DEVELOPING ORAL LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE THROUGH AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

Аннотация

The article addresses one of the most crucial issues related to authentic materials and highlights how to organize meaningful activities for use in ESP lessons in the fields of biology and chemistry. The author proposes methods for organizing various pre-, while-, and post- speaking activities based on two listening tracks and explains how to implement them in actual teaching practice. Key words: language performance, English for Specific Purposes, authentic materials, speaking andlisteningskills, teaching materials Аннотация: Статья рассматривает одну из наиболее важных проблем, связанных с использованием аутентичных материалов, и освещает способы организации содержательных заданий для занятий по английскому языку для специальных целей (ESP) в области биологии и химии. Автор предлагает методы организации различных этапов речевой деятельности — до, во время и после прослушивания — на основе двух аудиотрекови объясняет,как внедрить ихвреальную педагогическую практику. Ключевые слова: речевая деятельность, английский для специальных целей, аутентичныематериалы,навыкиговорения иаудирования,учебныематериалы Annotatsiya:Maqoladaautentik materiallar bilan bog‘liqeng dolzarb muammolardan biri ko‘rib chiqilib, biologiya va kimyo sohalarida ESP (aniq maqsadlarga yo’naltirilgan ingliz tili) darslarida mazmunli faoliyat turlarini qanday tashkil etish mumkinligi yoritib beriladi. Muallif ikkita audioyozuv asosida tinglashdan oldin, tinglash jarayonida va tinglagandan keyingi turli gapirish faoliyatlarini tashkil etish usullarini taklif etadi hamda ularni amaliy o‘qitish jarayonida qanday qo‘llash mumkinligini tushuntiradi. Kalit so‘zlar: til kompetensiyasi, aniq maqsadlarg ayo’naltirilgan ingliz tili, autentik materiallar, tinglash va gapirish ko‘nikmalari, o‘quvmateriallari One of the most pressing challenges methodologists have faced over the years is how to select authentic materials to improve learners’ listening skills, which are defined as “the ability to understand spoken language” (Rankin, p. 847). The concept of authentic materials and their selection—based on learners’ needs, proficiency levels, course objectives, and other factors— have been proposed by a number of language experts, who are adamant that these sources are indispensible part of our teaching if applied into teaching process with discretion. Virtually, authentic listening sources are considered essential in developing speaking skills, as they provide students with opportunities to build their lexical repertoire and learn vocabulary commonly encountered in everyday conversation. Furthermore, authentic texts often include not only a valuable range of vocabulary in the target language but also its grammatical structures and, most 25 Volume 4, issue 4, 2025 importantly, pronunciation as produced by native speakers. These features make authentic materials vital toolsfor improvingspoken English skills. A thorough analysis of authentic materials and conclusions regarding their selection can enable language instructors to design a number of activities based on listening texts. It should be noted that thecriteria for selecting authentic materials to enhance language performance, which include some important factors ranging from learners’ needs to skill-oriented aspects, serve as the foundation for choosing listening sources. In other words, when selecting authentic listening materials, a few factors must be considered: whether the content was relevant to learners’ needs and levels; whether it aligned with course objectives; whether it was skill-oriented (in our case, aimed at developing listening skills); whether it was engaging for learners (i.e., capable of capturing their attention);and whether theinformation provided in thematerial was informative. As the burgeoning technological era offers a variety of opportunities for teachers to access a wide range of teaching resources, numerous authentic listening materials can now be found on the web and selected to tailor instructional content to learners’ individual needs. However, simply having access to these sources is not enough to ensure successful lessons unless activities are also designed to assess learning outcomes. This raises an important question: what kinds of activities can be created, and how can they be organized to enhance learners’ language performance? To explore this, we will examine two sample listening tracks from a radio podcast series—Amazing Facts and Advice for Exams—and analyze how to create different types of activities forpotential students at avocational collegespecializing in agriculture. The listening material “Amazing facts” can particularly be suitable for students at a Vocational Technological College, whose major involves working with oil and grain products and investigating their components. As part of their studies, they focus on subjects such as biology and chemistry. Notably, the Amazing Facts listening task includes conversations about bacteria, which are directly rel