The 'Communicative Circle' Method in Teaching English at a University

Abstract

The article analyses the problems arising in teaching English at a technical university, offers and describes a new integrated method of teaching listening, reading and speaking called the Communicative Circle method. The development of the pragmatic, integrated method of Communicative Circle builds upon the linguo-didactic, integrated, and activity approaches, and the theory of three levels of awareness of learning. These perspectives are reflected in the integration of listening, reading and speaking skills, three stages of teaching, regarding the psychological phases of awareness of the studied material, and the choice of tasks according to the students' abilities, basic skills and the tempo of learning. In the course of study students are gradually offered more complicated tasks for training speaking and texts for reading and listening, and the whole teaching process builds upon broadening some professional and scientific knowledge of students at a technical university. The efficiency of the developed Communicative Circle method is verified in the course of a two-year experiment. The results of teaching by the traditional program (developed on the basis of the Federal State Standards) and by the method of the Communicative Circle are compared and evaluated. The article concludes a greater efficiency of the developed method which reveals itself in higher English proficiency, confidence, and wider professional purview of the students who were taught by the Communicative Circle method.