The Principles of Teaching

Didactic principles

Linguistic principles

Psychological principles

Methodological principles proper

Principles of teaching are points of departure, which determine the requirements to educational process as a whole and its constituents (objectives, tasks, methods, means, organizational forms and the process of teaching).

Didactic principles

These principles reflect basic tenets of the theory of education and teaching, elaborated in didactics. They are used in teaching various disciplines and do not depend on the subject of education. Meanwhile, the application of didactic principles in each concrete discipline has its own peculiarities, reflecting the specific character of the studied subject.

The Principles of Teaching

Didactic	Linguistic	Psychological	Methodological Proper
1. Consciousness 2. Activity 3. Visuality 4. Durability 5. Accessibility and feasibility 6. Cross-subject co-ordination 7. Cross-cultural interaction 8. Teacher’s professional competence	1. Systemness 2. Concentrism 3. Differentiation of linguistic phenomena at a level of language and speech 4. Functionality 5. Stylistic differentiation 6. Minimization of language	1. Motivation 2. Staginess in forming speech habits and skills 3. Individualization 4. Taking into account adaptational processes	1.Communicativeness 2. Taking into account learners’ native tongue 3. Oral basis 4. Intergrated teaching 5. Professional orientation of teaching 6. Approximation 7. Situational-thematic organization of teaching 8. Taking into account the level of language profeciency

The principle of consciousness involves students’ understanding of foreign speech, recognizing the units it consists of and the ability to use them appropriately. According to this principle language knowledge is acquired as a result of informing rules to the pupils, giving instructions, commentaries, explaining meaning of lexical-grammatical units.

The principle of activity emphasizes learners’ active verbal participation in class in the foreign language.

The principle of visuality is one of the leading ones. The interpretation of the principle goes back to the “golden rule” of Y.A.Komensky (“… everything possible may be introduced for perception with the help of sense”). There are two directions of visuality use – as a means of teaching and cognition. In the first case specially chosen visual-auditory models (sound recording, tables, diagrams, training pictures, films and video-films, computer programmes) help learners to acquire sound pronouncing language norms, lexical-grammatical units, to learn speech comprehension from listening and express one’s thoughts within the framework of the chosen number of topics and situations of communication. In the second case means of visuality appear in the role of the source of information, acquainting the pupils with the country of the studied language.

The principle of durability implies a constant growth of language and speech units, words, word-combinations, idioms, clichés which are to be stored and retained in the pupils’ memory so that the learners could use them in different situations of communication. This principle is connected with the principle of consciousness: soundly memorized are the things that are understood and sensible to the pupils.

The principle of accessibility and feasibility requires the gradation of the material according to pupils’ age and intellectual abilities so that its mastering does not cause insurmountable difficulties.

The principle of cross-subject co-ordination presupposes agreement of themes of various disciplines with the aim of excluding their duplication and forming an integral perception of objects and phenomena of the world around.

The principle of cross-cultural interaction presupposes such an organization of the education-upbringing process at which a teacher takes into account national-cultural peculiarities of pupils under the conditions of cross-cultural interaction with native speakers.

The principle of professional competentcy of a teachercharacterizes the knowledge, abilities and beliefs a professional teacher possesses to promote effective learning and teaching and to help the learner achieve their full potential.

Professional-pedagogical skills constitute the basis of professional competentness, generalized in a teacher’s professiogramme, including the following skills: communicative (language skills and abilities of professional-pedagogical communication), organizational (the ability to organize both one’s own activities and pupils’ activities), gnostic (the ability to analyze pupils’ capacities to language acquisition and retain motivation in work), assessing (connected with the ability to assess the level of the formed habits and skills and make their corrections).

Linguistic principles