II. Zamonaviy fan va ta’lim-tarbiya: muammo, yechim, natija HTTP://INTERSCIENCE.UZ/
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population, demographic catastrophe, decay of population, people have fewer kids, not
producing enough children, nation going into retreat, insufficient investment in human capital;
Population: aging population, population density, working age population;
Birth rate: replacement fertility, fertility rate, survival rate;
Problems: how to finance the future, decline in consumer spending, economic will go
down, collapse in economy, endanger the survival of the nation, weakening of the West;
Having been equipped with topic specific vocabulary students watched the video again
to make notes on issues concerning to demographic decline in certain countries in the West.
Working on the vocabulary prior to focusing on main issues helps students concentrate on the
information rather than being distracted by unfamiliar words. As a results of discussions
students agreed on several issues causing demographic decline in western world for further use
in writing the essay. To switch to the next stage, students were divided into 4 subgroups in order
to develop the essay question including a topic sentence. In the course of the group work
students composed different topic sentences with the same question and chose the most suitable
one to write their essays on.
At the end of the first session i.e.in pre writing process students were asked to write and
submit drafts of their essays so as they were checked and any mistakes occurring in assignments
could be discussed i000n the next class. On the one hand, group discussion of mistakes is very
fruitful way of working on mistakes, as the checked work is displayed on screen and the whole
class will have the advantage of observing the process, which in turn prevents making common
mistakes and inaccuracies afterwards. But on the other hand, teachers should use this policy
only with the agreement of students as some students may not want their works to be discussed
publicly, and they have the right to do so, of course. In higher level writing classes, it is essential
to allow students to do more independent work and let them proofread and peer check while
lower level classes demand more teacher’s engagement in the process. However, for both levels
reading and analyzing sample essays are suggested before getting down to initial writing of any
type of essay.
After the students have gone through the pre-writing process the next session will be
group discussion on submitted works, including giving feedbacks and further instructions on
developing the draft. While evaluating, the drafts were displayed on the screen by projector to
make the process easy to watch. However, when this tool is not available different messengers
like Telegram and What’s Up may be very helpful as teachers may reach their students using
their group chats. Students had to comment on their works and tried to explain what caused
those mistakes and received feedbacks from the teacher and as well as from their course mates.
As a logical continuation of the session devoted to demographic changes in western
countries students were asked to carry out further research on the topic and find out information
including statistic data on current demographic situation in the West. Students with good soft
skills might also put the data they gathered in form of a line graph as the forthcoming writing
class was devoted to description and reporting on charts. Students showed their interest and
enthusiasm towards this task as more or less they were acquainted with this issue and had
sufficient vocabulary to express themselves.
In conclusion, outcomes of the writing class with using an authentic material were
comparatively more than expected results. By choosing suitable authentic materials and making
a good use of them in writing classes teachers may:
- have greater students’ engagement in class;
-avoid boring and dreary process of classroom writing;
-widen students’ world outlook;
-enrich students’ vocabulary with topic specific words;
-provide students with background information and ideas on different topics;
-motivate students with challenges of complex sentences and advanced level language;
