Book chapter
A New Teacher: In Search of Identity
In book
This article explores new approaches to improve the efficiency of the study process in foreign languages teaching, which should help to fill the gap between the practical implementation and the theory to increase the efficiency of the study process. The principal aim of the research is to define possible ways to improve the efficiency of the study process for foreign languages teaching of bachelors for professional goals. The research objectives are the following: (i) analysis of existing approaches to understand the term “efficiency of the study process”, which means “to establish the most appropriate communication mean between student and teacher, to reach the highest performance indicator of the process”, (ii) definition and selection of efficiency criteria of the study process both for the teacher and the student (accurate selection of those criteria has a direct impact on how the target didactic goals will be achieved), (iii) discovery of practicable approaches to improve the efficiency of the study process. The article justifies the necessity to include professionally-oriented authentic texts, as one of possible options to increase the students motivation to solve cognitive tasks in foreign language. The performed research indicates that there is a significant didactic potential of authentic materials which can be realized only within a methodologically grounded system to incorporate them in the study process in the most efficient way. The author proposes a methodology to include professionally-oriented authentic texts into the study process while working with future specialists in advertising and journalism illustrated by the study guide “The language of the French press”. The novelty of this research is the following: for the first time the methodological approach with a particular focus to form professionally-oriented skills and experience developed by the author was tested between students of the second year of education, who only started to learn the French language. The results of the research demonstrates faster achievements of those study groups which employed such methodology, compared to other groups not involved in such study process. The article gives general guidelines for teachers to increase the efficiency of their lessons – to select the study materials and the type of lessons, to develop the necessary skills and to improve the communicative interaction of students. Specific questions to increase the efficiency of the study process in the context of foreign languages teaching for special purposes are introduced to the professional community. These include how to increase the students motivation, to incorporate professionally-oriented texts in the learning process, and to organize the communicative interaction in a system “teacher-student”.
The paper discusses the design and implementation of an English for Specific Purposes course offered to 4th-year Linguistics and Intercultural Communication majors at Lomonosov Moscow State University (Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, 2014). Drawing on a selection of domain-specific texts (authentic research reports from professional journals in the fields of linguistics, intercultural communication, and foreign language education), tasks, and activities, the proposed instructional design (named “Scientific Presentation”) aims to promote students’ knowledge of the field’s terminology and concepts and to facilitate the acquisition and development of professional skills related to their future careers in Linguistics and intercultural communication.
The article examines the use of professionally oriented authentic texts while teaching foreign languages to university students. In foreign language teaching “authenticity” traditionally means original authentic language and speech material which ensures communication in natural circumstances of daily life. This term also defines one of the most important methodological techniques promoting students communicative competence in a foreign language. Bachelors’ future prospects greatly depend on their proficiency in the foreign language and on their ability to process authentic foreign language materials by actively making use of different sources – the Internet, newspapers, scientific journals, etc. An important skill, which will help future professionals in their work, is the ability to find, analyse and use valuable information from an original text in a foreign language. Different issues of teaching foreign languages using authentic texts of specialized nature, aimed at enhancing linguistic and professional skills of future specialists are discussed and put before the professional community. The relevance of the present article consists in determining the factors for organization of students’ learning in a non-native environment, examining the text selection criteria and looking at functions of the authentic specialized texts in the teaching process. The article describes the analysis of the material for teaching a foreign language for specific purposes, using as an example a “French for lawyers” course.
This volume focuses on innovative approaches to teaching foreign language courses offered to non-language degree students. It includes essays related to the innovative use of ICTs, new developments in methodology, approaches to course and materials design, and the contribution of language theory to foreign language teaching. As the book brings together researchers and practitioners working in a variety of contexts, it provides detailed insight into ways the same challenges are dealt with in different educational environments.
The article considers topical issues of foreign language teaching seen from the axiological angle of different cultures’ pedagogical paradigms and describes some typical characteristics of a number of pedagogical systems. A close attention is paid to various manifestations of the value components characteristic of various educational systems which reveal the existence of an axiological paradigm shift in teaching foreign languages.
This article is devoted to the study of borrowed lexis penetration in the recipient language. The author represents the methods of loan words analysis and their usage in the process of foreign-language communication. The financial and economic terminology is taken as the material of the research. We define the types of lexical borrowing and types of teaching assignments which are designed to help students acquire these terminological units.