Forming High School Students’ Speech Competence on the Basis of Texts on Ecology in English Textbooks

Abstract

The paper is a survey of the texts presented in 70 English language schoolbooks and teaching materials recommended for school use by Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science. The results of the survey have revealed the fact that 75 per cent of surveyed books do not contain the texts on ecology. The topics of the texts in the remaining 25 per cent of books concern such issues as environmental pollution (47% of texts), environmental protection (24%), natural catastrophes and disasters (22%), energy saving and rational use of energy resources (4%) and renewable sources of energy (3%).
The texts on energy saving, rational use of energy resources and renewable sources of energy are least presented in the English textbooks for high school students, which gave the authors the ground to suggest possible ways to develop “ecological awareness and healthy lifestyle” speech competence by way of making up listening, speaking, reading, writing and vocabulary exercises and tasks.
About 60 terms and phrases on energy saving and renewable sources of energy have been used in the making up of exercises and tasks for the English lessons. Cooperative-interactive teaching technologies have been employed for the exercise and tasks. The proposed teaching material also allows to develop the students’ analytical and critical thinking skills concerning energy saving, rational use of energy resources and renewable sources of energy in the context of “ecological awareness and healthy lifestyle” competence.