MODERN MEANS FOR FORMING THE LEXICAL SKILLS OF STUDENTS AT ENGLISH LANGUAGE LESSONS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF WORD CLOUDS)
Since word cloud is an interesting and useful tool in teaching foreign languages and is a new and effective way to enhance the learning process, it is important to consider the word cloud as a means of forming the lexical skills of high school students. A lexical skill is the ability to automatically recall from memory a word, word combination or phrase that corresponds to a communicative task, the needs of communication. The lexical skill is determined by stability, automatism, conditionality, independence and reproductive performance. Work on the accumulation of vocabulary takes place during the entire learning process. According to the school curriculum, every second lesson should familiarize with the new word and its assimilation. The fact that students can freely participate in the dialogue in a foreign language will be the most convincing and revealing evidence of the possession of the certain vocabulary. Many methodologists and scientists distinguish three stages of the formation of lexical skills: familiarization, training and speech practice. These stages of work on vocabulary represent a single whole, and the isolation of each individual stage is carried out for methodological purposes. The formation of a lexical skill is carried out with the help of various kinds of teaching aids, the choice of which is determined by the aims, conditions of instruction and, undoubtedly, the methodical concept of the authors. A word cloud is one such learning tools. A word cloud is a visual representation of text keywords in the form of hyperlinks of different font and color, executed in a certain graphic form (usually in the form of a cloud). A word cloud as a means of teaching helps the teacher to diversify the learning process, encourages students to motivate, creates the necessary conditions for the development of both critical and spatial thinking, value and emotional categories, students' analytical abilities, structuring and modeling skills, skills to highlight the most important and basic, develops creativity and ability to self-education. The article contains fragments of lessons in which the author demonstrates an experimental work on the application of this tool at different stages of teaching vocabulary (semantisation, training and speech practice) in high school. The author comes to the conclusion that a word cloud is an unusual and useful tool of teaching vocabulary, provoking interest, both from the teacher and from the students. A word cloud is successfully used in the study of most of the topics and practically at all stages of the lesson. This tool can act as a means of motivating students, as well as contribute to the development of a motivational and value components of the education of students.