Teaching Tips

Brainstorming is a popular tool that helps students to generate creative solutions to a problem. It is particularly useful when there is a need to break out of stale, established patterns of thinking, so that you can develop new ways of looking at things. It also helps overcome many of the issues that can make group problem-solving a sterile and unsatisfactory process. Used with the team, it helps bring the diverse experience of all team members into play during problem solving. This increases the richness of ideas explored, meaning that students can find better solutions to the problems they face. What’s more, because brainstorming is fun, it helps team members bond with one-another as they solve problems in a positive, rewarding environment. Brainstorming provides a freewheeling environment in which everyone is encouraged to participate. Quirky ideas are welcomed, and many of the issues of group problem-solving are overcome. All participants are asked to contribute fully and fairly, liberating people to develop a rich array of creative solutions to the problems they’re facing. Brainstorming combines a relaxed, informal approach to problem-solving with lateral thinking. It asks that people come up with ideas and thoughts that can at first seem to be a bit crazy. The idea here is that some of these ideas can be crafted into original, creative solutions to the problem you’re trying to solve, while others can spark still more ideas. This approach aims to get people unstuck, by "jolting" them out of their normal ways of thinking. During brainstorming sessions there should therefore be no criticism of ideas: Students are trying to open up possibilities and break down wrong assumptions about the limits of the problem. Judgments and analysis at this stage stunt idea generation. Ideas should only be evaluated at the end of the brainstorming session - this is the time to explore solutions further using conventional approaches [34; 94].
Role play and dramatization are modeling various situations for the educational aims of developing speaking abilities. They reflect a principle of problematical character at its certain organization and allows solving problem situations of a various degree of complexity [35; 76]. It can be used independently as well as in a context of a method of projects. Pupils apply the experience of the saved up knowledge, results of research during work above the project in realization of socially significant roles growing on the importance with passage of a cycle of occupations. Such modeling of situations of professional - business intercultural dialogue helps pupil to get used to various situations of the future activity which he can face in a real life [36; 65]. Problematical character of role game is realized through modeling of situations in which this or that problem can find the certain decision.
Being in a role, pupil solves problem situations, evidently showing in full communicative competence the practical decision of a problem. Certainly, such way of protection should be adequate to a researched problem. Selection by that and problems for use of this or that method is a separate research problem. Here it is important, that communicative competence was formed in real acts of intercourse in which the English language is means of formation and a formulation of idea [37; 49]. Thus, pupil, being based on the skills generated with the help of a debatable method, it is capable to apply and develop these skills in concrete situations of dialogue, carrying out socially significant roles and skill to assert the position in problem situations.
There can be one or several role play groups. If the whole class represents one role play group, it is necessary to keep some minor roles which can be taken away if there are less people in class than expected. If the teacher runs out of roles, he/she can assign one role to two students, in which one speaks secret thoughts of the other. With several role plays, when deciding on their composition, both the abilities and the personalities of the students should be taken into consideration. For example, a group consisting only of the shyest students will not be a success. Very often, optimum interaction can be reached by letting the students work in one group with their friends [38; 73].
Whether taking any part in the role play or not, the role of the teacher is to be as unobtrusive as possible. He or she is listening for students’ errors making notes. Mistakes noted during the role play will provide the teacher with feedback for further practice and revision. It is recommended that the instructor avoids intervening in a role play with error corrections not to discourage the students.
Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between a role play and simulation. Both are forms of games mirroring a slice of reality. As a rule simulations are more highly structured and contain more diverse elements in their content and procedure. Simulations are simplified patterns of human interactions or social processes where the players participate in roles. Most simulations demand that the participants are supplied with background information and materials to work from both before and during the simulation. Accomplishing the task set in a simulation has sometimes got to be done within a time limit, e. g. in writing the front page of a newspaper, just as in reality. In contrast to simulations, role plays often consist of short scenes, which can be realistic - as in acting out a shopping situation - or pure fantasy - as in pretending to interview on TV. Realistic role plays have been common features of situational language teaching for a long time and are catered for by suitable dialogues in most beginners’ textbooks.
Role plays are quite demanding foreign language situations in that the players have to use the foreign language correctly and adequately both in terms of the foreign language itself and the particular role that is acted out. Even very advanced learners of English are rarely able to speak consciously in a particular style or register, which may be necessary for a role. For these students the study of texts, or better, video tapes of encounters where the foreign language is used at different levels of formality, can be a valuable training in this skill prior to role play [39; 40].
Role plays improve the students’ oral performance generally, and simulations quite often train all four skills. The complexity of simulations, which run over several stages, prevents the teacher from exactly determining beforehand which structures, words and language skills will be needed by the players. Therefore simulations mainly constitute practice sessions where the participants draw on everything they have learnt so far.