Primary objectives and principles in teaching english as foreign language at universities globally

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Primary objectives and principles in teaching english as foreign language at universities globally

N. M. Vasylyshyna*

The need of provided scientific investigation was determinded by the vector of modern policy and strategy of Ukraine which is aimed at further development of the national education system through its adaptation to the conditions of socially-oriented economy, transformation and integration into the European and world community. Topicality of the paper is connected with increasing need for better students' communicative skills in English. Taking into consideration the rate of modern English learning actuality and necessity, we have conducted scientific research comprised of four parts that dwell on investigating foreign communicative grounds for students of universities. Firstly, the paper was dedicated to figuring out English language teaching and learning objectives, such as: communicative competence; cultural exchanges; interdisciplinary connections; comparative study; cyber communities. Secondly, the study was grounded on the description of the most common communicative language teaching principles: learner autonomy, multiple communicative competences, contextual integration, real life and experience of communication, intensive methods application, practical communication skills acquisition, cultural environment learning. For the first time, the research findings have been claimed that the biggest advantages of the communicative language teaching methodology are characterized by the following features: foreign language is considered as a medium of communication; learning a foreign language occurs through inclusion the subjects for communicative activity; learning subjects have cognitive strategies and techniques of mastering the language; a preference is given to the interactive technologies and forms of work in groups as well as in pairs. Finally, in this article, the research has witnessed that promoting democratic values, Ukraine's entry to the European space on the basis of educational and scientific support for innovation and economic development is largely due to: modernization of the education system; optimizing the content of education; monitoring and managing the quality of education.

Key words: learning objectives, foreign language, communicative competence, cognitive autonomy, English for Specific Purposes, communicative language teaching principles.

ОСНОВОПОЛОЖНІ ЦІЛІ ТА ПРИНЦИПИ ВИКЛАДАННЯ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ МОВИ ЯК ІНОЗЕМНОЇ В УНІВЕРСИТЕТАХ СВІТУ

Н. М. Василишина

Необхідність наукового дослідження визначалася вектором сучасної політики та стратегії України, яка спрямована на подальший розвиток національної системи освіти шляхом її адаптації до умов соціально орієнтованої економіки, трансформації та інтеграції до європейської та світової спільноти. Актуальність статті пов'язана зі зростаючою потребою у вдосконаленні комунікативних навичок з англійської мови у студентів. По- перше, стаття була присвячена з'ясуванню цілей викладання та навчання англійської мови, таких як: комунікативна компетентність; культурні обміни; міжпредметні зв'язки; порівняльне дослідження; кібер-спільноти. По-друге, дослідження ґрунтувалося на описі найпоширеніших принципів навчання англійської мови: самостійність учня, численні комунікативні компетенції, контекстна інтеграція, реальне життя та досвід спілкування, інтенсивне застосування методів, набуття практичних комунікативних навичок, вивчення культурного середовища. Вперше результати досліджень стверджують, що найбільші переваги методології викладання комунікативної мови характеризуються такими особливостями: іноземна мова розглядається як засіб спілкування; вивчення іноземної мови відбувається шляхом включення предметів для комунікативної діяльності; навчальні предмети мають когнітивні стратегії та техніки оволодіння мовою; перевага віддається інтерактивним технологіям та формам роботи в групах, а також у парах. У висновках дослідження стверджується, що найбільші переваги методології викладання іноземної мови пов'язані з великим потенціалом англійської мови: у змісті викладання, забезпечення активної навчальної діяльності студентів, адаптування матеріалу до різного рівня володіння іноземною мовою студентами, оцінювання соціокультурного підґрунтя студентів, оцінки студентів на основі врахування їхніх здібностей, а не слабких місць. Дослідження засвідчили, що сприяння демократичним цінностям, входження України до європейського простору на основі освітньої та наукової підтримки інновацій та економічного розвитку багато в чому обумовлено: модернізацією системи освіти; оптимізацією змісту освіти; моніторингом та управлінням якістю освіти.

Ключові слова: цілі навчання, іноземна мова, комунікативна компетентність, пізнавальна самостійність, англійська мова за професійним спрямуванням, комунікативні принципи навчання.

Introduction of the issue

The urgency and topicality of our pedagogical research is grounded on the consequences of some social factors: the increasing globalization processes; the internationalization of the economic potential of countries and continents; the expansion of ties between countries, which in itself lead to an increased need for foreign language communication in all spheres of life. That is why, in the professional training of specialists in higher education there is the problem discussion of revising methodological approaches to foreign language education of students in different fields of preparation. The ongoing findings are important in order to form students' readiness for an intercultural dialogue in the future professional field.

In overall, the requirements that society puts to vocational training of professionals are necessary to synchronize the common tendencies of development of society with the development of the professional system of specialists training [2; 3; 7].

Current state of the issue. The review of the latest scientific achievements and findings has revealed that there are currently two components to the education system in Ukraine: supportive and forward-thinking, innovative. Supportive is aimed at preparing the young person for the decision daily tasks or problems, maintaining a lifestyle and activities.

Advance, innovative education is focused on future and is related to preparing people for use methods of forecasting, modeling, designing in life and professional activity. Supportive education is intended arming students with a predominantly set of scientific facts and regulations; innovative in order to develop in students' independent approach to solving any scientific, social, professional or life problems [2; 10; 11].

The theoretical analysis of the existing outcomes in the pedagogical experience of teaching English has revealed that there are various approaches that are based on a different theory about the language and the way people learn and use it [2; 3].

Celce-Murcia suggests that for the Reading Approach reading was the most suitable skill in language learning. The Reading Approach considers reading as the most usable skill in language learning and therefore emphasizes the reading comprehension skill. This approach reflects the need for the society to understand the written word more than spoken one as there were fewer opportunities to use the target language orally. Therefore, the attention of teachers and learners is focused on teaching the target language in such a way to enable students to understand mainly written texts as the principal source of information [1].

Richards and Rogers present the principles of the Oral-Situational Approach. The objective of the approach is to develop all four basic language skills, precisely speaking, listening, reading and writing. These skills are, however, treated structurally which means that there is a controlled selection of the sentence patterns within this structured approach. Accuracy is all important and errors have to be avoided to prevent the creation of bad habits [9].

Larsen-Freeman sees the objective of the Audiolingualism in “overlearning” the target language which enables the learners to use it automatically without stopping to think. To achieve this objective following techniques are being used by the Audiolingual approach as summarised by Larsen-Freeman: the

dialog memorisation, backward build-up drill, repetition drill, chain drill, transformation drill, question-and- answer drill, use of minimal pairs, complete the dialog, and grammar game [6].

Coherence and cohesion play an important role in communication as well, therefore, the language learners have to be aware of these aspects of discourse and use them appropriately, serving the purpose and situational context of the communication and its participants. Fluency and accuracy in the target language are expected from the teacher who observes and facilitates the activities and mediates the communications.

Larsen-Freeman defines the roles of the teacher as of a facilitator, advisor, motivator and observer. The main responsibility of the teacher then is to “establish situations likely to promote communication” [6].

Harmer proposes the Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP) teaching technique, that is a new modified form which places the language learning in specific situational contexts. The first stage of the PPP procedure is a presentation of an aspect of the target language in a context that is familiar to the learners. The second stage consists of practicing the aspect of the language until everyone is familiar with it. The third stage of PPP procedure encourages language learners to use the new language by producing the sentences and utterances of their own without much of the teacher's intervention [4; 5].

Outline of the unresolved issues brought up in the article. In spite of the fact, that the implementation of the previously discussed approaches to teaching foreign languages in Ukrainian universities has already begun, there are still a number of problems that arise in the professional activities of English teachers. Firstly, low level of English language proficiency of school graduates, secondly, insufficient internal motivation to learn foreign languages, self-doubt, so-called fear of mistakes, skipping classes, low level of ability to organize their own work and learn English systematically in most students, thirdly, unwillingness to take responsibility for the learning process and outcomes, fourthly, difficulty in adapting to the new methods of learning English, insufficient number of classroom hours.

Overcoming these problems largely depends on the right choice of English language teaching and learning objectives and principles. Moreover, to ensure a quality process of teaching English in higher education is a specialist who applies them will able to create a favorable psychological climate in learning to ensure the student's selfconfidence.

Aim of the research. Taking into consideration the rate of the foreign language competence importance todays master degree learners, we can identify the main purposes of the research that are: the first part of the paper is dedicated to figuring out English language teaching and learning objectives; the second part of the paper is grounded on the description of the most common communicative language teaching principles.

Results and discussion

Research findings and materials are grounded on the modern methodology and contemporary laws and principles of pedagogical sciences.

Learning is an active process. Learners build their knowledge through active engagement with learning opportunities. Therefore, teachers are required to be "activators", and should encourage active learning through setting learning goals, providing engaging tasks, assessing achievement and giving targeted feedback [7].

Learning is additive, incremental and takes time. Learning takes place in small steps and builds on the learner's existing knowledge structures. In order to be fully incorporated into these knowledge structures, a learner needs to interact with new information three or four times. Therefore, teacher education should seek to work with what teachers already know, introducing new ideas and methods gradually, with time for assimilation, practical application, and reflection during the learning process [10; 11].

Feedback and reflection play important roles in learning. Hattie emphasized the importance of feedback in learning when he suggested that it should be inseparable from instruction, the two working together to help a learner construct and reconstruct knowledge. Reflection on this feedback is also crucial as it allows learners to self- assess learning, and formulate their next actions.

Learning should be goal-focused and evidence-based. Learners should know in advance what they are aiming to learn, and also, how they can measure their achievement against this learning aim. Teacher education should therefore provide clear goals from the outset, and incorporate assessment of achievement which produces data that can support teachers in achieving these goals.

Experiential learning and practice are needed for skills development. Skills are developed through on-the-job practice, and any career which has a practical element incorporates this in its education curriculum - consider medical professionals and pilots as just two examples. Teaching is no different in this regard, and any teacher education tools should include an element of real teaching in real classrooms, with the chance to receive feedback and reflect on performance [10].

Peer-collaboration is an effective way to learn. Learning from others is a key tenet in a social constructivist theory of learning, and this seems particularly true in teacher education. To clarify that, McKinsey and Company identified how, in a number of high-performing education systems, teacher collaboration has been found to facilitate teacher development. Equally, Schleicher noted that professional development activities for teachers had most impact when mediated through group work [10].

Digitalization is increasingly a useful facilitator of learning. Using digital resources, like apps, websites, and software, allows new avenues of learning to be accessed. This may be through changes to formal learning such as facilitating blended learning and the flipped classroom, or it may be through more informal tools e.g. apps on a smart phone. Digital tools have become increasingly prominent in teaching and learning globally, and therefore, more than ever, should be considered an important component of teacher education programmes [10].

Despite the differences in the components of foreign language communicative competence of different scientists, it can be noted that their formation should be interrelated and ensure the development of communication skills in the main types of speech activities in the process of mastering students' linguistic, sociocultural, linguistic knowledge. In addition, the educational process of teaching staff and master degree students is based upon achieving the group of sufficient objectives in order to facilitate and improve foreign language communicative competence formation. In the frame of our research we are intended to have a look at five of them.

Objective #1. Communicative competence. The purpose of teaching English in higher education is to teach professional and methodological activity of the teacher of the high school. This includes the system of professional knowledge of a high school teacher, such as: subject-methodical, for example,

knowledge of peculiarities of teaching English in different types of higher education institutions; procedural, for example, expedient sequence of teaching actions of the teacher and educational actions of students and professional and methodical skills and skills [3; 4].

Objective #2. Cultural Exchanges. Socio-cultural competence, from our perspective, embodies that learners' achievement of understanding of diverse international socio-cultural problems will assist them to act appropriately in the cultural diversity of the professional and academic situations.

Objective #3. Interdisciplinary Connections. National-cultural

component of the content of English language training provides students with cultural characteristics, types of service relationships, styles management, hierarchical subordination, manner of communication and norms of communicative behavior of potential partners in the process of professional activity [3; 7].

Objective #4. English for Specific Purposes. Modern achievements in the field of foreign teaching methods of languages for special purposes led to the conclusion that a foreign language finds application differently in communicative situations of different professions specialists [3; 5].

Objective #5. Information Communication Technologies.

Incorporating modern information communication technologies into foreign language learning empowers master degree learners to access new knowledge. Also, it helps them to create an atmosphere for the development of a creative personality that freely operates on the acquired knowledge and skills as well as freely works with the information that is needed in their future professional life [3; 4; 5].

The value of a communicative approach is the ability to individualize the goals and content of learning, its methods and means. The communicative method, which is based on the communicative approach of studying languages, has absorbed all the positive that was in the traditional methods and is being developed in accordance with the modern requirements. It combines: the use of students' mother tongue to reveal the value of teaching material, the perception of language in the learning process as a means of communication, the development of the oral language in learning a foreign language, the study of grammar in language models that contribute to better language acquisition [10; 3; 7].

To achieve the mentioned above goals during teaching foreign languages modern didactic and methodical principles, such as interactivity, integration, speech-thinking activity, contextualization and early professional orientation are to be implemented in educational process of modern approaches to formation. However, it is necessary to:

adhere to the principle of early professional orientation of teaching foreign language communication;

implement a cultural approach to learning;

ensure that foreign language learning is appropriate to European standards;

adhere to the reasoned nature of speech actions between teacher and students;

change the role of the teacher in communication with students;

to create a positive emotional atmosphere in class with foreign language

[3; 12; 13].

Principle #1. Learner Autonomy. The principle of autonomy is based on the didactic psychological pattern that the true essence of a person's education is an independent and in-depth theoretical knowledge, acquired skills and practical skills received in the process of their own active cognitive activity. Implementation of the principle of independence involves not only understanding and mastering students' knowledge, skills, but also mastering them and methods of selfacquisition of knowledge, skills and skills for further self-study [5; 7; 8].

Principle #2. Multiple Communicative Competences. Moving to a competency- based approach means moving from a process to a result education in the business dimension, in the shift of emphasis on the accumulation of normatively defined students' knowledge, skills and abilities. If the aim is to form and develop the ability to practice, we should apply the experience of

successful actions in specific situations to the organization of the educational process [3; 5].

Principle #3. Contextual Integration. An important characteristic of a contextual approach to learning is that it is based on the application of

interdisciplinary communication,

problem-based learning and application of external contexts for learning. By studying English language in an integrated way, multidisciplinary aspects and relationship to specific contexts, master degree students seek to apply the acquired knowledge and skills in appropriate contexts [2; 5; 7].

Principle #4. Real Life and Experience of Communication. The principle of communication, which involves the construction of a process of learning a foreign language as a model of the process of real communication. This principle, most of all, takes into account the practical purpose of learning a foreign language - teaching language as a means of communication [3; 4; 5; 8].

Principle #5. Intensive Methods Application. Exactly intensive search- oriented techniques are new ways of being fast, efficient and aimed at the development of the communicative abilities of the individual. In conditions of implementation of intensive approach to foreign language learning content there is an enriched using of a dialog teacher-to-subject interaction student model. Moreover, the teacher focuses on the personality of the students, their intellectual capacity. Because of this, scientists say that the student is not just a passive recipient, by contrast, the importance of his participation in the training process is seen as the involvement of active and interacting personality [5; 10; 11]. communicative teaching english

Principle #6. Practical Communication Skills Acquisition. Communicative activity involves an organic combination of the conscious and subconscious components in the process of learning English, that is, learning the rules operation of communication models occurs simultaneously with their mastering in communication and speech functions. The implementation of the communicative-activity approach in the educational process means that the formation of foreign language skills is due to students' realization of foreign language activities. In other words, mastery of communication is based on their practical application in the process of communication in specially created situations [5; 7; 10].

Principle #7. Cultural Environment Learning. A cultural approach to the development of communicative competence in the classroom involves a close interaction between the language and culture of the countries being taught. This approach is characterized by two trends in the interpretation of facts of language and culture for educational purposes: from the facts of language to the facts of culture; from the facts of culture to the facts of language [5; 12; 13].

Conclusions and research perspectives

To sum up, the theoretical analysis of the research of a stated problem suggests that the foreign language communication is possible if the master degree students are proficient in foreign language communication as a means of communication. The effectiveness level of the communication process is due to the level formation of foreign language communicative competence of the learners. Also we have come to a conclusion that competence is the persistent willingness and ability of a person to any activity with knowledge of the case. In our case such activity is the students' foreign language communication during the process of learning a foreign language.

Hence, we define the foreign language communicative competence as an integrative formation of a person which has a complex structure and acts as an interaction and interpenetration of linguistic, socio-cultural and communicative competences, the level of formation of which allows the future specialist to implement a foreign language effectively in an interlingual, intercultural and interpersonal communication.

According the conducted research, the findings of the analysis of models of communicative competence testifies to the fact that they are all based on a systematic approach that involves the study of communicative competence as a system, defining its intrinsic features and relationships. To add, we have noted that the scientists are considering foreign-language communicative competence as a holistic structure in which separate sub-structures are distinguished, such as: components, elements, types of competences.

In summary, these are the main principles which inform our work in teacher education globally. However, it must be remembered that teacher education is always a local process too, and it is crucial for us to collaborate with teachers to understand the context that they work in and what their needs are regarding professional development. Without this flexibility, this ability to adapt to local needs, any programme of teacher education is unlikely to be successful.

From our perspective, the future investigations in the concern of modern mastering of foreign communicative competence in university students can be streamlined into finding out key facts and ideas dealt with such issues as: task-based learning; content and language integrated learning; language learning with information technologies application.

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