Development of design skills and abilities at foreign language lessons

The project method can be designated as an education technology, the purpose of which is to obtain the latest knowledge, to determine their special skills and abilities with the help of a single organization of problem-oriented search. In other words, the project method is a way of teaching when the student is integrated into a dynamic cognitive process, while he independently identifies the problem, finds the necessary information, designs ways to solve the problem, draws conclusions, analyzes his own activities, thereby acquiring educational and life experience.

The relevance of the topic is due to the extreme importance of the development of design skills and their demand in the modern world.

According to the State Educational Standard, the introduction of project activities in the learning process is mandatory and regulated by these standards.

However, at present, project activities do not have a methodological base, as a result of which they do not have sufficient practical and technological development, which causes difficulties in the implementation of individual projects for both students and teachers. This implies a contradiction in the implementation and implementation of project activities.

The State Educational Standard requires students to create an individual project, its thorough study and, ultimately, presentation and protection. The project is assessed based on certain criteria that students must meet. As for these requirements, they are spelled out in a detailed and structured manner. However, they are not enough to successfully complete the design work. We conducted a survey of teachers and students in which we asked them to answer questions about projects and design skills. The survey has shown that some students do not find difficulties in completing individual projects and believe that they have all the necessary skills for this developed. As for the teachers, in their opinion, students cannot cope with the implementation of projects on their own, because they do not understand what is required of them, how and where to look for information, how to analyze and select it.

The topic of this article is directly related to the term design skills, therefore, it is necessary to define it and sample these skills based on the analysis of the processes of project activities.

When using linguistic tools in the information and educational field, real pedagogical communication functions against the background of interaction between teachers and students, who are subjects of the educational process.1

The design skills are a group of skills, which is distinguished by such a feature as their commonality in relation to design activities, the purpose of which is to build a technological process for the design and manufacture of products and solving creative problems.2

Among them are skills:

• a.    develop and plan their own activities in accordance with the objectives of the project assignment;

• b.    determine the goal that lies at the head of the topic of the task-project;

• c.    analyze and define the problem;

• d.    create and implement their own options for creating projects, express their own opinion;

• e.    assess the created project and self-assess their actions.

We analyzed the data of the survey conducted among teachers and students of the school and on the way to solving the problem we identified as lack of a methodological base for project activities, we developed a special set of tasks.

This set of tasks is an addition to the basic teaching and learning method. The set of tasks developed by us is aimed at developing design skills in students in foreign language lessons.

The first group of exercises is aimed at developing the ability to independently determine the topic of the task.

Read the texts and find the headlines. There is one extra headline.

• •    Building new relations

• •    Care and support

• •    Playing favorites

• •    Family violence

• •    Difficult relative

The second group of tasks is aimed at developing the ability to build an action plan. Put the following paragraphs in the correct order to recreate the text

The third group of tasks is aimed at developing the ability to identify the main problem. Read the text and choose the statement that best summaries the main idea.

The answer lies in the fact that the primary use for mobile phones is no longer a phone. Apps allow us to track our health, our pets, play games, find dates, shop.

The fourth group of tasks is aimed at developing the ability to formulate one’s own judgment. Write a short essay on the topic “Do all human beings certainly need social contacts or not nowadays?”.

The fifth group of tasks is aimed at developing the ability to assess the correctness of the task. Express your opinion about this test. Choose the sentence which suits you most and explain why.

• a)    I have easily completed all the tasks, because...

• b)    I find it difficult to complete task (s), because…

• c)    While completing the test I found out a lot of new facts, such as...

During the pedagogical practice, we carried out experimental work with the introduction of the developed complex of special tasks in the experimental group, and the control group was trained according to the basic school curriculum.

The control test at the end of the experimental work showed that the level of development of design skills for most of the students increased. To determine the effectiveness of the implemented set of tasks, we used the method of mathematical statistics.

Based on the results, we can conclude that the implemented set of tasks is effective. Thus, our statement that the process of developing design skills in primary school students will be more successful if a set of special tasks is systematically introduced in foreign language lessons has been confirmed in practice.

"Экономика и социум" №11(78) 2020