A Technology for Developing the Communicative and Speech Skills of Pupils in the Process of Studying the History of Uzbekistan (On the Material of Grade 8)

This article substantiates a technology for developing the communicative and speech skills of pupils in the process of studying the History of Uzbekistan, elaborated on the material of grade 8. The study proceeds from the speech paradox of the history lesson: the subject offers more occasions for extended speech than almost any other, yet pupils in it speak less than in most, since the teacher narrates and the pupil answers in single words. The author substantiates the distinction between reproductive speech, which retells a source, and productive speech, which constructs a claim and defends it with evidence, and shows that only the latter develops either historical thinking or speech competence. Four speech genres proper to the subject are distinguished — historical narration, explanation of causes, argumentation of an assessment, and the questioning of a source — each with its own structure and linguistic means. A technology of four stages and three levels is elaborated, together with a system of assessment separating the quality of reasoning from the quality of its linguistic expression. The polemic between S. Krashen and M. Swain concerning the role of output in language development is subjected to critical examination.