Teaching of the second foreign language in the school education in Ukraine: problems and perspectives

Abstract

The issue of the introduction of a second foreign language in general education in Ukraine is under consideration in the article. Tasks of teaching a second foreign language and practice of their solving have been studied, and arising issues have been identified. The attention has been drawn to the features of teaching a second foreign language and the need to use the points of the didactics of multilingualism, especially using the previous language and educational experience of students which are supposed to be transferred to them. Teaching a second foreign language is accompanied by the elements of interference phenomena that negatively affect the learning process, so it is important to deal with such effects or reduce them. The measures to facilitate the solution of problems which are in the sphere of a second foreign language teaching in the national system of school education have been taken. Issues of teaching a second foreign language in school system of education should be addressed on two levels: at the organizational and the methodological levels. Among the proposals, the implementation of which would improve the situation, it should be pointed out that it is important to provide curriculum for teachers of foreign languages with courses of teaching methods of second  language or include a separate module to exchange methods of teaching foreign languages; offer within teacher training courses teaching methods of the second foreign language; prepare teachers of foreign languages (two languages), who would master both languages at the appropriate level; in teaching a second foreign language would use didactics of multilingualism, parallel study of methods of related languages (eg English and German); contribute to the development through linguistic curriculum for secondary education, which would allow an interdisciplinary manner to avoid repetitions in the content of learning objects of linguistic units; diversification of language offer, because today English as L3 is studied at almost 95 % of schools, as well as German as a second language is offered, or at least – French. Only in the capital and major cities in gymnasiums and schools with advanced study of foreign languages other foreign languages such as Spanish, Chinese are offered, in certain regions, also minor languages such as Polish, Czech, Hungarian and others are offered as well.