PROJECT TECHNOLOGIES IN THE FORMATION OF COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS OF STUDENTS IN THE ENGLISH LESSON

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23670/IRJ.2022.118.4.048

ПРОЕКТНЫЕ ТЕХНОЛОГИИ В ФОРМИРОВАНИИ КОММУНИКАТИВНЫХ НАВЫКОВ УЧАЩИХСЯ НА УРОКЕ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

Научная статья

Ныгметова Б.Д.¹, Газизова А.С.^{2, *},Абдусамат Ә.Е.³, Манатбекова А.А.⁴, Жумакельдина Б.К.⁵

¹ ORCID: 0000-0002-2407-8318;

^1-5 Павлодарский Педагогический Университет, Павлодар, Казахстан

^* Корреспондирующий автор (aijana.gazizova060[at]gmail.com)

Аннотация

Проектный метод в настоящее время чрезвычайно распространен в преподавании. Этот метод является неотъемлемой частью нового поколения. Проектная деятельность студентов предполагает решение творческой задачи и представление результатов исследования. В то же время сама тема исследования должна быть лично значимой для студента и вызывать положительные эмоции. Преподаватели иностранного языка уделяют большое внимание проектам, так как они развивают творческие способности детей, помогают повторить ранее выученный материал, закрепляют приобретенные навыки и умения учащихся и делают изучение предмета привлекательным.

В статье также используется работа с метатекстом в качестве проекта с целью развития коммуникативных навыков учащихся на уроках английского языка.

Ключевые слова: проектный метод, коммуникация, этапы проекта, роль преподавателя, элементы метатекста, творческий продукт, презентация работы, студенческие группы.

PROJECT TECHNOLOGIES IN THE FORMATION OF COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS OF STUDENTS IN THE ENGLISH LESSON

Research article

Nygmetova B.D.¹, Gazizova A.S.^{2, *}, Abdusamat A.E.³, Manatbekova A.A.⁴, Zhumakeldina B.K.⁵

¹ ORCID: 0000-0002-2407-8318;

^1-5 Pavlodar State Pedagogical University, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan

^* Corresponding author (aijana.gazizova060[at]gmail.com)

Abstract

The project method is extremely widespread in teaching nowadays. This method is an integral part of the new generation. Project activity of students involves solving a creative problem and presenting the results of the research. At the same time, the research topic itself should be personally meaningful for the student and elicit positive emotions. Teachers of a foreign language pay great attention to projects as they develop children’s creative abilities, help to repeat the previously learned material, consolidate the acquired skills and abilities of students and make the study of the subject attractive.

The article also uses the work with metatext as a project in order to develop students’ communicative skills in the English class.

Keywords: project method, communication, project stages, teacher’s role, metatext elements, creative product, presentation of work, student groups.

At the present time, the formation of a personality that responds to modern requirements is one of the leading directions in the area of educational development. Consequently, the necessity for a contemporary, separate, active person that makes resolutions and flexibly accommodate to the changing conditions of life is increasing sharply.

Many qualities of personality are formed also in junior secondary education. At this age, students perceive school as an institution of social development, and the main task of modern education for them now is to develop and form a person able to express his thoughts freely, with a broad outlook and possessing good, constantly growing knowledge.

Unfortunately, at present, the attention given to the development of the student’s learning and creative abilities is insufficient for the full development of that very modern personality. Thus, a possible solution to this problem is the introduction of educational advanced technology in the modern educational process. The project method, which, in our opinion, is an advanced technology, has the ability not only to give ready-made knowledge to students, but also to teach the student to look for and find information that he or she can also master on his or her own. We believe that this is the task of modern education.

The method of projects in the teaching of a foreign language in middle school makes it possible to influence effectively the various aspects of adolescent development, the formation of creative and social activity, the development of abilities that ensure the success of the development, learning and upbringing of personality.

In modern life, the role of the individual possessing knowledge of foreign languages increases significantly. Communicative competence is one of the main objectives, which is the main goal of teaching foreign languages and meets the requirements of the concept of modernization of national education [1, P. 12-15].

A teacher forming communicative competence should create the necessary conditions for students to acquire skills and abilities with a high level of communication. The concept of “communicative competence” by origin means a certain system of requirements to a person related to the process of communication, literate speech, knowledge of oratorical techniques, the ability to show an individual approach to the interlocutor, etc. The components of communicative competence are:

• Linguistic competence, i.e. knowledge of a certain vocabulary and syntactic rules and the ability to use them to construct coherent statements;
• Sociolinguistic competence, i.e. the ability to use and transform language forms based on the situation of communication;
• Discursive competence or the ability to perceive and produce a statement in communicative communication;
• Strategic competence, that is, the ability to resort to communication strategies, verbal and non-verbal, in order to compensate for unfamiliar linguistic material [2, P. 29].

 The project method allows the least resource-consuming way to create the conditions of activity as close to the real one as possible for the formation of students’ competencies. When working on a project there is an exceptional opportunity to form students’ problem-solving competence (since the prerequisite for the implementation of the project method at school is that students solve their own problems by means of the project) as well as mastering the ways of activity, which constitute communicative and informational competence. In addition, with the introduction of the project method into the learning activities of students, there is a change in the form of organization of learning activities and learning cooperation from classroom-lesson to laboratory-seminar and lecture-laboratory research [3, P. 88].

The project method, an effective approach that is widely used in schools, was developed by American scientists W. Kilpatrick and D. Dewey, also under the leadership of S. Shatsky, a group of leading scientists.

Execution of the project method in education is largely determined by the fact that the learning procedure, being a relatively new practice in teaching English, contributes to the solution of such precedence tasks of modern education as: configuration and betterment of foreign language communicative competence.

Expansion and systematization of knowledge about language, advancement of linguistic outlook and vocabulary, further mastering of general speech culture; creating a basis for the formation of interest in improving the achieved level of knowledge of the studied foreign language, to utilize a foreign language as a means of obtaining information to expand their knowledge in other subject areas.

There are many descriptions of the term “project”. Project - translated from Latin as “thrown forward”. Initially, the word “project” meant an idea, an outline, a plan of what will be done. Further, the interpretation was developed as a “project” - prototype, prototype of an object, activity, etc. In the 20th century, designing, meaning “the system of creating a project” became one of the most widespread types of intellectual activity, and the term project lost its “originally technical” interpretation [4, P. 57].

M.L. Zueva under the project method implies “a technology of organizing educational situations in which a student puts and solves his or her own problems, and a technology of supporting students’ independent activity” [5, P. 65].

1. Kilpatrick, an American educator proposed an original definition: “A project is any impact, individual or group, made from the heart” [6, P. 79].

In the method of projects as a pedagogical technology a set of ideas, most clearly presented by the American educator and philosopher George Dewey (1859 - 1952) stated the following: A childhood is not a period of preparation for a future life, but a full life. Consequently, education should be based not on knowledge that will be useful to him sometime in the future, but on what is urgently needed by the child today, on the problems of his real life.

Materials and types of methods

The main idea of the project method in teaching a foreign language is to shift the emphasis from various kinds of exercises to active thinking activity of students, which requires for its execution the possession of certain language means. That is the reason we have to turn to the project method at the stage of creative application of linguistic material.

Only the project method can solve this didactic task and turn foreign language lessons into a discussion, research club, in which really interesting, practically significant and accessible to students problems are solved, taking into account the culture of the country and on the basis of intercultural interaction.

The project method is always focused on students’ independent activity - individual, paired, group, which students perform within a certain period.

Since our study focuses on the development of communication skills using the project method, it is very important to develop public speaking.

Communicative speech is an element of speech activity that appears during transmission between the speaker and the public. Conveying speech is necessary for informational impact on the audience, suggestions and beliefs. Public speaking includes the pronunciation of text or dialogue that passively affects listeners. The following features are present in them: individual structure of the text and logical conclusion.

The speaker’s text must comply with three rules: comprehensibility, informativeness and expressiveness. Public speech is characterized by changeable nature; its success depends on understanding with the audience and establishing psychological contact with it.

Speaking includes pronunciation of the text in front of company management, potential employer, and friends. Public speaking helps to prove oneself in a professional sphere or other activity. They also distinguish speech methods that help to create a clear and understandable text that is as close to the goal as possible.

Communicative skills methods include separate rules, such as:

1) Public speaking is the use of short texts that are understandable to the audience.

2) The main function of the speaker is to convey to the audience useful, reliable information. Methods or techniques for influencing students should not violate their rights. However, far from always the psychological characteristics of public speaking meet the requirements of ethics.

3) It is not recommended to “stretch” speech in front of a large audience, because people’s attention is short-term, easily dispersed.

4) Before speaking to the public, one must learn to distinguish one’s emotional mood.

5) The psychology of public speaking is arranged in such a way that the final result of the event depends on the structure of the prepared text, use, and phrases calling for action. Important information is available only at the beginning and at the end of a speech. This specific construction is necessary for a successful and effective communication of the material, as the public’s attention during these periods is maximized.

6) The speaker should be ethical. The culture of public speech is respected under any condition, and is considered a necessary element in the pronunciation of speech.

The art of public speaking can come in handy at any time, even if it is not related to your professional activities. The ability to express correctly and clearly your thoughts and desires suggests that you are a developed and sociable person who is interesting to be listened to [7].

As we all know, interaction between people takes place by means of speech. Communication skills in society directly depend on how well it is developed. In addition, correct and beautiful speech is the key to understanding the thoughts conveyed by others, and, accordingly, the higher chances of being able to convey your thoughts and desires as accurately as possible. For this, helped by introductory words, as we also call it metatext elements.

“Every speech should be like a living being – it should have a body with its head and legs, and the trunk and limbs should fit together and fit the whole.” – Plato. Therefore, a project method usually helps to organize our speech and makes it complete. In the practical part, work with metatext elements is presented as a project in order to develop communicative skills [8].

In this chapter, within the pedagogical experiment, practical exercises are developed to improve students’ communication skills with the help of project methods. Communication skills of students are trained based on teaching techniques for public speaking. The art of public speaking depends not only on the delivery of speeches and motivational speaking but also on the use of special supplementary words or phrases, which help the speaker to structure his / her speech.

At college students should skillfully engage in dialogue using previously learned words, well versed in everyday life topics, as well as the interests of their circle of friends. Special attention is paid to listening. Students should have a good perception of familiar words by ear, when the teacher or one of their peers, a well-delivered speech, dictates the text and be able to answer written questions in English.

To learn a foreign language successfully, a student requires not only high motivation, but also a lot of time, regularity and systematic studies.

There are five project methods, each of which has tasks for teaching English with metatext elements in formation of communicative skills.

Pedagogical experiment

The pedagogical experiment is conducted in the Higher College of Innovative Eurasian University in Pavlodar. It is based on the project based learning approach. Project Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

The pedagogical experiment is conducted with students of the college, 1st stage. The number of students in the class is 20: 10 boys and 10 girls.

Lesson sequencing is the systematic process of organizing several lesson plans, focused on one topic of study, which will be taught consecutively. The practice of purposeful lesson sequencing is to create a continuity of learning which builds upon the previously taught lesson while as much as possible use optimal learning outcomes. Creating a sequential lesson plan unit will showcase the teacher’s ability to anticipate the needs of the students while concurrently meeting the grade level standards

As for the Teaching and Methodical Complex (TMC) Excel for Kazakhstan is a task-based English course of five levels based on the Common European Framework of Reference and designed for learners studying English at CEFR levels A1 to low-mid B1. Excel for Kazakhstan develops all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) through a variety of communicative tasks, and systematically recycles key language items. Teaching in the first year of college is taught according to the textbooks of the renewed educational program, and most lessons are compiled from the foreign site Learning English “British council”, created and adapted specifically for in-depth learning of English. This website allows easy communication and contact with foreign teachers and students.

The students are taught according to 5 projects presented in table 1, where each teaching stage has a number of exercises on the development of students’ communicative skills based on metatext elements. Having done 4 stages, on the 5th stage students make their own presentations (project) using topical vocabulary and metatext elements which help them make their speech more constructive, well-organized and picturesque. Table 1 explains how students of the 1st grade of college improve their communication skills step by step and come to the successful ending of project.

Table 1 – 5 project methods for training students to formation communicative skills

Note that each of the stages is aimed at a specific part in learning English. 

For example, on the first stage, training is aimed at reading.

Reading comprehension is the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and integrate with what the reader already knows.

Improving learning: reading helps easily accept and process any unfamiliar information, which means that training will be much faster and more efficient.

Development of fantasy: while reading books, a person unconsciously borrows the author’s style, his thoughts, etc. When creating a little masterpiece, use several different styles or create your own based on them.

Reading and communication: during the reading process, together with the class, we discussed where the metatext elements are, how they are useful, what they are for and what is new to the text.

In the second stage training is aimed at speaking in dialogue.

Dialogical interaction of subjects, through which research, search, promotion and solution of emerging creative tasks can go. It is necessary to teach the student to ask questions. In the process, they help to ask questions and correctly answer them; it is really important and significant, since the educational dialogue becomes more productive when discussing issues that arise in the logic of the development of thinking of the student himself.

On the third stagetraining is aimed at listening.

The following can be mentioned as auxiliary tools that improve listening skills:

• the ability to concentrate;
• the ability to analyze the content;
• the ability to listen critically;
• the ability to outline.

On the fourth stage training is aimed at writing and communication. Work in a group allows to individually adjust the volume of material and mode of operation, makes it possible to form the ability to work together, use the technique mutual control. Group works in the lesson contribute the active involvement of each student in the learning process of the material. Training becomes more successful. Through group work, students form such skills like the ability to listen and hear each other, build dialogue, ask questions on understanding, and take responsibility for joint and own activities achieving results, ability to work with a team.

And on the fifth stage, each student goes to the public (class) and presents his/her story individually, naturally using metatext elements.

So, the results of the practice are presented in Diagram 1, where we can see that the five steps make up a total of 100%. This suggests that on each stage, the maximum rating is 20%. The general result of all stages is 77%.

Fig. 1 – Results

The results show that students have good comprehension skills; well-delivered speech, reading skills, and also the students are able to answer all the questions in English. However, the data demonstrates that a few students have some problems with communicative skills. Diagram 1 shows the level of learning of the material in class. We have come to the conclusion that students learn the material perfectly.

Analysis of this diagram shows that we have fulfilled the purpose of this experiment, the fact that at the 2nd and 3rd stage, where previously stated work in groups (debate and dialogue) has increased the formation of students’ communication skills.

Based on the aforementioned tasks, we can say with full confidence that they have been fully implemented.

The impact of this initiative on the students is significant, so they became highly motivated to evaluate the consequences of learning new material; they openly share their personal experiences, and this greatly enriches the learning environment.

Also, students additionally meet in the American Corner of the Regional Library. In feedback, students report that this initiative is an effective way to increase their English level which connect with communicative skills, influence their attitudes and prospects in the future.

Conclusions and recommendations

Before preparation the students are given some tips to have a successful presentation:

• spend more time preparing a presentation;
• determine the topic of your speech;
• understand what you are talking about;
• prepare the material in advance (key to success);
• make a speech so that it sounds natural and logical. The metatext elements that are used in this process help;
• train the pace of the voice
• train the correct articulation and pronunciation;
• pronounce sounds correctly;
• try to speak more slowly and carefully than in a normal conversation;
• use a pause between various ideas or especially important topics so that the public can understand what has been said;
• know the structure of speech;
• knowing speech is as important as knowing the topic of conversation;
• prepare cards with abstracts or a speech plan. Or just remember the theses if you have a good memory (do not try to do this from memory, if you are not 100% sure that you will not forget anything);
• learn speech. There is no need to fully remember the speech or its main points, but it can be a huge help to appear more confident and knowledgeable in the topic of speech;
• divide the speech into paragraphs and key points;
• visualize a specific picture in your mind for each key moment.

Based on the aforementioned tasks, we can say with full confidence that they have been fully implemented [9].

The impact of this initiative on the students is significant, so they became highly motivated to evaluate the consequences of learning new material; they openly share their personal experiences, and this greatly enriches the learning environment.

Also, students additionally meet in the American Corner of the Regional Library. In feedback, students report that this initiative is an effective way to increase their English level which connect with communicative skills, influence their attitudes and prospects in the future.

In general, this study clearly shows that an approach based on project learning is effective in motivation of students. Much has been considering in this study, regarding the relationship between language and grammar, in particular English, and their lesson plans, which we combine.

There are a number of challenges to this new outlook on teaching English. We can confidently say that no one should impose their own beliefs or styles on them. Therefore, the role of the teacher is to provide students with the knowledge necessary to make this choice.

Much has been considered in this study regarding the teaching process:

- a lesson in which the educational goals of the next lesson are depended by the result of student responses previously lesson;

- a lesson that requires students to work together to solve problems, combine their ideas and discuss with each other;

- a lesson in which students bring their homework for analyze with teacher and also on the lesson students work on self-esteem and the process of overcoming difficulties and questions;

- lessons in which the text is read aloud, a video is watched, a story is told, the student explains his/her ideas based on his/her individual research [10].

We assume that this has implications for our psychology around the development of our practice and the assessment of the quality of teaching and learning.

Analysis of the experience of employing the project method in the teaching process exemplifies the great potential of this process in teaching and enables students to learn more additional information, more rapidly master the taught material and initiate a full-fledged scientific operation. For the lecturer, exploiting the project method in the classroom makes it possible to explain new substances to students in a better and more accessible way or to reinforce previously learned material more thoroughly. Moreover, the teacher has an opportunity to achieve all kinds of speech activities for students - speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

The main problem arising from the inability to formulate correct thoughts is a misunderstanding between the students. An insufficiently clearly formulated and stated thought is incorrectly perceived. In this regard, in a practical study, we use project technologies based on speaking, as well as related tasks and language rules related to phonetics, vocabulary (phrases, synonyms), grammar (spelling) and other. The oral part of this stage helps students to increase and overcome the language barrier and improve their speech skills. The use of these criteria, in turn, helps to identify the fact that metatext elements help effectively and easily convey information to a person.

As mentioned earlier: “The development of self-confidence, courage and the ability to speak calmly and clearly during a conversation with the audience does not constitute the difficulty that most people face. This is not talent at all, just need to develop more. Most students can develop their abilities if he/she has a strong enough desire.”

Importantly, project activities do not focus students on ready-made and easily obtained knowledge, but develop students’ communicative and even organizational abilities.

As a result, foreign language learning involves daily and systematic work. This requires students to have a certain mental load. In addition, the lack of a language environment creates additional difficulties in its study. Knowledge of project methods significantly enhances contact and understanding of communicating with each other.

Конфликт интересов Не указан.

Conflict of Interest None declared.

Список литературы / References

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Список литературы на английском языке / References in English

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