BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE EFL COMMUNICATION: A LOOK AT SENSE-MAKING TECHNIQUES

• Main Author: Elena Stakanova
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Association for the Development of Science, Engineering and Education 2018-12-01
• Series: International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education
• Subjects: sense-making techniques; motivation; language barriers; english as a foreign language; meaning-centered instruction
• Online Access: https://ijcrsee.com/index.php/ijcrsee/article/view/304

The present “new wave” investigation tackles cutting-edge perspectives of one of the most pressing problems – breaking down the barriers to effective fluent English communication. The publication reflects a broad array of studies in the area of methodology of teaching English. The investigation distills the research about sense-making techniques in the language awareness. The paper reveals obstacles and reasons for language barriers to fluent English communication. The author demonstrates an alternative way of approaching the problem of English as a foreign language acquisition. We undertake the empirical investigation of how foreign languages are learnt and taught using sense-making techniques. A foreign language should become a personal need for students allowing them to set goals, choose language improvement strategies, and exercise self-esteem and self-control. Against the backdrops of research, the experiment was carried out. Those tested were 85 students of Southern Federal University, Russia. They were split into two groups: a control group of tertiary participants who were given an instruction using traditional methods of teaching English; and a second group –experimental one implementing sense-making techniques in learning a target language.