Lecture 9 Modeling of foreign language communication

The situational orientation of teaching foreign languages is due to the high importance of
extralinguistic parameters of communication and the need to use speech situations aimed at
developing their skills and abilities of intercultural communication.

Modeling of foreign language communication is the answer to the question: who, with whom
and what is talking about; under what circumstances, what is the social role and position of the
communicants.

In the learning process, two types of communicative situations are distinguished:

- natural, which have natural stimuli for speech and contribute to the development of foreign
language speech, but at the same time cannot ensure systematic work on the development of –и
of foreign language communication;

- educational, which, unlike natural ones, are imaginary and have a number of distinctive
features.

The creation of a communicative situation in the classroom in a foreign language is one of the
essential factors in managing foreign language communication. It is characterized by the mental
and emotional activity of students, an atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding, which is
achieved in controlled communication with special techniques and games, taking into account
social and personal factors, and the communicative behavior of communication participants,
including the teacher.

Modern scientists distinguish the following methods of modeling a communicative situation in

foreign language lessons:

1) verbal description. Describing a communicative situation, the teacher can make it as specific
as possible, taking into account the real circumstances of the life of the class, for example: “Let's
say you have a day off tomorrow, and you want to invite your friend (girlfriend) to the cinema.
What and how will you say?

In this description, the addressee, the nature of the statement, the time when the action will take
place and the place are specified.

A description of the situation can be recorded on tape and played back in class. It is advisable to
use this technique when a speech, speech, story recorded on tape is used as a model or stimulus
for a certain statement.

The verbal description satisfies all the conditions and does not require a special material base,
i.e. easy to implement, so the type of situational exercises created with the help of a verbal
description is leading.

2) Visibility. The use of this method is a prerequisite for success in developing the
communicative competence of students. Various illustrations, photographs, diagrams, train or
class schedules, geographical maps can serve as visual material.

An effective means of developing oral speech is also a demonstration of filmstrips, slides, which
are accompanied by a tape recording.
With the help of visual aids, the teacher removes the additional load from the memory of
students, gets the most rational opportunity to create typical situations that provoke the required
statements.

3) Role play. The elements of the game and the ability to “transfer” to new circumstances are
very important in foreign language lessons, because they bring “pseudo-communication” as
close as possible to real communication.

During the games, an important role is played by the element of emotionality - fun, a little
relaxation, which students of any age certainly need with intensive work on language material.
Games are oral and written: containing linguistic and non-linguistic information - geographical,
historical, cultural and everyday: helping to train and consolidate some phonetic, lexical and
grammatical phenomena.

4) Printed text. Often the educational communicative situation is created according to the content
of the texts. An important role here is played by exercises that offer a comparison of facts from
the text with facts from the life of students, from the reality around them; creation of imaginary
learning situations based on the text, retelling on behalf of one of the characters, solving the
problem of the text, individual tasks based on the text. Such tasks are introduced so that the
communicative situation in the lesson is not unexpected, and tasks are difficult for students to
complete.

5) Scientific conference, which is a very important event at which students consider the most
pressing problems of the field under study. Usually their implementation is associated with
important preparatory work, the order of which should be thought out in advance. We will
consider the concept of a scientific conference in more detail in the second chapter of our course
work.
The creation of conditions for natural communication within the framework of educational
interaction is achieved through the use of problem speech-thinking tasks based on the sequence
of actions, critical analysis, assumption, conjecture, finding similarities and differences. In the
course of performing such tasks, the learning situation can turn into a natural one, thus ensuring
the spontaneity of communication, the main feature of which is the inability to predict its
content, there is a possibility of changing the topic of discussion or the need for additional
language material. Having selected the educational material, the teacher structurizes tasks with a
step-by-step description of the process of implementing the simulated situations in accordance
with the goals and objectives of training, clarifying the communication skills and language skills
formed at each stage. The specifics of creation, the sequence of inclusion in the educational
process of a communicative situation as the main unit of education are determined by the general
patterns of teaching foreign language communication and the individual capabilities of
schoolchildren.

Thus, the use of a complex of communicative situations provides a gradual bringing of the
developed speech actions to the level of skills and abilities, followed by their demonstration in
intercultural communication in a foreign language. Learning situations contribute to the
formation of not only speech activity, but also any other activity included in the learning process.