EXERCISES ON FORMING GUESSING IN READING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (ON THE BASIS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE MATERIAL)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of developing the ability to guess in reading in a foreign language. According to the author, the process of mastering reading in a foreign language consists of a number of mechanisms and skills, which include guessing about the meaning of unknown words. The author defines guessing as the ability to reveal the meaning of an unknown word based on the reader's linguistic knowledge and experience. However, the knowledge in the field of the language does not always guarantee the success of the reader's guessing, since this process is directly correlated with the degree of development of the student's thinking, with their ability to carry out many mental actions and operations. In this regard, the author believes that when learning to read in a foreign language, a special technology for the development of guessing is needed, which involves the purposeful development of this skill with the help of special exercises based on the psychophysiological features of the reading process and the main mental operations involved in revealing the meanings of unknown words. The analysis of scientific and scientific-practical works on guessing allowed the author to identify several of the most frequently repeated mental actions and operations that make up guessing and combine them into the following groups: actions and operations on “search-choice”; actions and operations on “comparison-differentiation”; actions and operations on “grouping-classification”; actions and operations on “abstraction-concretization”; actions and operations on “generalization-systematization”. On the basis of these groups of actions and operations, according to the author, one should build exercises for the development of guessing, since the development of the above actions and operations will contribute to the development of the ability to guess in general. Further in the article, the author gives examples of exercises on the material of the English language related to the previously indicated groups, gives the analysis of these exercises and justifies the need for their use for the formation and development of guessing as a skill.