Teaching foreign languages to adults

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Teaching foreign languages to adults

The article presents a study of the reasons that encourage adults to learn English, the difficulties they face during the period of study, and the features of the educational process. Most adults have an urgent need to learn a foreign language in order to become full partners in international communication and activities. It is noticed that the difficulties in learning are explained by ineffective previous experience and high learning requirements. Teaching an adult audience has a number of features, the knowledge of which will help to use methodological techniques effectively and solve the problem of optimizing the educational process. The requirements of adults for the effectiveness of the educational process are very high, and they are determined not only by personal and professional motives, interests and needs, but also associated with professional activities. An adult audience requires attention to the personality of each student. It is analyzed the peculiarities of learning foreign languages by adults. А feature of adults who master foreign languages is often high motivation, a positive attitude towards a foreign language, interest in it, the presence of such character traits as diligence, organization, independence, purposefulness, etc. Motivation finds its expression in stimulating a person to action, in mobilizing his internal energy, in directing his actions and deeds. The psychological features of this category of people are reflected. The essential specific of adult education is revealed, the difficulties they face in the process of mastering foreign languages are analyzed, and ways to improve the effectiveness of their foreign language education are identified. Adult education requires a specific organization of the educational process and special forms of pedagogical communication.

Key words: foreign language, adult education, professional activity, communication, motivation. foreign language adult education

НАВЧАННЯ ІНОЗЕМНИХ МОВ ДЛЯ ДОРОСЛИХ

У статті проаналізовано причини, які спонукають дорослих до вивчення англійської мови, труднощі, з якими вони стикаються в період навчання, особливості освітнього процесу. Більшість дорослих мають гостру потребу в оволодінні іноземною мовою, щоб стати повноправними партнерами у міжнародному спілкуванні та діяльності. Відмічено, що труднощі в навчанні пояснюються неефективним попереднім досвідом та високими вимогами до навчання. В статті наголошується, що навчання дорослої аудиторії має ряд особливостей, знання яких допоможе ефективно використовувати методичні прийоми та вирішити завдання оптимізації навчально-виховного процесу. Вимоги дорослих до ефективності навчально-виховного процесу дуже високі, і вони визначаються не лише особистими та професійними мотивами, інтересами та потребами, а й пов'язані з професійною діяльністю. Доросла аудиторія вимагає уваги до особистості кожного учня. Особливістю дорослих, які вдосконалюють свої знання, часто є висока мотивація, позитивне ставлення до іноземної мови, інтерес до неї, наявність таких рис характеру, як працьовитість, організованість, самостійність, цілеспрямованість тощо. Мотивація знаходить своє вираження в стимулюванні людини до дії, в мобілізації своєї внутрішньої енергії, в скерованості своїх дій і вчинків. В статті розглянуто особливості вивчення іноземних мов дорослими, визначено шляхи підвищення ефективності їхньої іншомовної освіти. Відображено психологічні особливості цієї категорії людей. Наголошено на тому, що для створення оптимальних умов психологічного комфорту в процесі навчання необхідно прагнути до природнього неформального спілкування, яке характеризується чуйністю та увагою до співрозмовника.

Отже, навчання дорослих потребує специфічної організації навчально-виховного процесу та особливих форм педагогічного спілкування.

Ключові слова: іноземна мова, освіта дорослих, професійна діяльність, комунікація, мотивація.

Problem statement

In the modem world, knowledge of a foreign language is an important component of the personal and professional life of an individual. Today there is a tendency for adults to learn a foreign language, which is associated with the need to ensure communication in the field of business, tourism, scientific and cultural relations. Globalization has grown significantly, expanded trade relations, it became possible to trade with other states; more and more people of different nationalities want to find employment abroad, to communicate more effectively at work, to resort to overseas travels, or just to enjoy various types of social situations.

A person who speaks English can safely go to any country in the world, being sure that his knowledge will always help to quickly adapt in a society of foreigners, find a job in successful foreign companies or enter the best universities in the world to receive a prestigious education. Language proficiency is also essential for people planning to emigrate abroad. Teaching English is an urgent task of the modern educational process.

Analysis of recent research and publications

The issue of teaching adults foreign languages is relevant, but at the same time little researched. Basically, methodological literature contains materials for teaching foreign languages to children and youth. The issues of adult education were studied in the direction of studying the psychological characteristics of an adult as a subject of education. B. Ananiev, S. Rubinshtein and others studied the issues of adult education as psychological characteristics of an adult as a subject of education. The factors of successful human education at different stages of maturity were studied by K. Albukhanova- Slavskaya, T. Andryushchenko, L. Vygotsky, L. Sigaeva, I. Folvarochny and others. N. Galskova, T. Grigoryeva, G. Kitaigorodsky, V. Safonova and others were engaged in the peculiarities of teaching foreign languages to adults. Analysis of modern psychological and pedagogical and methodological literature shows that it lacks a comprehensive coverage of the features of teaching foreign languages to people of mature age, as well as the pedagogical conditions for the effectiveness of this process.

Setting objectives

The novelty of this work, we suppose, consists in the authors' attempt to formulate and investigate some essential, in our view, reasons of main problems of teaching adults. The goal of this article is to investigate some peculiarities of teaching adult language learners. The object is the process of teaching foreign languages in the audience of grown-ups.

Presentation of the main research material

Knowledge of foreign language allows a person not only freely to navigate in modern society, but also to expand their horizons, move up the career ladder, get acquainted with interesting and necessary people to access a variety of sources of information. Of course, everyone who wants to learn foreign languages has his own motivation, but in general it is possible to identify the main areas of needs students:

1. Job. For some specialties, knowledge of a foreign language is necessarily. Now more and more Ukrainian companies are leaving to the international level, cooperate with foreign companies. Therefore, specialists who speak foreign languages are many times more likely to get a job in this company, and the potential salary level also rises sharply. Therefore, specialists who speak foreign languages are many times more likely to get a job in this company, and the potential salary level also rises sharply. Thus, fluency in a foreign language is required in order to work in foreign firms or foreign banks.

2. Travels. Even basic knowledge of a foreign language will make you feel more comfortable abroad. And if you are fluent in a foreign language, it will help to make new acquaintances and communicate with foreigners.

3. Emigration. If people are planning to leave for another country in the near future, it is desirable to speak a foreign language of this country at a sufficiently high level. This will help you quickly adapt to a new environment, get a job, make friends.

4. Training. Many leading educational institutions in Ukraine introduce a foreign language as an entrance exam for various specialties. It means that knowledge of a foreign language will greatly help to enter a prestigious university. Often, some courses in a foreign language are included in the curriculum in order to send students for internships abroad in the future.

5. Other interests. Many people like to watch foreign films, children are often addicted to anime. But it is always more pleasant to hear the real voice of your favorite actors, their intonations and timbre. Therefore, many people begin to learn the language in order to watch films in the original. There are many travelers in the modern world. For many of them, it is not enough to read a few lines or essays about the culture of their beloved country. Therefore, for a complete immersion in the culture, history and traditions of a favorite place, people begin to learn the language. Often they say that the experience of visiting the country without knowing the language is very different from when they have mastered the skills and can read and communicate with the local population in their own language. Language, in fact, is a tool that helps to lift the curtain on cultural heritage country, the image and style of life of its inhabitants, the uniqueness of its environment. When teaching a foreign language to adults, it is necessary to take into account following points.

Adults should want to learn for themselves. Their study will be effective only when they have a strong intrinsic motivation. They will spare no time and effort to understand why they need it and whether it is worth spending time and effort on training. The desire to learn can be awakened, but it cannot be imposed. Adults are able to set themselves specific goals for language acquisition. They will study only what is directly useful to them in life situations and their professional activities. When learning a foreign language, they can organize their independent work, a greater degree of independence contributes to a more conscious mastery of the language. It is necessary to take into account the fact that adults have life experience and a formed point of view on many issues and problems [1, с. 79]. Their experience should be used as a support in the presentation of the material as a basis for learning. If new knowledge is not consistent with what is already known, an adult student is subconsciously set to reject such knowledge. It is useful to organize discussions where everyone expresses their opinion, use active learning methods that stimulate creative work. The style of behavior of the teacher when communicating with students and the degree of independence in working with adults should be different from teaching children. A teacher's overly dominant style can lead adults to feel that nothing depends on them, while turning to adults' life experience and knowledge, involving them in organizing the educational process, will increase self-esteem.

At the initial stage of language acquisition, adults have a high level of motivation, however, when faced with any difficulties, it can fade away. Adults come to class after work, they are tired, and working on the language requires constant active brain activity. It is very important to remove difficulties, talk with students, encourage them, give recommendations on a more rational organization of their time and ways of mastering the language. At the same time, it is important to orient students towards solving practice-oriented communicative tasks that directly reflect life's problems and ways to solve them, which meet the goals and needs of adults, which will contribute to individual as well as group motivation. In the educational process, it is necessary to use individual, group and collective forms of education, gaming technologies and the implementation of the relationship of control and self-control of the results of the educational process. There are beliefs among teachers and students that it is very difficult for adults to learn a foreign language. There are objective reasons for such a judgment, which are associated with natural age-related processes that slow down brain reactions and reducing the ability to perceive and remember information. When learning a foreign language, much more effort is required from an adult than from a child, because mental processes are already stable, active development stops. Learning a foreign language requires memorizing a large number of rules, lexical units, brain flexibility for the correct ability to use these rules, so more time and effort is spent compared to young [2, с. 155].

In addition to the above objective reasons, there are also subjective ones: these are negative stereotypes caused primarily by the difficulties adults perceive themselves as students, their fears, feelings of insecurity and discomfort. Children and adolescents perceive the learning process more naturally, it does not cause them strong feelings and fears, and adults at the student's desk feel much more vulnerable. The problem of fear and self-doubt is partly explained by the peculiarities of the human nervous system: with age, it changes feeling of ego, so he feels uncomfortable in the role of a student. In the first lesson, a feeling of awkwardness is always inevitable, but the atmosphere that the teacher creates in the classroom determines whether it disappears or remains. It is very important that the teacher creates such an atmosphere that adults do not feel faceless and alien, but are involved in the communication process. This can be achieved using the methods of pair and group interaction, constantly changing the composition of the pair and the group, which not only increases speech activity, but also brings the participants of communication closer. Help from partners and the teacher, their assessment and encouragement help to overcome uncertainty, fears, language barriers and feel comfortable in the process of learning the language.

Some scholars have grouped the difficulties with which faced by every person who begins to learn a foreign language in adulthood. In particular, they single out psychological, material, territorial and socio-cultural difficulties.

Financial difficulties are associated with the need for additional classes in language courses or with tutors, since the level of knowledge of a foreign language obtained at school or university is often insufficient. Territorial difficulties are associated with the remoteness of the languages being studied, their inaccessibility, the lack of the possibility of regular practice of a foreign language as a means of communication in receptive and productive types of speech activity, for example, when watching TV programs in a foreign language.

Sociocultural difficulties are caused by the presence of elements of a “foreign” culture that are absent in the culture of the native country, and therefore obscure. These include the features of using communicative strategies of politeness, certain speech elements in various discourses or dialectisms, etc.

Obviously, knowledge of these difficulties should be taken into account in the process teaching adult contingent of foreign languages. At the same time, one should not forget the specific signs of learning for this category of people.

It should be noted, that Leontiev formulated the general principles of learning a foreign language, which must be taken into account in the process of teaching adults. These include the communicative, cognitive and personal principles.

Compliance with the communicative principle ensures communication as a system of purposeful and motivated actions, during which people interact.

The cognitive principle presupposes the acquisition of language as “building material” ofthe picture of the world. At the same time, language acts as a system of meanings, actualized in the image of the world or in the processes of generation and perception of speech.

The personal principle is responsible for the transfer of skills and skills acquired in the learning process, in real communication. Its implementation involves the creation of situations of real communication, taking into account the individual strategies and styles of listeners, their interests.

In addition, it is necessary to take into account the psychological characteristics of the adult audience. You should pay attention to the following ones:

- an adult, unlike a child, in the mental activity goes from analysis to synthesis;

- an adult is characterized by logical constructions, and not mechanical memorization;

- adult representations are characterized by a holistic perception subject of thought, in which the necessary elements are highlighted, and not fragmentation. For example, when teaching the grammar of a foreign language, it is advisable to provide students with a complete picture of a certain material and only then start working on each significant element (first, a summary table of all the meanings of modal verbs is given, and then work is carried out on semantically close groups of verbs);

- an adult is characterized by purposefulness, meaningfulness of activity, therefore one scenario of interrelated activities in a lesson is preferable to a fragmented construction, from which an adult quickly gets tired. At the same time, visual, auditory analyzers, speaking and writing should be involved at the same time, since logical connections work and the material is better absorbed;

- in addition to interest, an orienting reflex appears in an adult, and the activity acquires a personal meaning, directly related to the emotional factor.

Given these psychological characteristics, scientists offer different ways to improve the effectiveness of teaching foreign languages to adults. In particular, E. Ryzhikova believes that for this it is necessary to observe such leading principles as the priority of independent learning, the principle of joint activity, reliance on experience, individualization, systematic learning, contextual learning, updating learning outcomes, elective learning, development of educational needs. Study groups should preferably be formed taking into account different cognitive styles of the adult contingent of students, namely the teaching of foreign languages should include a sociocultural component necessary to increase the motivation of students and the formation of readiness for intercul- tural communication.

The process of learning a foreign language for adults should also be carried out in the form of a business game, which includes situations of indirect communication and takes into account the level of development of students (experience, knowledge, interests, needs, feelings, emotions, worldview) [3, с. 554]. In addition, scientists propose, along with traditional linguistic testing, to conduct a psychological survey to determine the optimal forms and methods.

Learning foreign languages. In addition, according to the scientist, it is necessary to involve students in the selection of training content that should meet their goals and is aimed at teaching mainly oral communication or reading professionally oriented texts. It is also advisable to offer trial lessons using various learning technologies to determine the most effective style of learning a foreign language, as well as to make the most of audiovisual, authentic materials, computers, the Internet and multimedia.

Conclusions

Consequently, teaching foreign languages to adults has its own specifics, which should be taken into account in the process of their foreign language training. The main psycholinguistic features of adult learning are taking into account the difficulties that arise in the learning process, the implementation of the basic principles of learning a foreign language, and the application of individualized learning strategies. This will bring the learning process in line with the communicative, cognitive and personal expectations of the students, providing the opportunity to apply the most individualized strategies and learning styles that meet life needs and personal interests.

We believe that the study of the foreign language experience of training adults both in Ukraine and abroad can become a prospect for further research.

REFERENCES:

1. Григор'єва Т. Особливості навчання іноземних мов дорослих. Вісник Львівського університету: серія педагогічна : зб. наук. праць., м. Львів, 2005. Вип. 20. С. 78 - 83.

2. Сігаєва Л. Розвиток освіти дорослих в Україні (друга половина ХХ - початок ХХІ ст.): монографія / Л. Сігаєва. К. : ЕКМО, 2010. 419 с.

3. Littlewood W. “Communicative language teaching: an expanding concept for a changing world. In E. Hinkel (Eds.). Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning,” New York, Routledge, 2011. P. 541-557.

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