Teaching to read in a foreign language at a non-linguistic university

One of the goals of teaching a second foreign language is associated with the formation of students’ communicative competence, which allows them, in accordance with their real and actual needs and interests, to use the English language at a basic level in the most typical situations of verbal communication.

Currently, knowledge of two languages is becoming the norm, and more is a significant advantage, becoming a hallmark of a modern highly educated person. A foreign language becomes a guide to the world of wide opportunities, is the guarantor of successful employment and the key to building a successful career. That is why the prestige of the subject “foreign language” as an educational discipline of a non-linguistic university increases, updating the concept of “motivation”. Of course, the problem of motivation in the process of learning a foreign language is very acute. This problem is most clearly manifested in the course of teaching reading to students of non-linguistic universities, especially in the process of working with professionally oriented texts. This is due to the peculiarities inherent in a foreign language, requiring students to have a certain base, skills and abilities, as well as experience in working with authentic texts. Often this leads to certain difficulties for students, lowering their level of motivation, since teaching a foreign language, and in particular reading, is often not focused on the professional needs of students. Traditional methods of teaching reading in a foreign language lead to a decrease in the level of cognitive activity of students. After the planned undergraduate program of two or three, and in individual universities, one or two years of studying a foreign language, the specialist does not receive sufficient preparation in the subject and experiences difficulties leading to disinterest in reading in a foreign language.

For the successful teaching of reading in a foreign language to students of non-linguistic universities, of course, motivation alone is not enough. In addition, the teacher must carefully plan each lesson and constantly interact with the target audience. What is the main incentive that motivates students to read in a foreign language? This question is central to the selection, development and success of the final selection of material for reading in the classroom. More serious reasons for reading may be: reading in order to obtain information (“targeted reading”) or reading “for pleasure” [2, p. 100].

When students read text for information, they use the text to accomplish the following tasks:

• ❖    opportunity to learn something new;

• ❖    improve the level of knowledge of the language.

Reading “for fun” provides many students with the opportunity to enjoy the “world of books and words”. In both cases, the reader expects to be able to understand and comprehend the material provided for reading and to read it in accordance with one of the above two purposes. Of course, the student will be more motivated the more he is confident in the ability to achieve both stated goals. If the student has a task on which he should focus his attention during reading and motivation to carry out this task, in this case, he will have sustained and progressive success in this type of speech activity related to the study of a foreign language through texts on this language.

Since motivation affects every aspect of the foreign language being studied, it is permissible to assume that it also affects “reading productivity”. The principle is very simple: if a student is not motivated to read internally or externally, then he will not be involved in the reading process ” [3, p. 101].

First of all, the student must be interested in what he reads, otherwise the “back impulse” (the result from what he read) will not be received. In this regard, the teacher of a foreign language should make every effort to reveal the sphere of interests of the student, and, therefore, has the right to teach and instill interest in students through what they like and what they find interesting.

Secondly, the reading material should be selected taking into account the level of the students' required reading skills - it should not be super easy or super difficult. The fact that a student can read in itself leads to the development of motivation. In the practice of teaching a foreign language, according to Z. I. Klychnikova, “it is necessary to strive to ensure that students receive texts, when reading which there would be the highest level of understanding. Otherwise, reading will not bring pleasure to the reader, but will turn into a heavy duty of an educational nature” [4, p. 140].

The reading process should not be so difficult that the reader is disappointed and stopped this activity, but, along with this, it should not be so easy as to make the student bored and cause apathy. One way or another, it must be associated with a certain level of difficulty. In the framework of long-term work with the text, nothing will cause more motivation in the reading process than the final feeling of satisfaction from completing the task for the given text.

In this case, motivation is the main stimulating factor that contributes to introducing students to reading in a foreign language. In this case, motives are associated with the personal world of a person, and depend on his inner motives. That is why it is so difficult to evoke motivation from the outside. The learner will be able to learn a foreign language and read professionally oriented texts in the original only if he himself feels the need for this, that is, he will be motivated.

"Экономика и социум" №5(84) 2021