USE OF “THE LINK THEORY” IN FORMING LEXICAL SKILLS AT ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSES

Abstract

At present, the conditions of future specialist training must meet their practical needs and consist in the intensification of teaching process while vocabulary training, in the continuous expansion of words fund and the possibility of its use in various communication situations, in the development of lexical skills and abilities as one of the most important components of teaching English. Professionally oriented training in English gains special relevance due to the need of communication in English during the professional activity by students. The article analyzes the range of issues related to English vocabulary training. In the article is considered the problem of use of the theory of links in making up exercises on formation of lexical skills when training lexicon within professionally oriented training in English. Among the most characteristic problems, the author notes the random nature of the lexical units selection for training; insufficient work to consolidate and repeat vocabulary in the classroom, which leads to the fast words forgetting; insufficient work on word formation; words introduction in the form of lists, out of the context, with the task to learn by heart what does not develop the ability to use them in speech. The theory of links represents such a sequence of educational actions which helps to develop skills of operating by the language material and to develop abilities to learn and use this language material in receptive and productive types of the speech activity. The main characteristics of English are provided in the article for the special purposes, allocated by the British linguist Tony Dudley-Evans, and also recommendations during the professionally oriented training of the foreign language of students of non-language higher education institutions, offered by a group of coauthors. The author underlines that vocabulary is generally given less time and attention than grammar. The relevance of the topic of this article is determined by the insufficient elaboration of the problem of teaching vocabulary in a higher educational institution from the position of the modern teaching methodology. The article discusses the effectiveness of using the “theory of links” as a tool for the gradual formation of lexical skills. The concept of the “theory of links” is considered. The technique of lexical skills formation using the “theory of links” is presented. Examples of tasks definitions for the lexical exercises developed based on the classification of links are given. It was concluded that the use of the “theory of links” in the formation of lexical skills will ensure the gradation of tasks from simpler to more complex, which in its turn will contribute to the effective formation of lexical skills.