Methods of teaching

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO INTERACTIVE METHODS
1.1. Creative abilities, informative activity.
In the course of interactive training students interact or are in the mode of conversation, dialogue with some- one, that focuses the person on development of his/her intellectual and creative abilities, further elf-development and self-education, aims at the activity stimulating "invention" and “discovery”.
It is considered that communication in the course of training foreign language can be "unilateral" and "multilateral". In the first case it is the organization of educational process at which “the teacher asks, i.e. induces the student to speech activity - the student answers”. The given process is made under the scheme “stimulus - reaction”.
A wide use of so-called frontal forms of work is characteristic for such training paradigm. Development of language skills like listening, speaking is crucial to effective communication. Students need to interact with their teachers and groupmates, make explanations during tutorials and practical sessions, take part in seminars and workshops, presentations, discussions, interactions, and etc. Speaking is the purposeful process by which people, using audible and visible
symbols, communicate meaning in the minds of their listeners. The function of oral communication is creating messages that stimulate in listeners’ meanings that bring about the desired change in their understanding or opinions. As conversation is a tool of social interaction, it is essential to be able to converse well in both informal as well as formal situations. The students should be prepared to start a conversation, pick a topic for conversation, help others to start, keep a conversation going, move smoothly from one topic to another, and conclude a conversation naturally.
Group and collective forms of work are typical for "multichannel" communication. Here each student has possibility to show himself as an independent and full participant of certain activity.
The model of "multilateral" communication at the lesson has difficult structure of interrelations and interconnections between participants of educational process. It represents training as “free revealing of personality possibilities”.
Role-plays, projects, video situations can greatly widen our horizons of creativity within the suggested methods. The system of role-plays is a valuable approach because it is very motivating and integrates all the language skills. It encourages the students to work independently and together and involves genuine communication. It takes language learning out of the classroom into the real world. More over role-plays take an opportunity of using performances in the learning process. This method encourages cooperation and sharing of the ideas and skills within the group.
Video is very useful in motivating and stimulating. It is an efficient way to learn more about a topic, to make cross-cultural comparison and memorize colloquial forms of English. We usually watch video extracts from multimedia programs and well-known feature films.
Before viewing video extracts students are given a list of items and questions. After viewing they answer questions about the plot and some details, and write down things, which are different from Russian or Uzbek culture or the same. Undoubtedly preparation for watching films is longer than for viewing video extracts.
There exist all reasons to suppose that project work allows to model "multilateral" type of communication in the result of which there occurs mutual teaching of students. The project represents independently planned work realized by students in which speech communication is organically intertwined in intellectual and emotional context of other activity (games, questionnaire, issues of magazine, search activity, etc.). Thus it enables to realize links among subjects in training foreign language, to expand “narrow space” communication at the lesson, to carry out a wide support on practical kinds of activity. Work on the project is a creative process. Students co-operating with each other are engaged in search of problem solving significant for them. In overwhelming majority of cases it demands from students an independent transfer of knowledge, skills and abilities to a new context of their use.
Therefore it is possible to confirm with confidence that at students there develops a creative competence as an indicator of communicative foreign language skills at certain level. Thus in educational process such situation is created in which the use of a foreign language by students is natural and free, such as it acts in native language. It is evident that in this situation from participants of the project is expected the ability to concentrate their attention not on the language form of the statement, as on its content.
It is possible to find a place for game forms of training at each lesson. Game techniques are much diversified: they can be presented in the form of small game exercises, game situations and role plays. The main thing that the game technique should be pertinent at the lessons and it is feasible for students, and also correspond to the pedagogical purposes and problems. Due to a wide variety and communicative orientation it is possible to include games at any stage of studying vocabulary of foreign language. At the initial stage of studying vocabulary they will be presented in the form of game exercises which will facilitate remembering new words. At the final stage there are pertinent role plays and game situations which will lead to the main purpose of studying new vocabulary – communication.
Game forms of training are actual at all levels as they activate informative processes of students; raise their motivation to studying foreign language. But what really important is the fact that game techniques create quite natural situations of communication between participants.
Games are used as simple recreational activities most of the time, but they are not always that simple. They have a reason for being. While performing games, there is always competition to win, rules to follow, and enjoyment to experience. These activities help teachers to create a better teaching-learning process. They could be presented at different stages of the class at the appropriate moment to create a positive atmosphere while learning without thinking about learning. Teachers should decide carefully when and what kind of games students are going to perform by analyzing different factors such as the aim of the game, the students’ level of English, and students’ ages, among others.
The teacher has a minimum participation in the game since the activity is centered on students. Finally, one last role is the teacher as judge, which is related to how to approach students to the game. This is quite a difficult task because the teacher has to judge students and, at the same time, make them feel confident. On the other hand, students’ roles depend on what the interactive game demands. In addition, students have to follow the rules of the game, and, even though they do not notice they are achieving a specific part of the foreign language, they certainly are doing so.
Different variants of training in cooperation, which facilitate to involve the students in interactive activity at the lessons, are effectively applied in modern practice of teaching foreign language. The main idea of training in cooperation is to create conditions for active joint educational activity of students in various educational situations.
Special attention should be paid to working out ways to teach students communicative skills because the way people use language is different from the way people learn it. It is not sufficient to explain how to use language for communicative purposes, it is necessary to involve students into a truly communicative setting, where their language competence adapts itself to informational needs of a certain situation, linguistically and extra-linguistically. Each learner is to participate and interact to the fullest in the target language to gain communicative proficiency.
Working in a group students are in conditions when they are responsible for the result not only of their part of the work, but also of the whole group. Mutual control, consultation and training of weak students by their mates and deeper understanding material by the strong ones is carried out in this situation.
The core training variants in cooperation are training in team ‘Student Team Learning’, ‘Jigsaw’, training under motto ‘Learning Together’ and research work of students in groups.
Student Team Learning is that the teacher ex- plains a new material, and then offers students in groups to consolidate it (groups do not compete among themselves). There created some subgroups of students, certain task and necessary support is given to them. The task is carried out either in parts (everyone carries out his/her part), or on "top" (each subsequent task is carried out by the next student). Thus performance of any task is explained by a student and supervised by the whole group. The success or not success of the whole group depends on individual responsibility of its each member.
The majority of teachers still teach in the traditional manner. In traditional system the teacher usually relies on the strong student, as he "catches" the material faster, remembers it faster, and the weak one "sits out" at the lesson.
Lessons conducted in the interactive mode, al- low including all the students into active work, to provide to each student a feasible participation in solving problems, as a result the weak students find some confidence of own forces, and the strong ones feel advantage, helping companions to understand the material.
If at traditional system of training the teacher and the textbook were the basic and most competent sources of knowledge, at new paradigm the teacher acts in the role of an organizer of independent informative activity of students, a competent adviser and assistant, students obtain knowledge as a result of their active informative activity. In the process of interactive work communicative skills and ability to cooperate and interact are formed, critical thinking is developed that is necessary for their future professional activity.
Interactive ("Inter" is mutual, "act" - to operate)- means to co-operate, to interact, to be in the mode of conversation, dialogue with someone. In other words, unlike active methods, interactive are focused on wider interaction of students not only with the teacher, but also with each other and on domination of activity of students in the process of training. The place of the teacher in interactive lessons is reduced to the direction of activity of students on achieving the lesson goals.
Interactive teaching method is a more advanced mode of teaching suitable for promotion and application in universities. The process of teaching in the classroom is to bring into full play both the initiative of teachers and students, through dialogue, discussion, and so on in order to achieve a variety of ways of the exchange of thought, emotion and information, thus to achieve the best learning effects.