Филологические науки/1. Методика преподавания языка и литературы
Богза Т. В.
Карагандинский
государственный университет им. Е. А. Букетова, Казахстан
Audio
books as multipurpose teaching material at lessons of foreign language
Nowadays there are many different
methods of teaching foreign languages. All of them are different and each of
them offers different teaching materials in the process of studying.
Teaching materials are a number of
tutorials from handouts to video and computer programs which help to attain the
aim of teaching [1, 22]. Teaching materials can be very different. Some of them
are very often used at the foreign language lessons but some are not. And among
the ones which are not so widespread yet it is necessary to mark out the audio
books, which can be widely used at the lessons of foreign language because have
many advantages.
Audio books are books that are read
out loud, usually by an actor or a famous person and recorded on a cassette
tape or disc [2, 77]. They can be of different kinds. They can be short or
long, difficult for comprehension or easy. Everything depends on a book itself
and on a level of adaptation.
Audio books have number of properties due to which they can be effectively
used during lessons of foreign language. They are the following:
·
audio authentic material;
·
consist of connected parts;
·
literary;
·
interesting;
·
stylistically different;
·
thought-provoking.
And on the basis of all these
properties audio books can be used in different spheres of language teaching
and learning.
First of all, any audio book is a
recorded speech, and that is why it can be used as a material for listening
tasks. It can be usual tasks as getting the main idea or listening for specific
information. And audio book has some advantaged to usual material for audition.
Audio book is usually rather long
and it cannot be listened at once. That’s why it is divided into small parts
being listened a lesson. Texts of audio books are usually rather interesting
and full of adventures or unexpected turns in the plot. That is why students
always want to know what will be the next and their motivation to foreign
language lessons rises. Every next lesson has something new and interesting for
them. And in this way audio book unites lessons.
Text of audio book is read by a
native speaker, so it is authentic material. And as any authentic material it
helps students to feel like in a real life situation with all its features
including difficult ones. As in real situation, listening to the book there is
no time to look for unknown words in the dictionary; it’s necessary to guess
and get the meaning of the word from the context or to get the main idea
without taking into consideration the meaning of single words. In this way
students develop their ‘linguistic guesswork’ during the lesson. In addition to
that audio books can help to overcome these difficulties easily because of
interest in narration.
Also, audio book is not plain text
written the whole in one form. It contain dialogues, author’s speech, sometimes
texts of letters, notes, announcements, reports, laws and many others,
depending on the type of text. So it acquaints students with different types
and styles of texts and enriches student’s competence in them. It can help to
work on intonation and stylistic difference in pronunciation. In dialogues the
speech is usually informal, while the author’s speech can be more formal or
poetic.
The second sphere of working on
audio book is the sphere of analysis, which is usually connected more with
reading than with listening. But the audio book is a piece of literature and
therefore all kinds of literary analysis can be used. It is possible to work on
characters, plot and composition as well as on the author’s style of writing.
With analysis of the book is also
connected the third sphere of usage, that is the sphere of speaking. Audio book
is a good basis for speaking tasks. Listening involve students in the
interpretation of what they hear, bringing their own background knowledge and
linguistic knowledge to bear on the information contained in the aural text.
And through working on audio book it is possible to overcome the main problem
when student doesn’t know what to say. Book is thought-provoking and the interest
to that helps to generate ideas and makes students speak easier. Students can express themselves.
On the same basis it is possible to
use audio books for writing tasks as essay or composition or use some creative
tasks.
Apart from four basic skills of
language, audio books can be used for practice of interpretation, both
simultaneous and consecutive. It is especially good for practice of
interpretation on earlier stages when texts of some specific types like
business of political are not yet appropriate.
So, audio book is a good linguistic
material which is to be used in teaching for number of properties it has. It is
authentic, interesting, thought-provoking, literary and motivating. For these
properties it can be widely used at foreign language lessons and using audio books it is possible to work
on all four basic skills, i.e. listening, speaking, writing and partially on
reading (in the way of text analysis) and in addition to they can become a good
material for interpretation.
Bibliography:
1.
Практический
курс методики преподавания иностранных языков: Учебное пособие / П. К.
Бабинская, Т. П. Леонтьева, И. М. Андреасян, А. Ф. Будько, И. В. Чепие — Изд.
2-е, стер. — Мн.: Тетра Системс, 2003. — 288 с.
2.
Macmillan English dictionary for
advanced learners. — Macmillan Publishers limited, 2002
3.
Соколова
Е. Н. Практикум по базовому курсу методики обучения иностранным языкам: Учеб.
Пособие для вузов. — М.: Просвещение, 2004. — 192 с.