Understanding more about teaching English possessing activity’ s skills in context

“Hope.
Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up, and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You don’t give up”
(Anne Lamott, Writer)

“Grace Under Pressure.
 It is not what happens to you, but how you react to – is that matters”
(Epictetus, Philosopher)

“The most important thing in communication is to hear what is not being said”
(Peter E. Drucker)

“Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand”(Chinese proverb)

“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the temping moment”
(Orlando A. Battista)

When we say about context, we mean our everyday practice, because there is nothing except context of educational space we take into account, of every theme we teach, every finding we discover with our students, every victory in common work in a group, united by searching for common intellectual aim, reaching common goals in understanding something, common emotional feelings and sense of unity in overcoming the difficulties on the way to possessing English skills. Let us start with reading and discussing with our students the wise ideas and thoughts of some witty people of different nationalities and epochs, whose brilliant remarks have been alive and bright for ages. In searching for context, let us translate each phrase and discuss it in searching again one more eternal value - what does it mean – context?

Many scientists from Russia and foreign countries researched the whole problem in context of the “context’s“ definition. The results are very interesting and opened the teachers the role of Context in comprehension and Learning, as well as activities for Review and Discussion [1, p.157]. The most interesting results we got in the very process and at the final stage of experiment were the answers of the student as their explanation the term” context” in accordance with the pedagogical experiment.

 Let us come back to the beginning of our articles’ demand to read and explain the wise ideas of epigraphs in accordance of understanding the notion “context”.

The questions to answer proposed to the students were like these:

• What does the term “context” mean?
• Which of the term in accordance with group-discussion of any theme and discovering the main idea in it has a broader meaning?
• What are the aims of your professional education from the position of obligatory learning English in context of your future competent presentation in a society?
• What does the word “context” include (in education, in life as a whole, in social relations, in group-communication in class, in professional applying, in friendship, in family’ relations)?
• What information does it include about multicultural group ‘communication in studies and experiment?
• What information does it include about Psychological practice?
• Can this information be of any value with your future professional realization and different conditions of living growing?

The task to find out correct, deep and witty answers was rather difficult. It needed some preparatory methods of understanding the global task of communication for forming then the skills and habits of effective using the ideas of the notion “context” in all kinds of the students’ future real practice.

So, they had to read, translate and explain the texts, interesting the students as well as the teachers from the position of describing the common definition “context”.

Taking into account the wise ideas of the witty persons, given in the beginning of our article, compare, please, the common aspects of the text and definite phrases in context of “context”. So, read and be a part of the process, participant of the process and a critic of the process, having context in it as a core. What is this context – is a key-problem.

“Many people have not learned to be patient. In this way they handicap themselves unnecessarily. They are controlled by the belief that others or circumstances keep them from attaining what they want or that an expected event may take place too late for them to benefit. In this manner, of course, they merely create more obstacles and delays for themselves.

Mental law decrees that every action or impatience directed against others must return to us in due course. Our impatience with others, as well as our resentment against those who are impatient with us, may be due to our failure to understand them and the cause of their behavior.

Be like a farmer after planting time. He would not dig up the new seeds to see if they are growing. Instead, he cultivates and irrigates the soil, leaving the rest up to nature. At times you may still be unhappy with your job, finances, or marriage. Don’t give up. Reason with yourself. Think of the growing process that is taking place within you. It took all your experiences, all the ups and downs in your life, including your mistakes, to produce into being your present self. Whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you may be at this moment, you have gathered and are gathering unto yourself at all times the ingredients necessary for your establishment as a developed personality.

And what holds true for you applies also the beggar in the street, the millionaire, the student, the doctor, the ditch digger, the statesman, be he American, Spanish, Japanese, or Russian”.

This great truth belongs to greatest educator, Dr. Champion Teusch, a psychologist, a surgeon, a teacher, a friend and colleague. He declared his brilliant ideas, supported by Russian educators, having proved earlier in their experiments in schools and Universities and sounded in pedagogical conferences in Russia and abroad.

The aim of a teacher is to teach those involved in the process of learning – the scoring personal quiz in communication activity under the slogan “warm-up”. The recommendation look like these and are very effective in individual and group work: “The students will be reading different communication activities individually. Encourage them to try to figure out the meaning of unknown words from context if possible or to look up meanings in their dictionary

Draw everyone’s attention to the purpose of this activity, working as a team to solve the problems. If a pair can’t figure out one of the problems, they can ask another pair for a clue or for a quick explanation. Don’t provide students with answers automatically- let students work them out on their own and report them to the class” [2, p15].

The word “context” is expected to be explained and described by students from the position of common sense and new vocabulary. That is why one more very important task is in the center of teacher’s approaches and explanation as a whole. A teacher must (not less!) create a sense of need for a word. A student must not learn certain words to please the teacher or to pass the examination. A student must recognize and feel how real is that need to learn a new word”. The need may indeed produce learning, especially among certain individuals and in certain cultures. There is more practical command of vocabulary among those who have needed English words for their own purposes (for communication in profession, prolonged learning, travel, or in friendship with speakers of English [3, p.10].

In order to activate the process of learning role-plays consider to be very effective. It makes the process of achieving high results in listening, reading, translating and writing not only effective, but very interesting. There is a special plan of activity, given to students to detailed working-out as explaining each stage of the process and each phrase in accordance with personal presentation in communicative work of a group. So, the students wrote a short (sometimes rather long) composition in accordance with each confirmation with one aim: “I understand it as……. for my future professional and personal activity in society for the sake of…

– I am a winner; I am capable of everything; I set my mind do; I take every setback and use it to my advantage; I am confident in who I am; I am confident in what I have to offer the world; I am confident in my abilities and my purpose; I am not held back by fear, doubt, or disappointment; I am daringly showing up to contribute something beautiful and meaningful to this world.

It is especially important today to think about our future for generations of those after us. That is why the English language in active communication teachers and students lets us to give all to what is present maximally effective. The modern educational system proposes the reasonable modern students should adapt themselves to the world, not the world to themselves.

 In searching for context of all stages of our educational process, items of definite actions, fulfillment of each kind of activity, approach or explanation our aims and goals chosen to win in communicative work as a whole team and each personality, we see living values in Education for the World of a sustainable development and a highly developed personality, oriented to Success in profession and society, including society in multicultural world [4, p.11].

“He who has begun, has half done” (Horace); “We will either find a way, or make one” (Hannibal); “Perfection is achieved not when there’s nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” (Antoine de Saint Exupery).