Read the text again and create a scheme of the text.

3 Write an analytical essay (300-350 words), focusing on the following:

1. The UK’s language challenge

2. The prioritization of languages the UK needs (economic factors, cultural, educational and diplomatic factors, balancing factors)

3. The language of the UK.

4. Conclusions and recommendations

4 Use the ‘Critical Reading and Writing Assignment Grid’ to create your response. Consult the ‘Writing Bank section’ section.

The Trinity of Languages in Professional Training of the Foreign

Language Teachers of the Next Generation

LEAD-IN

Generate ideas on the following issue.

Nowadays in the world of globalized economy, multiculturalism and the increased role of Information and Communication Technologies the teacher education becomes an issue of concern. How can we prepare the modern Foreign Language teachers to fare well in the contemporary multicultural world?

Put your ideas on the mind map and perform it in class.

INFORMATION-ACCUMULATION: READING

Skim the text and name two issues that the author describes and compares.

‘How Can We Prepare Language Teachers? ’

In the early 1970s, learning to teach English as a second language was a process of acquiring a body of knowledge and skills from an external source, i.e. from experts. It was a kind of top-down process based on modeling good practices, the practices themselves built around a standard or recognized teaching method. Becoming a language teacher meant acquiring a set of discrete skills – lesson planning, techniques for presenting and practicing new teaching points and for teaching the four skills. The approach that dominated graduate courses at this time consisted of a limited diet of theory courses, mainly confined to linguistics (syntax, morphology, semantics), phonetics, English grammar and sometimes literature, plus the study of methodology.

Second language teacher education

Between the 1970s and the present period a sub-field of language teaching has emerged now known as second language teacher education (Roberts, 1998). This refers to the study of the theory and practice of teacher development for language teachers. In the last thirty years there has also developed a substantial industry devoted to providing language teachers with professional training and qualifications. The knowledge base of language teaching has also expanded substantially although there are still significant differences of opinion concerning what the essential knowledge base of language teaching consists of. Experts arrive at different answers to different questions

Due to this lack of consensus as to the theoretical basis for language teaching, the kind of professional preparation teachers may receive varies considerably from country to country or even from institution to institution within a country, as a comparison of MA TESOL degrees in Canada and the United States reveals.

Training and development

From the seventies to the present period there has been a marked shift in our understanding of what we mean by teacher preparation. In the earlier period teacher training dominated but beginning in the 1990s teacher development assumed a more central role (Richards 1998). Teacher training involves processes of the following kind:

• Understanding basic concepts and principles as a prerequisite for applying them to teaching
• Expanding one’s repertoire of routines, skills and strategies
• Trying out new strategies in the classroom
• Monitoring oneself and getting feedback from others on one’s practice

Teacher development serves a longer-term goal and seeks to facilitate growth of the teacher’s general understanding of teaching and of himself as a teacher. It often involves examining different dimensions of one’s own practice as a basis for reflective review, and can hence be seen as “bottom-up”. The following are examples of goals from a development perspective:

• Understanding how the process of second language development occurs

· Understanding how teachers’ roles change according to the kind of learners he or she is teaching

· Understanding the kinds of decision-making that occurs during lessons

· Reviewing one’s own theories and principles of language teaching

• Determining learners’ perceptions of classroom activities
• Acquiring the skills of a mentor

Teacher development is not seen as one-off thing but a continuous process. The teacher is engaged in exploring his or her own teaching through reflective teaching in a collaborative process together with learners and colleagues. Learning from examining one’s own teaching, from carrying out classroom research, from creating teaching portfolios, from interacting with colleagues through criticalfriendships, mentoringand participating in teacher networks, are all regarded as ways in which teachers can acquire new skills and knowledge. This reflects the prevailing education philosophy of constructivism which is currently popular in education including language teacher education: knowledge is actively constructed and not passively received. A constructive view of teaching involves teachers in making their own sense of their own classrooms and taking on the role of a reflective practitioner.

[74] Richards, J.C. 30 years of TEFL/TESL: a personal reflection, pp. 25-27

2 Study the text again and prepare a comparative analysis of the following aspects:

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1. B. Say whether the following statements are true, false or there is no information on the subject of the text.
2. Ex. 10. In the sentences below, replace the words in italics with a word (or words) from the text. Translate the sentences into Russian.
3. Ex. 6. Listen to the tape and practice the reading of the text. Try to imitate the speaker as best as you can. Translate the text, using a dictionary, if necessary.
4. Find these words in the text.
5. I. Read the text and circle the information that is not mentioned in the text.
6. I. Read the text. Give the appropriate heading to every part of the text.
7. Library file does not exist. Create?
8. Make an annotation on the text.
9. Note completion: Listen to a radio programme again and complete the sentences with the missing words and phrases.
10. Provide a summary of the text.
11. Study the topic on the theories of learning, create a chart (scheme), illustrating the nature of the theories of learning, and report in class.