PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ПРОЕКТНАЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ КАК СРЕДСТВО МОТИВАЦИИ К ИЗУЧЕНИЮ
АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА
Адамчук Т.В.,
кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры лингвистики и перевода МГПИ им. М.Е. Евсевьева, Саранск, Россия
Пронькина В.М., кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры лингвистики и перевода МГПИ им. М.Е. Евсевьева, Саранск, Россия
Кузнецова В.А. магистрант
МГПИ им. М.Е. Евсевьева, Саранск, Россия THE PROJECT ACTIVITY AS A MEANS OF MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING ENGLISH
Adamchuk T. V.,
Ph. D. in Philology, Associate Professor Department of Linguistics and Translation Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute, Saransk, Russia Pronkina V.M., Ph. D. in Philology, Associate Professor Department of Linguistics and Translation Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute, Saransk, Russia Kuznetsova V.A. Graduate student Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute Saransk, Russia
Аннотация
Проект как учебно-познавательная, творческая деятельность актуальна и разнообразна на современном этапе обучения иностранному языку. Цель проектной деятельности - развитие иноязычной коммуникативной компетенции, повышение мотивации обучающихся к изучению иностранного языка. Проект рассматривается в статье как эффективное дидактическое средство с опорой на фоновые знания обучающихся, стимулирующее развитие их коммуникативных способностей через совместный с учителем и участниками проекта поиск новой лингвокультурологической информации.
Abstract
The project as an educational and cognitive, creative activity is relevant and diverse at the present stage of learning a foreign language. The purpose of the project activity is the development of foreign language communicative competence, increasing the motivation of students to learn a foreign language. The project is considered in the article as an effective didactic means based on the background knowledge of students, stimulating the development of their communication skills through a joint search with the teacher and project participants for new linguistic and cultural information.
Ключевые слова: лингвистический проект, проектная деятельность, учебно-познавательная деятельность, мотивация, лингвистическая активность, коммуникативная компетенция, лингвокультурологиче-ская иноязычная компетенция, эффективная педагогическая технология
Keywords: linguistic project, project activity, educational and cognitive activity, motivation, linguistic activity, communicative competence, linguistic and cultural foreign language competence, effective pedagogical technology
Project activity is rather popular at the present stage of learning English. Independent research activity as educational and cognitive, creative and gaming activity have special methods and ways of realization aimed at achieving a common result of students' activity.
From the teacher's point of view, a training project is a didactic means allowing a teacher to train linguistic activity to find a way out by solving problems arising from the task considering it in a particular situation. From the learner's point of view, an educational project is an opportunity to do something interesting in a group
or by a student himself, making the most of his opportunities. This is an activity that allows students to express themselves, to apply their knowledge, and to show publicly the achieved linguistic results.
At the English lessons creative and informational projects can be used of both types: individual and group ones (up 3 to 5 students). Group projects may facilitate the process of teambuilding being rather effective in teaching languages. It helps to develop professional competences and effective communication skills [3]. Creative project is supposed to be prepared according to clear planning of the final results and forms of presentation. The structure of the project is only planned at the very beginning of the activity and developed further in the process, according to the genre of the final result and the interests of the participants.
There are various types of linguistic projects: a joint newspaper, essay, video, booklet, advertising, presentation, site, film, etc. It can be an investigated project aimed at working with information about any linguistic object or phenomenon and intended to familiarize the project participants with specific information, its analysis and synthesis prepared for a wide audience. Such kinds of projects, as well as research, require a well-designed structure and the possibility of its correction in the process of work. The result of it may be in the form of a message, abstract, report, etc.
It is necessary to mention that the application of the project methodology in the process of teaching a foreign language at the senior stage of education in the secondary school contributes to:
- stimulate the motivation of schoolchildren to study English;
- increase the level of mental and speech activity of students;
- develop logical thinking skills in aspects related to the real life of students and expanding the areas of communication in the foreign language;
- develop communicative, linguistic and cultural foreign language competence;
- form independence in working with language materials, reference, methodical, artistic authentic literature, the Internet sources;
- develop and educate a versatile student personality.
It is important to remember that formation of the basis of the culture of research and project activities, skills of development, presentation of the results of the study, a subject or interdisciplinary educational project aimed at solving a scientific, personal and (or) socially significant problem. Most of them, linguistic research involves an active cognitive position based on the search for an answer to a question related to the comprehension and creative processing of information.
Design and research students' activity at the English lessons have their own specifics and require clarification of the conditions for its effectiveness in teaching English. An important role here is given to the use of modern technology - the project method helps students to study life by means of the English language in the real information space. The project provides an opportunity to include students in real communication in English [1, p. 235].
Understanding and applying the project method in a cross-cultural situation makes possible to characterize a school linguistic project as an effective pedagogical technology that allows a teacher to solve effectively the tasks of a student-focused approach to teaching pupils English. Some scientists (Zimnyaya I.A., Saharova T.E., Polat E.S.) say that the method of project is a way to achieve a didactic goal through the detailed development of a problem, which should be completed with a real practical result, executed in one way or another; it is a set of techniques, actions of students in their specific sequence to achieve the result - solving the problem, personally important for students and arranged in the form of a certain final product [2; 4].
If to speak about the lesson of the English language, a project is a set of actions specially organized by the teacher and independently executed by the students, culminating in the creation of a work. The project is valuable through its implementation; students learn independently to acquire knowledge, to gain experience in cognitive and educational activities. The research methodology here is based on the cyclical organization of the educational process. A separate cycle is considered as a completed independent period of study aimed at solving a specific task in achieving the common goal of mastering English.
Project-research activity can be introduced into school practice for the following tasks to:
- show the skills of an individual student or a group of students to use the research experience acquired at school;
- realize students' interest in the subject of study, to increase knowledge about it;
- demonstrate the level of the English language proficiency;
- rise to a higher level of education, development, social maturity;
- develop an interest in cognitive, creative, experimental research, in-depth study of disciplines, an increase in the social status of knowledge;
- develop the personal qualities of students, to promote the formation of logical, scientific thinking in English;
- help acquire additional knowledge and skills in the area of interest; to develop skills of independent work with various sources of information: scientific and special literature, periodicals, reference books, multimedia equipment;
- stimulate the social and professional self-determination of schoolchildren, to focus on the further continuation of education at the university;
- acquaint students with the theoretical foundations of research activities: methods of processing the obtained data and analyzing the results, compiling and processing reports and reports on the results of research activities;
- organize a variety of creative, socially significant research activities of children in English; to participate in contests, conferences, projects, scientific and practical seminars held within the framework of the activities of the University; practice public speaking skills, defend their work in front of an audience.
It is clear that the project in English is rather specific and has its own characteristics. Its subject can be related both to the country of the language being studied and to the country of residence. The students are focused on the comparison of events, phenomena, facts from the history and life of people from different countries.
The problem proposed to students should be formulated in such a way as to direct students to attracting facts from related fields of knowledge and various sources of information [5, p. 19]. It is necessary to involve in the work of all students of the class, proposing each task, taking into account the level of its language training.
The project methodology uses a very fruitful idea. Along with verbal means of expression, students widely use other means: drawings, collages, pictures, plans, maps, charts, questionnaire tables, graphs and charts, soundtracks and sound effects, etc. Most of all, the development of communication skills is reliably supported by a variety of means that transmit this or that information.
To memorize lexical means and grammatical structures different means in the course of solving problematic tasks of linguistic project are widely used; the development of creative thinking and imagination is stimulated here. The teacher of English is to create special conditions to stimulate the freedom of expression of thoughts and activity.
It is necessary to remember that preparing, drawing up and presenting a project is rather longer and spider-work than the performance of traditional tasks. But it has many positive effects:
- enriching the vocabulary of students;
- consolidating of the studied lexical and grammatical material;
- creating of a festive atmosphere in the class.
Design and research work has unique capabilities
for truly communicative learning of the English language, even when relying on minimal language material.
The results are presented to the rest of the project participants in the form of a report, discussion, role-playing game, through a scientific conference, exhibition, etc.
The result of the project is a product created by the participants in the course of solving the problem with the application of not only training, but real life experience. The project will be effective when it is focused on achieving the aims of the students themselves. As the result of dealing with the project there are a lot of general educational skills: reflexive, research, managerial,
presentational, skills of evaluative independence, ability to work in cooperation.
According to the nature of the final product of the project activity, it is possible to distinguish the following types of projects in the field of learning English in the classroom: role-playing projects, informative-research projects, extracurricular activities for, creative works, publishing projects, network projects.
The experience proves that any type of project stimulates students' activity: they have to write, cut, paste, rummage through reference books, talk to other people, look for photos and drawings, make their own tapes, films, etc. And, finally, students with different levels of language ability can participate in project work in according their capabilities. For example, a student who does not speak English well may draw beautifully.
As the main task of education is the actual study of the surrounding life according to a concrete sphere of application, the teacher and students go this way together from project to project. Each project should inspire enthusiasm in them, motivate them to learn English and use it in their activity. By communicating to others about the world around them in English, learners discover the value of English language as a language of international communication. They may find themselves in a situation where they will need to describe their family or city to foreigners, and design and research work prepares them for this. Thus the project activity of students is a real means of motivation to learn English.
References
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