Topicality of the problem of developing future foreign language teachers’ designing skills.

Abstract

In modern textbooks on the language teaching methods future teachers of foreign languages are required only to analyze, evaluate and select tasks from national and foreign textbooks because of the syllabus requirements which contradict current tendencies in education, roles of the teacher in particular. Due to such contradiction numerous pedagogical researches are being done to eliminate the necessity of developing designing skills as well as practicing teachers. However, none of them concerns the procedures and techniques of teaching students designing their own tasks.

Thus, the article is dedicated to justifying the necessity of establishing theoretical grounds of developing foreign language teachers’ designing skills caused by a number of factors.

Introduction of new standards such as the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages and In-service Teacher Professional Development (Ukraine) which define the framework of teachers’ progress including designing learning materials and activities appropriate for learners.

Constant updating of information technologies which should be used by a teacher so as to match interests and needs of the Millenniums.

A wide scope of all possible target language use situations cannot be addressed by any good British textbook.

Some information in textbooks becomes outdated, thus, needs to be substituted.

Introduction of ZNO tests for school-leavers demands from a teacher to train students testing which presupposes good knowledge of test formats and ways to do them.

In-service teachers’ job includes more responsibilities than expected.

It is obvious that theoretical knowledge is not sufficient for doing the real-world teacher’s job. Hence further research must be done relating to the scope of designing skills, methodological tasks, pedagogical conditions for implementation of the special course along with classes of teaching methods, oral and written language practice aimed at developing the target ability. It would be wise to apply procedures used in testing to guarantee good quality of tasks.