Verbal communication is an exchange of verbal communication in order to ensure mutual understanding and interaction between members of social groups. Communicative activity, like any other expedient activity, is based on social motives and goals, and its content is the solution of behavioral problems.
The success of communication training depends on how motivated, appropriate and feasible the tasks assigned to the students are. The methodologists appeal to the game due to the fact that in the game situation, due to the moment of conventionality, it is relatively easy to reproduce or imitate the main factors that determine communication (motives and goals of the participants, their sociological roles, circumstances of communication, tactics of achieving goals). The game allows you to vary these factors at ease and naturally, and in addition creates an atmosphere of free communication in the audience. Another useful aspect of the game situation for the methodologist is that students ’speech is evaluated not by indirect criteria (speaking speed, number and nature of errors, number of remarks, etc.), but by the communicative effect: the student coped with the task and gets a good assessment, if you have reached the delivered speech by means of the studied language. The secondary characteristic, for example, the pace of speech or its synonymous richness, as in real communication, takes a secondary place. ” The teacher comments on errors, offers replica options, suggests moves, in a word, remains a teacher, but the main criterion for him is success (the student’s success in communication and only in communication) ”[1.p,70.] The very principle of the game in learning is older than humanity: already young animals master the skills they need in the subsequent life in the game. Therefore, the predisposition to the game and in humans, apparently, is laid at the level of instinct. Accordingly, the first task of the teacher is to awaken the taste of the game, the desire to play in students. The second task is to direct the game in the right direction: after all, the game interests us not by itself, but only insofar as it helps students get closer to very specific learning goals.
As you know, one of the significant shortcomings in teaching adult language is that the teacher has to teach the language as a form, while the student has long been accustomed to using the language and speech for meaningful purposes. Observations show that in the game (in any form) the form and content also change places: for example, in the game of chess it is important to defeat the opponent
not at all, but within the framework of the rules. Therefore, when we impose the structure of the game on the scheme of educational activity, we kind of turn the educational process into a process of targeted (rather than educational) communication. So, when we invite students to identify and name all the differences between two pictures within one minute, we set a distracting non-educational goal in front of them. The emotionality of the game (only positive emotions act in the game), spontaneity, and some other factors, which we will discuss below, allow the student to be included in the lesson not partially and not formally, but give him the opportunity to fully demonstrate his best personal qualities. Thus, the student receives pleasure from the lesson, that is, the game stimulates the student to participate in the lesson. From the psychological point of view, the game smooths out internal contradictions of the personality, internal balancing, therefore, students in the conditions of game training usually improve their current psychological state. In the methodological literature, 5 classes of games are defined:
- Instrumental games — games in which students manipulate various objects, commenting on their actions. Instrumental games also include the compilation and completion of various questionnaires, forms, etc .;
- Accompanying the action with a word — in these games, students perform various actions in which the use of the subject is not necessary or necessary; while the actions taken are also commented;
- Games-competitions — in them the main driving force is “sports interest”: who is faster, more accurate, more original, will carry out any task. These games are conducted on teams; the team is tasked to win. Almost all games of this type have a distracting task — their goal was deliberately declared to achieve extra-linguistic and extra-methodological results; it is important that when they are played in the audience, the «sporting spirit» of the competition is preserved;
- Role-playing games are traditionally divided into micro-studies and macro-episodes (in which from 5 people to the whole group participate). Role-playing games are a number of problematic tasks in which the main goal is to come to an agreement or to establish interactions with partners. To create a problem, such methods are used as limiting resources (time, material, etc.) or means, as well as a contradiction in the tasks of the participants. In role-playing games, social-role relations of participants are necessarily formed (from here they got their name). This distinction is fundamental: in addition to solving a problem, students are required to correctly lose their social role, which, however, does not require special acting means of expression;
- Games of discussion — the teacher, using a common problem that arouses the interest of students, encourages them to detailed statements in which they express and argue their point of view. The listed types of games are considered to be the main ones, however, there is a «large number of» hybrid «forms» [3. P,73.]. For example, instrumental games and micro studies, competition games and macro studies, etc. From the variety of existing games, we decided to stop and analyze the use of role-playing games in teaching dialogic utterance. It is in a role-playing game, as we indicated above, that the principle of communication is fully realized. Most teachers recognize the importance of role play in developing communication skills and note the great learning effect of this technique. Firstly, role-playing can be regarded as the most accurate model of communication. After all, it involves imitation of reality in its most essential features.
“At the same time, colloquial speech cannot be taught outside of situationality. Speech units uttered or perceived outside the situation do not remain in memory, because they are not significant for a person” [2. p,67.]. And some methodologists offer to study in the theater when teaching a foreign language. Indeed, in a role-playing game, as in life itself, the speech and non-speech behavior of partners are intertwined. Secondly, role-playing game has great potential motivational incentive plan. The basis of communication, as you know, is the motive, which psychologists call the «trigger mechanism» of any statement. However, the most difficult thing in a learning environment is to provoke a motive for utterance.
Thus, we can say that role-playing has an important educational value. Students get acquainted with the technique of the theater. Develops their skills of cooperation, partnership, artistry, the ability to master voice, facial expressions, gestures, attract the attention of the audience. In our opinion, role-playing is one of the most effective method of implementing the communicative principle in teaching a foreign language and its features can be distinguished as follows:
- Role-playing games are learning by doing, improves the quality of training.
- Role-playing requires the full return of the participants, their reactions both verbal and non-verbal means in a given situation.
- Role-playing is highly motivating, because it contains elements of the game and the unpredictability of the denouement. In addition, students see the possibility of applying the situation played in a role-playing game in real life.
References
- Arutyunov A.R., Chebotarev P.G., Muzrunov N.B. Game assignments in the lessons of the Russian language. M, 1990.
- Passov E.I. A communicative method of teaching foreign language. M. -1986.
- Revell J. Teaching Techniques for Communicative English. London. 1979.
- Taylor J. Walford R. Simulation in the classroom. Hormonds-worth. 1972.
