speech actions according to the program given by the teacher" [5: 178]. Knowledge is "a system of landmarks, the support on which allows one to carry out speech activity that is correct from the point of view of the norms existing in the language being studied" [5: 126]. At the stage of acquaintance with new lexical material, it is assumed that the meaning of new lexical units is revealed, familiarity with their form (phonetic, graphic, grammatical), peculiarities of use in speech (the ability to combine with other lexical units). Acquaintance includes work on the form of a word, its meaning and use and involves the creation of clear sound-motor images of a word (imitation and sound analysis of a word), sound-letter (spelling rules) and alphanumeric-sound analysis (reading rules), analysis of the structure of a word,
disclosure of the meaning of a word (semantisation). When teaching vocabulary, a difficulty arises when studying the volume of meanings of words, which in most cases does not coincide with the native language, the polysemy of words, the nature of the compatibility of some words with others, as well as the use of a word in specific communication situations. The purpose of the next stage is to create an indicative basis for the subsequent formation of the skill. At this stage, the correct understanding of new concepts, new grammatical or lexical material is checked. This stage is necessary in order to avoid the formation of so-called false skills. After the introduction of the new material, it is needed to make sure that everyone understood it correctly: the didactic task of this stage is to establish feedback in order to eliminate errors in a timely manner and obtain operational information about the accuracy of understanding the new material, its main provisions. At the stage of forming an indicative basis for an action, after receiving instructions on how to perform a particular operation, students should be able to recognize a new linguistic phenomenon by reading or by ear. In the first year of study, it is advisable to form an indicative basis of action under the guidance of a teacher, frontally. Only after the teacher is convinced that all students have understood the new material can one proceed to the stage of skills formation, i.e. to the independent application of the knowledge gained. The stage of skills formation involves the organization of training for the purpose of receptive and reproductive mastery of language material, automation of lexical and grammatical skills. The formation of grammatical and lexical skills is carried out in the use of lexicogrammatical material in preparatory (linguistic, conventional speech) exercises.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
With a rational, correct organization of the educational activities of students, this stage should be ensured, in accordance with the formulation of A.A. Leont'ev, "the optimal transition from a material action to a mental one, from a conscious mastery of an operation to its automatic use" [2: 297]. For this process to be effective, each student in the group at this stage is required to provide oral practice and at the same time provide feedback so that the student, while completing the task, knows if he is doing it correctly. This is possible when working in pairs or small group collaboration. Both the one and the other type of activity activates cognitive activity, in this case the training of new language material, increasing the speaking time of each student, and at the same time provides mutual control. We, following E.S. Polat and E.G. Ivanova, consider pair work to be the most adequate models of educational
interaction at this stage in the formation of a lexical skill, and in the formation of a grammatical skill - training in a small group of cooperation according to the "Pinwheel" model when filling groups - 3 people (students with different levels of training: high, medium and low). This model is effective at this stage due to the fact that it allows to achieve the required result (skills formation) in a short time. As noted by E.S. Polat, this model involves pronunciation, explanation, argumentation, consolidation of their knowledge by each member of the group (each subsequent task is performed by the next student with explanation and current control from the whole group) [3] An example of an exercise for the formation of grammatical skill is an exercise for training the use of verbs in Past Simple Passive. Students are invited to split into groups of 3 people. The group works according to the "Pinwheel" model. In accordance with the instructions for the exercise, students need to complete sentences, indicate the place or author of the creation of this or that known object, and (as appropriate) thereby help the English student complete the task. Working in a group, students listen to each other, if necessary, help each other, correct mistakes, explain them. The task is considered successfully completed if any member of the group can correctly say about the place of creation of these items, objects. After completing the tasks for the formation and improvement of lexical and grammatical skills, a test or control work is carried out, consisting of differentiated tasks.
The stage of creative application of the material or the stage of productive and receptive search speech activity (A.D. Klimenko, A.A. Mirolyubov) involves the use by students in speech of the accumulated lexical grammatical material in the process of active cognitive activity in different types of speech activity (speaking, reading, listening , writing). The didactic task of this stage is the development of speech skills, mastering the most foreign language communicative activity.
Collaborative learning models for the first-year students In the first year of study, in order to develop speech skills (speech competence), the formation of critical thinking skills, intellectual, general educational skills (educational cognitive competence), mastering sociocultural knowledge and skills (sociocultural competence), instructors can use several models of learning in cooperation, whose didactic properties and the functions correspond to the peculiarities of this stage. The choice of a specific model depends on the type of problem task and the didactic task to solve it.
The first group of problematic tasks, as O.S.Vinogradova writes [7], is aimed at finding and analyzing the necessary information. Analysis is understood as critical comprehension, concentration of attention on individual parts of information, their
significance in general. In the analysis, the ability to compare the main thoughts of the text with facts from other sources is formed and used in order to draw the necessary conclusions that are significant to confirm the previously formulated assumption; the ability to delve deeper into the problem. Models by their didactic properties are focused on the search and analysis of information may be suitable here. These are Think-Pair-Share, 3-Step International, Team-Pair-Solo, Jigsaw, as well as Academic Controversy, although the last of the listed models is also focused on teaching methods of participating in a discussion.
Think-Pair-Share gives the opportunity at the first stage (Think) to independently work on the text, topic / problem (read, think over, develop opinion, present the course of the message - "make up" a plan of the statement, carry out internal pronunciation). Then, at the second stage (Pair) - to bring facts from the material students listened to or read and to express point of view to the partner, working in pairs, to carry out mutual control and mutual correction of statements. At the third stage (Share), working in a small group, it is needed to generalize everything, take into account different points of view, opinions, come to a consensus and formulate it in the form of a message or judgment. Due to multiple reproduction of speech material, the volume increases and the form of the utterance is improved. This model can be presented in two versions: for two or four people. If students work according to the pair model, then at the Share stage they communicate their version of the solution to the problem to the entire language group, and then this exercise will be aimed directly at learning to analyze information. If the work proceeds according to the model of four people (for a small group), then the Share stage takes place in a small group (of four people) and only after that the report for the entire language group takes place. In this case, there is both the stage of analysis and the stage of information synthesis, but as a rule, the semantic load falls on the stage of analysis. Although much depends on the specific task.
To perform problematic tasks for the formation of skills to analyze and generalize information, instructors can also use 3-Step International for a small group of 4 people. By virtue of its didactic properties, this model is aimed at teaching the technique of using questions, developing the ability to highlight the main idea in what he heard, and briefly report what he heard. This model can turn an exercise into a little exploration. The sequence of actions in this model allows to first enter into a dialogue with a partner, then, after exchanging information / opinions on the problem (asking each other), communicate the partner's opinion or new information about him/her to other members of the group, summarize everything and prepare a message
from the group. Such an exercise makes it possible to repeat the lexico-grammatical material while solving various communication problems (first, ask and listen, understand and remember, then tell). Here the emphasis can be made at the stage of information analysis or provide for the equivalence of the stages of analysis and generalization of information.
The Jigsaw model is used when it is necessary to consider a problem by processing information from different sources or to consider different aspects of a problem using one source of information. In the course of work on this model of cooperation, students investigate any problem: they work with a source of information - they read the text, highlight the main and the necessary, analyze and, at a certain stage of work, generalize the collected facts and judgments on the problem in order to form a complete picture of the problem. The result of joint work is the formulation of a common version of understanding the processed information, a common judgment on the problem. The model is characterized by an increase in the number of contacts within the group and between groups, the presence of close interaction between members of different groups. The very nature of the activity within the model requires each member of the group to possess the means and methods of forming and formulating their own thoughts on the problem being solved and understanding the thoughts of the partners in the groups. The model assumes the equivalence of the stages of analysis and generalization of information.
The task of teaching in cooperation is to prepare students for the independent fulfillment of such problematic tasks, for independent work with information. The Team-Pair-Solo model ("in a team - in a pair - alone") "brings" students to the level of independent problem solving. First, students try to gather facts, discuss the problem in a team: they give as many ideas as possible. The work is going on in the "brainstorming" mode. Then they discuss individual facts, possible solutions to the problem, try to formulate their opinion, working in pairs. Then everyone independently comes to a conclusion, formulates, argues his/her opinion. The exercise performed according to this model is aimed at developing the ability to generalize and analyze information, take into account and evaluate different points of view, accept or reject an opinion, as well as the ability to describe an event, express opinion about certain facts, express opinion on a problem.
CONCLUSION
Thus, training in small groups of cooperation is advisable to use to solve the following methodological problems:
- when forming grammatical skills, when improving lexical and grammatical skills, it is advisable to use the "Pinwheel" model (formation of language competence). Thus, training in small groups of cooperation is advisable to use to solve the following methodological problems:
-when forming grammatical skills, while improving lexical and grammatical skills, it is advisable to use the "Pinwheel" model (formation of language competence);
- in the formation of intellectual skills for working with information in different types of speech activity, namely: speaking, reading, writing (formation of speech competence);
-in the formation of the skills to find, analyze and generalize, evaluate information, formulate and argue opinion, the Think-Pair Share, 3-Step International, Jigsaw, Team-Pair-Solo models are effective;
- for the formation of the ability to evaluate the information, the decision made, for teaching the techniques of conducting a discussion, the Аcademic Controversy model is needed.
All of these skills are important for participating in discussions, independent research and project activities. These skills are used in various types of speech activity. The specificity of teaching in small groups of cooperation allows us to talk about such types as reading (working with text), speaking (exchange of oral information), writing (joint work on written texts). The specificity of this method does not provide for listening as special tasks.
So, the method of teaching in small groups of cooperation (in the aggregate of different models) allows to contribute to the formation of:
• linguistic competence (the formation of lexical and grammatical skills);
• speech competence in speaking (semantic, logical presentation of material, the ability to argue one's position), in reading (highlighting the main idea, searching for facts, analysis, generalization, assessment), in written speech (extract of the necessary information; semantic, logical presentation of the material in coherent written text);
• intellectual skills of working with information (individual skills of critical thinking);
• sociocultural competence;
• educational, cognitive and compensatory competences; and also allows:
• provide individualization and differentiation of the learning process;
• to form a stable motivation for learning.
However, it should be noted that the collaborative learning method is only one of the methods and can be effectively used at various stages in conjunction with other methods.
REFERENCES
1. Gez, N. I., Lyakhovitsky, M. V., & Mirolyubov, A. A. (1982). Methods of teaching foreign languages in high school. Textbook. Moscow: Higher School.
2. Leontiev, A.A. (2005). Language, speech, speech activity. URSS.
3. Polat, E. S., Bukharkyna, M. Y., Moiseeva, M. V., & Petrov, A. E. (2003). New pedagogical and information technologies in the system of education. M.: Publishing House «Academia».
4. Polyakov, O. G. (1995). Test as a means of control in a communicative approach to teaching a foreign language. Basic course: English. and it. lang. Moscow.
5. Shchukin, A. N. (2002). Metodika obucheniya inostrannym yazykam [Foreign Languages Teaching Methodology]. M.: Prosveshchenie.
6. Zimnyaya, I. A. (1991). Psychology of teaching foreign languages at school. Prosvescheniye, Moscow.
7. Vinogradova, O.S. (2010). Problematic methods in teaching foreign languages [Electronic resource].
Access mode: http://distant.ioso.ru/library/publication/vinogradova1.htm.
