Lecture 1: General problems of Foreign Language teaching

Presentation of new words and new sounds (if there are any) and sentence patterns. The teacher uses direct and translation methods by choice. Pupils perform drill exercises: repetition, substitution, extension, etc. Audio­visual aids and various visual materials are used as stimuli. The work is done in unison and individually for all the pupils to be able to pronounce new words and sentences presented as many times as possible.
Assimilation. Pupils perform speech exercises within the new and old material. The teacher creates favor­able conditions for the pupils to use the material presented in speech, both in dialogue and monologue using classroom situations and other stimuli for the purpose. Oral practice takes 30—35 minutes.
Homework during the oral introductory course or the pre-reading phase may include: drawing objects whose names the pupil has learnt and giving them names; simple structural drill; contrastive phonology drills; learning the rhyme at which the class has worked during the lesson by heart; practis­ing a dialogue they have learnt in class. It is desirable that the pupil should have a model to be able to compare his pro­nunciation with the one given; non-controlled practice might bring about the learning of incorrect forms, structures and pronunciation. The practice records that accompany the text­book are a common source of model pronunciation. To save the quality of the record which usually inclines to scratches, it is recommended that the text should be re-recorded on a tape. A language laboratory may be used as a homework centre to which pupils may come during free hours to do their home­work. Of course pupils need to be taught, how to work with this kind of home study material. The content of homework during the oral introductory course will depend on the length of the latter. If it is short, for instance two-four weeks, then pupils need not be given any homework, at least no homework which requires the use of audio materials. If it lasts for a term pupils should have, some homework, otherwise the lack of conventional homework may establish negative attitude to the subject on the part of both pupils and parents; they may classify it as something that is not serious. In any case, the teacher informs his pupils, and, if necessary, their parents, what will be done in class and how to practise effectively at home.
During the oral introductory course some preparatory work in reading begins. Pupils may be taught to discriminate Eng­lish letters.
The teacher shows a letter, for example, P and says it stands for [р]. He invites pupils to name the words in which they hear this sound. Pupils recollect the words: pen, pencil, picture, and so on. 2—3 minutes may be devoted to this work during the lesson, beginning with the middle of the course.