The use of games and creative tasks in foreign language lessons as a means of developing communication skills of pupils
Timur Tulebayev, additional education teacher
kids and teenage club "Zhiger", Pavlodar
The modern educational paradigm determines the importance of the socio-cultural function of education, where the personality is recognized as the main value, and culture is the means of its formation. One of the indicators of culture is the nature, content and structure of human communication with the subjective and objective world. In communication, the formation of an original, creative personality takes place. Personal communication is a phenomenon of human life, culture and socialization. In the modern world, the problem of developing communication skills in children is quite acute, because with the advent of gadgets, computer games and various gaming devices, children are increasingly immersed in virtual reality, losing touch with the real world.
The problem of educating a culture of communication in children was dealt with by specialists in the field of pedagogy and psychology: L.S. Vygotsky, V.G. Nechaeva, M.I. Lisina, E.O. Smirnova, E.V. Savushkina, L.N. Galiguzova, E.A. Alyabyeva, S.A. Kozlova and others. They note that, for example, at preschool age, the child's need for communication is not compensated in any way. Lack of communication contributes to the child's state of extreme distress. L.S. Vygotsky defined personality as a product of activity and experience of its communication with other people. M.I. Lisina investigated the relationship between the development of communication skills and the mental development of the child as a whole. She came to the conclusion that the lack of communication at preschool age hinders the development of the child's psyche, contributes to the emergence of anxiety and aggressiveness [1]. In modern science, the concept of "communication skills" is considered from different points of view. So, M.V. Shmatko defines communication skills as a condition for effective communication, used in a pre-planned act of verbal and non-verbal influence [2]. O.A. Svetlyakova considers communication skills as the ability to use one's knowledge, verbal and non-verbal skills to achieve communication goals. The author distinguishes three groups of communication skills: informational, perceptual, behavioral-applied [3]. Often, communication skills as indicators of communicative competence are used to determine the level of language acquisition (L.F. Nizaeva) [4].
The emergence and spread of various gadgets, social networks provoked the emergence of a special type of written communication (chats, messages) without spelling and syntactic rules and forms of politeness, the main feature of which was brevity and minimal keystrokes. As they grow older, modern children are increasingly “listening with their eyes”, reading SMS messages and chatting, and “talking with their fingers”. Leading neuropsychologists testify to the ongoing and omnipresent drama to come - the loss of their native language by modern children - the bearer of the axis of consciousness.
If we analyze the life situation of a modern student, then the free communication of children takes up a small part of the time of their life. As a rule, this happens during regime moments (walk, free play). The current situation does not allow the effective development of certain personal qualities that are formed in different situations and different forms of activity, when the child is given the opportunity to correlate his behavior with the requirements of the situation, the expectations of other people, to update the psychological reserves of the individual in accordance with the situation of communication and interpersonal interaction.
Thus, if we try to characterize the general situation of children in the modern world, then this is due to the processes of globalization and the changing role of traditions in people's lives. Therefore, children in the modern world, regardless of the society or state in which they live, experience the full burden of successes and mistakes accumulated by society. In the social perception of childhood, economic indicators, technological achievements, social characteristics, cultural values and ideological representations that dominate society are integrated. It is very important that the child goes through the process of successful socialization, as this will be the basis of his development in the future.
Children's creativity and play helps to develop a sense of proportion, beauty, helps to discover children's potential, has a beneficial effect on motor skills, helps to better understand color, fits into shape, normalizes hyperactivity, the child develops faster, communicates with peers and gains new knowledge and skills, creativity is an auxiliary factor in the development of communication skills.
In this aspect, the organization of additional education becomes one of the places where children can be creative, show their initiative and independence without fear, and also interact with children of different ages in a variety of activities that the family cannot create.
The use of elements of creativity in foreign language lessons has long been included in the methodology of teachers. Almost every teacher has used their drawing, singing, role-playing, or theater performance at least once. The creative level of work is associated with the formation of skills and abilities to search for more complex communicative tasks, both in oral speech and in reading, for example, acting in accordance with the proposed circumstances and taking on a role, preparing a message on a specific topic, listening to a message and expressing their attitude to its content; read the story and answer problematic questions in connection with the content-semantic plan of the text, interpret the main idea of the text in order to stimulate the formation of educational and cognitive motives.
To study this issue and conduct research, from February to May 2021, studies were conducted on the basis of the kids and teenage club “Zhiger”, which organizes children's leisure and holidays in the city of Pavlodar. The purpose of the study was to conduct classes for children from 7 to 15 years old in English using various types of creative activities and game tasks, and track the results, i.e. whether the creative direction of education helps children go through the process of socialization and find a common language together. In particular, lesson plans were developed for these lessons, taking into account the age of the children. When developing lessons, a mandatory new vocabulary was introduced on the topic under study, creative activities related to the topic under study, as well as games, which are also a factor that brings children closer to each other.
Children are very fond of collective creativity: it can be drawing, application, modeling, designing. The creation of common, collective pictures, compositions, where each child takes part, gives special satisfaction to children. Such work truly arouses their admiration. And here it is just possible to observe the mutual influence of material and spiritual culture. A.S. Makarenko spoke about raising children in a team. The team has a powerful influence on the formation of personality, and the implementation of creative work also contributes to the development of all aspects of the personality. Games also arouse great interest in children, as in the game you can try on different roles.
In this regard, the solution of the problems of forming collective relationships is inextricably linked with the implementation of the further development of sustainable friendly relations in the children's team, the education of a culture of communication (mastering the rules of politeness in relation to peers), organized behavior (the ability to consciously follow the rules of behavior, obey the general requirements established in group, act in concert and work together to achieve the goal).
According to the observations, from the first lesson, when performing a creative task, the children became more active, they had an interest in the lesson, they began to talk, looked at each other, helped each other to do something. Already from the first lesson, they define themselves as a group of communication, the task of the teacher is not to allow the division into groups, the division of interests. We need to unite children into one team, create a comfortable atmosphere where each child can feel free and active, for this it is necessary to use creativity, which is a well-deserved tool for personal development. Since creativity is an activity that allows us to bring out the potential of a child, much attention has been paid to these creative tasks in these lessons.
In all classes, one general trend can be noted: at the beginning and at the end of the lesson, the children experienced significant changes in behavior, attitude towards the teacher and other children, increased activity and participation in the learning process. Criteria for determining changes: changes in speech, tone and tonality, facial expressions, attitudes; communication with other children; establishing relationships with the group; full or partial participation in the lesson, manifestations of emotions. So, at the beginning of classes, all the children behaved with restraint, watchfulness, the quiet timbre of the voice and indistinct speech prevailed. After joint creative work or participation in the game, 95% of children began to behave more confidently, actively participate in the learning process, discuss common ideas with other children, increase the timbre of their voices, express joy through smiles, laughter, open and warm looks. During the game, the children also made contacts and developed their communication skills, since all the games were aimed specifically at developing these skills, taking an interview, playing a scene, etc.
Thus, it can be concluded that creative tasks and the use of games in teaching a foreign language have a positive effect on children and can serve as a way to develop communication skills in children.
List of references
1 Lisina, M.I. Development of communication with peers [Text] // Preschool education / M.I. Lisina. - 2009. - No. 3. - P. 22. (translated from Russian)
2. Shmatko M.V. The influence of social networks on the communication skills of adolescents // Humanitarian scientific research. 2016. No. 12 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://human.snauka. ru/2016/12/18054 (date of access: 27.01.2022). (translated from Russian)
3. Svetlyakova O.A. Problems of formation of communicative skills of university students // Actual problems of the humanities and natural sciences. 2014. No. 10. P. 381-384. (translated from Russian)
4. Nizaeva L.F. Communicative competence: essence and components // Young scientist: Series: Pedagogy. 2016. No. 28 (132). pp. 933-934. (translated from Russian)
