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a.
Linguistic Proficiency: Exposure to authentic language in context enhances learners'
linguistic proficiency, including vocabulary acquisition, grammar usage, and discourse
competence.
b.
Cultural Insight: Authentic materials offer insights into the cultural and professional
conventions of the target language, enabling learners to navigate intercultural communication
effectively.
c.
Motivation and Engagement: The authenticity and relevance of materials inherently
motivate learners, fostering active engagement and deeper learning experiences.
d.
Transferable Skills: Engaging with authentic materials cultivates transferable skills, such
as critical thinking, research skills, and information literacy, which are invaluable in academic and
professional contexts. [3.109]
Challenges and Solutions:
While integrating authentic materials presents numerous
benefits, instructors may encounter challenges such as difficulty in sourcing appropriate materials,
linguistic complexity, and time constraints. Solutions to these challenges include collaboration with
subject matter experts, adaptation of materials to suit learners' proficiency levels, and efficient use
of class time through task-based approaches and flipped classroom models.
In conclusion, the integration of authentic materials is instrumental in enhancing the language
proficiency and communicative competence of intermediate ESP learners. By providing exposure
to real-life language use within professional or academic contexts, authentic materials offer a rich
and immersive learning experience. Educators and curriculum designers are encouraged to adopt a
comprehensive approach to integrating authentic materials, considering learners' needs, interests,
and proficiency levels. Through effective implementation strategies and pedagogical innovation,
authentic materials can serve as a cornerstone of ESP instruction, empowering learners to succeed
in their respective fields of study or professions.
REFERENCES:
1.
Basturkmen, H. (2009). Developing Courses in English for Specific Purposes. Palgrave
Macmillan.
2.
Dudley-Evans, T., & St. John, M. J. (1998). Developments in English for Specific Purposes: A
Multi-Disciplinary Approach. Cambridge University Press.
3.
Flowerdew, J., & Peacock, M. (2001). Research Perspectives on English for Academic Purposes.
Cambridge University Press.
PROJECT WORK IN TEACHING ENGLISH
Matmuratova Dilaram Batirovna
EFL teacher at school №246 in Yunusabad region,
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Abstract:
This article deals to describe the principal characteristics of project work, to identify the
types ofprojects and to analyse their benefits and peculiarities, to analyse the project work
organizing procedure.
Key words
: project, learner-centred, communicative approach, integrates language skills,
language classroom, four skills, fluency and accuracy.
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A project is an extended piece of work on a particular topic where the content and the
presentation are determined principally by the learners. The teacher or the textbook provides the
topic, but the project writers themselves decide what they write and how they present it. This
learner-centred characteristic of project work is vital, as we shall see when we turn now to consider
the merits of project work. It is not always easy to introduce a new methodology, so we need to be
sure that the effort is worthwhile. Students do not feel that English is a chore, but it is a means of
communication and enjoyment. They can experiment with the language as something real, not as
something that only appears in books. Project work captures better than any other activity the three
principal elements of a communicative approach.
These are:
a)
a concern for motivation, that is, how the learners relate to the task.
b)
a concern for relevance, that is, how the learners relate to the language.
c)
a concern for educational values, that is, how the language curriculum relates to the
general educational development of the learner. [2,40]
A project is an extended task which usually integrates language skills through a number of
activities. These activities combine in working towards an agreed goal and may include planning,
gathering of information through reading, listening, interviewing, discussion of the information,
problem solving, oral or written reporting, display, etc.
Learners' use of language as they negotiate plans, analyse, and discuss information and ideas
is determined by genuine communicative needs. At the school level, project work encourages
imagination and creativity, self-discipline and responsibility, collaboration, research and study
skills, and cross-curricular work through exploitation of knowledge gained in other subjects.
Successful use of project work will clearly be affected by such factors as availability of time, access
to authentic materials, receptiveness of learners, the possibilities for learner training, and the
administrative flexibility of institutional timetabling. [1,38]
Project work leads to purposeful language use because it requires personal involvement on
the part of the students from the onset of a project, students, in consultation with their instructor,
must decide what they will do and how they will do it, and this includes not only the content of the
project, but also the language requirements. So from this point project work emerges as a practical
methodology that puts into practice the fundamental principles of a communicative approach to
language teaching. It can thus bring considerable benefits to our language classroom, like:
•
Increased motivation - learners become personally involved in the project.
•
All four skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking, are integrated.
•
Autonomous learning is promoted as learners become more responsible for their own
learning.
•
There are learning outcomes -learners have an end product.
•
Authentic tasks and therefore the language input are more authentic.
•
Interpersonal relations are developed through working as a group.
•
Content and methodology can be decided between the learners and the teacher and within
the group themselves so it is more learner centred.
•
Learners often get help from parents for project work thus involving the parent more in the
child's learning. If the project is also displayed parents can see it at open days or when they pick the
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child up from the school.
•
A break from routine and the chance to do something different.
•
A context is established which balances the need for fluency and accuracy. [1,40]
It would be wrong to pretend that project work does not have its problems. Teachers are often
afraid that the project classroom will be noisier than the traditional classroom and that this will
disturb other classes in the school, but it does not have to be noisy. Students should be spending a
lot of the time working quietly on their projects: reading, drawing, writing, and cutting and pasting.
In these tasks, students will often need to discuss things and they may be moving around to get a
pair of scissors or to consult a reference book, but this is not an excuse to make a lot of noise. If
students are doing a survey in their class, for example, there will be a lot of moving around and
talking. However, this kind of noise is a natural part of any productive activity. Indeed, it is useful
to realize that the traditional classroom has quite a lot of noise in it, too. There is usually at least
one person talking and there may be a tape recorder playing, possibly with the whole class doing a
drill. There is no reason why cutting out a picture and sticking it in a project book should be any
noisier than 30 or 40 students repeating a choral drill. The noise of the well-managed project
classroom is the sound of creativity.
Project work is a different way of working and one that requires a different form of control.
Students must take on some of the responsibility for managing their learning environment. Part of
this responsibility is learning what kind of, and what level of noise is acceptable. When we introduce
project work we also need to encourage and guide the learners towards working quietly and
sensibly. [2,112]
This kind of work is time-consuming of course, it takes much longer to prepare, make, and
present a project than it does to do more traditional activities. When we are already struggling to
get through the syllabus or finish the textbook, we will probably feel that we do not have time to
devote to project work, however good an activity it may be. There are two responses to this
situation:
1.
Not all project work needs to be done in class time. Obviously, if the project is a group
task, most of it must be done in class, but a lot of projects are individual tasks. Projects about My
Family, My House, etc. can be done at home.
2.
When choosing to do project work we are making a choice in favour of the quality of the
learning experience over the quantity. It is unfortunate that language teaching has tended to put
most emphasis on quantity. And yet there is little evidence that quantity is really the crucial factor.
What really matters in learning is the quality of the learning experience.
3.
Project work provides rich learning experiences: rich in colour, movement, interaction and,
most of all, involvement. The positive motivation that projects generate affects the students’ attitude
to all the other aspects of the language programme. Learning grammar and vocabulary will appear
more relevant because the students know they will need these things for their project work. [2,120]
The students will spend all their time speaking their mother tongue. This is true to a large
extent. It is unlikely that most students will speak English while they are working on their project.
However, rather than seeing this as a problem, we should consider its merits:
a)
it is a natural way of working. It is a mistake to think of L1 (the mother tongue) and L2
(the language being learnt) as two completely separate domains. Learners in fact operate in both
domains, constantly switching from one to the other, so it is perfectly natural for them to use L1
while working on a L2 product. As long as the final product is in English it does not matter if the
243
work is done in L1.
b)
project work can provide some good opportunities for realistic translation work. A lot of
the source material for projects (leaflets, maps, interviews, texts from reference books, etc.) will be
in the mother tongue. Using this material in a project provides useful translation activities.
c)
there will be plenty of opportunities in other parts of the language course for learners
to practice oral skills. Project work should be seen as a chance to practice that most difficult of
skills, writing.
Some teachers are concerned that without the teacher’s firm control the weaker students will
be lost and will not be able to cope. But not all students want or need the teacher’s constant
supervision. By encouraging the more able students to work independently we are free to devote
our time to those students who need it most. One group may have ‘finished’ the project after a
couple of hours and say they have nothing to do than remind them that it is their responsibility to
fill the time allocated to project work and discuss ways they could extend the work they have already
completed. [3,237]
Assessment of project work is another difficult issue. This is not because project work is
difficult to assess, but because assessment criteria and procedures vary from country to country. So
there are two basic principles for assessing project work:
a)
not just the language
The most obvious point to note about project work is that language is only a part of the total
project. Consequently, it is not very appropriate to assess a project only on the basis of linguistic
accuracy. Credit must be given for the overall impact of the project, the level of creativity it displays,
the neatness and clarity of presentation, and most of all the effort that has gone into its production.
There is nothing particularly unusual in this. It is normal practice in assessing creative writing to
give marks for style and content, etc. Many education systems also require similar factors to be
taken into account in the assessment of students’ oral performance in class. So a wide- ranging
‘profile’ kind of assessment that evaluates the whole project is needed.
b)
not just mistakes
If at all possible, we should not correct mistakes on the final project itself, or at least not in
ink. It goes against the whole spirit of project work. A project usually represents a lot of effort and
is something that the students will probably want to keep. It is a shame to put red marks all over it.
This draws attention to the things that are wrong about the project over the things that are good. On
the other hand, students are more likely to take note of errors pointed out to them in project work
because the project means much more to them than an ordinary piece of class work. There are two
useful techniques to handle the errors:
•
Encouraging the students to do a rough draft of their project first. Correcting this in their
normal way. The students can then incorporate corrections in the final product.
•
If errors occur in the final product, correcting in pencil or on a separate sheet of paper
attached to the project. A good idea was suggested by a teacher in Spain to get students to provide
a photocopy of their project. Corrections can then be put on the photocopy. But fundamentally, the
most important thing to do about errors is to stop worrying about them. Projects are real
communication. When we communicate, we do the best we can with what we know, and because
we usually concentrate on getting the meaning right, errors in form will naturally occur. It is a
normal part of using and learning a language. Students invest a lot of themselves in a project and
so they will usually make every effort to do their best work. [4,106]
244
Project work provides an opportunity to develop creativity, imagination, enquiry, and self-
expression, and the assessment of the project should allow for this.
Project work must rank as one of the most exciting teaching methodologies a teacher can use.
It truly combines in practical form both the fundamental principles of a communicative approach
to language teaching and the values of good education. It has the added virtue in this era of rapid
change of being a long- established and well-tried method of teaching.
REFERENCES:
1.
Haines S. Projects for the EFL Classroom: Resource materials for teachers. - Walton-on-
Thames: Nelson, 1991. - 108p.
2.
Phillips D., Burwood S., Dunford H. Projects with Young Learners. Resource Books for
Teachers - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. - 153p.
3.
Finegan E. Language: Its Structure and Use (3rd edition). - Oxford: Heinemmann, 1999. - 158
p.
4.
Lavery C. Focus on Britain Today. Cultural Studies for the Language Classroom. - London:
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1993. - 122p.
EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR BEGINNERS TO ENHANCE WRITING SKILLS
Matmuratova Fauziya,
BA student of Karakalpak State University named after Berdakh
Abstract:
Writing is a fundamental skill that transcends academic, professional, and
personal realms. For beginners embarking on their writing journey, the path to mastery may seem
daunting, but with the right strategies and tools, it can be an enriching and transformative
experience. This article delves into effective approaches for beginners to enhance their writing
skills, drawing insights from student surveys and educational resources. One of the key elements in
developing writing proficiency is the cultivation of creativity. By tapping into their imagination and
exploring different perspectives, beginners can infuse their writing with originality and depth.
Brainstorming techniques such as mind mapping, freewriting, and clustering can help generate
ideas and structure thoughts, providing a solid foundation for the writing process. These creative
exercises not only stimulate the mind but also foster a sense of curiosity and exploration, essential
traits for aspiring writers. In addition to individual brainstorming, interactive writing methods can
also play a pivotal role in honing writing skills. By engaging in a supportive writing community,
beginners can gain valuable insights, encouragement, and motivation to push their creative
boundaries. Furthermore, self-expression and storytelling are at the heart of writing, enabling
individuals to communicate their thoughts, emotions, and experiences with clarity and resonance.
Through the act of writing, individuals not only refine their communication skills but also cultivate
empathy, introspection, and self-awareness.
Keywords:
Writing skills, beginners, creativity, brainstorming techniques, interactive
writing methods, student surveys, feedback, collaboration, self-expression, storytelling, mind
mapping, freewriting, word association, peer feedback, visual aids.
Writing as a communicative activity needs to be encouraged and nurtured during the
language learners’ course of study, and this work will attempt to deal the early stages of EFL
