AL-FARABI KAZAKH NATIONAL

UNIVERSITY

Course name: Methodology of

foreign language education

Name of author: Aliakbarova A.T.

Lecture
Aims, content and principles
of Foreign Language Teaching
 LECTURE 1

1. Aims and content of teaching FL.

2. Principles of foreign language
teaching.

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 The aims of foreign
language teaching are
threefold:
 The school programs set
forth the following practical
requirements:
Learning a second language is
of great educational value
Cultural aims of FLT
Content of Foreign Language
Teaching (What to teach)
 Principles of Foreign
Language Teaching
Scientific approach implies careful determination of
what and how to teach to achieve the aims set by the
syllabus.

Accessibility is closely connected with the selection of

the material and its arrangement.

The principle of durability implies the ability of a pupil

to keep in his memory linguistic and language material.

The principle of conscious approach to language

learning implies comprehension of a linguistic
phenomenon of language material by the pupil.
 Principles of Foreign Language Teaching
• The principle of activity. One needs a lot of practice in the use
of the language to master it.

• The principle of visualization. Visualization implies an

extensive use of audio-visual aids and audio-visual materials
throughout the whole course of FLT.

• The principle of individualization. The teacher should assess

the progress of each individual in the class and find the way
how to manage the classroom activity so that the slowest
learners are not depressed by being left behind and the fastest
and most able learners are not frustrated by being held back.
 Relations of Foreign Language Method to
Pedagogy
• To study foreign language teaching one must
know pedagogy.
• One branch of pedagogy is called didactics.
• Didactics studies general ways of teaching in
schools.
• Methods as compared to didactics, study the
specific ways of teaching a definite subject.
 Relations of Foreign Language Method to
Pedagogy
 In foreign language teaching the teacher
forms and develops pupils’ pronunciation
habits, lexical habits and other habits.
 “Habits” is the result of the repeated action.
 Repetitions will lead to skill.
 Skill is the ability to do something well.
 In language learning, the teacher should form
and develop such language skills.
 Relations of Foreign Language Method to
Psychology
 N.I. Zinkin, a prominent Soviet psychologist in
his investigation of the mechanisms of speech
came to the conclusion: “When the ear
receives a signal it reaches the brain, its
hearing center and then passes to the kinetic
center”.
 Effective learning of a foreign language
depends on to a great extent on the pupils’
memory.
 Methods of foreign language teaching has a
definite relation to physiology
I. Pavlov showed that man’s higher nervous
activities – speaking and thinking – are the functions of
a special system of organic structures within the
nervous system. It enables the brain to respond to inner
stimuli as it responds to outer stimuli or signals
perceived through the sense organs. Pavlov named this
the second signalling system.
Consequently, one of the forms of human
behaviour is language behaviour.
 Relations of Methods of Foreign Language
Teaching to Linguistics

Methods of foreign language teaching is most closely related to

linguistics deals with the problems which are of paramount
importance to Methods:
- with language and thinking,
- grammar and vocabulary,
- the relationship between grammar and vocabulary and many
others.
Methods successfully use, for example, the results of linguistic
investigation in the selection and arrangement of language
material for teaching.
 References

 Harmer, J. 1991. The Practice of

English Language Teaching (2nd ed.).
Harlow: Longman.
 Scrivener J. 1994. Learning Teaching.
Oxford: Heinemann. Ur, P. 1996. A
 Course in Language Teaching.
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.