About English with love. A resource for those who prefer entertaining reading

INTRODUCTION

This thesis is devoted to the study of methods for organizing work on teaching reading techniques in grades 5-6 of a secondary school. In a modern school, the main task in this direction is to teach how to read and understand authentic foreign texts of average difficulty with the help of a dictionary. The texts should cover a fairly wide range of topics. These should be excerpts from original fiction, texts on socio-political, general technical and popular science topics. By texts of average difficulty we mean those that are not stylistically complicated and do not contain large number highly specialized and rarely used words.

The program provides clear reading standards that a student must master in each grade upon graduation. These reading standards are given in printed characters per hour, three to a certain percentage of unfamiliar vocabulary.

To properly teach reading in a foreign language (FL), it is first necessary to clearly imagine the essence, nature of reading skills.

In modern secondary school The initial period of learning a foreign language is based on the phonetic - orthographic principle, from which it follows that pronunciation and work on developing the necessary pronunciation skills are carried out simultaneously with familiarization with traditional spelling.

The initial stage of learning to read, i.e. teaching the pronunciation of individual letters and letter combinations can have, according to at least, two ways.

Teaching pronunciation can be based on the syllabic principle. In this case, the rules for reading vowel letters depend on whether a given vowel is in an open, closed or conditionally open syllable.

It is possible to base learning to read on determining the sound meaning of a vowel depending on the letters surrounding it and the stress in a word on the basis of studying the elements of word formation.

The second way of learning to read is more accurate. It allows you to accurately determine the sound meaning of vowels, but it is complex, since it presupposes knowledge of the rules of verbal stress and word formation.

Therefore, the school uses the syllabic principle.

It is easy to imagine that at different levels of proficiency in the reading process, the participation of consciousness in the technical side is different. In grades 5-6, when mastering the reading process, the reader’s attention is completely absorbed by the perception of letters, letter combinations, i.e. process technique. This situation is natural, since at the middle stage of learning to read it is to some extent an end in itself, and understanding depends on the nuance of visual perception, the role of which at this stage of learning is especially great.

In order to ensure that students’ attention is not entirely absorbed only by reading techniques, they need to be given the mindset to understand what they are reading already at the beginning. initial stage teaching reading, it is necessary to educate students about the relationship between reading skills and understanding the content of what is being read.

As the technical side of the process is mastered, this latter is more and more turned off from the consciousness of the reader and its place is increasingly taken by the process of penetration into the content of the text. Opportunities for imagination, emotions, critical analysis etc.

Reading, perhaps more than any other type of work on language, is associated with the whole variety of language activities. As a result, when learning a foreign language, the role and functions of reading change depending on the stage of learning a foreign language.

Students in grades 5-6 tend to ignore context as a mandatory means of determining the meaning of a word. If students encounter a number of unfamiliar words and are forced to turn to the dictionary, then they first write down one or another meaning of each of these unknown words and then try to somehow comprehend the sentence. This approach to translation either leads to ridiculous options or simply does not make it possible to translate the sentence.

In grades 5-6, where students cannot directly perceive textual material in a foreign language, from the very first lessons they get used to an analytical approach to each linguistic fact. This direction continues in the work in the future, since the student learns something new at every lesson, and learning new things (words, grammatical rules, combinations of letters, etc.) necessarily includes an element of analysis, which contributes to the understanding of new material and its assimilation . The lack of a direct connection between the words of a foreign language and the concepts that are enshrined in them, since these concepts were acquired by students on the basis of their native language, interferes with the direct perception of thoughts expressed in a foreign language, even in cases where the words are known to the students. Two factors prevent this: the inability to combine purely sensory processes with the processes of comprehending what is read and disbelief in one’s ability to directly understand the thought expressed in a foreign language.

1.The student reads part of a given passage and makes a selective translation.

2.The student reads a passage of text, others translate, selectively - one or two sentences.

.One student reads a passage of text, another translates it, and the third highlights the main idea of ​​the passage.

.The teacher asks students questions about the text in a foreign language, the students answer in their native language.

.The teacher asks questions about the text in a foreign language, and students answer them in a foreign language.

.Several students read the entire assigned text sequentially, after which two or three students retell it in Russian.

These exercises and others like them allow you, firstly, to check your understanding of the text, and secondly, they contribute to its better understanding. However, the degree of understanding of the text is controlled only in general terms and quick orientation in the text is not yet achieved. The presence of similar shortcomings, which are also widespread in other areas of developing reading technique skills in grades 5-6 in a broad sense, prompted us to study methods for organizing reading technique at the middle stage of schooling.

The formation of these qualities communication skills reading depends on the level of proficiency in both active and passive language material. When teaching this quality of reading, it is necessary to take into account the nature of the texts (easy, medium, difficult), the nature of mastery of the material (active or passive, or passive-active or active-passive mastery).

The object of the study is the process of formation and development of reading skills and abilities in English in a public school at the secondary stage of education.

The subject of the research of this development is the methodology for developing reading skills in English among students in grades 5-6 of primary school.

Based on the above, we defined the goal of our research as “expanding and deepening theoretical knowledge on methods of organizing work on the reading process in grades 5-6 of secondary school, solving practical problems during independent observations conducted during teaching practice.

Research hypothesis:

Teaching reading techniques in English in grades 5-6 of a mainstream school can be effective if it:

will be based on preventing and overcoming the interfering influence of skills from the native and Russian languages ​​on the formed stereotypes of reading techniques in English;

will be focused on a specially developed system of exercises for teaching reading in grades 5-6 of primary school.

And the task of our research is to create and carry out the most effective method of organizing work in the process of working on reading techniques in grades 5-6 of secondary school.

The following research methods were used to solve the problems:

observation of the process of teaching English in general education (basic and complete) schools;

questionnaires, timing, interviews and testing in order to determine the reliability of the results obtained, as well as to identify data on the competence of trainees;

Pedagogical experimental activities to test the results of teaching reading at the middle stage of the main public school.

Above we stated common features(characteristics of) reading at all stages of learning, and in our study we must pay special attention to reading at the middle stage of learning.

At the middle stage of learning, reading becomes an important activity speech activity. Oral speech acquires a certain qualitative development in terms of content, greater naturalness, motivation and information content.

The secondary school curriculum formulates the following requirements for the reading skills of ninth-grade students: “In order to extract basic information, students must be able to read to themselves simple texts presented for the first time from adapted literature by foreign authors, built on software linguistic material of these classes and containing up to 2-4% of unfamiliar words, the meaning of which can be guessed. Reading speed - at least 200 printed words per minute.

Students must, in addition, “for the purpose of extracting complete information be able to read to oneself simple texts from fiction presented for the first time, containing up to 4% unfamiliar vocabulary.”

Having briefly described reading at the middle stage of learning, we will consider the indicative plan of research we have developed for our thesis.

The plan consists of: introduction, two theoretical, one practical chapters, conclusion and list of references.

In the first theoretical chapter we will consider the psychological and linguistic foundations of teaching reading, in the second - teaching methods and organization of the process of reading plot texts, and in the third, practical chapter, - we will summarize the results of the experimental work on approbation. Among the means of teaching a foreign language, during the research, we will use: a textbook, a “Book for reading”, plot and thematic pictures.

We know that research methods are aimed at obtaining scientific data on the patterns of learning foreign languages, on the effectiveness of the educational materials used, methods and forms of the educational process.

Research methods in pedagogical sciences include (according to S.F. Shatilov): retrospective study of the experience of domestic and foreign schools (educational materials and documents), pedagogical and methodological theories in the past and at the present stage, generalization of positive experience in teaching foreign languages ​​in schools, observations, conversations, questioning, testing, experiment [S.F. Shatilov: 48].

Using these methods in conjunction, we will increase the degree of reliability and scientific objectivity of the results of our research.

In order to increase the effectiveness of the research, we need to carry out colossal work, which consists of (by introducing new, developed exercises) increasing the level of student achievement in one of the leading types of speech activity - reading, using the teaching tools mentioned above and research methods.

In our thesis we used the works of such authors as Artemyev V.A., Baryshnikov N.V., Belyaev B.V., Benediktov B.A., Bogoyavlensky D.N., Buchbinder V.A., Vedel G. E., Ganshina K.A., Gez N.I., Denken M.H., Karpov I.A., Klychnikova Z.I., Kolker Ya.M., Komkov I.F., Lapidus B.A. , Leontyev A.A., Nikitin M.V., Folomkina S.K., Rabinovich F.M., Rogova G.V., Sakharova T.E., Skalkin V.L., Strakhova M.P., Ustinova E.S., Ushinsky K.D., Shatilov S.F., and others.

We have developed a number of exercises through which we hope to obtain positive results during the experiment, that is, to increase the efficiency of the process at the middle stage of education in grades 5-6.

training speech reading English

CHAPTER I. Psychological and linguistic foundations of teaching reading as a type of speech activity

The history of “joint work” between psychology and linguistics is very long: their union is more than a hundred years old. It begins with the works of the most prominent German linguist, W. Humboldt's closest student, G. Steinthal.

The most important thing in Humboldt’s linguistic concept, the most important thing that he introduced into the linguistic science of the 19th century, and was subsequently largely lost by this science, is a clear understanding of the dialectic of the relationship between the social and the individual in speech activity. For Humboldt, language is the link between “public” and man. The form of language is social by nature: in speech activity it serves as an organizing principle for the “matter of language.” And this latter “is, on the one hand, sound in general, on the other, a set of sensory impressions and amateur mental movements that precede the formation of a concept with the help of language.” Both are individual phenomena. Language therefore “forms a unique essence, which, although it can always retain its significance only in the transitory act of thinking, is in its totality independent of it”; although the form of language manifests its specificity only in the process of organizing linguistic matter, it has its own “independent, external existence that controls the person himself.”

Humboldt sought the reasons for the similarity of language among different people in the unity of sound and the unity of mental content. He explained the unity of sound material by hereditary predisposition, and in the unity of the psyche - by the unity of society, the social factor.

Steinthal reasoned differently. If Humboldt considered language both as a process and as an ontological given, and as the most important part of human mental activity, and as a property of society, then Steinthal could not rise to such a dialectical understanding and found himself faced with an alternative: either an ontological given, or a process. But having made this choice, Steinthal, reasoning logically, went further along the path that ultimately leads him to a subjective psychological understanding of language. P.O. Shor at one time correctly noted that Steinthal “significantly reconstructs” Humboldt’s ideas, “replacing the epistemological problem, the problem of the relationship between language, consciousness and being, posed by Humboldt, with a psychological problem, the problem of the development of individual speech and individual thinking [R.O. Shor: 49 ] One cannot but agree with one of the patriarchs of modern linguistics, Marcel Cohen, who said that “it is impossible to imagine the progress of linguistics without its close connection with scientific psychology” [M. Cohen: 27].

1.1 Psychological foundations of learning to read

Psychological issues of learning to read are resolved based on the analysis of a number of issues:

1)psychological and linguistic features of the perception of text as the basic unit of written speech;

2)psychological characteristics of the links of speech communication when reading;

3)features associated with the scheme of semantic perception;

4)features of the operation of the basic mechanisms of speech activity. We will begin our consideration of the psychological foundations of learning to read with an analysis of those features of the text that determine its perception. In perceiving the text, we follow B.V. Belyaev will consider sensory understanding, limited by the activity of the first signal system, and understanding - conscious perception, conditioned by the activity of the second signal system. The perception of oral or written speech is associated with the direct impact of its physical properties on the senses, occurring in unity with the impact of its semantic content on the reader or listener. The person who receives visual signals must transform them into thoughts based on knowledge of the system of meanings of the corresponding language and his life experience. When perceiving written (printed) text, we are not aware that this process begins under the influence of signals (physical properties of printed or written symbols) on our organ of vision. It seems to us that we are directly revealing the content of the text. Analysis of this process shows that reading is primarily determined by the physical properties of the text.

Text as a certain physical object to be perceived is a sequence of graphemes (letters). Optical signals, from the point of view of their physical properties, have several modulations: the number of oscillations of radiant energy waves, their intensity and duration, which in sensation correspond to tonality (color tone), saturation and lightness.

Letters are like a trigger mechanism, under the influence of which the physiological process of excitation in the organs of vision begins. It ends with complex physiological phenomena in the cerebral cortex, the function of which is mental phenomenon- perception graphic symbols printed and written text and the mental activity of the reader. In other words, under the influence of the physical properties of an object, a physiological phenomenon arises, and on its basis a mental phenomenon arises, which is inextricably linked with it.

By analogy with the physical (acoustic) properties of an oral speech signal, we can talk about the bifunctionality of the physical (optical) properties of the text, that is, about the primary and secondary physical properties of graphemes. The primary physical (optical) properties of printed (or written) text determine the visibility and readability of the text. These physical characteristics of the text, although they contribute to the distinction of polygraphic signals, do not lead to their distinction in semantic contrast. Without directly influencing the recognition of linguistic and semantic features of the text, primary optical properties are not relevant in linguistic and semantic terms. The secondary properties of graphemes contribute to distinguishing them from one another. It seems to us that the secondary physical properties of letters should include the features of their outline, which cause the integral effect of the above physical properties. Secondary physical properties begin to serve as a material means of distinguishing alphabetic-graphic forms and, naturally, affect the adequacy of perception and understanding of the linguistic and semantic features of the text. The study of visual signal recognition has shown that to a very large extent it depends on the configuration of the presented sign.

Selective mixing of visual signals

In domestic studies, the selective nature of mixing visual signals is different. Some signs mix with certain signs more often than others, and some don't mix at all. It was also hypothesized that different probabilities of the appearance of signs would influence their memorization, and hence recognition.

It is known from teaching practice that the most difficult letters to learn and recognize are those that are similar to the letters of the native language. Very often, students incorrectly read the capital Latin letters H, P, S, and the lowercase letters q, p, d, b, s, t. An illustration of this can be the reading English sentences Didn't know where to go.

The students confused the Latin letter “g” with the Russian letter “d” and read the word as .

A few more examples of interference of the Russian alphabet: the word how is read as [pai], boy as [boi], tu as, cap as. Interference is observed both in relation to completely identical letters and letters that have a slight discrepancy in spelling.

Psychologically, this is explained by the fact that the connections “letter -> sound” in the native language are so strong that they serve as a barrier to the formation of a new letter-sound connection. Interference can also occur when handwriting letters. Students make similar mistakes when learning German and French. It should be borne in mind that when learning to read in different languages, interference with images of letters of the native alphabet manifests itself in different ways, occurring more often in relation to some letters than others.

Taking into account interference in letter recognition and the importance of the strength of the “letter-sound” connection, it is advisable to place appropriate instructions in a textbook or teacher’s book for the letters of the alphabet that are especially susceptible to it. Exercises should also be provided to help students remove possible interference. When explaining the new alphabet, you should pay attention to the letters of the general outline, note their similarities and differences, and train students more in reading words in which interference of their native language may appear. In addition, obviously, it is necessary to pay attention to letters within the system being studied that are similar in external outline, since students may not have the necessary differentiation during perception for a long time. Students do not notice differences in letters of similar shape, for example, the difference in the letters l and t in the German alphabet. Therefore, it is advisable to train them in the visual selection of one or another letter from a number of letters similar in outline and in the pronunciation of the corresponding sound.

Dependence of perception on font features of the optical signal

The physical characteristics of a text enable the act of reading because they facilitate or hinder its perception. This, in turn, has a positive or negative effect on the understanding of the text, without which reading does not fulfill its main function - to serve as a source of communication.

Text visibility and readability are prerequisites for productive reading. The concept of readability is broader than the concept of visibility. The visibility of text depends only on the quality of the visual signal itself. Readability is affected not only by the shape, size, and color of the font, but also by a number of conditions related to the specific design of the printed material, for example, different ratios of material, location on the page (line length, spacing, interletter spaces, type of layout of the text of the publication), color paper, printing method, as well as the subjective characteristics of the reader, due to his profession, qualifications, attention, fatigue, etc. You need to know about some patterns of readability because this will determine the attitude towards the text offered to students for reading. Readable text will make their reading task much easier. When choosing books for extracurricular reading, this is sometimes crucial. After all, it is precisely because the text is unreadable that students are often reluctant to read even a textbook.

When we pick up a book, and in particular a book to read in a foreign language, we first of all pay attention to its font. The font includes letters of the alphabet, numbers, punctuation marks, and some other font characters.

Readability of color printing

Knowledge of the laws of legibility of color printing is very great importance for school in general and for a foreign language in particular. Currently, color printing is increasingly included in books, textbooks, popular science magazines and even newspapers. Therefore, the problem of its readability occupies many psychologists. However, despite the interest in this issue, a number of problems associated with the readability of color printing remain unexplored. And this is understandable. For example, in foreign language newspapers and magazines, green, purple, orange and blue colored fonts are widely used. This is done in order to attract attention to the material being read. Which of these colors is more readable? What is the readability of text in colored font? Why are students more willing to read text in blue or blue? brown, and not light green? These and many other questions confront the researcher. They are not indifferent to a foreign language teacher. For example, in the USA this technique is used at the initial stage of learning to read in their native language; it is called “color reading” or “color dictation”.

As you know, the main difficulty in mastering reading in English is the discrepancy between the spelling of words and their pronunciation. Many children sometimes cannot overcome the confusion that arises because the same letter in one word is pronounced differently than in another, and different letters in different words indicate the same sound. An example is the letter a in the words cat, Kate, car, in which it is pronounced in three different ways: [x], , [a:], and the sound, which has eight different spellings, illustrated by the words to, too, two, crew, through, true, fruit, shoe.

Naturally, the student is lost in front of all this variety of reading facts. And this is where color comes to his aid. One system developed for teaching reading in English as a foreign language uses 47 colors that are assigned to specific speech sounds.

Teachers using this teaching system must have 47 colored crayons, with the same colored chalk used to represent letters and combinations of letters that make the same sound when reading words aloud from the board. So, the letter o (to) and the combination of letters oo, wo, ew,. ough, ue, oe, oi read as sound, are colored green. The letter p in the word po, ​​the combination on in the word phone, the combination kp in the word know, the combination rp in the word pneumonia are also given in one color - lavender. With this teaching system, only the teacher uses color symbols. Books for reading are typed in black, and when writing on the board, students use only white.

By the way, color is also used to teach language grammar. Each part of speech is assigned specific color. Words are written on cards that match the color of the given part of speech. By putting together sentences from these words, children, without realizing it, learn their structure. Color printing is also used for the purpose of distinguishing grammatical forms during the reading process.

The foregoing indicates that reading is conditioned by the properties of the text. The teacher should always keep this objective factor in mind and, if possible, select the texts that are most favorable from an optical point of view if he wants to make reading an enjoyable activity.

PHYSIOLOGICAL LINK OF READING

Conditionality of the process of oculomotor activity of the reader.

Considering reading as a process of communication through language based on the material of written speech, we understand that it is also determined by the mechanisms of visual decoding of optical signals.

Consideration of reading as a type of speech activity allows us to consider N.K.’s concept as its physiological basis. Anokhin about the functional system. It can be assumed that familiar graphic images play the role of a trigger when reading.

It has been established that in the contour of the grapheme there are parts that serve as identification marks in the perception of letters. The nature and number of such features are different for each letter. They change depending on the conditions of perception. To determine the letters of the alphabet, there are a number of parts of letters that are not divided, in particular, for the Russian alphabet there are 24 of them.

Recordings of eye movement show that it occurs in inconsistent (arrhythmic) jumps of a progressive nature. Visual decoding of optical signals occurs while the eyes stop (fixate). Changing eye fixations as a result of their movement makes it possible not to mix signals.

What happens when the eyes move from one fixation to another? It has been established that about three letters in the center of each visually perceived letter complex are imprinted on the retina with extreme clarity, the remaining letters become less and less clear as the number of perceived graphic signals increases, that is, as the recognition field increases. If we compare the recordings of eye movements, which reflect the duration and number of fixations per line, with the facts characterizing vision, it becomes clear that to recognize a word, a vague, indistinct vision is sufficient. The eye retains impressions only of special features, as mentioned above, most characteristic of a given letter, a striking form, of the dominant features of letters and words. The rest falls on the replenishing role of consciousness. This process is compared to the process of recognizing a familiar landscape. One glance is enough for us to evoke a mental image of all its details. A closer examination of the landscape reveals a thousand details that we were sure we saw at first glance. But if we were asked to describe these details immediately after the first look, we would not do it. With regard to many more famous details of a familiar landscape, we cannot say whether we saw them or imagined them in our minds. When we look at a landscape a second time, we often notice that details that we thought we saw the first time have changed greatly or have completely disappeared. Currently, it has been experimentally proven that the reader grasps 7 ± 2 graphic images in one fixation and makes an average of 4 - 5 fixations per line, and he can recognize the whole word, or a significant part of the word, or several words in one fixation (M.Ya. Goshev).

The difference between a “good” and a “bad” reader lies not in the speed at which the eye moves, but in the quantity and quality of the information it perceives at each fixation. In addition, this difference is expressed in the number of regressive eye movements. It has been experimentally established that elements smaller than a word are probabilistically organized in human memory. As the reading progresses, the reader develops a model of future results, therefore, if what is expected and what appears do not actually correspond to each other, a mismatch occurs and the reader moves his eyes back through the text (makes regressive movements). When studying reading in their native language (English), it was found that 23% of all eye movements made by first grade students are regressive. In high school, regressive movements are observed in 15% of students. It is believed that regressive movements are associated with difficulties in understanding the text. When reading a difficult text, a discrepancy arises between the time it takes to read individual words and the time it takes the reader to comprehend them. As a result, the reader experiences more regressions and the number of fixations increases. Accordingly, the reading speed slows down. Moreover, the difficulties of the material have big influence for people who don't read well. This manifests itself in disruption of the regularity of the reading process. An increase in the number of regressions and the number of fixations, as well as an increase in their duration, was also observed in good readers, but these changes are more orderly.

In a normal reader, regressive eye movements do not disrupt the order of words in a sentence when perceiving the test. This makes us think that some process parallel to visual recognition of printed text is taking place. It is assumed that this is a process associated with retaining in memory what has already been perceived while the eye returns back to another piece of information. Therefore, at the moment of regressive fixation, the information that the reader receives is not disrupted when reading.

It can be assumed that at the moment of fixation, that is, receiving information, an “image of the future” is formed, and the time the eye slides along the line is necessary for the body for the enormous work of processing the received information. If the result obtained corresponds to the image, then the next reception of information occurs. As noted above, a “good” reader differs from a “bad” one in that he perceives more information in one fixation and makes fewer regressive movements. Considering reading from this point of view, its external characteristic can be called reading technique, internal characteristic there will be a semantic interpretation of the text. The result of this single process will be a level of understanding achieved to varying degrees.

Considering the above, when learning to read and, in particular, when learning to read in a foreign language, we must strive to ensure that the student’s eyes make fewer fixations per line, that is, increase the reading field so that fixations are short-lived, and regressive movements are reduced to a minimum .

It has been experimentally established that the higher the level of understanding achieved, the fewer fixations and regressions the subjects make per line, the larger their reading field, or, conversely, the fewer fixations and regressions the subjects make per line, the larger their reading field, the more high level understanding is achieved by them.

The experiments thus confirm the rule of interaction between understanding and perception during reading and show that this interaction is also associated with the nature of eye movement, that is, changes in eye motility.

Speech movements and their influence on the reading process

The role of articulation is different at different stages of learning to read, ranging from complete subordination of this process to articulation and ending with complete liberation from it. The perfection of articulation determines the perfection of the reading process.

Based on many years of observations, it seems possible for us to distinguish the following six pronunciation levels:

1.The level of pronunciation of an individual sound. This level is characterized by the fact that a student of a foreign language can correctly pronounce a sound when presented with a transcriptional sign or letter denoting this sound. In combination with other sounds (syllable, word), the correct pronunciation of this sound is disrupted. In this case, the student does not have reading skills; he cannot correctly articulate the words of the text.

2.Level of pronunciation of an individual syllable. A student of a foreign language can correctly pronounce sound combinations consisting of the sounds he has acquired. In a broader complex (bisyllabic and polysyllabic words), pronouncing these sound combinations when speaking or reading is difficult.

3.Word pronunciation level. This level is characterized by the ability to correctly articulate individual new or learned words. When these words are spoken or read in combination with other words, their correct articulation is impaired.

1. Syntagma pronunciation level. At this level there are more high development pronunciation technique. The speaker or reader correctly articulates sounds within the syntagma, can formulate it intonationally, correctly place logical stress in the syntagma, make the necessary changes in the movement of the fundamental tone, read, and pronounce the syntagma at the required speed. However, when two or more syntagmas are combined, which occurs when reading a more complex sentence (simply common, compound or complex), the pronunciation of individual sounds (sound combinations), words or the intonation pattern of the syntagma is disrupted.
2. Phrase pronunciation level. This level is characterized by the correct pronunciation of sounds and the correct intonation of individual phrases. However, as soon as the reader has to read a coherent text, pronunciation even at the level of individual phrases is disrupted.
3. Text pronunciation level. This is the highest level of proficiency in reading pronunciation skills. It is characterized by perfect mastery of the sound intonation structure of phrases in a coherent text.

When teaching reading in a foreign language, we can sometimes observe the long-term persistence of “whisperers” among students. This is explained by their undeveloped reading technique or difficulties in understanding the content of the text. At more advanced stages of learning, “whispering” reading manifests itself when reading parts of the text that are difficult in pronunciation or semantics. Consequently, the work of the articulatory apparatus is an essential component of not only reading aloud, but also reading silently.

It is known from the psychological literature that when reading to oneself, the motor component appears in the form of hidden, collapsed, internal articulation or internal pronunciation, which represents the bioelectrical and sometimes mechanical activity of the muscles of the speech apparatus. Research by A.N. Sokolova show that as the perceived material becomes more complex, both during reading and listening, the recorded electrical activity of the articulatory muscles increases. Similar data regarding reading were obtained by the Swedish scientist Edfeldt. This confirms general pattern, according to which hidden articulation is manifested more strongly, the more complex the mental task that the subject had to solve was. If the skill of solving a mental problem became strong and turned into an automatic action, hidden articulation disappeared. A study of latent speech-motor reactions showed that when reading silently texts in native and foreign languages ​​or when mentally solving arithmetic examples, very significant excitations took place. It was noted that the transition to new actions, even if fairly automated, causes an increase in speech motor excitation. These works note that repeated reading of a text (in the native language) occurs with very weak, and at some moments completely disappearing, speech motor excitation. This suggests the possibility of having so-called “visual reading” under some conditions. When reading with the instructions “read more carefully” or “remember more accurately,” an increase in speech motor excitation was observed compared to the first reading, but without such instructions. It is interesting to note that reading unadapted texts, compared to reading adapted texts in foreign languages, was accompanied by more pronounced stimulation in the speech apparatus. Obviously, this is due to the fact that the unadapted texts turned out to be too complex for the subjects and required reference to a dictionary. Without a dictionary, the subjects could only read the text, highlighting only familiar words, without understanding the semantic content of the text.

PERCEPTUAL LINK OF READING

Recognition of letter signals. Recognition of letter images and their combinations.

Recognition is the result of selecting and comparing objects with a standard embedded in a person’s long-term memory, and on this basis their identification.

The optical reading component is only a means of providing it. Eye movement does not determine, but reflects the reading process, because reading is a mental process. The importance of the visual mechanism in reading cannot be exaggerated, although it depends on it. Recognition is a constructive, rather than reproductive, process in which the reader constructs a perceived object using mental operations.

According to K. Wikelgren, the mixing of letters based on the similarity of the corresponding sounds occurs in short-term memory. From experiments it is clear that the operator makes more mistakes when he needs to remember only two letters with similar phonetic images than when reproducing 6-8 letters that differ greatly in the characteristics of articular-acoustic images. Thus, identification results depend on the phonetic structure of code chains stored in short-term memory: the less similar the phonetic characteristics of a sequence of letters perceived through a visual analyzer, the less the likelihood of errors due to interference during their reproduction.

Very interesting data that allows us to understand this side of the reading mechanism is the work of Wenzel, who studied the “reading time” of the letter signal. Reading time is the time from the moment a letter is presented to its naming. It includes, according to this study, the following steps:

1. Primary imprinting of the visual signal.
2. Letter recognition.
3. Preparing the organs of articulation for pronunciation. 4) Pronunciation.

Experiments have shown that letters combined into syllables are read faster than isolated letters; the speed of reading letters in combinations that imitate a word increases compared to the speed of reading them in syllables; at the same time, meaningful words are read faster than meaningless letters or phrases.

The relatively large reduction in the time it takes to read a letter in a syllable compared to the time it takes to read an isolated letter is explained by the frequency of all letter combinations used in these experiments in speech in the native language. Artificial words, consisting of syllables, were in the nature of unusual combinations (they had an unusual spelling and phonetic appearance). This is why artificial word formation has little effect on reading speed. The familiarity of combinations explains the difference in the time it takes to read a letter in four-syllable artificial words and in texts in which the semantic content was violated by replacing letters in words. However, the latter were perceived much more naturally than meaningless words. There were no significant differences in letter reading time between meaningful words and meaningful text. This is explained by the fact that this author’s opinion is that the linguistic connection in meaningful polysyllabic words and meaningful text is almost the same. The familiarity of meaningful words is much greater than that of meaningless words, which is expressed in a significantly higher rate of reading the former. The latter is confirmed by experiments conducted on the material of the English language.

Word recognition when reading

The transformation of the physical (optical) properties of the text into perceptible qualities, that is, the process of reading the text, as well as its understanding, is determined by the linguistic and semantic system, the linguistic system and thoughts realized in the text through language. This is a very complex process, the psychological patterns of which are still far from being revealed. However, literature data and the results of experimental studies provide grounds for making some fundamental statements on this issue. First of all, it should be noted that the determination of reading by a language system begins with the recognition condition, that is, the reading of letters (graphemes). Only by analytically understanding the sound and alphabetic-graphic systems of a given language and establishing visual-auditory-motor relationships between them based on feedback does a person learn to read. In this case, it is not so important which way these connections are formed: from sound to graphic form or from optical signal to sound.

When recognizing words, part of the word falls into the field of peripheral, unclear vision. The reader completes his vision as if mentally, based on the standards stored in his memory. Instant or quick recognition is possible only in relation to words that are well known to us due to the fact that we often encountered them in previous reading. Words that were encountered less frequently are recognized more slowly. These words require a more precise vision of all their elements, as well as analysis. In addition, they require voice acting.

After identifying the visual image and internal articulation of the perceived word, a search begins in the area of ​​its linguistic meaning.

The assumption that reading is a sequential addition of letters is rejected by most researchers of this process. It was experimentally established that recognition occurs in whole words, and not letter by letter. Learned by the students in a certain order and with the same strength with which they knew the alphabet, words presented at a distance further than that from which the letters were recognized were recognized and recognized in almost all cases.

Age-related changes recognition of optical signals.

With age, the recognition field increases, which is expressed in an increase in the average number of letters and words recognized per minute. It has been established that an adult perceives from two to four words in one fixation. When reading in their native (English) language, the recognition field for adults is 8-13 letters; for children, the recognition field is correspondingly smaller.

Features of identification of optical systems in a foreign language.

The letters of a foreign alphabet are unusual for our students at the beginning of their studies. The letter-sound connection is not yet strong. As a result, letter recognition is delayed. The preparation of the organs of articulation for their pronunciation is also delayed. Combinations of letters are also unusual for them. In students' linguistic experience, individual words do not appear often. The word is perceived as a simple set of letters; the mechanism of comparing each letter works, and not the mechanism of comparing their complex. The mechanism for comparing a set of letters operates when the image of the word enters long-term memory as an indecomposable whole that has linguistic meaning. In the meantime, they are perceived only as physical stimuli. All this interferes with the normal reading of words, phrases, and text. As a result, reading in a foreign language is slower than reading in your native language. When reading, students not only see the text and speak it out loud or silently, but also seem to hear themselves. The organs of vision, hearing, and speech interact. Auditory images control and reinforce the correctness of speech movements and their correspondence to visual images.

With the current method of oral advance, students begin reading only when they have mastered the articulation of sounds, syllables, words and even small phrases. And yet, observations show that, when moving on to reading, students make errors in articulation and intonation where they do not make them orally.

This is explained by the fact that when reading, another difficulty arises: the comparison of letter signals and their recoding into articulatory systems. The inclusion of the visual component disrupts an insufficiently developed pronunciation skill, there is a delay in the stage of comparing what is perceived with the standard, and hence a violation of articulation. The lack of development of letter-sound communication acts as an inhibitor. This requires the teacher to pay special attention to the initial stage of teaching reading.

Probabilistic forecasting as one of the reading mechanisms

As is known, the phenomenon of prediction (anticipatory synthesis) is one of the forms of adaptation of the organism to environment. From a biological point of view, forecasting is very useful and contributes to the survival of the organism. It is the result of adaptive acts of a living organism to recurring events in the environment. The basis of forecasting is the traces of temporal relationships that took place in the past stored by the brain. If event B followed event A, then event A becomes a signal by which the body predicts event B, as if preparing in advance for the onset of event B, and anticipates it.

In the life of an organism, each event occurs in various combinations with others. Moreover, there are combinations, some of which are repeating, in other words, actually stable, and some of them are random. Therefore, event A is not always an absolute signal of the occurrence of event B. Because of this, the expediency of an organism’s behavior is to “react” to event A in accordance with the event that in the past experience of this organism most often followed event A, in other words, react in accordance with the event that most likely occurs after event A. Therefore, forecasting based on past experience cannot be absolute and is always, according to I.M. Feigenberg, probabilistic forecasting. Probabilistic forecasting means anticipation of the future, based on the probabilistic structure of past experience and information from the current situation. Past experience and the current situation provide the basis for creating hypotheses about the upcoming future, and each of them is assigned a certain probability. In accordance with this forecast, pre-tuning and preparation for actions in the upcoming situation is carried out, leading with the greatest probability to achieving a certain goal.

In humans, probabilistic forecasting can be conscious or unconscious. Forecasting allows the body to sharply reduce the number of erroneous reactions that do not correspond to the real development of events. Based on observations and experimental study probabilistic forecasting in speech, one can point to its following features.

Firstly, this is the reader’s knowledge of the words that are used to express a given thought. The more familiar a student is with a word used in a text, the sooner he will guess about it, even if he only partially comprehends it. The same thing is observed in relation to the phrase and even the entire phrase. An experienced reader follows, first of all, the development of thought and already from this angle perceives the words of the text. What has been read before tells the reader what will be discussed next. Prediction of words corresponds to the frequency of their occurrence in the reader’s speech experience.

Secondly, significant role In forecasting, the number of derivative words that can be formed from a certain stem plays a role. For example, the reader perceived 4 signs - hang- - in a German text as one fixation. His linguistic experience can tell him several prediction options: hangen, abh "dngen, abhangig. But he perceived the combination -fahr-. Obviously, it can be fahren, abfahren, etc. Obviously, the more options that can arise from the perceived with one fixation of a part of words, the less chance of prediction strength.

Thirdly, the prediction of words in a readable text is influenced by semantic associations, which are involuntarily taken into account in the individual language experience of the reader.

Prediction within a sentence is determined by: 1) the strength and unambiguity of other words associated with a given word; 2) the presence of definitions and other dependent words; 3) the position of the word in a sentence; 4) the depth of the sentence and 5) the defining context that emerges based on the words read. All these factors determine the speed and speed of guessing when reading. If a student reads in a foreign language, then the effect of these factors is weakened due to the limitations of his language experience.

The determinability of reading by the language system at higher levels, that is, when reading a line, phrase, paragraph and the entire text as a whole, as is clear from the above, is also closely related to the mechanism of probabilistic prediction of the semantic content of the text and its individual sections. At some stage of reading, the reader unmistakably reconstructs in his mind those parts of the printed material that were not objectively perceived by him. In other words, it predicts words based on the perceived part, guesses the next word and the combination of words. When perceiving speech, not only words are predicted, but also entire sentences. Therefore, those researchers who pointed out that a person reads a text not only, and perhaps not so much with his eyes, but with his head, are right.

All of the above is especially important when learning to read in a foreign language. It is the lack of relevant experience that does not prompt the student to solve the question - to correctly guess each word.

The importance of the familiarity of a visual image for reading leads to the conclusion that students need to perceive the graphic image of foreign words quite often. This will ensure they are recognized as you read. Students should not be expected to read well if they only have strong oral language skills.

Experiments have shown, for example, that success in mastering unprepared oral speech is observed in cases of intensive training in precisely this type of speech activity. Obviously, this provision is also valid for reading. If we want our students to read well, we must devote sufficient time to this activity. Moreover, optimal reading training should combine letter-by-letter teaching techniques with teaching to read whole words. The predominance of the first over the second or the second over the first must be established experimentally for each language.

1.2 Linguistic foundations of teaching reading

Linguistics has always had a great influence on the practice of teaching foreign languages ​​in secondary schools.

Thanks to the achievements of linguistics in teaching methods, they began to take different approaches to teaching language material and speech activity, and systems of exercises designed for different learning conditions and with different populations of students became more motivated.

In terms of rationalizing the teaching of a foreign language, the problem of selecting educational material at different levels has always been and remains very important: sounds, words, sample sentences, speech models, standard texts, etc.

The selection of linguistic content in teaching a foreign language is also influenced by such a branch of linguistics as sociolinguistics, which studies the relationship between language and culture, language and society. Language is the guardian of the national culture of the people who speak it. Therefore, it is necessary to teach a foreign language not only as a way of expressing thoughts, but also as a source of information about the national culture of the native people of the language being studied by students, based on the fact that language performs two main functions: communicative - it ensures communication between people and cumulative culture-bearing. Modern methods of teaching a foreign language are characterized by the desire to include regional information from geography, history, and social life into the content of teaching - into speech material and, in particular, into reading texts.

Attention should also be paid to the significance of the rapidly developing Lately text linguistics, the theoretical solutions of which can play an important role in significantly increasing the effectiveness of teaching reading literature of various styles and genres in a foreign language.

The ideas of whole-text linguistics, which are gaining more and more adherents, allow us to consider the text as a semantic indivisible whole. Such positions encourage methodologists to look for new ways of working on text when teaching reading. One of the new approaches in this regard can be considered the desire to determine the complexity of texts of different types, which will subsequently make it possible to build graded exercises adapted specifically to this level difficulties and aimed at significantly reducing reading difficulties.

The complexity of the text is determined by the way of expressing compositional speech forms. Is each text characterized by structural design, thematic unity, and informational completeness? logical interdependence of all its components. Consequently, students must be taught not only to penetrate into the essence of each word, phrase, and grammatical phenomenon used, but also to embrace the entire text, understanding its overall compositional and content essence.

Thus, without a carefully developed linguistic basis, not a single, somewhat solid method of teaching a foreign language can be created, and this is now well understood by all methodologists. Proof of this can be found in methodological studies conducted in recent years, in which a philological component is necessarily presented, either borrowed or proposed by the author as an independent development.

CHAPTER II. Teaching methods and organization of the reading process at the middle stage of teaching a foreign language in a school setting.

1 The problem of selecting educational material for learning to read

To introduce students to reading in a foreign language, it is necessary, firstly, to stimulate reading motivation, and secondly, to ensure its success with the help of appropriate tasks for exercises. These moments are interconnected and interdependent. To develop reading motivation, the quality of texts plays an exceptional role. Their practical, general educational, educational significance can only appear if they impress students. Many methodologists believe that “a text acquires meaning for a student when he can establish a certain relationship between his life experience and the content of this text” [M.Kh. Duncan: 19 ].

Michael West believed that an interesting text is the main prerequisite for students to start reading in a foreign language. In his famous educational series, he included the most fascinating works of world literature.

Methodological researchers have noticed that students cope better with more difficult but exciting texts than with easy but meaningless ones.

The texts should be adventure and detective stories so that students read with pleasure. Texts must meet certain requirements:

The first requirement is that the stories given to students to read should not be too long. No matter how interesting these texts may be, they will still become uninteresting in the end if students spend half a year, or even the entire school year, reading the same work. This implies a requirement for authors of books for home reading - to compose texts in such a way that each story does not exceed the norm, installed program.

The second requirement is that these texts be accessible, that is, that their language be at the level of real knowledge of students in the corresponding class. After all, an objectively interesting text, if it contains insurmountable difficulties, loses all attractiveness. It must be taken into account that students’ actual knowledge of the English language, with a few exceptions, is lower than the level indicated in the program. In this regard, the question of adaptation arises, without which it is impossible to imagine a school reading course.

It seems to us that adaptation is objective in nature when reading silently in a foreign language; Regardless of whether the text is adapted by the authors of the textbook to the capabilities of the students, the student himself adapts it in accordance with his language and life experience, omitting the incomprehensible or interpreting it approximately in his own way.

Self-adaptation also occurs when reading in one’s native language. Reading, for example, in adolescence“War and Peace”, the reader places his own accents: he reads “peace” or “war” more carefully. In this case, an involuntary reduction or self-adaptation occurs, corresponding to age and psychological interests, as well as prior knowledge. Self-adaptation also occurs in the sphere of language: the reader omits words unknown to him, associated, for example, with the art of war, etc.

It must be said that adaptation develops in parallel with compensation of meaning, which is also individual in nature, due to which the “leakage” of meaning is not so great. It is clear that controlled, rational adaptation, which facilitates the perception and understanding of a foreign language text, has even more the right to exist. Adaptation builds a bridge between the text in a foreign language and the reader. It is important to emphasize that it is a flexible phenomenon; its measure decreases in connection with the progress of students in a foreign language in general and in reading in particular.

Adaptation methods can be ranked as follows, if we consider the goal to be reading original works of average difficulty:

1. artificial texts written by the authors of educational materials on the basis of the active language minimum, representing a free transcription of the original text;
2. lightweight original texts due to cuts; at the same time, both the composition and the language material are simplified;
3. original texts of average difficulty, the perception and understanding of which are facilitated by commentary.

If the first two methods involve simplifying the text and adapting it to the reader’s level, then the latter raises the reader to the level of understanding the original text.

Third requirement. The stories offered to students must meet the age needs of students, not only contribute to the acquisition of certain grammar vocabulary, but also be educational in the true sense of the word.

Suitable in this sense are stories about Robin Hood, processed for students in the middle stage of education.

Stories about various English scientists and writers who left behind classic works, both in the field of literature and in the field of science, can also be useful.

Thus, stories describing individual episodes from the life of such representatives of the English people as Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, Dickens, Darwin, Newton could be of great educational interest for students at the secondary stage of education.

Stories of a regional nature would be of great interest.

It goes without saying that familiarity with excerpts from the works of English and American writers could provide very valuable materials for satisfying the cognitive needs of students.

The point of view of another methodologist - Rogov G.V. opposite to Arakin's opinion regarding the volume of texts.

According to Rogov G.V. motivation is directly dependent on the awareness of the success of the work performed. Students should feel their progress, which consists not only in their understanding of increasingly complex texts, but also in the desire to read large texts. It seems that it is possible to develop a complex reading skill, including all the private skills that provide it, only with detailed texts. There is an apparent paradox here: the longer the text, the easier it is to understand (other things being equal). This paradox can be explained as follows: firstly, a context that stimulates understanding comes into force, which introduces the reader into the content-semantic plan of the narrative, creating the prerequisites for prediction and linguistic guesswork; secondly, redundancy appears, that is, the same fact/phenomenon or person is characterized from different sides, with details, while the density of information decreases; Finally, as students progress in reading larger texts, they are more likely to encounter words belonging to the same thematic area, which makes them easier to semantize. Therefore, it is important to provide for a systematic increase in the volume of text in the reading course [G.V. Rogova: 37].

In our opinion, the opinion of Rogova G.V. is the most acceptable and reasoned.

Of course, it is impossible not to mention in this paragraph the requirements for the content and language of texts used in the process of teaching reading, which were formulated by S.K. Folomkina in her works. The requirements for the content of the texts are as follows:

A) ideological consistency of the content of texts, their ideological and educational value;

b) the cognitive value of texts and the scientific nature of their content;

V) correspondence of the content of texts to the age characteristics of students.

As for the linguistic side of the texts, the requirements boil down to two points: in texts for reading with a general coverage of the content, up to 25% of unfamiliar significant words are allowed, and in texts for a complete and accurate understanding of the content, 2-3 unfamiliar words per page.

Consideration of the above requirements shows that they are not without shortcomings. Thus, without touching on the ideological consistency of the texts, which was a tribute to the times, we note the absence of requirements in terms of regional studies and linguistic regional studies.

2.2 Methodology for organizing classroom and domestic species reading in middle school

The goal of teaching reading in high school is for students to master silent reading with immediate understanding of what they read. At an advanced stage, that is, in high school, silent reading acquires the features of reading itself: it becomes a means of obtaining new information in the cognitive activity of students. The cognitive nature of reading at the final stage makes it possible to make maximum use of it for educational and educational purposes.

Mastering the reading of texts of various functional styles (socio-political, popular science and fiction) constitutes the content of the advanced stage of mastering reading as a type of communicative activity. Here the main purpose of reading as a means of extracting information from the text is fully manifested. At this stage, the nature of reading changes radically. If before this reading was a goal towards which students’ activities were aimed, and the texts were educational in nature, and reading was educational, now reading becomes a means of obtaining information for cognitive purposes, and texts acquire an educational character.

In accordance with program requirements, students in grades 6-7 of secondary school master reading simple everyday and literary texts. The main attention is aimed at teaching students to understand texts in the target language and extract information from them at the level of program requirements in grades 6-7.

With a functional approach to reading, it is necessary to take into account the amount of information extracted from texts in accordance with the need for it. From this point of view, reading with the extraction of complete information from the text and reading with coverage of the general content of what is being read are distinguished.

During the first type of reading, students are required to penetrate deeply into the text and extract as much information as possible from the text. Such reading, called studying, can be extended to any text depending on the required amount of information of a particular nature.

Reading covering the general content of what is being read, called introductory, is aimed at extracting the main content from the text. This type of reading can be used in cases where the task is, without going into details, to cover the general content of the text or find out the main idea of ​​the article, etc.

Reading with complete information extraction

Reading, extracting complete information from the texts being read, is an important type of reading at the middle stage of learning.

When aiming to fully extract information, students can resort to repeated reading of the text or its individual parts in cases where the first reading does not lead to understanding the text and the student cannot identify the main, main idea, establish the logic of events and actions, and understand the meaning of the content.

When working on a text, you cannot break it into parts and read it in parts, unless these are chapters or sections of the work, since this destroys the internal logic of the text and makes it difficult to extract information contained in the entire text.

Reading texts constitutes the initial stage of educational work, which is supplemented by completing tasks on the content and understanding of what is read. Comprehension of a read text is determined not by reproducing the text or part of it by heart and not by translating it into Russian. A high degree of understanding of it in Russian is manifested in the fact that the student can perform such actions as: identify the main thing and change the sequence of presentation; present it in a more abbreviated, or, conversely, expanded form.

General Reading

Reading covering the general content of the text is used when the reader does not need details and details. This type of reading is carried out only in the classroom under the supervision of a teacher. This is due to the fact that when it is carried out, as a rule, one-time reading to oneself is practiced, in which students must, despite the presence of unfamiliar words and some grammatical phenomena in the text, understand the main idea of ​​the text. In this case, two reading modes are possible: without a time limit, when students spend as much time on the text as each one needs (after reading the text, each student closes the book), and with a time limit at a more advanced stage, when the teacher sets an exact deadline in advance , during which all students must read the text (this period should be realistic for weak students), and after it expires the teacher stops reading.

The second mode has a great educational effect, as it promotes the development of the technique of reading silently with condensed inner speech, in which students cover increasingly large sections of the text with their eyes.

Reading covering general content is carried out without using a dictionary or grammar reference; Moreover, unfamiliar words from such texts are not included in the textbook’s dictionary at all, and students read the texts based on linguistic and semantic guesses. Students guess the meaning of words by their form; These words include so-called international words formed from roots known to students using familiar affixes, converted words, as well as complex words formed from elements learned by students. In cases where the student cannot guess the meaning of words and grammatical phenomena in the text, he resorts to a semantic guess, relying on understandable fragments of the text.

The development of the linguistic and semantic structure of conjecture when reading is a special and very important task when teaching reading at the intermediate stage. For this purpose, special lexical exercises are also used to prepare such a guess.

The tasks for texts during such reading are small and have control functions - to check what new things students were able to learn during a fluent one-time reading. To do this, use the following steps:

A) highlighting the main content of the text;

b) text interpretation;

V) assessment of its content by students.

It is recommended that tasks be offered first to less prepared students, whose statements are supplemented and expanded by more prepared students, which contributes to a better grasp of the meaning by less prepared students.

Reading covering general content is supplemented by searching for necessary or interesting information by anticipating (anticipating) the content of texts based on headings using selective reading of individual paragraphs of the text.

In grades 5-6, where students cannot yet directly perceive textual material in a foreign language, from the very first lessons they get used to an analytical approach to each linguistic fact. This direction of work continues in the future, since the student learns something new at every lesson, and mastering a new one (a word, a grammatical rule, a combination of letters, etc.) necessarily includes an element of analysis, which contributes to the understanding of the new material and its assimilation. The lack of a direct connection between the words of a foreign language and the concepts that are enshrined in them, since these concepts were acquired by students on the basis of their native language, interferes with the direct perception of thoughts expressed in a foreign language, even in cases where the words are known to students. Two factors prevent this: inability to combine purely sensory processes with processes of comprehending what is read and disbelief in one’s ability to directly understand the thought expressed in a foreign language.

The student reads part of a given passage and makes a selective translation.

The student reads a passage of text, others translate selectively one or two sentences.

One student reads a passage of text, another translates it, and the third highlights the main idea of ​​the passage.

The teacher asks students questions about the text in a foreign language, the students answer in their native language.

The teacher asks questions about the text in a foreign language, and students answer them in a foreign language.

Organization of home reading

Mastering silent reading is a sequence of steps, each of which breaks down into two actions separated in time: students reading the next text at home and monitoring their reading comprehension, which is carried out by the teacher in class.

In fact, practicing silent reading takes place in the process of reading texts while doing homework. The teacher determines in advance the home reading assignment for the next week (in high school, such an assignment is given for two weeks). The scope of these tasks is determined in the “Book for Reading”, and they are scheduled by week, however, guided by the progress of the educational process in the class, the teacher can change the reading norm in one direction or another.

Students read the proposed text to themselves, penetrating its content, once or, at most, twice. During the reading process, the student’s full attention is paid not to linguistic forms, but to the content of the text. At the same time, students write down unfamiliar words that they encounter in the text in their vocabulary notebooks.

In his instructions, the teacher encourages students to make guesses based on context when reading a text.

After reading the text and understanding its content, students become familiar with the test assignments for this text and prepare them.

Delayed control of home reading, carried out by the teacher in the classroom, is aimed, firstly, to establish whether students read the given text, and, secondly, whether they understood it.

This check should take up a minimum of class time. For this purpose, the teacher selects and uses such forms of control that, with a minimum expenditure of time, give the teacher the opportunity to establish how students worked at home and have a stimulating effect on them.

Control of home reading in the lesson is carried out in one of two possible forms:

) The teacher conducts a quick frontal check in the class of all students maintaining vocabulary notebooks and understanding the content of what they read. For this purpose, first of all, control tasks placed after the text are used.

They are compiled taking into account the increasing complexity, and therefore answers to them should be started with weaker students, involving more difficult tasks. In addition to control tasks (or instead of them), the teacher can use general control questions on the content of what was read, an explanation of the motives for the actions of the characters, a listing of major facts or events described in the text read, etc. Control is carried out in English in a form accessible to students.

) Combining checking home reading with work on oral speech, the teacher conducts oral exercises based on the plot of the text read. The exercise is carried out in English in the form of a conversation based on the text, presentation of the content of what was read, discussion or expression of one’s opinion about what was read. Covering as many students as possible, such an exercise is aimed at developing oral speech, while at the same time giving the teacher the opportunity to judge the degree of students' understanding of the text read.

When checking a student’s homework on silent reading, one should clearly differentiate the degree of students’ understanding of the text read and the students’ ability to express their thoughts in English about the content of what they read and evaluate them separately.

2.3 System of exercises for teaching reading in grades 5-6

The exercise system, according to pedagogical science, is the main factor ensuring success in mastering speech in both native and foreign languages. “...The systematic nature of the exercise,” wrote K.D. Ushinsky, “is the first and most important basis for their success, and the lack of this systematicity is the main reason why numerous and long-term exercises give very poor results” [K.D. Ushinsky: 43].

I.A. Gruzinskaya associated students’ insufficient knowledge and skills in foreign languages ​​with the defectiveness of the exercise system. The problem of creating a scientifically based and effective system of exercises for teaching a foreign language, taking into account the conditions of its teaching, is one of the most relevant in practical terms and the most complex in theoretical terms [I.A. Gruzinskaya: 18].

Its relevance is determined by the fact that practical methods of teaching foreign languages ​​do not yet have a sufficiently effective, integral and complete system of exercises. Meanwhile, no matter how effective individual types or types of exercises may be, they do not determine the success of language learning as a whole. The success of training can only be guaranteed by a rational system of exercises.

In theoretical terms, this problem is one of the most complex, since it is associated with such incompletely solved problems of the methodology as issues of interconnected development of speech skills, issues of forming and improving skills as automated components of skills, issues of motivation in mastering foreign language outside the language environment, and many others.

The concept of “exercise system” is defined by different methodologists as:

“A set of types and kinds of exercises, related to each other by purpose, material, method of execution and arranged according to the principle of composition and subordination (I.V. Rakhmanov)

“A natural combination of types of exercises in accordance with the stages of students’ acquisition of a foreign language” [I.F. Komkov:26]

“A set of necessary types, types and varieties of exercises performed in such a sequence and in such quantities that take into account the patterns of formation of skills in various types of speech activity in their interaction and ensure the highest level of mastery of a foreign language in the given conditions.”

Like other systems, the exercise system includes a number of subsystems. The components of the exercise subsystem are the types of exercises, and the connections between them are determined by the sequence of formation of individual stages of the assimilation process.

So, the exercise subsystem is a combination of types of exercises in accordance with the sequence of formation of individual stages of the assimilation process.

A system of exercises based on a combination of language and speech exercises has become widespread in the methodology. The component composition and types of exercises in this system are completely the same. The sequence of presentation was determined based on three stages of the assimilation process: comprehension, memorization and reproduction. Language exercises were correlated with the first two stages of acquisition, speech exercises with the last. At the same time, the system of exercises extended only to teaching certain aspects of language and, to a certain extent, types of speech activity. The general system of exercises for teaching the language as a whole traditional technique I couldn't create it.

The current state of methodology and related sciences allows us to pose and solve the question of the general system and subsystems of exercises for teaching foreign languages.

The actual basis of the general exercise system
consists of two factors: psycholinguistic - types of exercises and psychological - the process of assimilation. When teaching foreign languages, it is advisable to distinguish between two types of exercises - training-communicative and communicative-cognitive (cognitive-communicative). When describing the learning process, modern psychology uses terms such as knowledge, skills and abilities. To create a system of exercises, it is necessary to correlate the types of exercises and the stages of the assimilation process. For the stage of knowledge formation, the most adequate are cognitive-communicative exercises, for the stage of skills formation - training-communicative ones, for the stage of skill development - communicative-cognitive ones.

The exercise subsystem is also built on the basis of two factors: psycholinguistic - types of exercises and psychological - the sequence of formation of individual stages of the assimilation process. The main types of exercises include differentiation, imitation, substitution and transformation. As for the formation of individual stages of assimilation, each of them has its own levels (substages). In the process of developing knowledge, two moments can be distinguished - the process of perceiving new material and monitoring the correctness of its understanding. The development of skills is also characterized by its own stages, namely: differentiation, imitation, substitution and transformation. And finally, skills include two components - transfer to a new situation using substitution and transformation.

Subsystems of exercises are created by analogy with the general system of exercises. The “knowledge” subsystem includes transformational exercises for perceiving the material and monitoring its understanding by students; the “skills” subsystem consists of four exercises: differentiation, imitation, substitution and transformation; The “skills” subsystem is based on exercises of substitution and transformation type.

Creating a rational system of exercises for teaching reading, as well as developing the most effective methods for their use, is the key to solving the entire problem of teaching reading, which is still far from being resolved.

What is the main criterion to be based on when constructing a system of exercises for teaching reading?

This main criterion is, in our opinion, the goals that are set for teaching reading in secondary school.

The main and leading goal in teaching a foreign language is the communicative goal, which determines the entire educational process. The educational and educational goal in teaching this subject is realized in the process of fulfilling the communicative goal.

In the act of communication, as is known, all its aspects are inextricably linked and proceed synchronously.

This implies the need to simultaneously work on both reading skills (the so-called “reading technique”) and reading ability (reading comprehension). This is achieved if students read new texts all the time. By repeatedly reading the same text, students develop only reading skills, since consciousness in this case moves away from its semantic content and, therefore, the ability to read with understanding is not developed.

Only untranslated reading is genuine, communicative reading, so the most important thing is that students practice untranslated reading. The untranslatability of reading as a type of speech activity is achieved with the simultaneous perception of linguistic means and understanding of the semantic content of the text. The latter is possible if the texts are accessible to students in form and content.

One of the important requirements for communicative exercises is that they must be situational and contextual in interpretation. Teaching practice suggests that it is impossible to teach reading on individual words, individual isolated sentences, and even small passages of 2-3 paragraphs, since reading parts of the text deprives the reader of the integrity of perception. Learning to read with a full understanding of the meaning and general content is possible only on a solid passage that contains interesting and sufficient information [N.I. Guez: 16].

Reading exercises are communicative in nature if they ensure students’ active attitude towards readable text, that is, they are performed in connection with a specific psychological task. It is necessary that each text be preceded by a specific task that explains to students the tasks that face them. For example, find answers to the questions posed in the text; select the necessary details; skim the text and select interesting facts; find the right link or help, etc. However, exercises before the text should not reveal its content, so as not to extinguish students’ interest in the reading itself.

Reading will be productive when the student constantly feels that he correctly understands what he is reading. It is known that the success of performing an action has a positive effect on the formation of skills. It follows that when teaching communicative reading it is necessary to provide constant feedback. Students should receive a hint when faced with difficulties, on the one hand, and reinforcement in the form of a positive or negative assessment of their work, on the other.

As is known, in the process of mature reading, the main role is played by the organs of vision and inner speech in conjunction with thinking. Therefore, teaching communicative reading should be based on silent reading exercises. In addition, this will entail a deeper understanding of the text and an increase in reading speed.

The optimal rate of communicative reading in a foreign language is approximately the same as the normal rate of reading in the native language for a given individual. The development of such a pace is, in our opinion, the result of fulfilling all the above requirements for communicative reading.

Based on the communicative purpose of teaching, the entire system of exercises for teaching reading should be divided into groups, and each group of exercises should be aimed at solving a specific, specific problem.

The most rational in this regard seems to us to be the following three-component system of exercises: K\~ Kn~ Kg, where K\ are communicative exercises for developing primary skills (introducing new material); Kn are non-communicative, or training, exercises for developing language skills (reinforcing material) , TO G - communication exercises for the formation of speech skills.

Level 1 communication exercises

We use coherent text or written speech as the basis for teaching reading using this system of exercises. In this regard, communicative exercises of the 1st level represent the introduction of new words through a written context, in other words, this is the presentation of a linguistic sign. As is known, the sound image is primary in the mechanisms of speech [N.I. Zhinkin: 20], in this regard, at the primary stage of action formation, it is necessary to create a sound-motor image of this lexical material. This process must be active, since the sound-motor image is formed in the process of repeated listening and pronunciation of language material. Without this, it is impossible to memorize a linguistic sign, and therefore, to act with it.

At this stage, in the process of performing exercises, familiarization with the meaning of new words also occurs. This should also include familiarization with the mechanism of using language material (through context). Thus, at the first stage of performing communicative exercises, the student receives guidance for subsequent actions on the use of new language material in speech.

Level 1 communicative exercises may include the following types of reading:

1) reading with a guess (based on context, word structure, related root), or untranslated reading;

2)reading with a dictionary, that is, translated reading;

3) reading according to a programmed manual (here both untranslated reading and reading with elements of translation are possible).

However, in general, reading at this stage is educational or training. Due to the fact that the text includes a significant number of new words, students must pay attention to linguistic form. Therefore, reading time at this stage should not be limited. The vast majority of psychologists and methodologists are of the opinion that the benefits of greater reading speed will only be felt if the words are familiar. In all other cases, the most favorable will be the average speed, which allows students to understand the meaning of the material being read and to easily and correctly perceive its elements [G. Ebbinghaus: 50].

It should be taken into account that in the process of reading with the expansion of the dictionary, students must remember new words.

In connection with the above, at this stage of training it is recommended to pay attention to the accuracy and precision with which the student reads, and not to increasing the reading speed.

It is advisable to control understanding of level 1 communicative reading in various ways (find answers to questions in the text, retell them in their native language, give titles to individual parts of the text, determine the correctness and falsity of judgments, etc.) in order to determine whether the student understands the general meaning of what was read. Due to the difficulty of mastering foreign language vocabulary, it is not excluded at this stage to also check the degree of mastery and the correct understanding of individual words.

Training exercises.

The second stage in teaching communicative reading, or Kn, is training in the use of language material. It occupies the main place in the process of mastering this material, since during this stage skills are formed that are then included in complex speech skills. It is known from psychology that synthesizing individual skills and forming a complex skill on this basis requires long-term training [V.A. Artemyev: 4].

At this stage, reading techniques are developed, reading aloud is practiced under the guidance of a teacher, with technical means, with a tape recorder, etc. At this stage, difficult language phenomena are trained. Basically, systematic exercises are used at this stage. Let's point out some of them:

Reading stories aloud by the teacher and then retelling them by students in their native and foreign languages ​​(depending on the complexity of the text).

Exercises to reveal the meaning of words by context, word-formation and syntactic features.

Exercises in reading “silently” followed by retelling the content in native and foreign languages ​​(depending on the complexity of the text). Reading “to yourself” should be regulated in time.

Exercises in the so-called “translation” reading. Their essence is as follows: the teacher invites students to take some long-studied and well-understood text and quickly find in it and read aloud sentences or phrases that the teacher gives in Russian. The teacher should give these sentences or phrases in a different order than they appear in the text, thereby forcing students to scan the entire text (or sentence) in search of the desired equivalent. This technique, by developing the skill of quickly scanning the text with the eyes, also helps to create in students the idea that often one or two words of their native language correspond to more or less of them in a foreign language.

Through exercises in reading texts that are close in topic, but contain new information, students are led to reading the subsequent text without using a dictionary; the more advanced students are in a foreign language, the greater the dose of material introduced for training can be and the faster, despite this, they can move from training to practice. The basic training requirements are briefly summarized as follows:

1. For training to be successful, it must be aimed at mastering precisely defined operations with a specific material.
2. The success of training is also determined by the volume and difficulty of the material on which it is carried out.
3. Only by knowing each time what results have been achieved can we properly regulate the training.

4.Students, when starting training, must know the methods of actions to be performed, know how these actions can be carried out in the best way [I.D. Salistra: 39].

Second level communication exercises.

At this stage of Kn, the formation of secondary skills occurs. In psychology, as is known, two types of skills are distinguished: primary skills, that is, skills associated with the conscious performance of any action while concentrating voluntary attention on this action, and secondary, complex skills, in which certain actions are performed automatically [V.A. . Artemov: 3]. Speech activity in any of its forms is precisely a secondary skill and, therefore, reading as one of the types of speech activity is not a skill, but a skill that only relies on skills, but is not reduced to these skills. Reading skills are actions that become automatic through repeated repetition. When reading, a person perceives and understands mainly new speech material.

Thus, the ability to read is the student’s activity of choosing, in accordance with a specific communication situation, the necessary language material from all that he has learned. Consequently, at this stage (KN) a new creative combination of reading skills should occur in the process of reading a new text, the transfer of acquired knowledge, skills and abilities to new objects, which is the main and most important result of learning.

So, let’s briefly summarize everything said above regarding our proposed system of exercises for teaching reading in grades 6-7 of secondary school:

The K\~Kn~Kg exercise system represents three levels of information processing:

) K\ is the level of perception of new material, when all attention is concentrated on the semantic side;

2)Kn is the level of formation of ideas, attention is concentrated on the reproduction of the material by students;

3)Kg conceptual level, the material is processed so that it can be used in another situation (context).

The stages of the process of learning to read discussed above are largely conditional, showing the path from the primary ability to use language material to speech ability. In the practice of teaching reading, all these phases can appear simultaneously in the same lesson, since the formation of speech skills is constantly intertwined with the acquisition of new language material.

Characteristic feature This system of exercises is that these exercises are not of an aspect nature, but take all reading training in a complex. The system includes all stages of mastering the material: introduction, training and practice.

In addition to exercises, it also uses such methodological techniques, as an explanation and demonstration [A.A. Mirolyubov et al.:34]. Through this system, the main goal is realized, which is to correctly read and understand the text.

CHAPTER III Results of experimental work on testing the results of teaching reading at the middle stage in school

In this chapter we will review and reveal the effectiveness of the exercise system we have developed during the experiment. The experiment was carried out during teaching practice at secondary school No. 17 in Makhachkala in grades 5-6.

10 students took part in the experiment. We conducted a pre-experimental test, the essence of which was to find out how high the level of understanding of the content of the read plot text was among students. The results of the pre-experimental section left much to be desired: six students understood the content of the literary text, i.e. 60%.

Mastery of reading technology is carried out as a result of completing pre-text, text and post-text tasks.

Pre-text tasks are aimed at modeling background knowledge necessary and sufficient for the reception of a specific text, at eliminating semantic and linguistic difficulties in its understanding and at the same time at developing reading skills and abilities, developing a “comprehension strategy”. They take into account the lexico-grammatical, structural-semantic, linguistic and cultural features of the text to be read.

In text tasks, students are offered communicative guidelines that contain instructions on reading speed, type and the need to solve certain cognitive and communicative tasks in the reading process.

Post-text tasks are designed to test reading comprehension and to monitor the degree of development of reading skills.

Taking into account all of the above, we have developed a number of exercises for teaching reading fable texts in grades 5-6 of secondary school.

PRE-TEXT STAGE

Exercises to understand the lexical-thematic basis

1. Read the supporting words and phrases of the text and name its topic.
2. Read the text and the lexical units that make up its thematic basis. Determine whether they are highlighted correctly.

3.Read the text and complete the proposed thematic basis of the text with the necessary words.

4.Read the text and write it down keywords and phrases that form the thematic basis of the text.

5.Read the text and find repeated words in it that form the thematic basis of the text.

1. Familiarize yourself with new words and phrases (words and phrases are given with translation). Without reading the text, say what it might be about.
2. Based on the scheme consisting of keywords, guess the content of the text and try to title it. While reading the text, underline the words presented in the diagram.
3. Underline the words and phrases in the text that can be identified as key.
4. Read the sentence and shorten it so that you can use the rest as the subject line.
5. Make a chain of the main facts of the text in which the key words are related in meaning.

11.Based on the text, prepare a message in the form of a telegram.

12. Name and write down key words from the text that can be used as support when discussing the problem covered in the text.

Exercises to determine the connecting means of a text

1. Read a couple of sentences. Name the pronouns in the second that replace the subject of the first sentence.
2. Read a couple of sentences. Name the pronoun and the word it replaces in the second sentence.

3.Read the text with the key sentences highlighted. Justify your choice of key sentences, determine the structure of the paragraph.

4.Read a passage of text and write down the connecting elements of the text.

5.Read a passage of text with missing conjunctions and allied words. Fill in the gaps using the appropriate conjunctions and allied words below.

6.Name the sentence that serves to connect the semantic parts of the text.

7.Enter additional words into the text that indicate a semantic transition from one thought to another.

8.Find and correct errors in the connection of these sentences.

9.Make a short outline of the text. Find introductory phrases and connecting sentences in the text.

10.Look again at the first four paragraphs. Watch how the main theme develops in them.

Exercises to understand sentences containing unfamiliar words that do not affect the understanding of the general meaning

1. Read the paragraph and try to understand it, ignoring unfamiliar words.
2. Cross out from these sentences (paragraphs) words that carry little semantic meaning.
3. Shorten the sentences (paragraphs) of the text, leaving only the phrases that carry the main semantic load.
4. Read the paragraph (text) and try to understand it without a dictionary.

5.Read a paragraph of text and, ignoring unfamiliar words, find a sentence in it that contains basic information.

Exercises to highlight and understand the structural and semantic components of a text

1. Determine which of the given pairs of sentences explains the cause of the event. Indicate the words used for this in the text.
2. Indicate a sentence from the ones below in which you can replace the constructions underlined in the text.

3. Divide the text into an introductory part (beginning), an informational (main) part and a final (ending).

4. Divide the text into meaningful parts and title each part.

5. Read the text, pay attention to the drawing (illustration) and its title.

6. Select the title from those listed below that best reflects the main idea of ​​the text.

7. Read the text and try to determine its topic. Use the title, head lines, photographs, and terms - international words - as reference points.

8Try to determine the topic of the text from the illustration (drawing).

9. Select from the data below sentences (paragraphs) that supplement the content with brief information.

10. In each paragraph of the text, identify the key sentence. Find the paragraph that contains the main idea of ​​the entire text.

Exercises for predicting text content

Tell me what, judging by the title, endings, and pictures, this text may be about. Read the text, find confirmation or refutation of your assumption

1. Look carefully at the drawing. Using this guideline, try to guess what the text will be about.
2. Read the text to the indicated point. Say how you think the events ended. Read the text to the end to find out whether you are right or wrong.
3. Read the final paragraphs of the text and, based on their content, say what we're talking about in the text. Read the entire text and test yourself. Read the paragraphs of text marked by the teacher. Say what events (phenomena) are described in the text. Read the entire text and say whether your guess was correct.
4. Read the text up to the indicated point (paragraph). Make a guess about what aspects of the problem are considered in the second part of the text.
5. Express a preliminary narrowing about the topic of the text under the title.
6. After reading the title of the text, read the first paragraph. Based on the information received, guess what the text will be about.

9.Tell me what words can be used to establish that this is happening

TEXT STAGE

Exercises to highlight semantic milestones in the text and understand individual facts

1.Read the first paragraph of the text and find in it a sentence containing basic (main) information.

1. Read the title and the first (last) paragraph of the text and say what the text is about.
2. Read the paragraph (text) and name the words that, in your opinion, carry the greatest semantic load.
3. Read the title of the text that introduces the question. Tell me what, in your opinion, made the author put the question in the title of the text.
4. Read... and... paragraphs. Pay attention to the first sentences of each paragraph, as they express the main idea of ​​the paragraph.
5. Read... paragraph. Tell me where (when) the events described take place. Add guiding words.
6. Read more carefully... and... paragraphs. Choose a title for them. (Titling options are provided).
7. Select from these sentences those that best reflect...
8. Read the text in order to answer questions about the main content of the text.

10.Tell which of the following statements correspond to the content of the text.

1. Indicate the number of the paragraph in which the following thought is expressed (The thought is formulated in Russian).
2. Indicate the sentence that most closely correlates in meaning with the title.

Exercises to establish semantic connections between individual facts of the text

1.Arrange the following sentences of the text in a logical sequence and number them in order.

2.Read the following paragraphs and identify those in which the second part contradicts the first.

3.Regroup the proposed points of the plan in a sequence corresponding to the content of the text read.

4.Read the text and say how many parts it can be divided into, and what each individual part is dedicated to.

1. Prepare a plan for retelling the text.
2. Divide the text into meaningful parts and title them.

7.Read the text. Choose from the suggested titles the one that best matches the content

8.Read part of the text (on the card). Find a card with continued text.

9. Read the given parts of the story randomly (sentences, paragraphs). Discuss the order in which they follow, connect the parts to make a coherent story.

10.Find arguments in the text that support...

Say which of the following sentences can serve as titles for parts of the text. Tell me their sequence.

12. Make up questions for the text, the answers to which could serve as a plan for retelling the text.

1. Compose paragraphs into coherent text.

14.Arrange the following sentences in a logical sequence that reflect the main facts of the text.

Exercises to combine individual facts of the text into a semantic whole

1.List the facts contained in the text that can serve as evidence for each of the following statements.

2.Read aloud a sentence from the text that explains the name of its topic.

3.Formulate the idea of ​​the text.

4.Briefly include details that can be omitted without affecting the content.

1. Explain the main idea of ​​the text in your own words.

6. Convey the main content of the text in 2-3 sentences.

POST-TEXT STAGE

Exercises to control understanding of the main content of the text read

1. Read the text. Express your agreement or disagreement with the statements below from the text.
2. Answer the questions about the text.

3.Choose the correct answer to the question about the text from several data points.

4.Make a plan for the text you read.

5.Arrange the semantic parts of the text in a logical sequence.

1. Retell the text.
2. Make up questions for the text.

Exercises to develop the ability to express value judgments about what you read

1.Express your attitude to what you read. Tell me whether you agree with the author’s assessment of events and facts.

2.Tell me what was especially interesting for you to learn from the text and why.

1. Read aloud the sentences that explain the title of the text.
2. Tell me which of the following facts you learned for the first time from reading the text.
3. Say which of the provisions stated in the text you do not agree with and why.
4. Indicate facts and information from the text that you already knew.

After conducting the experiment, during which the above-developed exercises were used, we conducted a post-experimental section, which gave positive results. During the post-experimental section, as well as during the pre-experimental section, students were given an edited excerpt from a fairy tale with accessible content. Students read the text silently and became familiar with the content of the text. We found out how much the children understood the text through post-text assignments, tests, and conversations. The effectiveness of the post-experimental cut was 90%.

CONCLUSION

Summing up the results of our thesis, we note some, in our opinion, significant points that mark this work:

1. Among the means of linguistic communication (speaking, listening, writing), reading occupies a special place.
2. Reading is the most important type of receptive speech activity.
3. For the development of reading motivation, the quality and content of texts plays an exceptional role.
4. The problem of creating a scientifically based and effective system of exercises for teaching a foreign language is one of the most relevant in practical terms and the most complex in theoretical terms.
5. The problem of teaching reading has not been fully studied.

In the course of this work, we significantly expanded our thesaurus in the field of methods of teaching reading. The work attempts to show that an effective system of exercises increases the efficiency of the entire process of teaching a foreign language. It is also interesting that the content of texts for the middle stage of education is of no small importance.

The question of the volume of provided plot texts remains open, since various methodologists, on this issue, adhere to different opinions.

As a result of the work done, we came to the conclusion that reading is one of the most essential aspects of language activity and plays an important role in the development of thinking.

Mastering reading allows the student to extract the necessary information, and also gives him the means to master other types of speech activity.

LITERATURE

1. Arakin D.V. Methods of teaching English in high school. Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR. M, 1958, p. 138.
2. Artemov V.A. Lectures on psychology. Kharkov, 1938.
3. Artemov V.A. Lecture course on psychology. M. 1958.
4. Artemov V.A. Psychology of teaching foreign languages. M, 19 69.
5. Baryshnikov N.V. About some psychological features of the reading process using a bilingual dictionary. On Sat. Teaching reading at a language university. L, 1980.

6.Belyaev B.V. Methodology and psychology. Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1963, No. 6.

Belyaev B.V. Essays on the psychology of teaching foreign languages. 2nd edition, M, 1965.

8.Benediktov B.A. Psychology of foreign language acquisition. Minsk: Higher School, 1974.

1. Bogoyavlensky D.N., Menchinskaya N.A. Psychology of knowledge acquisition at school. M, 1959.
2. Bulankina L.L. Toward a methodology for studying high school students’ positive attitudes toward learning. Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1976, No. 4.

11.Burlakov M.A. What should be the exercise system? Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1987, No. 4.

12.Bukhbinder V.A. About the exercise system. // General methods of teaching foreign languages. M, 1991.

13.Vedel G.E. Psychology and fundamentals of methods of teaching foreign languages. / Voronezh, state. University - Voronezh, 1974.

14.Ganshina K.A. methods of teaching foreign languages. M, 1930.

1. Gez N.I., Lyakhovitsky M.V., Mirolyubov A.A., et al. Methods of teaching foreign languages ​​in secondary school. M, 1982.
2. Gez N.I. System of exercises and sequence of development of speech skills. Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1969, No. 6.

17.Gez N.I. Typology of exercises and organization of teaching listening at school with the teaching of a number of subjects in a foreign language, Institute of Foreign Languages, 1985, No. 6.

1. I.A. Georgian. Methods of teaching English. M, 1947.
2. Duncan M.H. Reading in a foreign language // Methods of teaching foreign languages ​​abroad / Comp. MM. Vasilkova, E.V. Sinyavskaya. - M, 1967.
3. Zhinkin. N.I. Mechanisms of speech. M, 1958.

21.Zvyagintsev V.A. Language and linguistic theory. M, 1973.

22.Karpov I.V. Psychological analysis of the process of students' understanding and translation of foreign texts. Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1949, No. 6.

23.Karpov I.V. On the relationship between psychology and methods of teaching foreign languages. Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1950, No. 6.

1. Klychnikova Z.I. Psychological features of learning to read in a foreign language. M, 1983.
2. Kolker Y.M., Ustinova E.S., Enalieva T.M. Practical methods of teaching a foreign language. Publishing center "Academy", M, 2001.

26.Komkov I.F. Active method of teaching foreign languages ​​at school. Part 3, Minsk, 1965.

27.M. Cohen. Modern linguistics and idealism. //Issues of linguistics. 195 8. - No. 2.

.Kudashova M.A. The role of text in the development of interest in reading in a foreign language.// Issues of methodology for using text in teaching foreign languages. M, 1975.

29.Lapidus B.A. Typology of exercises. Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1979, No. 4.

30. Leontyev A.A. Psychological units and the generation of speech utterances. M: Nauka, 1969.

31.Leontyev A. A. Age and individual characteristics schoolchildren in the process of learning a foreign language. Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1976, No. 1.

32.Manuelyan Sh.I. On the issue of anticipation of the subject of the message and the content of texts of various types in high school. On Sat. “Some issues of methods of teaching foreign languages ​​at school and university.” M, 1972.

34.Mirolyubov A.A., Rakhmanov I.V., Tsetlin B.S. General methods of teaching foreign languages. M, 1967.

35.Mirolyubov A: A. History of domestic methods of teaching foreign languages. Publishing house "Steps", M, 2002.

36.Nikitin M.V. Fundamentals of linguistic theory of meaning. M, 1988.

1. Rogova G.V., Rabinovich F.M., Sakharova T.E. Methods of teaching foreign languages ​​in secondary school. Publishing house "Enlightenment", M, 1966.
2. S.L. Rubinstein. Fundamentals of general psychology. M, 1946.
3. Salistra I.D. Essays on methods of teaching foreign languages. M, 1966 Skalkin V.L. Systematicity and typology of exercises for teaching speaking. Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1979, No. 6.
4. Strakhova M.P. Reading as a means of mastering language material. M, 1978.
5. Stronin M.F. Apparatus or exercise system. Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1985, No. 1.
6. Ushinsky K.D. Soch., T. 7.
7. Fadeev E.M. Home reading in high school, its organization and control techniques. Institute of Nuclear Sciences, 1979, No. 6.
8. Folomkina S.K. Teaching reading in a foreign language at a non-linguistic university. M, 1987.
9. Shardakov M.N. Essays on the psychology of schoolchildren. M, 1955.
10. Shatilov S.F. A system of exercises for teaching a foreign language in high school and university. L, 1978.
11. Shatilov S.F. Methods of teaching German in secondary school. M, 1986.
12. Shore. P.O. A brief outline of the history of linguistic teachings - In the book. V. Thomsen history of linguistics until the end of the 19th century. M, 1938, p. 122.
13. Ebbinghaus G. Fundamentals of Psychology. St. Petersburg, 1912;

51.Komkov I.F. Methods of teaching foreign languages. Minsk, 1976.

1. Starkov A.P. Teaching English in high school. M, 1978.
2. Lyakhovitsky M.V. Methods of teaching foreign languages. M, 1981.Submit your application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.

Russia's educational policy, reflecting national interests in the field of education and presenting them to the world community, at the same time takes into account general trends in global development, which necessitate significant changes in the education system.

School - in the broad sense of the word - should become the most important factor in the humanization of socio-economic relations, the formation of new life attitudes of the individual. A developing society needs modernly educated, moral, enterprising people who can independently make responsible decisions in a situation of choice, predicting them possible consequences capable of cooperation, characterized by mobility, dynamism, constructiveness, and having a developed sense of responsibility for the fate of the country.

In conditions of priority support for education from the state, the education system must provide efficient use their resources - human, informational, material, financial.

The objective need of modern society, including education, is to find optimal ways to organize the educational process, rational options for the content of education and its structure. It seems important that the school checks different strategies training. The more alternative methodological solutions there are, the more fruitful the search for new ways of teaching the subject as a whole will be. At the same time, the central problems of teaching a foreign language at school are the issues of determining goals, as well as the content of teaching adequate to them, in the development of which ideas about teaching not just a language, but a foreign language culture in the broad sense of the word seem to be the most effective. In accordance with the concept of modernization of Russian education, questions communicative learning English acquires special importance, since communicative competence acts as an integrative one, focused on achieving practical results in mastering the English language, as well as on the education, upbringing and development of the student’s personality.

The changes taking place today in social relations, means of communication (the use of new information technologies) require increasing the communicative competence of schoolchildren, improving their philological preparation, therefore the study of FL has acquired priority importance as a means of communication and generalization of the spiritual heritage of the countries of the language being studied.

Features of my work on teaching reading techniques to primary and secondary school students.

What will reading as a type of speech activity become for students? A means of developing the entire complex of language and related speech skills and abilities, the basis of autonomy and independence, or an additional difficulty in listening, an insoluble problem in text analysis and a source of phonetic, spelling and grammatical errors? The answer to this question lies in choosing the right approach when teaching reading at the initial stage.

When developing reading technique skills at the initial stage, reading is considered as a means of learning. Having formed the necessary level of reading technique and laid the foundations of spelling skills at the first stage of training, in the future you can effectively use reading as a means of developing the entire complex of language (lexical, grammatical, phonetic) and related speech (auditory, written and oral monologue and dialogic) skills and abilities . Not all modern educational complexes have exercises for developing reading skills. There are few exercises to improve reading speed. I use more than 80 sets of words aimed at improving reading technique. The educational material is presented in accordance with the principle of gradualism and feasibility: students are offered only those words that they can read using the reading rules they already know. As in teaching reading in Russian, I achieve automaticity by using children’s good visual memory.

At the first stage, children learn the rules of reading vowels, consonants and letter combinations.

At the second stage of training, as children become familiar with the rules of reading, they receive a set of words for each rule. My experience has shown that three to four repetitions of one set of words per week is enough so that children do not make mistakes in pronunciation, easily recognize words in the text and do not read them by letter, but reproduce them by memory. Using these exercises in class gave good results. I conducted research and it showed a significant increase in reading technique.

Class 5-A was chosen for the experiment. In one half of the class (group 1), a form of teaching is used in which students receive and consolidate knowledge in the form described. In the second half of the class (group 2), learning and consolidation of acquired knowledge is carried out in the traditional way.

The duration of the experiment is one academic year from September 1, 2009 to May 2010.

To study the state of knowledge and skills of students, the following studies were carried out:

observation of students’ speech at the beginning of the experiment;

analysis of the level of problem solving at the beginning of the experiment;

Reading

Analysis of the level of problem solving at the end of the experiment.

Reading

I use Slava printed on sheets of paper according to one reading rule. Each rule has between five and thirty words. The number of words depends on the frequency of repetition of letter combinations in English.

In the future I want to use a projector. For any student, and even more so for an elementary school student, this is interesting, unusual and exciting. This is one way to develop and maintain motivation.

The use of modern equipment increases children's interest in the subject, children learn with great pleasure, and their results improve. Working with modern educational equipment makes lessons dynamic.

I suggest teachers use my method of teaching reading techniques in English lessons. Children learn lexical material more easily.

The joy of success associated with overcoming difficulties is an important incentive to maintain and strengthen cognitive interest.

Note not

Handout.

An example of practicing reading vowels.

Reading the letter A

Short sound [e].

Long sound [hey]

ace date gave name

age face hate page

bake game lake safe

came gate made take

Short sound [a] Short sound [o]

ask fast past wand was what

bath last want wash

Reading the letter O

Short sound [o]

bob doll job pot

Long sound Short sound [a]

bone hose poke none

code joke pose oven

home nose rope sone

hope note rose won

Reading the letter U

Short sound [a]

bud duck mum rub

Long sound Short sound [u]

cute huge bull put

An example of practicing reading consonants and their combinations.

Combination ch Combination sh Combination ck

chap cheek shade sheep back rack

chain child shake shine black rock

chat chin shall shock click sack

check chop she shot clock sick

Combination ght Combination ng Combination tch

eight night along long catch patch

fright right bang ring itch witch

One of the most difficult tasks in teaching English to schoolchildren is learning to read.

At the initial stage of learning a foreign language, it is very important to learn to read correctly in order to extract the maximum information from what you read. But, having seen a graphic representation of English words in the textbook, having read them behind the teacher, when reading independently, students, nevertheless, try to spell the words, as in the Russian language. Many students, even in high school, make many mistakes when reading, unconsciously transferring the way they read from their native language to a foreign one. In addition, in most existing teaching and learning centers, the educational material for teaching reading is selected in such a way that it requires a lot of help from the teacher; it is presented in a traditional form and does not meet the interests of schoolchildren.

In order to facilitate students’ tasks and increase their interest in reading, it is necessary to make the exercises communicative by creating interesting game situations and formulating cognitive speech tasks.

The communicative method requires that the teaching tools be adequate to the goal, which in our case is reading technique skills. Therefore, it is quite logical to assume that the exercises for their formation should be adequate in quality to the skills of reading techniques, taking into account the conditions of their functioning in reading as a type of speech activity. The effectiveness of these exercises is also determined by their number and sequence, which can be established taking into account the level of training and psychological and pedagogical characteristics of students at the junior level of teaching foreign languages.

Reading as a type of speech activity is a perceptual-mental activity and is correlated with a skill that is based on the following skills:

• skills of correlating the visual image of a speech unit with its auditory-speech-motor image;
• skills of correlating auditory-speech motor images of speech units with their meaning, including: skills of correlating sound images of words and phrases with their meanings; skills of correlating grammatical structures with their meanings;

The effect of reading technique skills is determined by the purpose of reading, i.e. extracting information from what is read, which manifests itself in a certain reading situation and speech task. Reading technique skills are determined by the functioning of such mechanisms as: visual perception of material, correlation of the resulting auditory-motor complex with a certain meaning, semantic processing of the information received. The unit of perception is usually considered to be the word, because it is the minimum linguistic unit that has a certain meaning. The syntagma is taken as a unit of semantic processing, since it ensures the joint occurrence of the processes of perception and comprehension.

Reading skills are characterized by certain qualities:

• automation
• stability (the ability of a skill to maintain its properties under the influence of other skills when it is included in speech activity)
• flexibility (the ability to engage in a variety of situations)

The condition for the functioning of the skill is the reader’s knowledge of the purpose or result of reading, which determine the speed of reading, field of coverage, accuracy and completeness of understanding. Therefore, it is precisely these conditions that should be modeled in exercises for teaching reading techniques.

Data from the analysis of the exercises proposed in the methodological literature showed that they are purely educational in nature, without the goal of extracting information from what they read.

All exercises are divided into 3 groups:

• exercises for teaching accuracy or error-free reading (aimed at teaching students to correctly recognize speech units in different reading situations, as well as overcoming interference from the students’ native language).
• exercises for teaching reading speed (designed to teach students to read at normal speed and lead them to speed reading, in which there is no internal pronunciation of what is being read).
• exercises to expand the reading field (aimed at developing the mechanism of anticipation and logical understanding).

Using the idea of ​​the adequacy of exercises to reading technique skills, we can conclude that for teaching to be effective, a set of exercises containing a communicative task and a reading situation is necessary, which will allow students to develop reading technique skills capable of operating in this type of speech activity.

By a set of exercises we mean a set of exercises of a certain quality, the quantitative correlation and sequence of which ensures the acquisition of skills of all characteristics necessary for its functioning in speaking. The purpose of a set of exercises for developing reading technique skills is to ensure the optimal way of firmly assimilating a certain dose of speech material to the level of skill. The qualitative side of the exercises that should be included in the complex for the development of reading technique skills is determined by us taking into account the criterion of their adequacy to the reading technique skills (this means exercises designed to teach reading accuracy or error-free reading, reading speed and expanding the reading field).

Such exercises are those exercises that contain a reading situation and a communicative task. As for the sequence of exercises, it is advisable to arrange them according to the degree of increase in difficulties, namely, first include exercises for teaching error-free reading, then to expand the reading field and, finally, increase its speed. When developing a set of exercises for teaching reading techniques, one should proceed from the need to create conditions for the development of reading skills. Such conditions include the uniformity of examples for the reading rule, the regularity of their occurrence in a diverse environment, and the focus of tasks on extracting information. Moreover, the arrangement of these exercises is stepwise, which allows them to be used in a number of lessons. The form of these exercises and their number are established taking into account the psychological and pedagogical characteristics of younger schoolchildren. For most schoolchildren of this age, the predominant type of attention is still involuntary attention, which is characterized by such distinctive features as instability and easy distractibility. It has been established that the attention of schoolchildren is stable when the students are fully engaged in work that requires maximum mental activity from them, activating thinking. At this age, a person has not yet fully developed the ability to independently think creatively, make generalizations and conclusions. As for comparison, younger schoolchildren find differences more easily than similarities. Processes associated with memorization still depend on the presence or absence of visualization. Thus, students firmly retain in their memory specific material that is presented to them repeatedly (which is explained by rapid forgetfulness) and based on clarity. It is also important that schoolchildren of this age still respond with great interest to this type of activity as a game, so it is logical to assume that exercises for teaching reading should contain game elements. However, at the same time, these exercises should allow students to show their independence, thereby giving them the opportunity to feel like adults. Based on the above description of the structure of a set of exercises for developing reading technique skills, we can conclude that when compiling it, it is necessary to strictly take into account the quality of the exercises included in the complex, their sequence, quantity, form and method of conducting them, which will allow the necessary skills to be formed more quickly and efficiently.

An example of such a complex, consisting of 9 exercises, is presented in the form of an Appendix.

Practice shows that most students, while working with such complexes, quickly remember the rules of reading (for example: reading vowels in open and closed syllables) and then read short texts at a normal pace with virtually no errors. It is also important that students read the exercises with pronounced interest. The presence there of symbols and pictures illustrating tasks for exercises allows you to relieve the fatigue of schoolchildren and attract their attention for a long time, as well as speed up the process of perception and memorization of linguistic information, facilitate the reading process and overcome the barrier of fear. Finally, joy from the results of mental activity and positive marks for reading technique forms positive attitude for further study of the English language, maintains interest in the subject. And the presence of interest in the learning process indicates its proper organization.

Formation of reading technique at the initial stage

in English lessons

It is no secret that reading is one of the main means of obtaining information. Its role is especially great these days, since it is precisely this that provides a person with the opportunity to satisfy his personal needs.

When teaching a foreign language, reading is considered as an independent type of speech activity. At the same time, it performs various functions: the goals of practical mastery of a foreign language, a means of studying language and culture in the conditions of in-depth study of a foreign language, a means of information, educational and professionally oriented activities of the student, as well as a means of self-education and recreational activities. In addition, practice in reading allows you to maintain and improve not only reading skills that ensure understanding and interpretation of what you read, but also skills related to the processing of semantic information and cognitive abilities.

Reading in a foreign language acts as the leading means of independent educational activity in a given subject area. When learning to read at the initial stage, it is important to teach the student to read correctly, i.e. voice graphemes and understand the information contained in the text. These skills depend on the speed at which the student reads, i.e. from reading technique.

By reading technique we mean not only the quick and accurate correlation of sounds and letters, but also the correlation of the sound-letter connection with the semantic meaning of what the child is reading. It is a high level of mastery of reading techniques that allows one to achieve the result of the reading process itself - quick and high-quality extraction of information. However, this is impossible if the student does not have sufficient command of language means, cannot reproduce sounds or reproduces them incorrectly.

So, the formation of reading techniques at the initial stage is both the goal and the means of teaching reading, since it allows you to control the formation of reading mechanisms through an external form and makes it possible to strengthen the pronunciation base that underlies all types of speech activity.

Chapter 1. Psychological, linguistic and communicative characteristics of reading

1.1. Reading as a type of speech activity

Reading in a foreign language as a type of speech activity and as an indirect form of communication is, according to many researchers, the most accessible and necessary for most people. Few people have the opportunity to communicate directly with native speakers, but almost everyone has the opportunity to read a foreign language.

The reading process is of great importance in the communicative and social activities of people, ensuring the transfer of experience accumulated by humanity in various areas of life and activity. Reading polishes the intellect and sharpens the senses.

What is reading? What is the essence of this process? What is it based on?

Reading is a complex analytical-synthetic activity consisting of the perception and understanding of a text, and the most perfect reading is characterized by the fusion of these two processes and concentration of attention on the semantic side of the content. This is the process of perception and active processing of information graphically encoded according to the system of a particular language. A special role in the reading process belongs to the reading result, i.e. extracted information.

As for the speech mechanisms of reading, speech hearing, prediction and memory will play a huge role here. The reader must have sound-letter associations, be able to isolate sounds from the speech stream and differentiate them. In this case, the leading role is given to phonemic hearing, which contributes to the successful perception and differentiation of the sound composition of words.

An important psychological component of the reading process is the mechanism of probabilistic forecasting, which manifests itself at the semantic and verbal levels. Semantic forecasting is the ability to predict the content of a text and make a correct guess about the further development of events based on the title, first sentence and other text signals. Verbal prediction is the ability to guess a word by the initial letters, the syntactic structure of a sentence by the first words, and the further construction of a paragraph by the first sentence.

The development of predictive skills is facilitated by the development of hypotheses and the reader’s system of expectations, which activate his speech experience. The process of preparing the consciousness for the perception of information encourages the reader to remember, guess, assume, i.e. include the abilities of one's long-term memory and personal and social experience.

1.2. Types and forms of reading

Great amount information in modern reading texts encourages the development of a flexible approach to reading, i.e. to the development of the ability to extract information with varying degrees of depth and completeness depending on the communicative task.

According to the degree of penetration into the content of the text and depending on the communicative needs in the domestic methodology, reading is distinguished:

search;

introductory;

Search-and-browsing reading is reading with the aim of obtaining the most general idea of ​​the content of the text and its topic; the reader searches the text only for information that interests him. The text can be read in whole or in part if the reader knows where the information he is interested in is located. This type of reading is used in professional and everyday spheres of life, for example, when reading books (reading the table of contents, introduction, conclusion), newspapers (viewing headlines and subheadings), etc. In school settings, it is used as a preliminary stage of introductory and exploratory reading, as well as for the purpose of extracting the necessary information from short texts.

During introductory reading, the goal is to extract basic information from the text, understand the main idea, and some basic facts. The degree of completeness of understanding is within 70-75%. Focusing on perceiving only basic information allows you to read quickly, without paying attention to the details of the message and unfamiliar words.

Introductory and exploratory reading are types quick reading.

Exploratory reading aims to achieve a detailed/complete (100%) and accurate level of understanding of the major and minor facts contained in the text. This reading proceeds slowly, since the reader, with the intention of long-term memorization, resorts to repeated reading, translation, and delves deeper into the essence of the text.

In foreign English-language methods, there are also several types of reading:

skimming (determining the main theme/ideas of the text);

scanning (search for specific information in text);

reading for detail (detailed understanding of the text not only at the level of content, but also meaning).

Thus, we can safely say that in domestic and foreign methods there are no serious disagreements in the understanding of what types of reading need to be mastered in the process of learning a foreign language.

In addition to types, reading has two forms:

About myself;

Reading to oneself (internal reading) - the main form of reading - is aimed at extracting information, it is “monologue”, performed alone with oneself.

Reading aloud (external reading) is a secondary form, it is “dialogical”, its purpose is mainly to convey information to another person.

All particular skills, types and forms of reading are polished as a person grows up and his general culture develops. Mastery of different types and forms of reading is an important component of a person’s reading culture.

1.3. Goals and content of teaching reading techniques

According to E.N. Solovova, reading acts as an independent type of speech activity in the case when we read in order to obtain the necessary information from the text. Therefore, the practical component of the goal of teaching reading in a foreign language involves developing students’ ability to read texts with different levels of understanding of the information contained in them:

with an understanding of the main content (introductory reading);

with a full understanding of the content (study reading);

with the extraction of necessary, significant information (browsing/search reading).

In accordance with the program of the main general education in foreign languages, at the end of the initial stage of training, students must:

1) understand the main content of linguistically simple texts that have a clear structure and logic of presentation, appropriate to the age and interests of students (poems, song lyrics, fairy tales, comics, short stories, humorous stories, a personal letter to a children's magazine), while guessing the meaning unfamiliar words relying on pictorial and visual clarity, linguistic guesswork and responding to the content both verbally and non-verbally (level of general understanding);

2) fully understand the content of small texts (description of an animal, a simple culinary recipe, poetry, fairy tales, short stories, comics), built primarily on language material familiar to students

(level of full detailed understanding);

3) find the necessary / interesting information about the text, read it out loud, underline it, write it down (search reading at the elementary level).

linguistic component (linguistic and speech material: a system of graphic signs, words, phrases, texts of different genres);

psychological component (formed reading skills and abilities based on mastery of reading actions and operations);

methodological component (reading strategies).

The main basic skills underlying reading are the skills:

predict the content of information based on structure and meaning;

determine the topic, the main idea;

divide the text into semantic parts;

separate the main from the secondary;

interpret the text.

The specification of basic skills depends on the purpose of reading.

Any speech skill is based on certain skills, i.e. those actions that a person performs automatically, without thinking about how and what he does. If we talk about reading, then speech skills in this case include mastery of various technologies for extracting information from text, their adequate use depending on the task at hand. However, the basis of all these skills is reading technique. If it is not formed sufficiently, then all these technologies will have no power.

Reading skills are determined by the functioning of such mechanisms as:

visual perception of the material;

correlating the resulting auditory-motor complex with a certain value;

semantic processing of received information.

R.K. Minyar-Beloruchev identifies 3 main components of reading technique:

visual image of a speech unit;

speech motor image of a speech unit;

meaning.

A speech unit can be a word, a syntagma, or a paragraph.

Reading skills are characterized by certain qualities:

automation;

stability (the ability of a skill to retain its properties under the influence of other skills when it is included in speech activity);

flexibility (the ability to be involved in a wide variety of situations).

The condition for the functioning of skills is the reader’s knowledge of the purpose or result of reading, which determine the speed of reading, field of coverage, accuracy and completeness of understanding.

Parameters for assessing reading technique:

1) reading pace (a certain number of words per minute);

2) compliance with stress norms (semantic, logical, do not stress function words, etc.);

3) compliance with pause standards;

4) use correct standards intonation;

5) reading comprehension.

The teacher’s tasks when developing reading techniques are to:

bypass the intermediate stage of pronunciation as soon as possible and establish a direct correspondence between the graphic image of a speech unit and its meaning;

consistently increase the unit of perceived text and bring it to at least a syntagm by the end of the first year of study;

form standard reading in compliance with acceptable tempo, stress, pausing and intonation norms.

CHAPTER 2. FEATURES OF TEACHING READING IN ENGLISH AT THE INITIAL STAGE

2.1. Teaching reading at the initial stage

In the practice of teaching a foreign language at school, reading is often given priority attention. This is because reading skills can be used in Everyday life, they are formed faster and easier than speaking, writing and listening skills. Well-known methods of teaching reading lead to fairly successful results.

The results of research in the field of early foreign language teaching conducted in our country confirm the enormous benefits of reading. It is useful for all children and has a positive effect on the development of the child’s mental functions, such as memory, attention, thinking, perception, imagination. Early learning to read affects the general speech abilities of a primary school student, contributes to his familiarization with a new linguistic world, and forms his readiness to communicate in a foreign language.

At primary school age, students still do not have a psychological barrier when learning a foreign language. Therefore, they master the necessary language and speech skills much faster: they learn to correctly pronounce and distinguish individual sounds, words, phrases and sentences by ear, and observe the intonation of various types of sentences. Younger schoolchildren get an idea of ​​the basic grammatical categories of the language being studied, recognize the studied vocabulary and grammar during listening and reading and use them in oral speech, master the technique of reading aloud, read educational authentic texts to themselves. According to many methodologists, it is at this age that children are particularly sensitive to linguistic phenomena; they develop an interest in understanding their speech experience, the “secrets” of language. They easily and firmly remember small material and reproduce it easily. With age, these favorable factors lose their strength.

The success of learning and the attitude of students to the subject largely depends on how interesting and emotional the teacher conducts the lessons. In the process of learning to read in a foreign language at the initial stage, the teacher should use as many game techniques and visualization as possible due to the psychological characteristics of primary school-age students (the leading type of activity is play, visual-effective thinking and involuntary attention predominate). Play is one of the incentives for language acquisition. Playing in the classroom helps to accomplish important methodological tasks: creating students’ psychological readiness for verbal communication, training in choosing the right speech option, which is preparation for situational spontaneous speech in general. The more game techniques and visual aids the teacher uses, the more interesting the lesson is and the more firmly the material is learned.

Ideally, reading in a foreign language should be independent and accompanied by interest on the part of children. However, practice shows that interest in this type of speech activity among schoolchildren is very low. Currently, reading is not a means for schoolchildren to obtain information, improve their cultural level, or simply a source of pleasure, but is considered by them as a purely educational task.

In order for reading in a foreign language to contribute to the development of students’ cognitive interest, the teacher must take into account their cognitive needs, age and individual psychological characteristics, and also have an idea of ​​the difficulties that arise when learning to read in a foreign language.

2.2. The main stages of developing reading technique

in English

The formation of reading skills and abilities is one of the most important components of the process of learning a foreign language at all its stages. The foundation of this important type of activity should be laid at the initial stage of training; it is here that it is necessary to ensure a sufficient level of reading development for its further development and improvement at the middle and senior stages of learning a foreign language at school.

The initial stage of learning to read is aimed at developing in students reading techniques in a foreign language and, in particular, such skills as:

quick establishment of sound-letter correspondences;

correct pronunciation of the graphic image of the word and correlating it with the meaning, i.e. comprehension of what is read;

reading by syntagmas (combining words into certain semantic groups);

reading texts based on familiar language material at a natural pace;

expressive reading of texts out loud, with correct stress and intonation.

Depending on which path of teaching reading 1 is chosen by the authors of the teaching materials and the teacher, the “set” of skills and abilities that can be practiced at the stage of formation of reading techniques also depends.

Currently, the most common option for developing reading techniques in English is the one proposed in the teaching and learning complex by M.Z. Biboletova, N.V. Dobrynina, E.A. Lenskaya:

Stage 1. Learning the letters of the alphabet. Establishment of primary grapheme-morpheme correspondences;

Stage 2. Reading vowels in various types syllables;

Stage 3. Reading phrases, sentences, mini-texts;

Stage 4. Reading longer texts.

At the beginning of their education, children become familiar with the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they can convey. Letters are not transmitted in the sequence in which they are presented in the alphabet, but depending on the frequency of their appearance in the speech patterns that children master. At this stage, learning to read and learning to write are practically inseparable from each other.

Having studied all the consonants, while simultaneously increasing their vocabulary and speech repertoire in several educational communication situations, students begin reading vowels in various words and immediately become familiar with the concept of “open / closed type syllable", with transcription. Knowing the sound image of a word, being able to identify consonant letters/sounds, seeing a picture, children can read the word themselves for the first time or guess what kind of word it is. Children read real words, and transcription icons only help to establish certain correspondences between the graphic and sound images of individual words.

Almost simultaneously with reading individual words, students read words and phrases, and then sentences and educational mini-texts. Words are sequentially “strung” one on top of another, and not only the correct reading of words is practiced, but also phonetic and lexical skills. Phonetically, students articulate words separately and in combination with other words. Here such important components of reading technique as tempo, intonation, stress, pauses are formed. The teacher should demand not just the correct pronunciation of the words being read, but an appropriate tempo, compliance with stress norms, adequate pausing, melody, etc. In this case, reading technique develops faster.

Various stages of the formation of reading technology involve the use various kinds exercises. But it is advisable to conduct them in a playful way due to the age-related psychological characteristics of children of this age. 2 In addition, you cannot limit yourself to just the textbook. The textbook, of course, has been and, obviously, will always remain the most widely used, most organized source of scientific knowledge, the most effective means and way of transmitting human experience. But one textbook is not enough to maintain children's cognitive interest in learning a language.

A set of exercises for teaching reading techniques in English includes exercises for mastering sound-letter correspondences, exercises for developing mechanisms for recognizing whole words, exercises for reading individual sentences, exercises for reading sentences related in meaning, and exercises for teaching expressive reading of text.

At the stage of familiarization with the letters of the alphabet and the corresponding sounds, it is recommended to use as many tasks and exercises as possible aimed at sound-letter analysis. To the exercises of this type include exercises on articulatory gymnastics, as well as the following exercises: “Name the letter (sound)”, “Who is faster?”, “Which letter (sound) has disappeared?”, “Name the letter (sound) correctly”, “Skydiver” ( Annex 1).

1. Find combinations of letters in words and read them, read the entire word;

2. Read the words, determine which pictures they refer to;

3. Look at the word. How many vowels/consonants does it have? Read it syllable by syllable;

4. Exercise “Photo Eye”;

5. Exercise “We are climbers” ( Appendix 2) and etc.

It is very effective to use various kinds of rhymes, fairy tales ( Appendix 3).

Studying the system for improving reading techniques, many methodologists and teachers came to the conclusion that reading after the speaker (or teacher) contributes to the development of articulation and the development of the skill of reading words together. Reading in pairs trains the ability to distribute the attention of weak students and improves their reading quality. And repeated reading using cards prepared in advance by the teacher with letter combinations and words written on them contributes to the daily accumulation in the child’s memory of visual images of letter combinations and words.

To improve reading techniques and develop peripheral vision, you can use exercises with letter tables ( Appendix 4).

At the next stages, work continues with individual sounds, words, and phrases. In parallel with it, work with text is carried out. The actual reading begins with reading longer texts. In addition to the formation of reading techniques, at this stage various reading technologies and skills are already beginning to form. independent work. At the same time, all language and speech skills are improved. At this stage you can already learn:

ignoring the unknown if it does not interfere with the completion of the task;

working with a dictionary;

use of footnotes and comments offered in the text;

interpretation and transformation of the text.

Text material is an important component of the content of teaching a foreign language. In the educational process, texts must correspond to the communicative and cognitive interests and needs of schoolchildren, correspond in degree of complexity to their linguistic and speech experience in their native and foreign languages, contain information that is interesting for students in each age group information.

Mastery of reading technology is carried out as a result of completing pre-text, text and post-text tasks. As for the sequence of types of reading, two options are used in teaching practice: a) introductory - studying - viewing / searching; b) studying – familiarizing – viewing / searching. The latter option is more effective, as it prepares all other types of reading to a greater extent.

Let's take a closer look at the goals and objectives of each stage, as well as those tasks and exercises that help solve these problems when using different types of reading.

1. Pre-text stage.

determine the speech task for the first reading;

create the necessary level of motivation among students;

If possible, reduce the level of language and speech difficulties.

Exercises and tasks:

Teaching Reading to Students

1. Fill in the gaps in the sentence with one of the words indicated;

2. Perform partial translation of sentences into your native language;

3. Try to understand the meaning of the highlighted words from the context;

4. Read the paragraph and write down all the verbs with prepositions denoting movement;

5. In the text, find 2-3 nouns that have approximately the same meaning.

1. Read the text and write down key words and phrases on a given topic;

2. Read the pairs of sentences. Name the pronouns in the second sentence that replace the subject of the first sentence;

3. Divide the text into parts and title each;

4. Say what, judging by the title, the text will be about;

5. Read the paragraph and try to understand it without a dictionary.

1. Translate the title and answer the questions;

2. Select the main and final parts of the text;

3. Check whether the border of the introductory part is correctly marked.

2. Text stage.

control the degree of development of various language and speech skills;

continue to develop relevant skills and abilities.

Exercises and tasks:

Teaching Reading to Students

1. Read the text and list the main issues covered in it;

2. Select from this paragraph the adjectives that ...;

3. Indicate a word that characterizes the state of the main character;

4. Read the sentence in a foreign language and choose the correct translation.

Introductory reading training

1. Read the first paragraph of the text and find in it a sentence containing the main information;

2. Read the paragraph. Say where and when the action takes place;

3. Prepare a plan for retelling the text;

4. Explain the main idea of ​​the text in your own words.

1. Distribute the titles according to the indicated topics;

2. Look at the highlighted words in the text. Guess what the text is about;

3. Put several questions to the text and ask them to your friend.

3. Post-text stage.

use the situation of the text as a linguistic / speech / content support for the development of skills in oral and written speech.

Exercises and tasks:

Teaching Reading to Students

1. Based on the content of the text you read, complete the sentences using the suggested options;

2. Describe the characters in your own words;

3. Read the text to yourself and highlight the new things you learned from it.

Introductory reading training

1. Read the text and express your agreement (disagreement) with the statements below;

2. Answer the questions about the text;

3. Read aloud the sentences that explain the title of the text.

1. Read aloud from the text facts that relate to the topic...;

2. Find in the text the conclusion, the formulation of the problem.

Appropriately selected texts and assignments for them contribute to the development of schoolchildren’s interest in reading in a foreign language, which in turn is an important factor in the successful mastery of this type of speech activity.

2.3. Problems of mastering reading techniques

in English at the initial stage

In the process of developing reading skills, it is necessary to overcome a lot of difficulties. First of all, these are difficulties associated with mastering the reading technique, which involves mastering a system of graphic signs that are different from the native language, as well as sound-letter relationships, and syntagmatic reading. Modern English teachers believe that mastering reading in English presents great difficulties for students associated with the graphic and spelling features of the language: the spelling system uses 26 letters, 146 graphemes (letter combinations), which are transmitted when reading using 46 phonemes. Of the 26 pairs of English letters (uppercase and lowercase), only four can be considered similar to the corresponding letters in shape and meaning: K, k, M, T. Letters A, a, B, b, C, c, E, e, H, O, o, P, p, Y, y, X, x occur in both languages, but are read differently, therefore, they are the most difficult to understand. The remaining letters are completely new to students.

G.V. Rogov and I.N. Vereshchagin also point out the great difficulty of reading vowels, combinations of vowels and some consonants, which are read differently depending on their position in words. For example: man-name, day-rain, pencil-cat, think-this, window-down, who-what, etc. When learning to read, students must learn the basic rules of reading, which include: reading vowels under stress in open, closed syllables and before “r”; reading vowel combinations ee, ea, ay, ai, oy, oo, ey, ou, ow; reading consonants c, s, g, x and combinations of consonants ch, sh, th, wh, ng, ck, as well as combinations such as tion, sion, ous, igh.

Students need to be taught to read words that are spelled differently but read the same: sun-son, two-too, write-right, see-sea, etc. At the same time, many words in the English language are not read according to the rules, which generally condemns students to memorizing an excessive number of reading rules and exceptions to them, as well as to repeating educational material many times. In addition, the very perception and pronunciation of graphic signs is the result of their selection and comparison with those standards that are already in the student’s memory. The very fact of choice, which involves remembering the desired rule and sound-letter correspondence, requires a certain amount of time, which ultimately slows down the pace of reading.

If learning reading techniques begins from the very beginning of learning a foreign language, then students have to correlate not only sounds and letters, but also letter-sound connections with the semantic meaning of what they read. And this causes additional difficulties. That is why, to overcome them, an oral introductory course is often conducted in order to accumulate the necessary and sufficient foreign language speech material, to form auditory-speech-motor images of foreign language oral speech and thereby remove some of the difficulties in the process of correlating the letters and sounds of a foreign language, as well as those that impede the understanding of the content .

Developing reading skills mainly involves reading aloud. It allows you to master the sound system of the language, develops the ability to sound transcoding signals at the level of letters, words, sentences, text. Reading aloud helps students retain speech patterns and syntactic structures in their memory. In addition, reading aloud makes it possible to strengthen and strengthen the pronunciation base that underlies all types of speech activity, which is especially important at the initial stage and does not lose its relevance for subsequent stages. Mastering the reading technique creates the prerequisites for the transition from reading aloud to silent reading, a more natural type of speech activity.

According to the foreign language program in the field of teaching reading, the teacher is given the following tasks:

teach schoolchildren to understand their content with different levels of penetration into the information contained in them.

Mastering the technique of reading in English at the initial stage is an independent problem, and it requires close attention.

The study confirmed that in the course of developing reading techniques in English, a teacher may encounter a number of problems. You can avoid them if you stick to the following recommendations:

teaching reading techniques should take place on lexical material that is well mastered by students;

texts for younger schoolchildren must correspond to their age characteristics;

when working with foreign language texts, students should be involved in active creative activity, not necessarily only speech;

when selecting texts, it is necessary to take into account their methodological and educational value;

you should use a variety of techniques for working with foreign language texts (Appendix 5);

develop students’ cognitive interest in the subject by involving them in various game situations.

List of used literature

1. English language. Grades 2 – 4: materials for correctional and developmental classes with students. I start to love English / auto comp. E.N.Popova. – Volgograd: teacher, 2007. – 151 p.

2. Biboletova M.Z., Dobrynina N.V., Lenskaya E.A. A book for teachers for the English language textbook for primary school “Enjoy English – 1. – Obninsk: Title, 2005. – 80 p.

3. Vasilevich A.P. We teach children English. // Foreign languages ​​at school. – 2009. – No. 4. – p. 75 – 80.

4. Galskova N.D. The theory of teaching foreign languages. Lingvodidactics and methodology: a textbook for students of linguistic universities and the faculty of foreign languages ​​of higher pedagogical educational institutions / N.D. Galskova, N.I. Gez. – M.: Publishing Center “Academy”, 2009.- 336 p.

5. Gracheva N.P. On the integrated use of visual aids in mastering the grammatical side of oral speech. // Foreign languages ​​at school. – 1991. – No. 1. – p. 26 – 30.

6. Zabrodina N.P., Makarova I.A. Game as a means of developing interest in learning French. // Foreign languages ​​at school. – 2009. – No. 4. – p. 19 – 22.

7. Clark L. Studying speed reading. – World Wide Printing, Duncanville USA, 1997. – 352 p.

8. Klychnikova Z.I. Psychological features of learning to read in a foreign language. – M., 1973. – 207 p.

9. Kucherenko N.L. Features of teaching reading journalistic texts in high school. // Foreign languages ​​at school. – 2009. – No. 2. – p. 18 – 22.

10. Mazunova L.K. A textbook as a component of the “Teacher – student – ​​textbook” system. // Foreign languages ​​at school. – 2010. – No. 2. – p. 11 – 15.

11. Maslyko E.A., Babinskaya P.K., Budko A.F., Petrova S.I. Handbook for a foreign language teacher - Minsk: “Higher School”, 2001. – 522 p.

12. Masyuchenko I.P. Rules of modern English. – Rostov-on-Don: LLC Publishing House BARO-RPESS, 2006. – 448 p.

13. Minyar-Beloruchev R.K. Methods of teaching French. – M.: Education, 1990. – 223 p.

14. Handbook for a foreign language teacher: Reference-method. allowance / Comp. V.V.Kopylova. – M.: AST Publishing House LLC: Astrel Publishing House LLC, 2004. – 446 p.

15. Ovcharova R. V. “Practical psychology in primary school", M. 1999 - 261 p.

16. Rogova G.V., Rabinovich F.M., Sakharova T.E. Methods of teaching foreign languages ​​in secondary school. – M.: Education, 1991. – 287 p.

17. Solovova E.N. Methods of teaching foreign languages: basic course: a manual for students pedagogical universities and teachers. – M.: AST: Astrel, 2008. – 238 p.

18. Solovova E.N. Methods of teaching foreign languages: advanced course: a manual for students of pedagogical universities and teachers. – M.: AST: Astrel, 2008. – 272 p.

Annex 1

1. Exercise “Name the letter (sound)”

The teacher shows cards with letters (with transcription icons indicating sounds), and students take turns naming them.

2. Exercise “Who is faster?”

Students are divided into 2 teams. The team that correctly names all the letters (sounds) wins.

3. Exercise “Which letter has disappeared?”

The teacher hangs cards with letters on the board, the students repeat each letter after him, then the teacher asks the children to close their eyes, while he hides several (1-2) letters. Students must guess which letters have disappeared. Similar work can be done with sounds.

4. Exercise “Name the letter (sound) correctly”

Today our guest is Dunno. He says that he knows the letters of the English alphabet (sounds). Let's check it out.

The teacher or student plays the role of Dunno, who lists the letters (sounds), naming some of them incorrectly. Children must correct mistakes.

5. Exercise “Skydiver”

Help the skydiver land.

In this exercise, children connect a capital letter with a small letter (a letter with the corresponding sound) with a line.





Appendix 2

1. Exercise “Photo Eye”

In the allotted time, the student must “photograph” a column of words and name the extra word (if any):

2. Exercise “We are climbers”

name make cake hate

fate lake late gate

Application 3

1. Rhymes

One, two, three –

And dogs like me.

The letter “C” always groans

Coughs, not whistles: [k], [k], [k].

Remember this and repeat [k] when you see “C”.

Only true girlfriends e, i, y

They treat the cough letter,

They make it a whistle.

Know, you read this

“C” as [s] before e, i, y.

The letter Gg is almost always

Read the sound [g] in the word.

But together with “e, i, y”

Gg rides in the car

And she gets the sound.

2. Fairy tale

One day the letters went on a hike, but they were very inexperienced and did not know what to take with them or what to wear. Some took a lot of things with them, others put on fashionable shoes. “I am the strongest,” said the letter “H” and took two backpacks with her. “I’m the most fashionable,” said the letter “G” and put on beautiful shoes. The letter “D” took a drum with him to make it more fun. As they walked, it was a hot day. The letter “G” was the first to get tired, because it was she who was wearing fashionable shoes. She rubbed her legs very badly and started crying [g], [g], [g]. The letter “H”, which boasted that it was the strongest, only sighed, so that no one could hear: [h], [h], [h]. The letter “C” groaned like an old lady: [k], [k], [k]. The letter “F” snorted like a hedgehog from the heat: [f], [f], [f]. And only the letter “D” walked merrily, beating on the drum: [d], [d], [d].

Appendix 4

1. Letter tables

The dimensions of the tables are 7.5 by 5.5 cm. Work with the table is carried out as follows: first, children read tables with one sign in a square, then two signs, three signs. You can use mixed tables with letters and numbers at the same time.

Children read while keeping their eyes on the central square. In 1 minute, the child must first read at least 5 characters. Work continues until the children can count all the signs.

Appendix 5

Working with deformed sentences

(make sentences from words):

1) is, New, holiday, a, Year, family.

2) put up, the, New Year Tree, decorate, and, it, people, toys, with.

3) women, the, table, holiday, lay.

4) the, all, family, wait, the, clock, for, to strike, midnight.

5) they, then, each, congratulate, other, say, and, “Happy New Year!”

6) all, family, members, of, a, strong, wish, happiness, and, health.

Exercise on composing English words:

Make as many words as possible from the word “ Congratulations” .

1 In modern methods of teaching a foreign language, there are 2 approaches: synthetic (from a letter to a word, from a word to a text) and analytical (from a text to a word, from a word to a letter).

2 The leading activity of younger schoolchildren is play.

Reading is a very exciting and educational process, especially if it is in English. When children begin to learn English, teachers advise them to speak it as often as possible - at school, at home, in extracurricular activities, with friends and even mentally. It is recommended to watch films in English and stock up on interesting books that will help you quickly cope with the numerous rules and nuances. Teaching reading in English can be done in different ways. Each child is individual, and an approach to him should also be sought individually. Let's look at the basic rules that beginners need to learn before they start reading books in English.

Where to start learning a foreign language? From the alphabet. At the same time, it is important to remember that when we study letters, we also pay attention to the sounds that are formed. First we learn individual sounds, then their combinations, and only at the end - complete words. Learning to read correctly is a whole science that requires a lot of effort, time and patience. But! In order to learn the basics of reading, you don’t need to spare any effort. With the help of reading, we get the necessary information, communicate with friends, colleagues, business partners, do business, etc. For a child, with the help of reading, a new world of words opens up, full of interesting information and a promising future.

In order to learn to read in English, we recommend selecting several lessons. First - the alphabet. It serves as a base, a foundation for the rest of the lessons. Then - sounds. First simple, then complex. The last lessons are devoted specifically to reading in order to enrich oneself with the knowledge of new words. But let's start from the beginning and don't get ahead of ourselves.

Where do children start when learning to read?

The first lesson is standard - we learn the alphabet. Many people know songs about the alphabet, where the letters are arranged in a fun order to make them easier to remember. Some diligently study the letters in strict alphabetical order. Still others are looking for more creative methods learning to read in English by learning letters in a chaotic order. Stupid? We wouldn't say that. If it helps the child and there is a result, then any method is good. The main thing is that it is effective.

Do you think you can pronounce words well? Then great! But thinking is not enough, you need to know. To do this, we recommend taking a short test and reading the following list of words aloud, watching your pronunciation:

• bag,
• flower,
• always,
• kitty
• candy,
• grace
• planet,
• rabbit

Everything worked out? Have you read all the words? If yes, then you are great! But... check your pronunciation with the one you hear in the audio files.

Is it difficult for a child to learn letters because he has not done it before? Don't be sad! It’s difficult for everyone to start, the main thing is not to give up. Take note of our recommendations that will help your child cope with a difficult task easier =>

How to learn the alphabet if he doesn't study?

1. Use visuals in colorful colors
2. Use the association method
3. Learn only 3-5 letters in one day
4. Immediately reinforce the material you have learned with exercises!
5. Repeat the completed letters in any free minute.

And now a little more detail. The first point is devoted to visual materials. It has been 100% proven that visual information is perceived better than auditory information. Stock up colorful pictures with big ones! Letters, and paint them in rich colors. The child should have a pleasant and fun time learning! There should be only one letter on one card, preferably with a transcription, so that the child can immediately learn both the letter and the transcription. Important! Transcription will help you learn to read complex and difficult words, so teach your child to work with transcription from the first lessons!

We devoted the second point to associations. Yes exactly. The baby can't remember the letter A? We are confident that the word apple(the beautiful red apple in the picture) he will remember faster! Or let's take for example the letter G. If it is an unknown forest for the baby, then while studying it, constantly say the word game(a game). The child will definitely remember this word! Moreover, to constantly remind your little one about this letter, regularly ask Do you want to play some game? Such an association will best accompany the letter G, and the baby will quickly learn it without even noticing it.

On a note! Learn not only the letters themselves, but also the words with them. Remember that the phonetic sound of an individual letter and the same letter in a word can be completely different! The child must get used to the fact that there will be a lot to learn. For example, the letter A. In words bad And vase it will read differently. In the first case - like / æ / , in the second – as / A:/ . And there are a lot of such cases!

If a child is interested in learning and wants to learn more and more, do not give more than 5 letters in one lesson. Otherwise, they will be forgotten as quickly as they were learned. 3-5 letters per lesson is the norm for children. And these learned letters need to be immediately reinforced with exercises! Ask your child to say the words he knows with the letters he has learned. Next, suggest a few new ones. Choose interesting words! And select associations for them. And remember: in each lesson there is a set of studied words must be replenished with new ones. Expand your child’s knowledge regularly.

Reading rules: English phonetics

English phonetics are complex. And not only for children, but also for many adults. Nobody argues about this. But anyone who has been studying English for a long time knows the features of the phonetic section. What about those who are just starting out? Here is a list of basic recommendations that children need to learn in order to competently learn a foreign language:

1. The same letter (phrase) can be pronounced differently
2. To read one letter, sometimes you need to use two sounds
3. There are letter combinations that consist of 2-3 letters, but are read as one
4. Words may have letters that are written, but we do not read them.

Interesting, isn't it? But in practice, how interesting it will be! For example, children may ask why write a letter at all if we don’t read it? The question is correct. And the correct answer is that everything is explained by the peculiarities of the phonetics of the English language. If a letter that is not readable is not written, then the word will either be incorrect or completely different from the one we need. For example, in the word lamb(lamb) the last letter (b) is not readable. But you need to write it! It's the same in the word combine(comb) -> we don’t read the last letter (b), but its presence in the word is mandatory.

Now another example. Let's take the floor way, which means road. We see one vowel -> a, but we read it in two sounds / eɪ / . It's the same in the word maybe(possibly) -> a= / eɪ / .

A completely different example when several letters are read as one:

• Through -> θruː => Th=θ, and the final phrase gh omitted altogether, we cannot read it;
• Whether -> ˈwɛðə => Wh=w, th=ð, er=ə.

Transcription will help you finally understand all the subtleties of pronunciation. It is difficult to give one rule, or even several, for individual words or their groups. Of course, there are rules, but there are even more exceptions. Until children enrich their vocabulary, we recommend teaching each word they learn with transcription. It’s better to learn correctly right away, since relearning is much more difficult.

Monophthong or diphthong? Or maybe a triphthong?

For children, such concepts will be quite difficult, since they have no analogues in the Russian language. But you can really learn the topic! By conquering new knowledge in small portions, you will definitely achieve success! Let's first clarify what each concept is.

A monophthong is a vowel sound that is not divided into two elements, that is, it is one whole. A diphthong is a combination of two sounds, a triphthong is a combination of three.

Let's look at everything using English examples:

1. There are 12 monophthongs in the English language. Here they are => , [i], [u], , [e], [ə], [ɜ:], [ɔ], [ɔ:], [æ], [ʌ], .

Diphthongs consist of two sounds => , , , , , , , [εe], [υe] – made, late, how, house, fight, bone, coin, tear, cope, fair, sure.

1. The peculiarity of the triphthong is that in speech it is often pronounced as a diphthong, that is, the sounds are contracted => fire 'fire', liar 'liar'.

Diphthongs and triphthongs – complex topic. It is better to leave it for later, when standard vowels and consonants have been learned to 5. At the same time, remember that you need to read words containing diphthongs and triphthongs only with transcription. At first it will be difficult for the baby, but you need to teach it from the very beginning. And so that every child can understand the transcription, we recommend that you constantly pronounce the word. There are special audio media on which words are written in the required order. When your child learns words, turn on the recording so that the learned word can be heard at the same time. This will make it easier for the child to understand the subtlety of the pronunciation of each individual word.

Reference: To make diphthongs and triphthongs easier, use educational materials. Pictures and letters must be large so that the baby can see them clearly. Visual memory - powerful tool on the way to achieving success. And to learn a language - all ways are good! Use everything possible!

Let's sum it up

Learning to read is a long course that involves a whole series of lessons. This is not one lesson or two. But! We strongly advise against rushing and trying to cover everything in one week. Schedule your lessons day by day and follow the planned schedule. No rush or impatience. For one lesson, take 3-5 sounds, which you study with educational materials. It would be appropriate to use audio recordings for correct pronunciation. And for each lesson, do exercises to consolidate the results. Summarizing is a must! Review what you have already learned regularly.