Theoretical foundations of teaching foreign languages

Goals of teaching foreign languages at the present stage

Currently, we can distinguish a general tendency to put forward the development of skills to communicate in a foreign language as the goal of learning. This goal reflects a broad social view of the nature of language and fully takes into account the specifics of the object of study in a foreign language lesson. But, there is a point of view that it is inappropriate to put forward this goal as the main one in relation to teaching foreign languages. This point of view based on a broader understanding of the tasks of teaching foreign languages ​​than just providing practical knowledge of foreign language communication. In the field of vision, there should be other important tasks related to mastering knowledge of the language and, through language, the culture of the corresponding people. The focus solely on the assimilation of practical skills and abilities by students does not allow taking into account the variety of possible student motivations in the study of the subject. Communication motivation is not the main engine for mastering a foreign language for all students. It may be the student's desire to deepen the sphere of his cognitive activity, for others - the essential beauty of the sound of the language itself, and for the third - love and interest in the culture of another country.

In the methodology, were made the attempts to correlate the specific in teaching foreign languages ​​with the general focus of the entire education system on the formation of the student's personality. Over the decades, the methodology has developed the idea of ​​a comprehensive implementation of practical, educational, and developmental learning tasks with the leading role of the former. The promotion to the first place of the practical aspect is dictated by the specifics of the academic subject. The consequence of this "unequal" attitude towards target components is often an excessive pursuit of stable speech skills and abilities to the detriment of the developmental, educational, and upbringing aspects of training. In the methodology are known the attempts to implement at the level of goal-setting the equal position of all aspects of the process of teaching, upbringing, education, and development of the student's personality, while a foreign language culture is put forward as the goal of teaching, i.e. everything that the process of mastering the foreign language can bring in the educational, cognitive, developmental and educational aspects (E.I. Passov)⁷.
In the teaching methodology, four components of the goal of teaching a foreign language are distinguished:

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  Practical (teaching communication);
  
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  Educational (respect for the language, people, traditions, perseverance, hard work is brought up);
  
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  Educational (increasing horizons);
  
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  Developing (development of mental functions - attention, memory, logical thinking).
  

The Concept of the content of education in a 12-year school on the subject "Foreign language" (authors V.V. Safonova, E.N. Solovova, I.L. Bim, M.Z. Biboletova, L.G. Kuzmina) defines the following main objectives of teaching foreign languages:
The formation and development of the communicative culture of schoolchildren (the formation and development of linguistic, speech, and socio-cultural competence, necessary and sufficient for communication within the threshold and advanced threshold level; teaching the norms of intercultural communication in the FL; the development of the culture of oral and written speech in the FL in the conditions of official and unofficial communication).
The social and cultural development of students (study of the native language and native culture and foreign languages ​​and cultures of other peoples, the development of students' abilities to represent their country and culture in a foreign language intercultural communication).
Familiarization of students with the strategies of self-observation of their communicative development as they move from one stage of learning FL to another, which will allow them to set and achieve their own tasks in the study of FL.

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  Formation of students' respect for other peoples and cultures, readiness for business cooperation and interaction, joint solution of common human problems.
  
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  Development of motivation to study the second FL.
  
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  Development of self-education potential of youth, taking into account the diversity of the modern multilingual and multicultural world.
  
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  Development of intellectual and creative abilities of students in the process of learning languages ​​and cultures.
  

The main goal of learning FL at the threshold level is called the formation of communicative competence, i.e. here the authors no longer differentiate goals into general educational, practical, educational and developmental. It was an integrated approach to the implementation of these goals that allowed them to identify several of its components: 1) linguistic competence, 2) sociolinguistic competence, 3) sociocultural competence, 4) strategic competence, 5) discursive competence, 6) social competence.
Linguistic competence involves the mastery of a certain amount of formal knowledge and the corresponding skills associated with various aspects of the language: vocabulary, phonetics, grammar.
Sociolinguistic competence is the ability to choose language forms, use them, and transform them by the context.
Sociocultural competence presupposes not just a dialogue at the level of individuals, but a readiness and ability to conduct a dialogue of cultures. The dialogue of cultures implies knowledge of one's own culture and the culture of the country or countries of the target language.
Strategic and discursive competence involves the formation of certain skills and the ability to organize a speech, the ability to build it logically, consistently, and convincingly, to set tasks and achieve the set goal.
Social competence implies a willingness and desire to interact with others, self-confidence, as well as the ability to put oneself in the place of another and the ability to cope with the current situation⁸.
As an integrative goal of learning, Model Programs in Foreign Languages ​​consider the formation of foreign language communicative competence, that is, the ability and real willingness of students to carry out foreign language communication and achieve mutual understanding with native speakers of a foreign language, as well as the development and education of students through a subject.
The personality-oriented approach, placing the student's personality at the center of the educational process, taking into account his abilities, capabilities, and inclinations, presupposes a special emphasis on the socio-cultural component of the foreign language communicative competence. This should ensure the cultural orientation of teaching, familiarizing students with the culture of the country / countries of the studied language, a better understanding of the culture of their own country, the ability to present it through a foreign language, the inclusion of the student in the dialogue of cultures⁹.
As you know, knowledge itself, outside of certain skills and abilities to use them, does not solve the problem of a person's education and preparation for real activity outside the walls of an educational institution. Currently, the question is posed more broadly: the goal of education is not just knowledge and skills, but certain personality traits, the formation of key competencies that should "equip" young people for their future life in society (K.V. Fokina, L.N. Ternova, N. V. Kostycheva). These competencies were developed at a symposium in Bern within the framework of the Secondary Education for Europe project in March 1996 by representatives of all European countries: