«Holistic Approach» у викладанні англійської мови: методичні засади та практична реалізація

        A Holistic Approach to

Education

     Stories and themes are placed together in this article  because they have always been considered to be holistic approaches to language teaching and learning that place a high premium on kid’s involvement with rich, authentic uses of the foreign language. Stories offer a whole imaginary and rich world, created by language itself, that kids can enter and enjoy, learning language as they go. Themes begin from an overarching topic or idea that can branch out in many different directions, permitting learners to pursue personal interests through the foreign language.

      I suppose that we can best serve young learners by adopting a critical stance to the use of stories, aiming to clarify the qualities of fascinating stories for the language classrooms. We should also be careful that our own nostalgia does not push the use of stories beyond the reality of learners' lives in this 'information age'.

    The following practical ready-to-use activity for group work can be applied to  enrich the learning experience for your students:

Focus: Listening for detail

Level: Intermediate-Upper-intermediate

Time: 15'+

Materials: Text, pencil, paper

Procedure:

Students play in groups of three.

    Prepare a brief version of your life story or an anecdote in which some of the facts are false. Read it to the class and ask the students to note down on paper how many false facts they think they heard by drawing Xs.

e.g. four false facts - XXXX

    Repeat the story and the students take notes on what they think the false facts are. In groups, students compare their notes and try to agree on what false facts they heard.

     Give a copy of the text to each group and ask them to underline the false facts they have agreed on. Groups swap texts. Read out the text again pausing at each false fact so that students may mark the papers.

If there were five false facts in the text, and a group correctly identified them, that group scores 5 points.

Groups then prepare their own texts, which they read to the class.

E.g.:

     I was born at a very early age and said my first words at the age of one and a half. I was one of six children, who were all boys, and I am the oldest child in my family. My best subject at school was History, but I went to University to study Physics. I am now 26 years old and my greatest pleasure in life is to be in the classroom with you. My favourite animal (apart from humans) is the tiger, and in the future I would like to live in another country.

      Football began in England about 1000 years ago. Then they didn't have goals - you just had to get the ball from one village to another in any way you could. The first professional sides were formed more than 200 years ago and the most successful team ever is Brazil, which has won the world cup 6 times. Soccer is the most popular young peoples' sport in the USA. The women's USA team has been world champions. More people watch the world cup than the Olympic Games. There is a rule that says all goalkeepers must wear gloves. The oldest player in our national side is the goalkeeper.

     A holistic approach to education nurtures the "whole child". It happens only if a teacher takes advantage of combining emotional, social, ethical, and academic development, rather than concentrating only on test scores. Such activities are aimed at preparing students for life's challenges.