Some teaching techniques in developing students’ listening and writing skills.

Some teaching techniques in developing students’ listening and writing skills. Fluent English command is nowadays one of the most important characteristic features of a well –educated person. The demand of interactive communication, knowledge share involves the youth to English language mastering. That is why one of the most modern and complicated problems of methodology is development of students’ foreign language communicative competence.

Communicative competence is based on mastering of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. I ‘d like to draw your attention to some listening and writing activities which work well with students. On the first step (elementary) of language study I practice various kinds of dictations based on photos, pictures: Situational picture. Listen to the text, look at the situational picture (for instance. a room) and find the objects in it. Write down only the “Wrong” sentences.

Compare your work with your mate’s. Correct mistakes and write down your variant of sentences. Picture dictation.(vanishing species). Listen to the names of animals. Place them on the map in proper places. Compare your map with your partner’s. These animals are in danger. Why? ( geographical maps are needed) Scheme drawing. Teacher reads the names of objects of a house room and students draw them and write

them in schema. Single-word dictation. Children listen to the words in English and write down the words under ear the appropriate picture. (Food/ clothes) Dictations with grammar tasks. While listening copy out the words (nouns in Plural, irregular verbs, adjectives e.t.c.) from the text. (any adopted text) Another method of developing students’ listening and writing skills is narrative text reproduction.

This activity I practice with groups of students –teenagers of pre-intermediate level. I suggest you some short stories which are interesting and cognitive to listen to and narrate on paper. At the end of reproduction I ask students to express their opinion . Texts for beginners. 1 Once there lived two brothers. They were very much alike, but they were quite different people.

One was happy when other people were happy and unhappy when others were unhappy. But the second brother never took care of other people. “You never help people,” said the first brother. “Yes, I take care of myself,” said the second brother, “because I want to live long and be happy.” One day the first brother left the town where they lived. He went to many places and the people who met him said: «He left some of his heart with us.”

Many years later the two brothers met again. When the second brother saw his brother, he thought: “ Is this young man my brother? How can it be? He is so young, his hair is not white as my hair is.” It was so. The first brother looked young and his heart was younger than before. The second brother did not say anything. He went slowly home. He was old and unhappy. Do you understand why it was so?

2 Once upon a time there lived two sisters. The elder sister had a son. The boy was one year old. The two women loved the baby dearly. One day the sisters quarreled and at night the younger sister tried to leave the house with the boy. The elder sister saw it and stopped her. “You cannot take the boy. He’s my son!” said the elder sister. But the younger sister wanted to have the boy very much and she

said: “I’ll tell the judge the boy is mine. I love the baby so much that the judge will believe me. ” So, in the morning they went before the judge. Each woman told him that the baby was hers. The judge thought a little and then called his servants. “ Cut the child into two halves and give each woman a half of the boy,” he said. The younger sister didn’t say a word, but the elder told the judge:”

I’m not the child’s mother. Give him to my sister and let him live.” The judge then said to his servants: “ Give the boy to the elder sister. She is the real mother.” 3 There lived a rich farmer in England who had a friend. His friend had very good apple-trees. One day his friend gave the farmer a young apple-tree and told him he could take it home and plant

it. The farmer was very happy. When he came home, he did not know where to plant the tree. He thought: “ If I plant the tree far from my house, somebody will take my apples. I f I plant it near my house my children will take my apples.” So he planted the tree in the forest where nobody could see it. But there was too little sun and the tree died. When the farmer’s friend heard of it, he asked the

farmer why the tree was in such a bad place. “Where could I Plant it?” said the farmer. I could not plant the tree far from my house or near my house. Somebody could take my apples.” His friend listened to the farmer and said: “ Nobody can take your apples now, but you lost a nice tree.” 4 Once upon a time there lived a king who thought that he could paint very well.

His pictures were very bad, but the people to whom he showed them were afraid of the king, and they all said they liked his pictures very much. One day the king showed his pictures to a great painter who lived in that country, and said: “I want to know what you think of my pictures. Do you like them? Am I a good painter or not?” The painter looked at king’s pictures and said: “ My King, I think that your pictures are bad and that you will never be a good painter.”

The king was very angry and sent the painter to prison. After two years the king wanted to see the painter again. “ I was very angry with you,” he said,” because you did not like my pictures. Now forget all about it. You’re a free man again, and I’m your friend.” For many hours the king talked with the painter and even invited him to dinner.

After dinner the king showed his pictures to the painter and asked: “ Well, do you like them?” The painter answered: “ Send me back to prison” In the recent past writing was the most ignored of the language skills. But many changes in attitude have occurred about teaching writing in a second language. Traditionally, when students write in second language, the purpose of the writing activity is to catch

grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Under these circumstances, sometimes the only writing students do is to write out grammar exercises. Sometimes those grammar exercises are disguised as composition writing; those are called guided writing, in which students are given a short text and instructed to change all the masculine pronouns to feminine ones, or to change all singular nouns to plural or to change from present tense to past tense. The students do not create the text themselves, because a more

traditional philosophy of teaching language has persuaded teachers that students are not ready to create language; they are not ready to manipulate forms. The writing is carefully controlled so that the students see only correct language and practice grammar structures that they have learned. Children learning a second language often do no real writing at all even if they can already write in their first language. But attitudes have changed about the role of writing in teaching a second language.

Instead of being the last skill taught and instead of being a servant to grammar, writing has now become much more important in the second language curriculum. Writing is the natural outlet for the students’ reflections on their speaking, listening, and reading experiences in their second language. When students are not focused on grammatical error but when they are instead writing freely, writing or trying to write what they think they want to say, they develop

confidence and a sense of power over the language that none of the other skills is likely to produce until the students are very well advanced in their language studies. In other words, students have to be very advanced users of English before they can fill satisfaction at being able to hold a conversation in English, understand an overheard conversation in English or a radio broadcast, or even read a newspaper

or short story. But writing in a second language is different. Writing gives students time to shape what they want to say, to go over it until it seems to reflect what they think, and to exert their influence over the second language, and this is true even at the most elementary levels of English proficiency. Anyone who writes in any language invents a reader to whom the writer is addressing the text; English students, too, get to invent this reader who will understand

their English. There are many different kinds of writing and many different reasons for writing. It is important for us as second –language teachers to figure out what are we training our students for. Students of intermediate level are taught to write short stories. Task could be different: to write a story for the teacher, for the class or readers of a magazine. Students are given either the title or the first or last line of the story.

The main point in writing a good story is to entertain the reader by making the story interesting and original. Here are some basic aspects on writing a story of this kind. Plan your story before you begin writing by deciding what the main events of the story are. Divide your ideas into paragraphs. You should have at least three paragraphs. Do not make your story too formal in style; use neutral or formal language.

Begin your story by setting the scene. Give some details about the main characters and when and where the story takes place. Use a variety of past tenses. Use adjectives to make your story more vivid. Use sequencing words , eg after some time, as soon as, meanwhile Use direct speech to make your story more lively. Make sure you bring your story to a definite end.

Check your story for mistakes at the end. Another kind of writing might be magazine article. A good article has the following features. It has an interesting title. The first line attracts the reader’s attention. It is written in a style that is appropriate to the reader. It tries to entertain the reader. It is organized into paragraphs. It uses appropriate linking words. It has a range of grammar and vocabulary.

It ends with a good conclusion that summarizes the main points. Opinion composition. When writing the kind of composition it is important to organize ideas clearly. Connecting words and expressions help students do this. Here are some of them: firstly, for example, sadly, finally, however, consequently, furthermore, in conclusion, in the first place, on the other hand, to summarize, unfortunately, for instance, let’s

take, lastly, what’s more, as a result, so. A good composition has the following features. It uses an appropriate style of language (formal or semi-formal). The ideas are organized in a logical way. It is organized into clear paragraphs. It has an introduction and conclusion. It uses a good range of grammar and vocabulary. It uses appropriate linking words and expressions.

A good Report writing features. It answers the question and contains all the relevant information. It is written in a style that is appropriate to the reader. It is well organized and often has headings to make the contents clearer. It has an introduction and a conclusion. It uses a good range of grammar, vocabulary and expressions. List of literature: ILONA LEKI “ WRITING. WHERE WE

SEEM TO BE” English Teaching Forum, APRIL, 1991 FLOWER LINDA “ A COGNITIVE BASIS FOR PROBLEMS IN WRITING” COLLEGE ENGLISH, 1979 LUKE PRODROMOU “ FIRST SERTIFICATE STAR “ text-book