The educational possibilities of retelling in the development of students' communicative competence



Retelling is one of the most frequently used methods in teaching a foreign language. Among many techniques, replacing outdated and ineffective, it continues to hold an important position in teaching foreign speech. If you ask the question to the students and their parents, what is it impossible to do in the process of learning a foreign language without, the answer is clear — without retelling. However, using retelling in the process of foreign language teaching, teachers ask a number of questions.

Firstly, it is necessary to define the term «retelling». Then, you need figure out what learning algorithms of language and speech skills is appropriate to include into retelling. It is important to know at what stages of the formation of language and speech skills to organize the activity of narration. Finally, how to teach retelling, and in what forms to operate on retelling.

As you know, the practical purpose of learning a foreign language is mastery of students ' communicative competence. At the organization of foreign language training activities, as a rule, the following sequence diagram of the functioning of voice mechanisms is used: reception — production.

Under the «reception» refers to the perception and awareness of the meaning information coming from the outside in the form of audio or text graphic. The text is a model of foreign language works and thus serves as a model of the use of specific linguistic and speech material. «Production» involves the construction of independent language works, discourse with language and speech means of received text.

It is obvious that in the process of formation of skills of speaking the perception of the text will be not automatically, without additional effort, to promote self-construction of discourse. Need intermediate, which will be the training language, speech and informative media text for further use in discourse.

Retelling has many functions. First, of all, it’s development and improvement of language (phonetic, lexical, grammatical) skills through the outlet in the reproductive speech; development and improvement of skills in the use of equivalent substitutions. Also retelling helps to develop skills of constructing a discourse that constitutes the skills of monologue speech, namely, skills, meaningful compositional organization of the speech work, building up its chronology and causality using the corresponding connectors, etc. Finally, control the extent of formation of all of the above skills. The most important is that you can learn how to build your speech through retelling, focusing on the source text, as it is obviously correct and normative. In general, a regular, methodically competently organized activity of retelling contributes to the realization of educational aims of foreign language teaching related to the improvement of the mechanisms of memory and thinking.

Many teachers see the final result of the formation of skills and speaking abilities in retelling. But it is not so. If we consider the process of formation of language (phonetic, lexical, grammatical) skills, it is advisable to use retelling on the speech sub-step training language material after its introduction and training on the pre-speech and quasi-speech sub-steps. In this case, the retelling is a verbal exercise. After the retelling the stage of application of active language material must follow in similar but new situations. When you use the text as a means of teaching speaking, retelling it serves as an intermediate reproductive stage before going into productive speech.

To adapt to the format of the retelling, it is necessary, first, to learn the respective language design. Consider the activities of the teachers in the preparatory stage.

It is assumed that before proceeding to the organization of retelling, the teacher held all the necessary arrangements for the «processing» of the source text (in the case of reading or listening). This means that by the time of the retelling, students already possess the content of the text and primary cemented unfamiliar language items in it.

Retelling can be prepared both in the class and at home. It is better to start learning the retelling in the classroom under the guidance of a teacher. At the lesson, a teacher must not devote much time to this type of work, as a summary of the text is just one aspect of the lesson. It is necessary to enable all students to practice retelling.

It is advisable to use the following algorithms in learning of retelling:

1) retelling the questions, view the teacher actual issues in chronological order;

2) retelling on the proposed lexical schemas (separate keywords or phrases);

3) retelling of the comics, reading the signatures of the proposed teacher/textbook series pictures (comic book) showing the sequence of actions, then the retelling of the same pictures, but without signatures;

4) retelling of the story in the picture: listening to the text in the presence of visual supports in the form of the plot of the picture;

5) retelling according to the plan, the submission of the master plan of the source text on the basis of the formulation of the main ideas of each paragraph with the subsequent reproduction of the original text in expanded form;

6) retelling-disclaimer: the retelling presented by the teacher wrong statements;

7) retelling — explanation: the retelling on the proposed teacher problematic questions like “Why/What do you think...?”;

8) retelling — background: playback of segments of the text that is chronologically prior to the event, marked by the teacher on the card;

9) retelling — the restoration of the chronology of events: a summary of the text provided by the teacher short story milestones in broken chronology;

10) reverse retelling: retelling of the text in reverse chronological order on the basis of the above supports or without them.

If the retelling is planned as homework, students work independently in accordance with the familiar algorithms:

1) firstly, read a paragraph yourself and then aloud without delay and discuss its content without a graphical support;

2) prepare a series of sketches that reflect the main events of the text (the text must be short with a distinct story) in straight or reverse chronology;

3) create a «skeleton» of the text on terms of the text or actual and/or problematic issues in straight or reverse chronology;

4) write lexical-semantic support text as key words or small phrases in direct or reverse chronological order.

Preparing the retelling at home, it is advisable to combine algorithms 2) and 4), as well as algorithms 3) and 4), although all algorithms can be used independently.

Preparation of retelling involves the text-to-speech in various forms. Pronouncing the text at home, the student determines its own difficulties (difficult places) and tries to overcome them, or designing is another option, or looking at the source code. A student needs reconstruct the source text with the help of self-prepared supports and speak it aloud several times. In this case, the learner gradually learns how to formulate a sentence. This will allow to get rid of a rigid binding to the grammatical design of the source text.

Based on the presented techniques is the principle departure from the rote learning paraphrases of the text, where all efforts are student focused only on extraction from non-segmented memory «verbal array» instead of having to use a variety of thinking processes, allowing you to consciously give the necessary information from the text. Because the text learned by heart is not conducive to the formation of skills of reproductive and productive monologue speech.

All the above methods of organizing retelling are effective at the lesson, when students work in pairs. If the supports are offered by the teacher, all students reconstruct the original text in pairs, help and correct each other when it’s necessary. If the supports are prepared by students at home, it is advisable to exchange them in pairs, increasing the motivation of activity. The teacher moves from one pair to another, monitoring. Organizing work in this way, the teacher provides students with the opportunity to train in the reproductive speech, in contrast to the traditional monitoring of individual student's response focused on the correction of his mistakes.

Here are afew examples of organization of activity of retelling with the help of different supports.

The Best Judge.

Robert Burns loved common people and wrote about them. One day when he was walking near the docks, he heard a cry for help. He ran towards the water. Just then a sailor jumped off a boat that stood near the dock, began to swim towards the man who was calling for help, and saved him.

The man who was saved was a rich merchant. When he came to, he thanked the brave sailor and gave him a shilling.

By this time a lot of people were standing round them. They called the sailor a hero and protested loudly when the rich man gave him only a shilling.

Burns stopped them and said, “Let him alone. The gentleman is, of course, the best judge of what his life is worth”.

Retelling on lexical-semantic supports.

Robert Burns/common people/walking/ docks/cry for help/ran towards/ jumped off/began to swim/calling for help/saved/rich merchant/came to/

brave sailor/shilling/standing round/ hero/protested/ said/best judge/worth

Retelling — disclaimer.

Robert Burns never wrote about common people.

One day walking in the park, he heard laughter.

Then a tourist jumped off a bridge.

The saved man was poor and had only one shilling.

A few people were passing by.

They didn’t like the sailor and they were satisfied with the saved man.

Burns was the best judge.

Retelling on different supports.

References:

1. HarmerJeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Fourth Edition. — Pearson Education Limited, 2007.
2. Scrivener Jim. Learning Teaching/ The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching/ Third Edition. — Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2011.
3. Kuklina I. P., Humorous Stories about Famous People Well-Known in History. Guide for the development of oral communication skills. — «Caro», 2000.
4. Gez N. I., Lyakhovitsky M. V., Mirolybov A. A., Folomkina S. K., Shatilov S. F. Methods of teaching foreign languages in high school. — M.: Higher school, 1982.
5. Theoretical foundations of methods of teaching foreign languages in the secondary school/ edited by A. D. Klimenko. — M.: Pedagogy, 1981.