MIXED METHODS AS A MEANS OF IMPROVING FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPEECH OF PEOPLES OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

The article examines the geopolitical, linguistic and didactic prerequisites for the emergence of mixed methods of teaching foreign languages as a means of improving the foreign language speech of the peoples of different countries of the world in the first half of the 20th century and gives the detailed analysis of their methodological essence. The conducted research made it possible to come to the following conclusions: 1) the mixed methods of teaching foreign languages represent the embodiment of two teaching directions into one method: the conscious mastering of the language phenomena and the development of speech skills based on them; 2) the historical prerequisites for the emergence of these methods were the results of Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, which ended with the formation of German Empire. 25 different states, many duchies and principalities joined the empire. This fact caused political and economic contacts of all peoples of these countries. Such contacts had to be done in a foreign language. But the practice of teaching foreign languages based on the use of direct and translation methods proved its inefficiency. Therefore, the scientists of that time introduced the technique of combining them into mixed methods that led to a quick solution of this communicative task; 3) the linguistic didactic prerequisites for the development of these teaching methods were the following: the ability of many people to keep in mind the foreign language material based on its comprehension; the expediency of learning one part of the material in the process of speech activity, and the other – in the process of its reading, writing, translating and speech reproducing; 4) the examples of the mixed methods of teaching English are the following: Michael West’s reading method and Lev Shcherba’s conscious-and-comparative method. The first of them was based on the following principles: priority of reading over speaking; formation of reading technique skills and pronunciation skills based on the examples of the material what is read; conscious study of lexical and grammatical phenomena and their use in the process of reading thematic, easy-to-understand, interesting texts; development of oral speech based on the material which was read; expansion of students’ reading and speaking abilities based on the combination of the new language material with the previously learned language units in each subsequent text. The second of them was based on the following principles: interconnected teaching of all types of speech activity; conscious study of the language phenomena based on their translation; the use of reading and writing as a means and a goal of teaching; 5) the interconnection of the mixed methods of teaching foreign languages with modern methodological technologies consists in the use of: the principle of gradual expansion of students’ reading and speaking skills by repeating in each subsequent educational text the language phenomena from the previous ones according to the reading method of education; all principles of the conscious-and-comparative method but taking into account the priority of the communicative orientation of education.