Lecture 1: General problems of Foreign Language teaching

Reading is another essential part of the lesson. The teacher should select the type of exercises in reading for each partic­ular lesson, and decide whether he will give his pupils oral reading or silent reading for getting information from the text which can be achieved either through developing their skills in guessing the meaning of new words in the text or by using a dictionary (the 8th form).
Reading and Speaking may be connected if the text pupils read is suitable for discussion or can serve as a subject for conversation.
Writing in the classroom at this stage may be used for fixing the vocabulary and grammar in the form available for their further usage by the pupils; for testing the pupil's mastery of the material covered; as a servant in the pupil's Work at a text (the pupil finds topic sentences and copies them out; compiles a plan of the story, shortens the text by excluding details and thus achieves better comprehension); to help the pupil with a conversation topic (the pupil puts down the words, phrases and sentences he needs to speak on the topic, or composes an outline of his speech).
V e r s ion В
О b j e с t i v e: To teach pupils to consult the diction­ary while reading text Activities. Pupils
(l) review the-alphabet;
(2) read the title and anticipate the contents of the text;
(3) read silently one or two paragraphs to be sure whether the anticipation is right or wrong;
(4) read the whole text silently;
(5) read sentence by sentence looking up unfamiliar words in the dictionary;
(6) give adequate translation of the text. Use dictionaries.
Version С
О b j e с t i v e: To teach pupils to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words in text.
А с t i v i t i es. Pupils
(1) listen to the teacher's explanations how to attack the meaning of unfamiliar words through
(a) the context,
(b) word-building elements,
(c) mother tongue equivalents (international words);
(2) read the sentences (paragraphs) in the text (the teacher points out) searching for the examples;
(3) read the text silently marking the words whose meaning they guessed;
(4) answer the questions on the text.
5. Writing. (4— 10-min.)
Version A