Сборник научных статей научно-практической конференции «Байтанаевские чтения-Х»

511 
UDC 81-13 
PROBLEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES OF TEACHING FOREIGN 
LANGUAGE AT EARLY AGES 
Shaizanda B.B.–
student of 1703-30 group 
Research supervisor: Ibragimova T.A.
-Senior Lecturer 
South Kazakhstan state pedagogical university,Shymkent
Түйін: 
Ағылшын тілін мектеп жасындағы балаларға үйретудің әдіс – тәсілдері мен 
қиындықтары қарастырылады. Сонымен қатар, балалардың жас ерекшеліктеріне қарай 
шет тілдерін ерте жастан үйретудің механизмдері көрсетіледі. 
 
Learning foreign language is not a hobby, but as a result of globalization it 
turned out to be an obligation. “Language is a vehicle required for effective human to 
human interactions and yields a better understanding of one’s own language and 
culture.” [1] Hence, in our modern world schools has started to teach English 
language at an early age. This is an inevitable fact that this process has its own ups 
and downs, as upbringing a new personality from scratch with its own cultures and 
attitudes is a daunting task indeed. The foreign language learning process itself has 
undergone a significant paradigm shift in the past decade, as it started with mastering 
a language through mimetic activities during the lessons or learning processes. 
Nowadays, instead, modern – innovative methods are accompanied by cutting edge 
curriculum as well as the supplementary up – to – date technical appliances 
respectively- which reduce the dullness level of the lesson. Not only that, but audio 
and video materials guarantee the significance of the process. If we compare the 
foreign language learning sources of “now” and “then” - it’s obvious that updated 
books include more “daily expressions” rather than those “academic words” that are 
less beneficial in everyday language. However, the learning purposes should be 
considered as well.

In Kazakhstan English language is taught from the 1

st
grade of school, which is 
the same as in the most countries of the World. In spite of that, most of the teachers 
and students face with different problems during the FLL process.
According to the linguists, if the child starts mastering a new language apart 
from his mother tongue, he will definitely experience the being short of expressions 
in both languages, as it is difficult for him to focus on one particular language. 
However, this process usually does not lasts for a long time, as children are quick to 
adapt – when they reach the age of 8 or 9, it is easier for them to speak all those 
languages and understand them as well. 
Yet, here is one major task that teachers should handle: as children learn to 
write and read for the first time in the 1
st
grade, they will not be able to manage to 
master reading and writing in several different languages. Consequently, more and 
mostly teachers advise to concentrate on listening and speaking skills rather than the 
abilities of reading and writing at early stages of teaching foreign language.
 
How to teach a foreign language, which theory will be based on and which 
method will be used is one of the most important questions emphasized by educators. 
There is no single proper method in foreign language teaching because each child has 
individual differences in terms of developmental characteristics, needs, motivation, 

512 
and learning style - hence, many teaching methods are synthesized and used together 
in foreign language teaching.
 
There are several existing methods that are distinguished from one another by 
specific features of being student or teacher – centered the role of mother tongue in 
the learning process as well as the approach taken as basis.
Direct method is also called “Natural process” and defined as mastering a 
foreign language in a way that the child’s mother tongue is learned. 19
th
century’s 
reformer Marcel had a great influence in the formation of this method. According to 
his speech, teachers should focus on four skills which are reading, speaking, listening 
and writing, but those should be taught in a meaningful way e.g. speaking is supposed 
to be mastered through reading texts. The interesting point is that he considers 
writing to be less important and ranks this ability in the last place. However, as far as 
his studies, reading skills are better to be acquired before any other skill – which 
shows its supremacy in the FLL process. Marcel suggests repeating the same 
expressions as much as possible – every time focusing on different point, as voice 
tone, emotions, gestures and actions. [2] 
After America decided to participate in the World War II, between 1930 – 
1950 years, foreign language gained significance and demand for English speaking 
people increased many times. Therefore, the universities of the United States started 
creating a new foreign language learning techniques. Linguist Charles Fries was in 
charge of new method called ASTP, which stands for Army Specialized Training 
Program, and with his support army method was soon applied in schools. They 
succeeded in a short period of time and the Army was able to speak and understand 
English easily. But this method contained no grammar and translations at all, but a 
huge amount of verbal activities such as pronunciation, speaking practice and 
dialogue exercises. Later on linguists started to use this brand - new way of teaching 
a foreign language in their practices. The Auditory-Linguistic Method or Audio – 
Lingual method presents in the form of a systematic method for incorporating not 
only the sound parts of a language but also the functioning patterns of rhythm and 
intonation, grammatical system, word sets, as well as all social and cultural 
meanings. It uses the oral approach in language teaching primarily in the first stage of 
language learning and does not deny reading and writing skills at any stage of 
language learning. It kept the main principles of Direct method but at the same time 
refuses Grammar teaching.
The Audio – Lingual process relies on forming a correct habit or in other words 
– behavior. Adults show the children a particular expression by demonstrating it 
clearly with his voice, actions and gestures, and the child repeats respectively. Yet, 
relatively, before imitating children should listen to the statement several times.
Brooks, one of the language teaching theorists, supported the auditory-
linguistic method, argued that language is a behavior, that learning a language 
includes how to behave instead of learning how to use grammar, and that this 
behavior is best learned by establishing appropriate habits. [3] 
In the classroom implementation phase of this method importance is given to 
listening and speaking. Teacher presents the particular set of phrases, usually those 

513 
that are widely used in daily life conversations, repeats them and just them gives the 
students experience it by making dialogues. The dialogue is repeated more than once 
and after each sentence the class repeats the same sentence, followed by role – 
playing according to the given topic. In the further lessons their roles are changed in 
the mean of learning them all.
The only criticism of this method is that as far as the statement of Chomsky, 
there will be only a limited amount of phrases or words to memorize as it is 
impossible to demonstrate an unlimited range of vocabularies through habit 
formation.
 
Although there are a particular amount of so – called problems of teaching a 
foreign language at early ages, its benefits outweigh drawbacks. Also foreign 
language learning process is not as easy task and there are no determined methods of 
mastering it, several pedagogical methods should be used considering the personal 
development, abilities as well as the interests of the children.
In conclusion, it is noticeable that teaching methods changed through decades 
depending on conditions and the requirements of the time relatively. The most 
considerable fact is that studying a new language as foreign language requires not 
only innovative resources like books, technologies and etc, but also appropriate 
approach considering different factors, including personal development of a child, the 
interests and aims of the learner as well as the characteristics of a child.
The universal proper method has not been invented yet, subsequently it is a 
tutors’ duty to define the most convenient technique so that students stay motivated, 
always make an attempt to keep learning.

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