Uzbekistan Republic Termez state university Foreign philology faculty Course work Subject

1.2 Innovative ways of forming the phonetic competence

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies the methods of education of human speech sounds. Material of phonetics is a combination of all audio equipment (phonemes and intonemes). Language as a communication tool has emerged as the audio language. The listener will not understand it if he does not know own pronunciation skills. Having solid pronunciation skills ensures the normal functioning of all types of speech activity. Phonetics is not taught in school as independent and mastering pronunciation skills, it is carried out in the courses of training speaking and reading. Requirements to pronunciation skills determined on the basis of the principle of approximation that is the correct pronunciation. The followings are basic requirements for pronunciation skills: Phonematicity — suggests the degree of accuracy of phonetic speech processing, it is not hard enough for the understanding of its interlocutor. Fluency — the degree of automation of pronunciation skills, allowing students to speak at the right pace of speech. (110–130 in German language; 110–150 in English language signs per minute.). Students must master the intonation structure for the most common types of sentences. Selection of the material is done according to the following principles: Compliance with the communication requirements (distinctive feature) Stylistic principle (the literary language or dialect). [5, p-90] At the initial stage of training focuses on the automation of pronunciation skills, and at the last stage explains the general laws of pronunciation skills in native and foreign language. Under the speech pronunciation listening skills refers to the skills of phonemic correct pronunciation of all the sounds in the flow of speech, understanding all the sounds with the listening speech. Under the rhythmic intonation skills refers to the skills of intonation and rhythmically correct execution of speech and understanding the speech of others. When we talk about teaching phonetics at school there is considered the formation of phonemic articulation, intonation and rhythmic patterns.

The program provides the students mastering the sounds of the English language, tone of the narrative (affirmative and negative), imperative and interrogative sentences (Grade 5), intonation offers a frame structure (Grade 6) and intonation of complex sentences (Grade 7). The sequence of the study of sounds in the practical nature of teaching foreign languages ​​in the secondary school is primarily determined by the two positions: 1) the need to develop an oral-language skills at the outset, already in an introductory course; 2) the need to consider phonetic difficulties. The leading method of mastering the pronunciation is repeated listening and imitative most accurate sound reproduction and subsequent use of it in the speech flow. Phonetic exercises are the decisive factor in creating pronunciation skills are the followings: Exercises on the perception of a new sound to the ear: a. speech stream — a first speech sample of a teacher speech, then in mechanical recording. b. a separate word, in isolation, in combination with the notes master, if the phoneme of the second group; c. followed by a first repeat reproduction of a single word, then the speech sample.

Exercises to reproduce phonetic phenomenon which are used collective and individual forms of work. a. reproduction of individual students and the teacher correcting possible errors. b. choral play together with the teacher. c. choral play unsupervised. d. The individual playback of individual students in order to control the formation of the right auditory-speech motor sample. Training exercises for the automation of pronunciation of speech skills in conditional phonetic speech directed exercises (e.g., rhymes). These types of exercises are conventionally speech exercises with monological and dialogical nature, which study the phonemes trained in the conditional verbal communication in teaching speech. [1, p-78] Here we give examples for the exercises for development of phonetic and intonation hearing: Verbally divide the word into sounds and call them. Determine the number of syllables in words heard. Set the number of short and long vowels in the words heard. Locate the column and mark words in the order in which they were heard. Scroll to the ear of a coherent text with the words sound trainees and record them in a spell. Determine the number of words in the sentences listened. Identify and write down at the hearing the last word of each sentence listened segment. Exercises for formation the pronunciation skills: Listen to a series of sounds and raise your hand when you hear a given sound. Listen to a couple of sounds and raise your hand when you hear the new sound. Raise your hand when you hear the interrogative, declarative, negative sentence. Emphasize the word in a sentence, to which the stress falls. What word containing a certain sound. Speak after the speaker pairs of words, paying attention to the differences in the pronunciation of sounds. Say proverb patter first slowly and then quickly (quietly — loud). Make a phonetic text-based markup on the base of voice teacher or speaker, please read the text aloud. [3, p-103] While forming the phonetic competence in a foreign language at the secondary schools teaching listening plays the most important role. Listening is the perception and understanding the speech with hearing. Psychological basis of understanding are the processes of perception, recognition of language, understanding their values, the processes of anticipation (guessing) and interpretation of information, processes of the information groups, their synthesis, retention of information in memory, reasoning processes.

Listening from a psychological point of view is a complex hierarchical structure, in which the three levels can be identified: ‒ causative — motivation; ‒ research — oriented (analysis of listened text, singling out the information); ‒ executive (student’s responding to a speech verbally and nonverbally). The motive for listening is a cognitive-communicative interest (or a vital necessity) at the information contained in the audited text. Listening process involves the predicting phase on the semantic level: Phase of the establishment of relations at the level of supply (connection between the elements of the proposal) On the paragraph level (semantic level); At the level of the text (semantic links between the ligatures); Phase of meaning formulating. The nature of forecasting and understanding depends on the level of language proficiency and, accordingly, the level of development of verbal hearing at this stage, the auditor's experience, awareness of the subject (subject audited the text). All these components of listening allow a person to actualize the hearing samples of linguistic phenomenon (speech and intonation patterns), its generalized paradigmatic and syntactic structures, thus ensuring the correct prediction and subsequent meaning forming. With the lack of formation of these components listening process occurs with more or less difficulty. By the psychological factors there are some of the features of auditory memory, its «capacity» — the ability to hold a listening text (sentence, paragraph) of a certain length and depth (i.e., syntactic complexity). It was found that the proposals of the same length, but the difference of structured formedness present unequal difficulty to read and understand by hearing that determined by the characteristics of short-term verbal (auditory) memory. The more complex are the syntax proposals (the larger inserts, syntax, sentence components), the more difficult to keep it in memory until the end of the perception. After all, for understanding the meaning of the entire sentence the audited must keep the beginning of sentences in memory. Psychological difficulties of audition are caused as audited speech (live or referred in the manual recording), situational dialogic or contextual monologue speech, speech of acquaintance or a stranger (speaker), etc. Experience shows that the quality of listening depends on the nature of speech: speech in direct communication is better understood (ceteris paribus), than are in the manual recording. Because understanding the live speech is facilitated by extra-linguistic factors such as the situation, gestures, facial expressions, articulating. Situational dialogic speech in the manual recording is generally understood with great difficulty than the speech of contextual monologue.

Situational speech, followed by the visual side, is understood much more easily than contextual. Among the factors complicating listening, are also features of the speaker voice data (voice, height) and rate of speech. By linguistic difficulties of audited text refers, first of all, the presence in the text of a certain number of unknown and incomprehensible words, language material. With regard to the difficulty of understanding the text due to ignorance of the language, it is important as the nature of language itself, and the location of unknown words in the text. Unfamiliar words in the beginning of the text are difficult to understand or properly orient the listener with respect to the subsequent detention of the audited text. The least negative impact on understanding occurs when the unfamiliar word is in the middle of the text or at the end of it, when its value is easily determined by the context. Grammatical phenomena may also be different in understanding the degree of the difficulties. [2, p-78] Grammatical phenomena may also be different in the degree of understanding of the difficulties. «Non-essential» for understanding may be, for example, the end of adjectives; personal endings of verbs, if properly understood personal pronoun or a noun; the order of words in the interrogative sentence, and others. For language difficulties should also include stylistic features of the text (figurative means, dialect, colloquial expressions, names, realities) and phonetic features of the audited speech: strangeness of pronunciation of native speaker, inappropriate or promiscuous of pronunciation and others. The methodical literature in terms of content and composition distinguishes between «favorable», «neutral», «difficult» contexts. Favorably it will be interesting for the class the simple, clear language, and logical in its development of plot or fable context.

Rapid development of information technologies has encouraged the changes in the system of education in general and the search for more appropriate and effective strategies for training future interpreters in particular. Expanding opportunities to reflect knowledge in the form of a hypertext, a significant reduction in the cost of gadgets have contributed to the use of digital media in English classes in the higher school. As Bates (2010) noticed, the introduction of technology into teaching, learning, and research makes the necessity of change apparent, it is neither the only reason nor the only area in which universities will have to adopt new organisational models. Thus, in English classrooms, there appeared IT-technologies, providing additional opportunities for students to improve their language skills. The changed education paradigm for the transition from studying for the rest of life into lifelong learning determines the radical shift of goals, content, forms and means of English teaching methodology.

Moreover, the market economy and the globalisation of communication have generated a lot of political, economic, technological, scientific and cultural exchange which is often mediated by translators and interpreters. Therefore, the need for well-trained specialists who are able to convey a message effectively, be it written or spoken, from one language to another has also arisen. Indisputable is the fact that the linguistic component of translator’s/interpreter’s competence implies a good knowledge of both the source and the target language. As Cherednychenko (2007) claims, excellent knowledge of two languages facilitates the ability to switch from one language to another in written and oral form. Furthermore, according to the author’s opinion, linguistic competence develops linguistic skills which allow to avoid the native (the source) language interference while translating into the foreign (the target) one (Cherednychenko, 2007, p. 233). Being an interpreter requires high intelligibility of a foreign language in order to fulfil the task of communicating a message properly. The usual working environment would include the situations when you cannot ask for repetition or clarification of the information you hear (Zapolskykh, 2017). Consequently, students obtaining this speciality should also aim at developing both their productive and, even more important, receptive skills in language learning. Most scholars in the field, Kenworthy (1987) and language as well as awareness of the processes in connected speech help learners to improve the ability to listen actively and produce accurate and correct speech, i.e. enhance intelligibility of the language they are learning. In other words, they are writing about phonetic competence, which is part and parcel of a person’s communicative competence. In the European Reference Framework (2011) one may find the notion of phonetic competence, which includes knowledge and skills of sound perception and production. However, this definition doesn’t take into account the ability of an individual to accomplish speech activity based on his/her existing knowledge, skills and abilities that are the main features of any competence. Such definition, in our opinion, can be considered as a false one, because it generates isolation of the form from its content, which consequently condemns phoneticians’ work to failure when students start real communication in English. The researches in phonetics done by Khomutova (2013) and developed by Goncharova (2006) give a detailed description of the structure and content of phonetic competence.

Based on their definitions and considering the above points of view let us define the notion of phonetic competence. Hence, under the foreign language phonetic competence, we understand the system which contains the following components: knowledge about the normative composition of pronounced elements (phonemes and intonation patterns) of a foreign language; listening and pronunciation; rhythmic and intonation skills to automate their selection and combine them; phonetic skills. We define phonetic competence as the phonetic organisation of speech that basically determines the success or failure of verbal interaction in the context of intercultural communication (Riabukha et al., 2018). Thus, developing future interpreters’ phonetic competence is ultimately significant for them to achieve real-life communicative aims such as conveying a message, when signalling interrupting, asking somebody for clarification, changing the subject or concluding an argument. An ideal interpreter understands everyone and is understood by everyone. On the perception side, this means that interpreters can cope with the enormous variability in pronunciations they encounter. For their own speech production, then, this means not being marked by noticeable regional or foreign features. Accent contributes a great deal to how a speaker is perceived, and a strong foreign accent may draw attention away from what is being said as well as generate attitudinal reactions on the part of the listeners. Good interpreters do not draw attention to themselves. In recent years, the issue of the use of innovative technologies at universities has become popular. This is not only new technical means, but also new forms and methods of teaching, new approaches to the learning process as well. E-learning, blended learning, and mobile learning offer a new universe of interactivity for learning purposes (Bartolomé-Pina et al., 2018). Nowadays learning English with mobile devices is gradually increasing, the raise of their popularity in studying coincided with rapidly diminishing cost of tablet devices, which, in its turn, reinforced a new format of English classes. Learning based on electronics nowadays can be viewed equally as the cause and the consequence of relevant changes in the concept of education, as well as the ways of how it should be implied (Abazi-Bexheti et al., 2018). Thus, as technologies began to change the way English learnt and taught in the classroom, even bigger changes seem to be taking place outside it. In fact, the digital revolution in learning now threatens to undermine the classroom completely as a place of study.

Mobile technologies are becoming more embedded, ubiquitous and networked, with enhanced capabilities for rich social interactions, context awareness and internet connectivity. Such technologies can have a great impact on learning. They allege that learning will gradually move outside of the classroom and into the learner’s environments, both real and virtual, thus becoming more situated, personal, collaborative and lifelong. The main challenge to teachers will be to discover how to use mobile technologies to transform learning into a seamless part of daily life to the point where it is not recognised as learning at all (Naismith et al., 2004; Pegrum, 2014). Consequently, choosing a new technology to work with, a teacher should keep in mind the balance maintaining between traditional methods and innovative ones. Nowadays mobile learning is considered to be a new stage of distance and e-learning. There are several definitions and interpretations of the concept of “m-learning” in the scientific literature at the moment; they are based either on technological features or on didactic capabilities of these devices. To define a concept of m-learning we should note that according to Taylor (2006) there are commonly three main schools of thought on what means mobile learning: learning mediated by mobile devices, mobility of learners (regardless of their devices) and mobility of content/resources meaning it can be accessed from anywhere. Kekwaletswe (2007) states that mobile learning may be defined as any sort of learning and knowledge sharing that may happen due to social awareness when the learner is not at fixed or predetermined conditions. Sharples (2006) confirms m-learning is characterised by the following features: it enables knowledge building by learners in different contexts; enables learners to construct understandings; mobile technology often changes the pattern of learning/work activity; the context of m-learning is about more than time and space. In this paper, personalised m-learning is signified by interactions of future interpreters while studying the course of Practical phonetics within the English phonetics classes, using Web 2.0 tools and electronic thoroughly selected electronic recourses. In the literature on the problem, there are different definitions for m-learning, some scientists consider it only as wireless or Internet based. In our opinion, the definition of m-learning should include the ability to learn everywhere at every time without a permanent physical connection to cable networks. Therefore, within our research, we understand m-learning as the process of using portable, wireless, convenient and accessible mobile devices in education, in order to optimise and support learning phonetics that will allow the learner to communicate, create or receive the necessary information, drill phonetic elements and achieve more profound academic success. The introduction of such type of e-learning as m-learning into the system of English phonetics classes raises a number of issues for scientists and practitioners. First, we should consider what includes the content of the concept of "m-learning" in teaching English phonetics; second, it is necessary to investigate what changes should be introduced in all components and levels of the system of teaching phonetics (theoretical and methodological foundations, goals, content, tools, methods, technologies, forms and types of educational activities; third, to identify didactic functions, properties of mobile devices and conditions of their involvement in the learning process. It is noteworthy that m-learning is not the process of transferring educational materials to a small screen and the use of mobile devices, but the development of innovative educational mobile materials that will be mastered through the introduction of innovative forms of learning: educational microblogs, news feeds, interactive course casts, etc.

Thus, extensive technical capabilities of mobile devices allow access to the global network, visiting the necessary sites, e-mail exchange, sending the necessary electronic files, organising testing on mobile devices, self-control of future interpreters’ academic performance, their knowledge of the subject, access to electronic textbooks, playback of audio, graphic and video files, which allow improving the quality of pronunciation. The aim of this research is to substantiate the potential and effectiveness of using mobile device educational technology in forming phonetic competence of future interpreters and to show the ways of applying m-learning as an additional source of teaching practical phonetics. The hypothesis of the study is that the effectiveness of future interpreters' professional training increases if the formation of phonetic competence is carried out with the use of m-learning in teaching English phonetics. Methods In our research the following methods were used: theoretical methods: a systematic and comparative analysis of psychological and pedagogical, methodical and scientific literature on the research issues; an analysis of existing teaching materials used to train future interpreters (curriculum, plans, tutorials, textbooks, audio- and video materials, etc); interdisciplinary synthesis; systematisation of theoretical data, etc; generalisation of pedagogical experience for making conclusions and recommendations for the efficient developing of phonetic competence of future interpreters, etc.; b)² empirical methods: tests, questionnaires, interviews, participant observation in the educational process. Participants. The research was held on the basis of the Bohdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University and enrolled 50 undergraduate students majoring in “Interpreters”. Materials. To conduct the experiment, the course “Practical Phonetics” provided with electronic resources for mobile learning (audio files for training pronunciation) and a tutorial “Speech Without a Hitch, or Practice Makes Perfect” were prepared. The course was designed mainly for classroom work (seminars) and for individual work at home. Students of the control group used only the tutorial and handouts at the lessons while the students from the experimental group were also provided with carefully selected electronic resources and Web 2.0 technologies for using with the help of mobile devices at the lessons and at home. The EG Students used materials in the form of presentations, video files on topics, text documents, links with tips and drills for pronunciation mastering as well as options for homework assignments, tests, questionnaires, and various references. To discuss the issues, a chat room was created which allowed adding comments and useful links.

Procedure. The pedagogical experiment was conducted in two stages. At the first stage we aimed at determining the state of the future interpreters’ phonetic competence by using tests, questionnaires and interviews as well as analysing documentation, teaching materials and methods, considering the results of final tests, credits, examinations, self-study of future interpreters. The analysis of the results showed insufficient phonetic competence of the first-year students after school; insufficient knowledge of phonetic terms; lack of phonetic skills; a small amount of hours for classroom work; students’ inability to organise their self-study appropriately by distributing time and efforts for preparation; lack of motivation; the prevalence of reproductive work; lack of using e-learning in the subject. At the second stage of our experiment, two groups were formed: an experimental group (EG) included 23 first-year students and a control group (CG) included 27 majoring in “Interpreters” who study full-time. The CG students were taught using traditional teaching methods. Other conditions for both groups were approximately the same: the English level; the number of students in the groups; the higher educational institution; topics of the syllabus and hours for classroom study and self-study.