ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#25 | June 18, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036
This paper has been authored and submitted for publication by Tazhitova G.Z.
Introduction
Formation of students’ skills of independent work is one of the actual problems of modern education and inculcation them to independent work is one of indispensable conditions of successful training. Independent activity of students is a necessary condition of development of their informative abilities. We should develop students’ independence beginning already with the first days of training at school at younger school age as their qualities like independence; responsibility and ability to self-checking are formed at this period.
We understand by independent activity of students when they independently solve an educational problem showing efforts and activity on teacher’s instructions. It is possible to allocate following signs of students’ independent activity:
– Teacher’s assignment on individual work;
– Students’ independence;
– Students’ carrying out the task without teacher’s participation;
– Students’ active work and the level of their intellectual abilities;
It is known that the main objective of independent activity at lessons is to teach students to think, analyze, generalize and acquire a teaching material.[1]
Independent activity is formed by various means of the most widespread independent work. Many scientists, teachers, psychologists and methodologists define independent work as specific pedagogical means of the organization and management of independent activity of students.
Efficiency of students’ carrying out an independent work in English directly depends on the conditions of its organization, planning, management and control. The organization of independent work means actions of the teacher and the students, directed on creation of the pedagogical conditions necessary and successful fulfillment of the task. Creation of such conditions demands from the teacher of knowledge of pedagogical specificity of managing methods for independent work, abilities to formulate and transform the purposes, motives, reference points, valuable installations on educational activity and a lot of time and efforts.
In other words, organizing an independent activity of students, the teacher should be able to answer following questions:
• When is it expedient to introduce independent work in the process of studying any teaching material?
• What concrete type of independent work should be chosen and used at each stage of studying the material?
The organization and carrying out of independent activity at English language lessons demand the special approach. Therefore it is necessary for teacher to think over lesson plans carefully, to define the maintenance and a place of independent work, the form and methods of its organization. Only in this case students’ independent activity at lessons will be done successfully. Thus the teacher should provide level of complexity and volume of work, difficulty and possible errors which can be faced during its fulfillment. Organizing an independent work at English language lessons it is also necessary to think over monitoring procedure and rendering students’ assistance. [2]
As a rule, teachers use independent works in the course of consolidation and teaching material control. E.A.Tupichkina and I. V.Krjuchkova in their researches assert that sometimes teachers forget about possibility of the organization of students’ independent activity of with the various didactic purposes. [4] They have tried to allocate following purposes of carrying out the independent works:
• Actualization of students’ knowledge;
• Getting a new knowledge;
• Consolidation and repetition of students’ knowledge and creating new ideas;
Speaking about level of complexity of independent work we should pay attention that it shouldn’t be too simple, below a level of development of students’ mental faculties. Gradual increase of difficulty of independent work is made basically in three directions:
By increase in volume of tasks and duration of students’ independent work;
By complication of the maintenance of the task;
By change of instructing ways and gradual reduction of volume of the help from the teacher.
Besides, the technique of the organization and carrying out of independent work should consider strictly regulated and considered system and it is necessary to change didactic purposes. Such changes at different levels promote development of students’ intellectual possibilities, their preparation for continuous self-education in the future.
Independence isn’t congenital quality of the person. Students must be taught in order to be able to work independent. There are a lot books written about independence and forms of its development in educational process. It is clear, as in traditional pedagogics and lying in its basis the subject-objective approach the teacher always was “speaking”, and the pupil – “listening”. The training maintenance in traditional pedagogics, as a rule, was not connected with existential experience of students and a reality surrounding them. The problem of the teacher is to “fill” the child with the maintenance. Students write down, remember and repeat a teaching material, not always understanding its real value. They acted in the form of mechanical “receiver” of knowledge transferred to it and should submit to management from the teacher. They were extremely seldom allowed to estimate and perceive critically a reality and that the teacher speaks and to be partners of the teacher in the course of training.
Advantages of individual work are that the students can edit the tasks for them in the appropriate speed and learning style. The tasks can be assessed individually and the level of details can be adjusted. Each student is challenged to develop their own activities, so that teaching content used to be practiced and reinforced. It can also be provided differently difficult tasks. In the individual work the teachers provides for each student a task, then they will process and settle the task problem by self each student alone. The conditions for individual work are the students’ motivation, self-control ability and differentiation.
There are also disadvantages of individual work, are that it can lead to isolation of individual students that they have no social-educational component and run the risk of idling. To avoid such problems the teacher should be prepared with more than one task for quicker students and the teacher should be very active in supporting and controlling students’ individual work. We have to be able to distinguish individual work from the solo work. In solo-work one task will be performed by the students without direct help from outside solutions in individual work. This will develop individual work steps and solutions independently, covered and transferred to other items. Self-confidence, creativity and their actions are supported by individual work. The method of solo-work can also avoid the idling problem for quicker students, if the teacher is directly planning it in advance to give to those students an individual work task which is culminating in a solo-work task.
There are experimental -searching and logic- searching works. They develop students’ inquisitiveness, abilities to separate essential from minor and skills of generalization. For example, after subject studying «The ecological problems in Kazakhstan» the task «How does Ecology differ from the Environment? » can be offered.
There are also of creative and informative and practical types of independent work. For example, development of programs, tests, crossword puzzles, work with graphic editors.
Active independent work of students is possible only at existence of steady motivation. The strongest motivating factor is preparation to further effective professional activity. But there are also internal factors promoting activization of independent work.
1. Benefit of fulfilled work. If the student knows that results of term papers further will be used in the degree work or publication preparation, the relation to performance of a task will be changed for the better and quality of performed work increases.
2. Participation of students in creative activity. It can be participation in scientific – research or methodical work which is carried out in the department.
3. The most important motivating factor is the intensive pedagogies. It assumes introduction in educational process of the active methods, like game training, especially innovative and organizational activity games, for example, carrying out discussions between students.
4. Participation in competitions of research works, carrying out days of a science on faculty, etc.
5. Use of motivating factors of knowledge control (rating, tests).
6. Encouragement of students for successes in study and creative activity (a grant, awarding, incentive points) and sanctions for bad study.
In conclusion students’ independent work benefits not only to them but it also definitely influences improvement of training process.
References
1. L. I. Lerner Pedagogical Literature in problem training. М, 1983. № 6.
2. M. I. Makhmutov The organization of problem training at school. – М: Pedagogics. 1977. 253p.
3. E.V.Kovalevsky Problematical character in teaching of foreign languages: Modern Condition and prospects. The textbook for higher schools. M: 1999 – p. 200-205
4. E. A Tupichkina, I.V Krjuchkova. Kinds of independent works in the conditions of developing training//Primary school -1996. № 5. – p 100-102
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