Pedagogical experiment as a kind of research in teaching English

“The way to success is always under construction”

Unknown author

“Teach a child how he should live, and he will remember it all his life” (Наставь юношу при начале пути его: он не уклонится от него, когда и состарится)

“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit. If you answer a silly question, you are just as silly as the person who asked it. Give a silly answer to a silly question, and the one who asked it will realize that he is not as smart as he thinks” (Не отвечай глупому по глупости его, чтобы и тебе не сделаться подобным ему; Но отвечай глупому по глупости его, чтобы он не стал мудрецом в глазах своих)

“A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty: but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both. The weight of stone and sand is nothing compared to the trouble that stupidity can cause” (Тяжел камень, весок и песок; но гнев глупца тяжелее их обоих)

“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth: a stranger, and not thine own lips. Let other people praise you – even strangers; never do it yourself” (Пусть хвалит тебя другой, а не уста твои, - чужой, а не язык твой)

The Proverbs (Книга Притчей Соломоновых) [1, c.111- 113]

It is of first rate importance to approach to pedagogical experiment as separate and unique educational sphere and effective method of teaching foreign language, taking into account all demanded competence items of the whole educational process. If we declare the experiment is a research, we have to organize the whole process from the position of truly scientific characteristics of an ordinary research process. Traditionally they are named as:

1. Systematic (in accordance with year time-plan and working educational program of a year);
2. Logical (it must be joined to working studying aims of the learners, scientific and educational, as well as upbringing);
3. Empirical;
4. Reductive;
5. Transmittable (it is an opportunity of transmitting all findings in learning foreign language to all the disciplines connecting with this subject on the base of principles of understanding, improved memorial possibilities and a block of required habits of firm and quick remembering special professional terminology) [2, p. 78].

A scientific approach to experiment means a wide range of material intended for speakers of English in demand. The students become independent and responsible for their own learning, trying to develop their own efforts and habits of study. The teachers have been working out and introducing into reality of the stages of experiment “Indicative independence test - research agenda for the students”. This working document contains the most important positions and competences being in demand concerning students’ possibilities in situation of a future opportunities’ proposals. This agenda takes into account the distinction between the necessary curriculum and institutional level of the language possession and additional volume of knowledge required due to independent educational work.

When we define the role of experiment as an element of research in the process of teaching-learning, we take into account the essential positions due to this approach. Some of them may be remarked as the tasks, we propose the student they should understand as necessary and obligatory ones in the whole process of personal (self) and professional education. The positions involved in explaining the importance of concrete “topics” of the experiment, if they may be called as “scientific ones” may be denoted as:

1. Identify (prove, describe, mark, etc.) the role of experiment validity.
2. Identify the role of those including in the process of detailed description from the position of individual part and role in decision of the common tasks (personal contribution).
3. Describe the relation between English and all humanitarian and technical disciplines delivered in the University.
4. Describe the characteristics of the research process for English and the other disciplines (the students’ personal vision of the problem).
5. Describe your vision of the steps in the research experiment process.
6. Try to identify procedures for completing end-of-experiment-stages self-evaluations.

It is well-known that achieving validity in research is not an easy task, so, it is even more difficult in the experiment, but overcoming is the key-motto, slogan and tool for making it possible. Experiment, and even a line of experiments, become a systematic attempt to provide answers to many questions, concerning the context of the disciplines as well as competence demands to the results of the educational process as a whole.

The pedagogical experiment on the “Testing issue” showed good results on all the concrete goals as tasks declared. They were:

• Targeted research on class and independent ways in link to demonstrate benefits of bringing together reasons for the present emphases on vocabulary, creating a sense of need for a word, list of habits-skills “What to do about the list on the textbook page”, showing the meaning of words in different situations, drawing attention to meaning before drilling words, inspiration in dealing with dictionaries, including ideographic ones;
• Clarification and social knowledge in situational real and theoretical practice through participation, writing messages, reports, scientific and artistic work, telephone links, when basic vocabulary may be hard to learn but easy to use;
• Research on joint independent learning quality and reporting approaches with materials, supported by teachers in different ways of training and educating communication: more techniques for beginners ‘ independent learning classes, classification of useful commands in vocabulary classes, using real objects for vocabulary teaching, think over and use as a creative homework other communication experiences with an imaginative partner – a drawing, which represents an imagined situation connected with the task defined as being reached;
• Researching appropriate models of Educational, Environment (including Climate) and Social Change with specific reference to special professional competencies and skills for developing the right perspectives of personality-leader, including: special uses of visual aids, long-term displays of pictures, obligatory visual aids for teaching verbs and adverbs in situations of a real practice in society and professional sphere.

Education for Sustainable Development or all involved in the process of independent establishment of a personality is directly or not oriented for testing the personality before letting it the sphere and staff to rule, direct and estimate the results of its’ work. We take into account individual work and work in a team, influencing the final result of self-education. It is a private task of each student, it is a duty, it is his(her) main mission- to be useful for those around, to help, to support, to assist, to direct, to try to do the whole world better, - remembering the words of Henry Filding (1707-54): “To whom nothing is given, of him can nothing be required” (Когда человеку ничего не дают, нельзя и требовать от него чего-либо).

In the course of a pedagogical experiment a teacher and the students are not only participants, but researchers, dealing with potential pitfalls. The students are interesting in exploring the similarities and differences between teachers and those taught in matters of motivation and values.” Findings are to be verbatim reports of the responses to open-ended questions and attempts to detect any generalities or trends without any system for data analysis.

At a basic stage in a basic research we may say about relationship between two or more variables, as “identifying a problem, examining selected relevant variables through a literature review, constructing a hypothesis where possible, creating a research design (idea, discovery, insight) to investigate the problem, collecting and analyzing appropriate data, and then drawing conclusions about relationships of the variables” [3, p. 4].

Working with grammar, reading the texts, translating, speaking English, writing essays or reports, presenting public speech, the student follow the rule in organization of their personal individual rules of” researcher’s behavior “(Role-play, may be), remembering about main items of research process. They are:

Research is systematic, logical, empirical., reductive, replicable and transmittable.

It is interesting to work out and discuss at the last stage of the research pedagogical experiment following statements in a common work of all participants of the experiment. Except comparing the results, it is interesting from the position of identifying and indicating the place of everybody in a role of a researcher in the sequence of the research process of the experiment as a whole.

The students declare about constructing operational definitions; carrying out data analysis; their required teaching habits how to teach; identifying a problem; writing a final report; resolving discipline problems; constructing a hypothesis; identifying and labeling variables; constructing (if it is possible) experimental design (with English language experiment- it is the blocks of tests and types of role-plays); reviewing the literature.

Pedagogical experiment proved it’s significance as a reliable method of teaching and upbringing in atmosphere of prolonged intellectual and personal growth.