USE OF MEDIA MATERIALS IN TEACHING ENGLISH: INTERPRETATION OF GENERAL DIDACTIC PRINCIPLES

Abstract

The article considers some aspects of the use of mass media in teaching English to students of nonlinguistic specialties. In particular, special attention has been paid to general didactic principles and their interpretation. We have tried to substantiate the use of mass media in teaching English in terms of these principles. It has been demonstrated that the use of mass media contributes to the combination of education with upbringing, in particular, environmental, patriotic, aesthetic education. The need to diversify media sources for training students in accordance with their specialties has been proven. It is suggested that the student should gain experience of independent acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities for his or her further independent study. It has been proven that a student assimilates educational material better when he or she is an active subject of cognition. It is important to use atypical, paradoxical, comical moments in the educational process. It has been suggested to combine information perceived through different senses. It has been demonstrated that work with Internet websites contributes to the expansion of media literacy. Training should be organized on the basis of methodological pluralism. Any part of media material should be discussed from a critical point of view. Students should analyze media content from a scientific point of view as well. It has been proven that work with media materials should be carried out systematically. In our opinion, it is possible to use tables and databases in order to systematize knowledge about the Englishlanguage media discourse. It was emphasized that media materials are important not per se, but as a tool of the educational process. Therefore, there is no need to memorize the specific data, but the main aspects of the journalistic style are worth remembering. So, after reading a lot of newspaper headlines, students will learn the peculiarities of their writing in English. It is better to use the mass media that is in the public domain. This will make students acquire knowledge earlier and eliminate the need to purchase materials. The oral speech should be clear and understandable. It is necessary to take into account the psychological characteristics of memorization (visuals, auditory and kinesthetics, i.e. the perception of material in different ways). In addition, the individual needs of each student should be taken into account, and from this point of view, the tasks should be flexible (if possible). The assignments depend on age, specialty and interests of the student. Learning English as the first or second foreign language also matters. Some students have already graduated from some other high school, and this factor also should be taken into consideration. In our opinion, the implementation of all the considered principles is necessary, therefore, one should strive for the best and most efficient use of all available means, methods and forms of teaching English, including the latest media technologies. The article uses systemic, comparative methods, document analysis method, case study, etc.

Keywords

• educational process
• teaching principles
• teaching english
• mass media
• political discourse