INTERACTIVE APPROACH AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR TEACHING SPANISH IN HIGHER EDUCATION

There are many active and interactive methods in modern
methodology. We will focus on those that have been researched
and already tested in the personal professional and pedagogical
practice at the Institute of foreign languages of Peoples’
Friendship University of Russia (PFUR).
The objectives of the study are to find the impact of interactive
approach on the students in Spanish Language learning and
suggest measures for teaching language skills by using an
interactive approach.
It is assumed that the program of teaching a language is based on
knowledge, skills, and abilities acquired in the necessary course
of the general education school. However, the practice of work
shows that students have different levels of training. The reason
is that the prospective university students of PFUR are the school
leavers not only from different regions of Russia but abroad. A
different social environment plays here of great importance.
Some students have not studied a foreign language at all or
studied the other language. It requires a differentiated approach to
the students to develop a sense of self-confidence in their
abilities. Moreover, undoubtedly, the interactive method of
teaching foreign languages assists the teachers. It is aimed at the
simultaneous solution of several problems: communicativecognitive, communication skills teaching; concrete-cognitive,
considering a specific educational situation; socially-oriented,
shaping and developing adequate socialization of a person outside
the educational situation.
The effectiveness of the learning process depends on the
implementation of the following principles: an integrated
approach to the communicative-situational basis; interactivity;
differentiated approach; inclusion; variability of the operating
mode; problematicity (both in the organization of teaching
materials, and the learning process itself).
The novelty of the use of interactive methods includes important
and necessary key points, tasks that are entirely unnecessary in
traditional methods, widely used in our education system until
recently. The interactive method requires the mandatory inclusion
of each student studying the Spanish language in the process of
learning and practical application. It forms the skill of teamwork,
where an educator brings the leadership skills up and increases
cognitive motivation. Interactive methods of work develop the
skills of self-study, self-searching for materials on the studied
topic, teach the skills of successful communication. Such activity
in the classroom allows the student to take responsibility for joint
and own activities. It is necessary for the formation of the
personal qualities of a linguistic student. It is important not the
number of the received information but how it was obtained, the
ability to apply it in practice and whether it is personally
significant for students. A teacher is required to make a severe
change in his/her professional thinking and activities in order to
change his/her educational activities.
A control group of students from the Institute of Foreign
Languages was taken to conduct experimental training. It
included three stages: 1) preparatory; 2) the stage of experiential
learning; 3) the stage of processing and interpreting the data. In
the course of experimental training, the teachers formulated the
purpose and tasks, defined the ways of checking the
effectiveness: testing, oral questioning, video interviewing, and
conversation. The goal of experiential learning is to evaluate the
effectiveness of learning Spanish using interactive techniques in a
group with a threshold level of proficiency in Spanish. The
formulated goal has determined a range of specific tasks that we
solved in the course of experiential education:
– to test the effectiveness of training using interactive forms of
education;
– to improve the level of speaking skills of students in Spanish
classes.
Thanks to experimental learning students enhanced their
motivation and developed communicative competence, which is
too important in our contemporary world.
Keywords: Spanish, interactive approach, communicative
competence, cognitive motivation, interactive techniques.