REPRESENTATION OF INFORMATION ABOUT STUDENTS’ NATIVE COUNTRY IN THE PROCESS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AT SECONDARY SCHOOL (1970s – beginning of the 21ST century)

Abstract

In historical retrospective the author analyzes didactic and methodological approaches to presenting information about students’ native culture and country in the process of foreign language learning at secondary school. According to the obtained data, in the Soviet period information about students’ native country prevailed in the school textbooks, whereas sociocultural block was concise and had little potential to form an adequate notion of foreign countries and their cultures. After Ukraine gained its independence in the 1990s authors had more opportunity to experiment with various methods and put greater emphasis on sociocultural aspects in their textbooks. Although information about the native country was minimized in comparison with the previous period, it remained a compulsory element of foreign language learning. The author who was able to suggest new approaches to integrating information about the students’ native country in educational process was O. I. Lytvynyuk. At the beginning of the 21st century integration of sociocultural elements with information about students’ native culture has become an indispensable component of foreign language learning which helps to model educational process as the ‘dialogue of cultures’. In order to provide such a dialogue students are encouraged to compare various aspects of life in a foreign and their own country. It is deemed that activities which serve this purpose best are the following: project work, communicative situations and mediation. Besides, the author outlines recommendations aimed at enhancing the way of presenting information about students’ native culture by defining which information is to be taught at various levels of education. These recommendations are to be incorporated in school curriculum.