Lecture 1 Methods of Foreign LanguageTeaching as a Science

Educational aims. Learning a second language is of great educational value. Through a new language we can gain an insight into the way in which words express thoughts, and so achieve greater clarity and precision in our own communications. When learning a foreign language the pupil understands better how language functions and this brings him to a greater awareness of the functioning of his own language.
Since large is connected with thinking through foreign language study we can develop the pupil’s intellect. Teaching a foreign language helps the teacher develop the pupils’voluntary and involuntary memory, his imaginative abilities, and will power.
Teaching a foreign language contributes to the linguistic education of the pupil, the latter extends his knowledge of phonic, graphic, structural, and semantic aspects of language through contrastive analysis of language phenomena. In teaching a foreign language the teacher is called upon to inculcate in pupils the scientific outlook, to prepare the young people for an active participation in production and other types of socially useful activities.
Cultural aims.The cultural aims mentioned in the school programs of foreign language imply the following tasks widening the pupil’s general and philologicaloutlook developing their powers of abstract thinking, cultivating their sense of beauty and their appreciation of art. The reading of texts (English) is acquainting the pupils’with the life and culture of the English-speaking nations, and with their manners and customs, will contribute to the mental growth of the pupils. Later the ability of reading English and American authors in the original and texts inthe English language reflecting the culture of the countries where that language is spoken will likewise serve the pupils as a means of attaining a higher general educational level.
Developing aims. Foreign language teaching should promote pupils’ general educational and cultural growth by increasing their knowledge about foreign countries and by acquainting them with progressive traditions of the people whose language they study.
Consequently, it should be said that practical, educational, cultural and developing aims are inseparable unity.