Methods of teaching foreign languages

Olimova Shahina Botirjon qizi 

 Uzbekistan State World languages university.

 Abstract. Foreign language teaching has developed in past few years as a result of the advancement of new digital and technological devices  as well as  the interaction of artificial intelligence. This article explores several both  contemporary and traditional methods and approaches to teach international students, such as analysis of Grammar Translation method and Communicative language approach.Each approach and method is analyzed in terms of theoretical basis, effectiveness and practical implementation. Additionally, this article emphasizes on both advantages and disadvantages associated with these methods, taking account on students autonomy, current trends in learning language. 

Key words: interactive methods, student-centred, intercultural competence, pedagogical practices, teacher-centred, student interaction.

Introduction. Foreign language education is crucial in today’s fast-pasted world, where multilingualism is seen as a main concept of both personal and professional success. Language acquisition is a complex process, and educators should be devised with multiple and interactive methods to navigate students. Over the years, teachers have tested numerous methods to find most suitable and applicable approaches to teach students. This article provides suitable and interactive methods of teaching foreign languages and examines their principles and practical implementations. 

Methodology. 1.Grammar Translation Method. 

Grammar Translation Method is commonly used in traditional classroom, teachers teach grammar rules through using both native and foreign language. This method is mostly appropriate for beginner and elementary students because they are in primary stage in learning language. Grammar Translation Method is not new, it has been used by teachers for many years. It was called Classical Method since it was first used in teaching classical languages: Latin and Greek. In 20^th century, the method was used for the purpose of aiming students to read and comprehend the text in foreign language. It was supposed that through teaching grammar rules of target language students become more familiar with grammar of both native language and foreign language, that this familiarity could enhance their both reading and writing skills.  

Positive sides of GTM:

1. Enhances reading and writing skills. GTM is very effective for overall understanding of texts, especially in literature. Students will be able to interpret various level of complex grammar sentences without any difficulty.
2. Expands vocabulary source. During learning foreign language with GTM, students come across different words and find their meaning if they don’t understand. It helps to learn meaning of new words both in native and target language. 
3. Easy application. GTM does not require any special equipment and atmosphere for teaching. Teachers could use this method in large classroom without difficulty. 
4. Increase analytical thinking. During the lesson, students learn to analyze different structures, that helps to enhance their cognitive and problem-solving skills. 

Negative sides of GMT:

1. Lack of speaking practice. GTM is mainly focuses on grammatical rules, that is why students rarely practice speaking and they can not communicate in real-life situations. 
2. Overemphasis on Grammar. Students practice grammar too much, it makes the lesson boring as well as limits the development of practical skills: listening and speaking. 
3. Decrease student’s motivation. Students can not see any improvement in their practical skills, such as speaking, because of it they may lost their interest in learning language. During the real life, students want to show their knowledge with speaking in foreign language, however if they only learn grammar rules, they may not capable of communicating. 
4. Communicative language teaching. CLT aims broadly to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching. This approach mainly focuses on speaking and real-life communication skills in target language. Students need to know how to speak fluently and efficiently in front of people and how to use language for both educational and practical purposes. CLT introduces language functions and practical applications of target language. The teacher facilitates communication in classroom, the role of teacher is to create situations that force students to apply language in speaking.  CLT can be used with authentic materials, language games, role-plays, stories, scrambled sentences. 

Positive sides of CLA:

1. Student-centred learning. CLT gives an opportunity to show student’s own potential and speaking skills. Learners actively participate in debates, discussions, role-plays and through these activities they will practice speaking. 
2. Integration of skills. During CLT approach, students do tasks which are devoted to listening, reading, writing and speaking skills. This helps them to learn all skills together, increase general knowledge in target language. 
3. Makes learning environment engaging and interactive. Through teaching with CLT, teachers motivate to be engaged in lesson with using different tasks, such as role-plays. While participating in role-play, students try to adapt to scene and communicate with their classmates. Besides, students do roles, as well as dress for the scene. It makes the lesson more captivating and students learn to how to communicate in different situations. 

Negative sides of CLT:

1. Difficulty in large classroom. Teachers could not do any special tasks in large classroom, because of limited time. CLT tasks requires more time and teachers may not manage the time. 
2. Requires skilled and trained teachers. For using CLT teachers should have good communication skills, and they need to be well-trained. In CLT, students focus on communication skill, but teachers should correct their mistakes carefully without interrupting student’s speech. This require both experience and knowledge.
3. Not all levels are ready for CLT. Some students, especially, beginners and elementary group students could not able to speak fluently. They do not have enough vocabulary source and confident to speak. Teachers may face difficulty in attracting all students to lesson.

Result and discussion. A total of 40 students participated in the study and were divided into two groups: a group trained using Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and a group trained using the traditional (Grammar-Translation Method). Data were collected through questionnaires, observations, and tests. According to the results of the questionnaire, 70% of the participants considered the CLT method to be more effective, while 30% of the students preferred the traditional method. Students who studied using the CLT method were more active in the lesson and actively participated in group discussions. The results of the observation showed that in the class where CLT was used, students tried to express their thoughts freely, and about 60% of them actively participated in oral communication. At the same time, 20% of the students made grammatical errors, but this did not significantly hinder their communicative activities. On both written and oral tests, students in the CLT group scored an average of 86%, while students in the traditional group scored an average of 62%. This difference suggests that the CLT approach is more focused on the practical application of students’ knowledge.

Conclusion. The results of this study showed that the Grammar Translation Method (GTM) and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages. The GTM method is effective in in-depth study of grammar rules, written translation, and understanding of language structure. However, this method does not provide sufficient opportunities for developing speaking and listening comprehension skills. CLT, on the other hand, is characterized by involving students in real communication, developing their oral speech, and increasing their communicative competence. According to the results of the study, the CLT method increases students’ activity and develops their ability to use the language practically. At the same time, grammatical accuracy can sometimes take second place in this method. In general, both methods have their place, with GTM being effective in strengthening grammar and academic knowledge, and CLT in developing communicative skills. Therefore, it is advisable to combine these two approaches in the educational process.. .