The effectiveness of using realia in teaching a foreign language

Abstract

In the modern world, knowledge of foreign languages serves as a means of interpersonal communication, introduces people to foreign cultures, unites peoples, and contributes to economic and social progress. In this context, the use of realia in teaching a foreign language is a necessary condition for achieving a high level of linguistic and sociolinguistic competenciesnecessary for the implementation of intercultural communication.This article is devoted to the effectiveness of the use of realia for the formation and development of students’ communicative competence.The purpose of this article is to determine whether and to what extent realia is an effective means of teaching in a foreign language classroom. The authors emphasize the importance of using real objectsand describe how they assist the teachers in their teaching, as well as how they help the students to learn aforeign language more productively.For this purpose, the article describes the place of realia in the learning process, the reasons, and thecriteria for using realia in language teaching. Then, the authors consider effective techniques and descriptions of their application for introducing realia in a foreign language classroom.Finally, the article presents a study involving two groups with an elementary level of foreign language proficiency.The results of the study showed that the group that learned with the help of realia performed better than the group that did not use real-life objects in the learning process.