PRESENTATION OF THE METHODOLOGICAL TOPIC

THE USE OF NEW METHODOLOGICAL

COMPLEXES AT THE MODERN ENGLISH LESSON.
INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

Maria Zapototska,
the teacher of English
School 59

Winter School – 2008

Lviv
 Innovations in methodology, which are used in educational process of secondary
schools are connected with the use of new technologies at present. Interactive training
gives not only the pupils but also the teachers a chance to solve communicative-
cognitive tasks through foreign language teaching. The main trend of this training is to
organize a foreign language communication in the course of solving an outlined
linguistic task or problem.
The interactive methods of training have a higher degree of visual methods use
and give learners a chance to make linguistic material under study more active in
speech situations. Interactive training – it’s educational process organized in the way
which helps to involve all students practically in a process of training. They have the
possibility to understand and use what they have learnt. It means the exchange of
knowledge and views. So, the process of training the students involves:
 to solve complex problems on the basis of analyzing the circumstances and
corresponding information;
 to consider alternative opinions;
 to take well-considered decisions;
 to take part in discussions;
 to associate with different people.
The most well-known forms of interactive training are: a big circle, aquarium,
roundabout, brain storm, debate which we can divide into two groups: simple and
complex. So, a big circle, aquarium and roundabout are simple forms of interactive
training and brain storm, debate are complex forms of interactivity.

Interactive forms of training

Simple forms of training Complex forms of training

a big circle brain storm
aquarium debate
roundabout

It is necessary to point out that all the forms of interactive training are efficient
in case a problem is discussed as a whole in class and the students have previous
experience. In the process of work the teacher should take into consideration the fact
that the topics which are to be discussed in the classroom must not be limited or very
narrow.
Now we shall characterize some common interactive forms of training.

A big circle

The process of work is divided into 3 stages.

1-st stage – the group is arranged in a big circle and the teacher formulates the
problem (for example, How to lead healthy style of life while studying the topic
Sport).
 2-nd stage – during the definite time (about 10 min) each student individually
writes down all the ideas which contribute to problem solution (for example, not to
drink alcohol, not to use drugs, not to smoke cigarettes, do exercises every day, eat
plenty of nutritious food, etc).
3-rd stage – each student reads his proposals one by one, the groups listens
silently (criticizing is forbidden), then puts all the ideas on vote and decides if to
include the proposed ideas on the group list solution or strike it off. All the ideas are
written down on the blackboard.

Roundabout

The teacher writes down a question on the clean piece of paper. There should be
as many papers as questions concerned to be the most important while studying the
topic (for example, English writers. Life and work of William Shakespeare. Who was
W. Shakespeare? How many sonnets did he write? What did he write about, etc.)
The students are divided into groups. There should be as many groups as papers
with questions. Every group gets one paper with the question. Having discussed the
question they write down the answer below it. They turn up the paper in order to hide
their answer and the second group can see only question when it gets that paper. The
groups exchange their papers and write answers to the next question. The groups are
not allowed to open the answers of previous groups. The process should be repeated
until the first group gets the paper with the question they have already repeated. After
that all the answers to the questions should be read. The teacher makes conclusions
pointing out similarities and divergences in the answers.

The Net of Elverman

The strategy aims organization of discussion in groups and formation of students’

strict position concerning the problems being discussed while using their arguments.
The teacher forms the problem (for example, Education in Ukraine: advantages
and disadvantages) and the students work over it using the scheme:

Yes The Problem No

Can we get a good education in our

country?

The students fix arguments for and against in two columns and make their
conclusions.

So, interactive training gives us a chance to solve some problems

simultaneously. The main purpose is to develop communicative skills, to help
establish emotional contact with the students, provide with realization of educational
tasks, that is: to train them to work in a team, to consider somebody’s opinion.