Peculiarities of Diverse Audiences and Some Issues of Language Teaching

Abstract

Teaching Georgian as a second language implies the use of generally known and proven methods of teaching a foreign language. However, there is no universal method of language teaching. In all cases, it is necessary to take into account the specificity of the target language and the interests, goals, motivation, abilities and background knowledge of the language learning group. In recent years, the number of Georgian language learners from different countries has increased considerably. These are Turks, Turkmens, Kazakhs, Poles... This process was accelerated even more during the Russia-Ukraine war. In Georgia, especially in Batumi, many Ukrainians and Russians of different ages have expressed their desire to learn the Georgian language. Most of those listed (and not only) want to continue their studies at Batumi State University. Learning the Georgian language requires a special approach in a diverse audience, who do not understand each other, have different cultures, religions and beliefs. Such an audience is characterized by peculiarities. Managing a different audience requires much more work, responsibility and consideration of the group's interests on the part of the teacher. It is quite difficult for the teacher to convey the material to each student of a linguistically mixed group without distracting any of them. It is known that the learner of a new language perceives and remembers the information received best by sight. When explaining new material to a diverse audience, it is useful to use visual aids for presentation, which significantly helps the listening and understanding of information. In the Georgian university space, the most common of them are slide show, blackboard, flipchart and
handout. Among the presentation aids, we consider handouts to be the most acceptable form of presentation aids for ethnically mixed groups who are users of different languages and sit in the same audience at the initial stage of language learning.