Various methods of English language teaching

At present, there are many methods for studying a foreign language in higher education. Each of the methods has certain features, some are more popular and in demand, some are smaller. This article will discuss the basic techniques for students to learn English.

Modern methods of teaching English in higher educational institutions.

In the modern world, English is very popular, moreover, this language is the language of international communication, it is known all over the world. To date, there are a lot of methods for teaching English. In addition, new ones are regularly developed, so that now every teacher can choose the optimal method of work for himself.

Currently, when teaching a foreign language in higher education institutions, classical methods are most often used. Namely:

• 1.    Direct method.

• 2.    Grammar-transfer method of teaching.

• 3.    Audiovisual and audiolingival methods.

• 4.    Communicative method.

Direct method of teaching a foreign language

The essence of this technique is that the teacher pays more attention to the study of the directly spoken language, which is used in everyday life. The developers of this method believed that the language of the mediator, that is, the language in which the teaching is conducted, hinders the learning of a foreign language. Thus, students are artificially introduced into the world of the language they study.

All activities are conducted in English, the teacher should also give explanations and new topics in English. Only English-language literature is used.

When teaching English by such a method, the role of the teacher in the successful mastering of knowledge by students is key. That is, his speech must be absolutely clear and correct, the pronunciation should be ideal, since the trainees will constantly repeat exactly for the teacher. The ideal option for a direct method of teaching is to make a teacher of an English speaker

Grammar-transfer method

Grammar-transfer method is the main one in the modern education system. This is a classic method that has been used for more than a decade. This prevalence is also due to the fact that most of the teachers themselves were trained with this method.

The goal of the grammar-translation method is to learn to read and translate with the help of grammatical rules.

The disadvantages of this method can be attributed to the fact that the lexical part is given insufficient attention. The study of vocabulary is reduced to the mechanical memorization of words. Reading and translation is done in strict form. In addition, the texts offered for reading usually refer to complex fiction, therefore, the student studies only the literary language. Once in the language environment, it will be very difficult for him to understand others even with a good knowledge of the literary language.

Audiovisual and audiolingival methods

The essence of both methods is to transmit the language through clear structures, memorization is done using audio and video recordings.

Audiovisual method of teaching implies the illustration of speech with appropriate pictures, that is, students are shown video clips, feature films and documentaries in English. In this case, the trainees simultaneously work with two channels of perception - visual and auditory, resulting in associations in the head of students, which allows you to better remember the language. The aim of the methods is to master the living, spoken language.

Both methods are built on induction - training passes from a rule to an example. Given all of the above, it can be noted that for university students who do not specialize in language learning, audiolingual and audiovisual methods are only suitable if they are used in conjunction with other training programs.

Communicative method

Currently, more and more teachers are turning to the communicative method of learning English. The object of this method is speech itself, that is, this technique first of all teaches us to communicate.

Communicative method implies a great activity of students. The teacher's task in this case will involve all those present in the audience in the conversation. For better memorization and use of the language, all channels of perception must be loaded.