Abstract:

This study proves great importance of Information Technology in foreign language teaching. The former refers to both technical equipment and innovative teaching methods. By the main types of IT we consider such means as interactive boards, electronic textbooks and manuals, network resources and e-learning materials, DVD-ROMs, CD-ROMs, video and audio equipment, multimedia projectors. They allow us to implement effectively the principle of accessibility and visual presentation of the material. Thus, teaching becomes more efficient and personal-oriented due to the usage of both modern and traditional technology.

The following advantages of IT can be distinguished: general cultural development of students in class; enhancing students’ motivation and interest in the subject; creating friendly psychological environment; providing great opportunities for visual presentation; saving time in writing on the blackboard; increasing teacher’s authority; developing of student’s independent work skills; boosting language level improvement; development of students’ self-assertion; realization of individualized learning; implementation of feedback principles; saving expendable teaching materials; improvement of checking strategies.

Moreover, IT contributes to the development of students' independence and creates favorable classroom atmosphere helping students to gain self-confidence that is another important factor in the development of their individuality.

The effectiveness of the usage of IT in French language teaching in upper secondary school was studied in our experimental research. In the course of the experiment, we determined the initial level of students as well as their level of knowledge of IT; we experimentally verified the effectiveness of the implementation of the project activities using multimedia together with traditional teaching technologies in the classroom and extracurricular activities by contrasting the performance of students in the control and experimental groups. The results of the experiment show that the use of the IT-complex in teaching French makes a considerable effect on improving students' academic performance in this discipline, in particular, it affects their level of communicative competence (efficiency increased by approximately 20%).

Keywords:

IT, project, presentation, foreign language, education, student, teaching.