The Narrative-Communicative Technology of Foreign Language Teaching: Definition and Peculiarities

This article reveals the current situation in education, which is characterized by individualization and intensification of educational process. It becomes important for students not just to acquire communicative speaking skills in a foreign language, but to develop their ability to interact with representatives of the international community using a foreign language as a means of communication. The need of adjusting the organization of teaching oral foreign language communication at university and developing new effective educational technologies is emphasized. A comparative analysis of the methods of teaching oral speech (Storytelling and Storyline) is carried out. The analysis is based on the key elements of the educational process the authors identify within these methods: idea, character, demonstration result of students’ activities, and structure. The main differences of these methods are revealed. They are the creation of a character in the form of a paper model, making a collage as an illustration of a story, and drama (incidents and celebration). Special attention is paid to the description of the Storyline method, which is basic in the development of a narrativecommunicative technology. It is impossible to use this method in its original form in the educational process of the university. The main part of the article is devoted to the description of the authorial narrative-communicative educational technology and its didactic potential in teaching a foreign language as a means of intercultural communication. Features of the technology are described, including integrativeness, discursiveness, contextuality, intercultural orientation, elements of communicative situation, sociocultural conditioning, interactivity, and activity. The characteristics of the technology are also considered. The methodology of teaching based on the narrative-communicative technology includes a set of steps that is consistent with the step-by-step realization of students’ cognitive and narrative-communicative activities, which stimulates gradual “immersion” in the foreign-language context by creating and reproducing the narrative. The educational technology the authors developed appears to be an innovative tool of the teacher’s transformative activity that creates favorable conditions for students’ involvement in dynamic communicative activity, a comfortable educational atmosphere, and an increase in students’ motivation. This technology is a way to reconstruct reality, in which students develop their communication and cognitive skills.