Aims, Content and Principles of flt

Aims are understood here as anticipated, planned results of teaching/learning process. To guide the learners in their instruction and education practical, instructional, educative and formative aims are realized.

Practical aim

It is now recognized that teaching a FL is a task concerned above all with language, and especially with its spoken form. The requirements for practical mastery in four basic skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are represented in the syllabus for every year. The syllabus for the 11-year school says that the learners should have a linguistic and communicative competence which presupposes an adequate proficiency in a foreign language as a means of communication, instruction and independent learning.

It is necessary to distinguish between long-term goals, interim aims and short-term objectives which help the teacher formulate concrete, specific tasks for the lesson or part of it.

The length of the course, the number of hours and the complement of the group are also accounted for in realizing practical aims. The time budget for language learning is the main factor in mastering and maintaining language proficiency. Learning a foreign language enables the pupils to acquire new means of perceiving and expressing their thoughts about objects, notions, phenomena and their relationships. As a means of communication the target language faces some restrictions in terms of verbal means appropriate for a definite situation or occasion (register). Therefore verbal behavior of the learners is limited by a topical selection of material.

As the learner should master a foreign language as a means of communication, he should know how to use it in oral and written forms within the scope outlined in the syllabus. As far as a foreign language is a mandatory subject in the curriculum, the responsibility lies with the teacher to ensure the anticipated results in each purposeful activity and form of communication.

But the ability to communicate in any language consists of a number of subsidiary skills such as enunciation, accentuation, fluency and prosody. Learning a foreign language adds to pupils' mental powers, sharpens their wits, develops their intelligence and broadens their outlook.

Language study is essentially a habit-forming process and an important stage in this process is the elementary stage. If we do not ensure habits of accurate observation, reproduction, and imitation during the first stage, it is doubtful whether we shall ever secure them subsequently.

The function of the elementary stage is to inculcate good habits in a systematic way, and once this work is done there is little or no fear of the learner going astray in his later work. If we take care of the elementary stage, the advanced stage will take care of itself.

Every technique, method, exercise, drill or device should be used which may further the learners in their immediate purpose and bring them nearer to their ultimate goal. Adopt every good idea and leave the door open for all future developments: reject nothing except useless and harmful forms of work. This approach favours a communicative method of FLT for it embodies the most appropriate means towards the required end - the mastery of four areas of linguistic ability.

And finally, practical aims encompass certain volumes of language material: phonetical, lexical and grammatical items. Some of this material is subject to reproductive assimilation, some to perceptive; these are also known as active and passive language material.

The aim envisages a guideline, i.e. strategy of teaching and is accomplished during solving of a number of specific tasks which act as tactics. They determine the learners' activities, their work with basic and ancillary means of instruction, inculcation of habits (phonetical, grammatical, lexical, orthographic, etc.) and ability to understand English, to read aloud and silently, and to speak within a set range of situations.

It should be mentioned that the achievement of practical aims in FLT makes possible the realization of instructional, educational, and formative ones.

So, learning a FL is understood here as an aim and as a means of instruction with clear-cut, short, interim and ultimate goals, rational planning in all types of activity with special emphasis on communicative competence at all levels.