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FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

FOR HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Faculty of Humanities

Bachelor's thesis

Developing students' discourse competence based on the USE of TEF-Ed

Isaeva Esmira

Moscow, 2019

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1. Theoretical foundations of developing students' discourse competence based on the use of TED-Ed

1.1 Communicative competence and its structure

1.2 The essence of discourse competence from historical and modern perspectives

1.3 The key components of the 1st year university students' discourse competence

Chapter 2. The implementation of TBLT and videos to improve university students' spoken discourse competence

2.1 The use of TBLT and its role in the development of discourse competence of university students

2.2 The use of video and its role in the development of discourse competence of university students

Chapter 3. Practical foundations of developing students' discourse competence based on the use of TED-Ed

3.1 The analysis of the platform TED Talks based on the secondary analysis and data collected from online questionnaires

3.2 The analysis of ''Keynote Upper- Intermediate Student's Book'' by Stephenson, Dummett & Lansford (2015) as the syllabus based on TED

3.3 The design of tasks aimed at developing discourse competence of the 1st year university students within the ''Speech Practice'' course based on the use of TED

Conclusion

References

Appendix

Introduction

Since our world is constantly progressing, it is crucial for language learning to keep up with the times by including relevant methods and materials that could suit modern language learners' needs. With this in mind, the use of information technology during language classes has become common practise. To illustrate, teachers employ power point presentations, ask students to surf the Internet to find information, and implement many other activities to engage them in the language learning process.

Besides, since over recent years, the popularity of online educational platforms has increased considerably. For instance, nowadays TED is one of the most demandable platforms among language learners. It distinguishes from other platforms by its authenticity since it keeps people informed about up-to-date trends occurring in various fields and introduces the learners to the target language and culture. What is more, presupposing the integration of audiovisual and aural skills, the platform could provide students with a chance to improve their communicative competence. discursive competence verbal communication

The fact that TED creates favorable conditions for language learners to become communicatively competent plays a significant role. Not only does it explain our choice to work with this very resource, but it also reflects the significance of the current research. To clarify, according to modern Russian requirements of higher education for university students it is of high importance to have a really high level of communicative competence. However, due to the fact that this competence comprises several sub-competences, we have decided to focus mainly on the ways the university students' discourse competence should be developed. Our choice is understandable enough because a graduate who has completed the undergraduate program should possess a high level of discourse competence, as well. For example, students are expected to be able to of organize spoken and written discourse coherently and to communicate fluently and accurately considering the context of the situation.

The choice of TED is also motivated by the presence of a series of integrated-skills syllabus Keynote is based on 12 TED Talks at each level. However, the current study aims to fill the gaps related to the speaking activities, namely monologues, found in the syllabus '' Keynote Upper- Intermediate Student's Book'' (Stephenson, Dummett & Lansford, 2015) that is employed for the English language course ''Speech Practice'' for the 1st year university students in Higher School of Economics (HSE).

To that end in our research we have implemented the following methods. Firstly, the theoretical foundations of developing students' spoken discourse competence were analyzed. Secondly, we have tested the hypothesis that students are interested in lessons grounded on TED and that teachers find this platform useful for developing students' discourse competence by conducting questionnaires for both students and teachers. Thirdly, we have studied the syllabus ''Keynote'' and identified possible gaps connected with speaking activities, in particular, monologues. Finally, we have designed the procedure developing the 1st year university students' spoken discourse competence, namely such forms of monologues as storytelling and summary provided with the commentary that were based on 2 TED Talks and TBLT framework.

Not only may the findings be of use for the teachers of this course, but they might also be helpful for those who are interested in trying platforms during language lessons. Moreover, since our study was limited in time and scope, we find the elaborated tasks worth to test within the ''Speech Practice'' course of the 1st year HSE university students in order to obtain materials to work with for the further research aimed at the design of other activities concerning the development of students' spoken discourse competence that embraces other forms of monologues, dialogues and polylogues.

Chapter 1. Theoretical foundations of developing students' discourse competence based on the use of TED-Ed

1.1 Communicative competence and its structure

Communicative competence has been the focus of several studies, mainly conducted by such applied linguists, sociolinguists, and researchers as Chomsky, Hymes, Cook, Thornbury, Canale and Swain, Bim, Solovova and others. Primarily, the idea of communicative competence was first introduced by Noam Chomsky, an American linguist and cognitive scientist, who comprehended this phenomenon as ''the shared knowledge of the ideal speaker-listener set in a completely homogenous speech community '' (Chomsky, 1965, p.2).

Later on, another American linguist and anthropologist Dell Hymes coined the term ''communicative competence'' and generalized the Chomsky's concept, as well. To clarify, Hymes defined communicative competence as ''the level of language learning that enables language users to convey their messages to others and to understand others' messages within specific contexts'' (Hymes,1972, p. 277). He was mainly focused on the internal comprehension of the ways a language might operate in various situational contexts.

Afterwards, 8 years later Canale and Swain extended the concept of communicative competence by considering it as ''the embodiment of different types of knowledge, which are commonly referred to as: knowledge of basic grammatical principles, knowledge of how language is used in social settings to perform communicative functions, and knowledge of how utterances and communicative functions can be combined according to the principles of discourse'' (Canale & Swain,1980, p.29). Besides, an Australian linguist David Nunan, highlighted that communicative competence deals with the ability to apply linguistic, interpersonal and sociocultural knowledge effectively in order to achieve communicative purposes (Nunan, 1989, p. 212).

In the paragraphs below we will briefly consider the model of communicative competence suggested by Canale and Swain, which entails the following four competencies: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence (ibid 1980, p. 28). But, since our study is primarily concentrated on the development of discourse competence, this issue will be tackled in a more thorough way.

The commence with, grammatical competence, which is also referred to as ''linguistic competence'', presupposes the knowledge of grammar, syntax, lexis, morphology, phonology and semantics needed to realize oral and written communication (Canale, 1983, p. 29).

As far as sociolinguistic competence is concerned it deals with the social rules of language use which involve understanding of the social context of a discourse (ibid,1983, p. 7). To illustrate, activities including such situational components as the participant's social status, sex, age, and others can aid students to determine a manner of speech, its register and style that are appropriate to the situation. Moreover, the analysis of the effects of these components on language is profitable, as well since it increases the learner's sociolinguistic awareness.

Next, there is strategic competence which was conceptualized by Roger Nunn as ''the knowledge of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies (self-monitoring strategies, compensatory strategies, interactional strategies and others) enabling the learner to overcome difficulties when communication breakdowns (activating background knowledge, recognizing discourse structures, contextual guessing, and tolerating ambiguity) occur '' (Nunn, 2005, p. 40).

Finally, another constituent of communicative competence is discourse competence. This competence is considered as the mastery of the selection, sequencing, and arrangement of words, structures, sentences and utterances to achieve a unified spoken or written text in different genres (Canale, 1983, p. 9). It is crucial to note that the essence of discourse competence as well as its sub-areas will be analyzed in the next sub-chapter.

However, the model of communicative competence designed by Canale and Swain was gradually changing. To illustrate, in 1986, a European scholar Van Ek stated that foreign language teaching should be concerned with both training in communication skills and the learner's personal and social development as an individual. To that end, to his model of communicative competence, apart from the competences presented by Canale and Swain, he added socio-cultural competence. According to Van Ek this competence contemplates the following features:

1. a certain degree of familiarity with the sociocultural context which the target language is situated in;

2. the presence of the emotional intelligence;

3. the presence of the skill to interact with others;

4. the ability to handle social situations with the help of the development of social responsibility (Van Ek, 1986, pp. 35; 65).

Since the subject matter of our research is discourse competence, we find it relevant to mention that, in the model presented by Van Ek, discourse competence is defined as ''the ability to use appropriate strategies in the construction and interpretation of texts'' (ibid, 1986, p. 47).

In general, both American and Western models of communicative competence laid the foundation of the Russian concepts towards the issue. To clarify, what is understood by the foreign communicative competence in Russian methodology is ''the capacity of a future specialist to act in the state of the secondary language personality in various socially determined situations and his or her abilities to maintain intercultural interaction'' (Krasilnikova, 2009, p. 183). The most well-known Russian models of the foreign communicative competence were elaborated by such prominent linguists as R. Milrud, V. Safonova, I. Bim and others. Even though the constituents of majority of the Russian models coincide with those of the universal model, every linguist places their emphasis on the analysis of a particular component. For instance, Milrud focuses mainly on pragmatic competence that he regards as the knowledge of the ways how to express a message in different circumstances (Milrud,2007, p. 18). In addition, the linguist believes that this competence encourages language learners to communicate successfully by employing different communication strategies (e.g. rephrasing, asking for clarification). At the same time, in her model of the foreign communicative competence, Safonova (2004) reveals the significance of sociocultural competence that comprises sociolinguistic, cross-cultural and general cultural elements.

Nevertheless, the Bim's (2002) model of the foreign communicative competence distinguishes considerably from the previous ones. To clarify, this Russian scholar contributed to the development of the notion of communicative competence by designing a completely novel competence known as academic-and-cognitive competence. Generally, academic-and-cognitive competence deals with the individual's capacity to self-study. This competence can be improved, in particular, when students are outside the classroom and when they have graduated a university. As Bim puts it ''the uniqueness of academic-and cognitive competence is based on the ability to continue to improve self-studying skills either in the target language or learning something new about it '' (ibid, 2002, pp.11-15).

To compare a European notion of discourse competence with the Russian perspective concerning this phenomenon, it is important to add that Bim understands discourse competence as ''the capacity to implement successfully four basic language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing'' (Bim, 2007, p. 160). By this the scholar means the improvement of soft skills in reception as well as production language skills.

All in all, it is evident that such a complex phenomenon as communicative competence has become an increasingly important concern among the scholars throughout the world. Many of them have contributed largely to the process of understanding and developing the notion of communicative competence in different ways. Certain linguists have added new dimensions, meanwhile the others have studied thoroughly the specific components of communicative competence.

In the following sub-chapter, we will concentrate on the nature of discourse competence, its constituents and its role in the language learning.

1.2 The essence of discourse competence from historical and modern perspectives

Primarily, for the first time the nature of discourse was revealed by a remarkable American linguist Zellig Harris in his work "Discourse analysis" (Harris, 1952). The essence of discourse was considered as the proper organization of text depending on the social context, meanwhile discourse analysis was regarded as the study of language in action, namely in spoken or written texts.

Decades later, a famous British linguist Guy Cook defined discourse as ''a unified and purposive stretch of language'' (Cook, 1989, p. 156) and discourse analysis as '' the examination how stretches of language, considered in their full textual, social, and psychological context, become meaningful and unified for their users'' (ibid, 1989, p. 156). In addition, according to Cook the development of discourse competence is a top- down process. To illustrate, in his book "Discourse" (1989) it is suggested that dealing with a written or spoke text a learner should begin with the analysis of general ideas first and only then fill in the details of language (grammar, lexis, sounds, etc.). Thus, discourse analysis, i.e. the analysis of the language beyond the sentence and language in use, is an efficient approach that the learner's need to communicate accurately and effectively (ibid, 1989, p. 79).

From the perspective of the Russian methodology, not only is discourse viewed as speech imbedded in context, but it also is considered as an intended social action and a component of human interaction and cognition (Arutyunova, 1990, p. 136). Furthermore, according to Russian scholar Kubryakova the distinction should also be drawn between such two notions as text and discourse. To make it clear, Kubryakova states that discourse is '' a cognitive process related to speech production'', meanwhile a text is '' the outcome of speech'' (Kubryakova, 1997, p. 191). Consequently, discourse is unequal to text that occurs in the context of extralinguistic aspects.

As for discourse competence, many Russian scholars (Popova, Solovova, Schukin and others) pinpoint that this phenomenon also possesses a complex essence. They consider discourse competence as an essential constituent of communicative competence implemented through four basic language activities (listening, speaking, reading and writing). To be more precise, a Russian scholar Popova defines discourse competence in the following way: ''the capacity to produce a coherent utterance complying with the issue-based organization, cohesion and coherence, rhetorical effectiveness, relevant functional style and logic within a situation of a real-life communication'' (Popova, 2011, p. 75). Besides, another Russian linguist A. Schukin interprets discourse competence in a narrower sense. To illustrate, according to Schukin discourse competence reveals only when the learner can implement specific strategies to structure and interpret the text (Schukin, 2004, p. 141). Nevertheless, the view of Solovova towards discourse competence distinguishes from the mentioned above as she unites the notions of discourse and strategic competences and see them as ''the competences that embody certain abilities and skills that help to organize speech in a logical, sequential and persuasive way so as to achieve a specific communicative goal'' (Solovova, 2006, p. 9).

Summing up the understandings of American, European and Russian scholars concerning discourse and its analysis, we may conclude that these complex cognitive and communicative phenomena take place within a certain context and have a particular meaning and purpose. Meanwhile, discourse competence deals with the ability to make and interpret the meaning of different functions of speech acts that occur in different contexts.

Beyond that, since in the practical part of our research we will analyze questionnaires (employed to learn more about the experience of Russian university teachers and the students' attitude in terms of the implementation of TED Talk platform) and design a series of tasks for the English language course ''Speech Practice'' to improve the 1st year Russian university students' discourse competence, we find it relevant to take into consideration the current role of discourse competence in Russian education.

Basically, due to modern requirements of higher education in Russia for university students, language learners should have a really high level of communicative competence. To clarify, a competence-based approach laid out as a basis for development in the Higher Education Federal State Educational Standards (hereinafter HE FSES). The HE FSES is a set of coordinated state educational standards and requirements binding for all state accredited educational programmes of primary, basic general, secondary, secondary vocational education and higher professional education. It determines several competences According to A.V. Khutorskoy (2002) a competence comprises a set of interrelated qualities of a person (knowledge, skills, types of activity), defined with respect to a certain range of objects and processes and necessary for high quality productive activities in relation to them. that graduates of higher educational institutions should have. For instance, according to HE FSES of the bachelor's linguistics (FSES, 45.03.02 Linguistics, 2014, pp. 6-12, our translation- E.I), a graduate who has completed the undergraduate program should possess all types of competences comprising communicative competence. Though, we will mention the rendering of discourse competence as it is the subject-matter of current study. Hence, students are expected to be capable of organizing their spoken and written discourse coherently and cohesively and to be skillful enough to communicate fluently and accurately by employing an appropriate register, linguistic /non- linguistic and paralinguistic devices according to the context of the situation.

To conclude this sub-chapter, despite that both discourse and discourse competence have been the subject of extensive and intensive research since the early 1950s, the studies in these fields are still ongoing. Remaining essential issues of the second language learning, not only have these phenomena garnered a great deal of scholars' attention from various disciplines (linguistics, sociology, psychology and others), but the importance of discourse competence is also acknowledged in modern requirements of higher education in Russia for university students.

The constituents of discourse competence and the ways they can be developed will be analyzed in the following sub-chapter.

1.3 The key components of the 1st year university students' discourse competence

Due to the fact that discourse competence is '' the knowledge how to organize and connect individual utterances as well as to map this knowledge on the turn-taking structures of interactive talk'' (Thornbury, 2005, pp. 14-15), it embraces several sub-areas, such as : cohesion (grammatical links), coherence (appropriate combination of communicative functions), deixis, generic structure (in the form of both written and spoken texts), and the conversational structure inherent to the turn-taking system in conversation.

To begin with, David Nunan contributed to the theories of discourse competence by studying such two crucial elements of discourse as coherence and cohesion. To illustrate, according to Nunan (2001) ''the traditional linguistic and grammatical rules and devices are not sufficient as guidelines in order to produce a language in context intended for communication''. Thus, the linguist highlights the significance of teaching students how written and oral texts can be produced to make thoughts and ideas more coherent, and how cohesive devices can be applied to link these ideas together.

What is meant by a coherent text is the utterances and larger passages appearing to be meaningful in a context. In such case, the interpretation of a text depends mostly on the devices (ordering sentences or paragraphs, and the use of words with certain references) forming the text. Meanwhile, cohesion is considered as the set of linguistic devices used to make a text coherent. As a rule, cohesion comprises the following cohesive devices: substitution and ellipsis (used to avoid unnecessary repetition); conjunctions (used to make explicit links between propositions in discourse); lexical chains, repetitions and parallel structures (the constituents of coherence, as well).

Besides, the vital elements in coherence are context (providing the perceiver with additional evidence that the interpretation of sensory evidence might depend on) and the perceiver's background knowledge known also as schemata that influences the value of the contextual evidence (Cook,1989, p. 69).To clarify, Cook defines schemata as ''mental representations of typical situations used in discourse processing to predict the contents of the particular situation which the discourse describes'' (ibid,1989, p. 69). In other words, schemata are the underlying connections allowing new experiences and information to be accorded with previous knowledge. If the contextual evidence is employed effectively, the perceiver's speed and accuracy of spoken language perception can be increased significantly. Therefore, schema theory explains the way the sender chooses and arranges information in communication.

Since the main function of deixis is to link the situational context with the discourse, it should be also regarded as a crucial aspect of discourse competence (Hatch, 1992). In general, deixis system deals with the interpretation of deictic personal pronouns (e.g., I, you) and spatial references (e.g., this, that), temporal references (e.g., now, before), and textual references (e.g., the example below).

Another term which is incorporated in the notions of discourse is genre. Basically, genre knowledge presupposes the knowledge of the ways various speech events are structured. Considering that genres are largely recognizable across cultures, their primarily provides learners with new language in a familiar frame. Besides, since each communicative event (reports, speeches, news items, sermons, etc.) have its own distinctive features which its receivers could recognize, it is of high importance for students to be taught speech-act knowledge (Nunan, 1993, pp. 48-49).

Since our research is focused on spoken discourse development, the following characteristics of spoken discourse should be identified (Simensen, 1998, p. 178):

1. Accuracy and fluency (pronunciation, intonation, rhythm, stress). Since accuracy refers to what extent a learner speaks without errors in real-time communication, the core of accuracy-oriented approach is grammatical correctness.

At the same time, what plays a decisive role in fluency are the conditions in which speaking occurs as they determine the degree of fluency that is achievable. With this in mind, the following key factors have been isolated by scholars: cognitive factors, affective (emotional) factors and performance factors. Firstly, cognitive factors contain familiarity with topic, genre, interlocutors and processing demands. Secondly, affective (emotional) factors deal with feelings towards the topic and/or the participants and self-consciousness. Thirdly, performance factors include mode, degree of collaboration, discourse control, planning and rehearsal time, time pressure and environmental conditions. Ultimately, the list of enumerated factors aids speakers to predict the degree of fluency they are likely to achieve;

2. Conversational skills (e.g. turn-taking, open/close a conversation, etc.). Such skills presuppose the use of discourse markers which are of a particular importance in terms of the fluid management of interactive talk. To clarify, discourse markers are used primarily to signal one's conversational intentions. For example, to signal that a person is continuing the same topic (that reminds me), repeating what he/she said before (like I say), indicating a topic change (by the way) and others.

Moreover, some delicate moments can be successfully negotiated if the rules and skills of the interactivity, namely turn-taking are familiar to speakers. According to Thornbury the fundamental rule of turn-taking is that ''speakers should take turns to hold the floor as signaling each other speakers show that one turn has come to an end and another should begin'' (Thornbury,2005, pp. 8-9). They can signal their agreement or amusement, as well, e.g. by grunts, laughs and chuckles. In addition, from the Cook's perspective ''turn-taking mechanisms vary between cultures and languages'' (Cook, 1989, pp. 52-53). Though the linguist states that it is not simple for these mechanisms to be lifted from one society to another, he still believes that turn-taking can become efficient if the attention is drawn to non-linguistic factors which we will analyze in a more thorough way in the following paragraph.

3. Transactional and interactional speech functions. Since a Russian scholar E. Tarasov concluded that ''spoken discourse unlike the written text presupposes the involvement of both a speaker and an addressee in the direct interaction which is usually emotionally- colored due to the use of gestures and other non-verbal means of communication'' (Tarasov, 1989, p. 16), it is evident that spoken discourse does not rely on words alone. What is emphasized is that apart from linguistic factors, efficient turn-taking also involves such non-linguistic or paralinguistic features as eye contact, body position (posture), movement (gesture). To illustrate, listeners may give little head nods to encourage the speaker to speak faster. Hence, physiological processes implicated in speaking show the contribution other speakers or audience can make to the talk;

4.Sociolinguistic awareness (e.g. appropriate words/level of formality, etc.) concerns the ability to use language in socially appropriate ways in terms of register, field, mode and style of discourse to manage the process of language socialization.

5.Sociocultural awareness (e.g. social conventions, politeness patterns etc.). What allows learners to explore the contexts the target language functions in, and how these contexts affect linguistic choices are the tasks outside the classroom and within the target society. For instance, it could be a project work, a seminar with invited outside speakers and other activities.

Since in our research we mainly focus on monologues as type of speaking it is crucial to consider their nature, types and key features.

Generally, in Russian methodology a monologue is defined as ''someone's uninterrupted coherent utterance addressed to one or several people and aimed at influencing the listener or listeners in some way'' (Galskova & Gez, 2006). Besides, Solovova (2006, pp. 172-174) states that the most vital features of a monologue are:

1. Purposefulness, which is determined by a communicative situation (the place, the time, the audience and a particular communicative intention) and which, in its turn, determines the type of the monologue, its content and logical structure;

2. Coherence and completeness that conform to the contextual character of a monologue;

3. Expressiveness implemented through the directedness to the addressee and emotional colouring that are externally expressed in linguistic features, structure and composition;

4. Independence since the speaker is the only person producing the speech and expressing his or her point of view;

5. Continuity since speakers do not usually finish his or her speech unless s/he has expressed their ideas till the end.

Solovova then proceeds that generally Russian methodology distinguishes two main ways of teaching monologues (ibid, 2003, pp. 174-176): 1) ''downwards'' when communication skills are developed on the basis of a familiar text; 2) ''upwards'' when communication skills are developed without any text support, i.e. solely on the basis of topics and issues being discussed.

At the same time, is significant that language learners should have practice in addressing a wide audience. This will be relevant, especially, to those who study English for academic purposes because they are likely to need enhancing spoken genres of a more formal type. Even though some students might find it challenging, there is a reason to believe, that this will help students to master their strategies in terms of structuring oral texts. Moreover, it will boost students' self-confidence, which is an integral characteristic of a good speaker.

However, in order to deliver a successful oral academic presentation, speakers should also evoke interest in the audience, manage time well and have an effective delivery style. The speech should be accompanied by a presentation containing a concise summary, a well-balanced critique, clear and relevant implications. Besides, videotaping of a language learner's speech could also be used constructively. Revealing students' errors in grammar and vocabulary it makes them aware of their potential problems. Consequently, the ways to handle the issues could be devised either by a teacher or by both a teacher and a student together.

It is also essential to distinguish between planned and unplanned speech since it also influences the speaker's decision concerning what kind of language to use. As a rule, speech genres (e.g. public speeches, academic presentations) are considered as planned as the likelihood that they might be completely scripted in advance makes their linguistic features resemble those of written language. On the contrary, an unplanned speech is produced '' on-line'' that is to say in real time and with little or no time for much forward planning. Consequently, in unplanned the decisions are usually made strategically and spontaneously on the basis of the way the discourse unfolds. Besides, though Thornbury sheds the light on a favorable nature of the discussions arisen spontaneously in class stating that specific topics in the coursebook could trigger some debates, and by that provide the learner with the opportunity to report something personal (Thornbury, 2005, p. 102), it is the improvement of the learner's spoken discourse (from the performance of a monologue to the participation into dialogues and polylogues) which forms the ability to conduct a successful interpersonal communication within the framework of a communication environment determined by social, cultural, professional and ideological factors.

We also find it relevant to mention that being the goal and result of teaching communication, the ability to communicate in the form of a monologue is regarded as one of the main standards set for a Russian school-leaver. To that end, it is expected from senior secondary pupils or those who have merely entered the university and are the 1st year university students, to produce different types of monologues which are frequently used in real-world communication such as greeting speech, description, praise, characterization, reprimand, story, lecture (Karmanova, 1985) and to be able to communicate in standard social situations by expressing one's point of view and agreement/refusal, asking for clarification, expanding on initial statement, etc.

In order to maximize speaking opportunities and increase the chances that learners will experience autonomous language use, the following criteria need to be met (Thornbury, 2005, pp. 90-91):

1. Productivity. To provide the best conditions for autonomous language use it is necessary for a speaking activity to be maximally language productive;

2. Purposefulness. Language learners should be sure that a speaking activity has a clear outcome. For instance, a competitive element, e.g. if to turn a task into a race, can make students more engaged into the process of pursuing the goal. Thus, purposefulness increases language, cognitive and sometimes physical productivity of language learners;

3. Interactivity. Activities should require language learners to mind the effect they are having on their audience. To illustrate, monologic speaking tasks (talks and presentations) should be performed in the presence of audience because in this case interactivity between speaker and audience (e.g. when audience demonstrates interest and understanding, ask questions or make comments at the end) can contribute largely to the speaking process, e.g. a speaker can realize that the audience is engaged in his or her topic. Therefore, not only does it prompt the speaker to speak more fluently and accurately, but it also encourages them to be more confident and ready for the further communication with the audience.

4. Challenge. It is recommended for some tasks to be presented in the form of challenge so that to draw student's available communicative language use. However, teachers should be sensitive with the degree of difficulty a task presents for individual learners because there is a risk to demotivate the learner, for example, in case the task is too sophisticated for a weak student, s/he might be too reluctant to complete it.

5. Safety. To solve the problem mentioned above or to meet challenges without too much risk, students need to be secure that the teacher's attitude towards their errors is non-judgmental. In this case, a teacher should provide students with favorable conditions, e.g. to show them that h/she will always be there to take over if things get seriously out of hand.

6. Authenticity. Speaking tasks should be authentic or the ones having some relation to real-life language use. To illustrate, learners need to adjust to real operating conditions, e.g. spontaneously, with minimal preparation, and making do with the resources which are in their disposal. The choice of the topics, genres and situations should be appropriate to the learners' perceived needs and interests.

It also should be added that it is vital for teaching spoken discourse to involve peer evaluation in order to encourage students to cooperate when analyzing spoken discourse. When language learners have other critics apart from their teacher, they become aware and conscious of how they use the language, and how they might learn from each other. If some students feel uncomfortable in this situation, not only should a teacher create an ambiance of confidence among students, but h/she also should avoid putting pressure on those who dislike exposure.

Having studied the main components of the 1st year students' discourse competence, in the following sub-chapter we would like to concentrate on the role task-based language teaching plays in the enhancement of discourse competence.

Chapter 2. The implementation of TBLT and videos to improve university students' spoken discourse competence

2.1 The use of TBLT and its role in the development of discourse competence of university students

Real-world or target tasks presuppose the use of language in the world beyond the classroom (Nunan, 2004, p. 1). Such tasks lay the foundation of task-based language teaching (hereinafter TBLT) based on the belief that ''accuracy comes out of fluency, and that learning is prompted by the need to communicate'' (Willis, 2001, p. 173). Thus, TBLT engages learners in effective real-life communication of the target language.

Since in the real world mostly all speech events depend on other language skills, there is a need to learn and practice all language skills in the integrated way. Besides, in contrast with ''synthetic syllabuses, where the linguistic elements (phonology, lexis, and grammar) are taught separately, a task-based syllabus, then, would be based around a sequence of integrated tasks'' (Nunan, 2004, p. 37). In that regard, to prepare learners for this kind of integrated experience, there is a need to use a task-based syllabus because a stand-alone speaking course, or a separate speaking syllabus might give the impression that speaking occurs in isolation. However, some researchers, like Byrne (1991), claim that in order to enhance discourse competence, it is crucial to integrate, particularly, listening and speaking. This is understandable, as the most common issues for students are the ability to understand what they hear and to respond to it orally. Therefore, teachers should prioritize these two skills in integration to encourage language learners to become communicatively competent.

In general, David Nunan places emphasis on seven principles which task-based language teaching is based on (Nunan, 2004, pp. 35-38):

Principle 1. Scaffolding. At the beginning of the learning process it is not expected from language learners to produce language that has not been introduced to them. To that end, lessons as well as materials should provide supporting frameworks within which the learning occurs. However, there are two extremes that teachers should be careful with while using scaffolding techniques. On the one hand, if the scaffolding is removed too soon, the learning process will be under threat of failing. On the other hand, if learners are provided with scaffolding for too long, they will not be independent enough for autonomous language use.

Principle 2. Task dependency. All the tasks within a lesson should be graded according to their complexity. For that reason, each previous task should be easier than the next one for the learner to have enough preparation to tackle the issue. Besides, task dependency is realized according to the receptive-to-productive principle, i.e. reception (listening, reading) precedes production (speaking, writing).

Principle 3. Recycling. Having encountered a specific linguistic item, students should be reintroduced to it after a while to see how it functions in relation to diverse content areas.

Principle 4. Active learning. A teacher-focused work, e.g. a teacher talk-time should not dominate class time as learners need actively use the target language.

Principle 5. Integration. Learners should be taught the systematic relationships between linguistic form, communicative function and semantic meaning explicitly.

Principle 6. Reproduction to creation. Learners should be encouraged to move from the tasks in which they reproduce language models to creative language use.

Principle 7. Re?ection. Re?ecting on what they have learned and how well they are doing, learners can shift the focus from language content to learning processes.

All in all, such principles as scaffolding, task dependency, recycling, active learning, integration, reproduction to creation and reflection play a crucial role in task-based language teaching. They help learners to improve several components of discourse competence, e.g. to be autonomous and productive, to have an opportunity to promote speaking accuracy and fluency, etc.

Consisting of the implementation of different types of activities, TBLT, therefore has a certain task classification proposed by an applied linguist N.S. Prabhu who outlines the three basic categories of task: information-gap, reasoning-gap, and opinion-gap (Prabhu 1987, pp. 46-47).

To begin with, an information-gap is a task with a scarce of the needed information. To complete it, learners need to listen or speak to each other. For instance, working in pairs each student has a part of the total information (e.g. an incomplete writer's biography) that he needs to convey verbally to the other.

The second type of activity is called reasoning-gap task. Dealing with such activity, the learner attempts to elicit some new information from the given data by employing processes of deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception of relationships. Unlike reasoning-gap activities, the conveyed information in reasoning-gap tasks is not identical with that initially comprehended. To illustrate, learners could be asked to work out a teacher's timetable on the basis of given class timetables.

Last but not least, an opinion-gap task is employed to identify and articulate a personal preference, feeling, or attitude towards a given situation. Besides, sometimes students need to deploy convincing arguments to justify their point of view. For example, taking part in the discussion of a social issue can be regarded as an opinion-gap task.

To conclude, a British linguist Rod Ellis claims that TBLT is a favorable approach to enhance spoken discourse competence. To illustrate, in order to pursue communicative purposes during the classroom interaction speaking is practiced primarily by concentrating on ''meaning (not on linguistic forms), conveying information, relying on linguistic and non-linguistic resources '' (Ellis, 2009, p. 223). Besides, learners are engaged in tasks presented in the form of situations resembling those of outside the classroom. Thus, they improve their speaking fluency by maximizing the speed of speech production, augmenting grammatical accuracy, elaborating on their utterances, and improving interactional language.

The subsequent chapter is devoted to the implementation of video in the second language teaching. In particular, we will consider how TED Talks aid to improve students' discourse competence.

2.2 The use of video and its role in the development of discourse competence of university students

Over recent years, the use of technology and its integration into the process of language learning has become common practice. It is believed that ''the implementation of video as an audio-visual material stimulates and facilitates the language learning process as long as it is used at the right time, in the right place'' Wright (1976, p. 1). Besides, a considerable potential of the interplay between technology and pedagogy should be taken into consideration because it makes teaching and learning experiences rich, memorable, motivating and enjoyable for both the learners and their teachers (Nikitina, 2009). In other words, since ''a video is a rich and valuable resource, it is well-liked by both students and teachers'' (Hemei, 1997, p. 45). From the students' perspective it is stimulating, challenging, and interesting to watch videos as they assist with understanding another culture by providing a wide range of communicative situations which illustrate how people behave in the target-language culture. According to a prominent Turkish scholar Cakir (2006) ''by showing relationships in a way which is impossible with words, videos make meaning more coherent and comprehensible''. In contrast with scripted materials which are deprived of the redundancies of informal speech, a video exposes the learners to real-life (authentic) input (Field, 2002).

Field also claims that ''authentic materials provide language learners with examples of hesitations, stuttering, false starts, and long, loosely structured sentences that characterize natural speech'' (Ibid, p. 244). In this regard, a naturally contextualized language enables learners to experience authentic language. He encourages to expose students to such materials from the very beginning of language learning process. Moreover, Field argues that in real life many non-native speakers often encounter the texts where they have only partial comprehending of what they hear. Due to this fact, students need both to make guesses and be encouraged to do so because making guesses is crucial in comprehending real-world input. At the same time, the practice of extensive listening or ''all types of listening activities allowing language learners to receive a vast variety of comprehensible and enjoyable listening input'' is effective in language learning process (Renandya & Farrell, 2010, p. 5). For example, it enriches learner's vocabulary, helps to recognize diverse accents and improves pronunciation as well as speaking skills. Besides, extensive listening provides students with an opportunity to focus on the language in detail and to complete different types of activities (e.g. interpret what has been said, repeat it, predict the response, etc.). However, in a view of the non-native speakers' heavy reliance on visual clues such as facial expression, gesture, posture, outfit and details of the environment to comprehend a material, it is understandable that a video can be a useful medium helping learners to interpret the visual clues clearly. To clarify, watching a speaker during communicative acts scaffolds students' comprehension because they also draw their attention to a person's body language (e.g. body movements, head nods, and other non-verbal actions related to the structure of the message) so as to encode the meaning of a message (Erben, 2009).

The environment of the authentic language is controlled by teachers, who, in their turn, employ video to motivate learners by bringing the real world into the classroom. Hence, they give students realistic models to imitate for role-play and increase awareness of other cultures by teaching suitability.

Furthermore, the proliferation of online educational platforms aids teachers to perform different roles, vary course materials and enlarge the ways of their presentation to students. To illustrate, a teacher is the only person who enables students to understand the information conveyed by a video by using different communicative techniques. In general, if a teacher plans to use a video during his or her class, s/he will perform various roles (Cakir, 2006, p. 68). First and foremost, teaching the foreign language through video, a teacher can be an organiser because s/he is responsible for the material organization and the way it should be unfolded to lead students to success on both perception and production stages. Playing this role, it is crucial to give students clear instructions and set up activities. To that end, students should be explained what they are going to watch and what their task is. The clearer is the task, the better will be its outcomes. At the same time, a teacher is a controller because s/he is the only person who monitors what the learners do while they are watching a video. Then, assessing the student's work and output at the end of the activity, teacher plays a role of an assessor. Besides, a teacher is a prompter because s/he acts as a prompter, e.g. when learners are confused about what to do next, a teacher is expected to encourage learners by making suggestions about how they may proceed in an activity. Teachers are also participants since they improve the ambiance in the class and enliven it by participating in activities along with students.

Considering the information mentioned above, teachers could facilitate language learning by: playing a relevant role in the right place at the right time, promoting active viewing, being familiar with the video materials before they are used in class, designing a plan for each video unit and preparing viewing guides that are easy to comprehend and that are related to the language level of the students.

Overall, since video is a dynamic medium, well designed video-based activities can forward learners from a passive listening comprehension to an active oral interaction. Besides, video has the abundance of features in which almost all types of tasks within TBLT could be applied. According to R. Wilkinson task-based activities define the ''pedagogical and technical features of video and engage students in interactive viewing situations that enhance receptive as well as productive skills'' (Wilkinson, 1984, p. 83). Therefore, the idea that gives ground for the use of task-based instruction with video-based tasks is based on the Wilkinson's standpoint that ''with video, not only can learners hear the speakers, but they can also see the speakers, the background situational cues, the paralinguistic features, and the non-verbal communication of the exchange'' (Wilkinson, 1984, p. 1).

In the following sub-chapter, we will give a more thorough analysis of TED videos and their influence on the improvement of discourse competence.

Chapter 3. Practical foundations of developing students' discourse competence based on the use of TED-Ed