Esp As A Tool To Develop Social Capital At University

Abstract

This article deals with the modern tendencies of the current global community that put forward social capital as an integral part in the professional relations. Authors consider that students studying foreign languages acquire social capital as ability to socialize системы in a  факторов foreign professional society and enhance their communication skills while learning, retaining exchanging culture and traditions that can make the process of integration and acquisition of language culture much faster. Dealing mainly with students’of science and technology needs and preferences in the language learning, special attention should be paid to socialization and social capital that are important when helping students avoid communication problems. In this article the definitions of social capital and foreign language socialization are given; it is also explained how to implement these notions with technically-minded students, no matter where they come from and what language experience they have. Conducting a number of tests, it was singled out the weak points at students’ pre-university language training and there were outlined the steps how to overcome these difficulties and help students in the best possible way.

Keywords: Foreign-language  более competence воздействие society связанные socialization разделении capital

Introduction

The tendencies of the current development of the global community demand merger and unification of all spheres of human life from education to economics and politics. Thus foreign language communicative competence which was introduced by Hymes (1972) has become an integral part of the current existing model of professional relations as well as social capital.

Language is inextricably linked with culture (Сhernyavskaya, 2016). Its main social function is to preserve and transfer from generation to generation values, beliefs and traditions and conservation of any social group identity. In other words, language is an environment where groups retain their culture and maintain their traditions.

2. Problem Statement

We believe that teaching foreign languages at technical university should help to develop students’ social capital by acquiring a foreign language competence. It will allow future specialists in hard science to socialize successfully in a new professional community, and will also introduce students to the conceptual system of a foreign language linguistic society and to its cultural norms and values. Moreover, it will contribute to the acquirement of professional ethical values, norms and standards.

3. Research Questions

We should note that along with the general recognition of the increasing importance of language training in the context of the acquisition of non-linguistic professions and specialties in the modern system of language training, a number of contradictions are aggravated, the most significant of which are the contradictions between:

• the continuing processes of globalization in higher education and the lack of cross-cultural and comparative pedagogical research in the most dynamic areas of vocational training, including in the field of foreign language;

• the real significance of a foreign language as the most important condition for career growth and the low status of a foreign language as an academic subject;

• between the actualization of competency, cultural, humanistic approaches in the theory of general and professional education and the orientation of the majority of domestic textbooks and teaching aids to the implementation of the traditional approach in teaching foreign languages on the basis of knowledge and skills;

• the discrepancy between the goals of language training formulated in the standards of vocational education and the extremely inadequate by European standards the number of hours allocated for the study of a foreign language;

• the diversity of textbooks and insufficient development of programmed and technological support of the modern language training system. (Safronenko, 2006, p. 221)

On the top of these factors we should add intellectual stratification of students (Table 1 ) and low motivation of half of them.

4. Purpose of the Study

The aim of this paper is to suggest the ways of gaining social capital through language acquisition and to describe how the above mentioned problems are solved at SFedU and MIPT. The approach in the study reported here is distinct from most past studies on this topic. It focusses on the impact of social capital development on students’ successful career. By taking a global perspective, future specialists will be more competitive, mobile and flexible, and, as the result, more in demand among employers throughout the world.

5. Research Methods

To implement the research, we used entry diagnostic and final tests of students’ knowledge. In that way paper and computer tests designed by the stuff of the foreign languages department were used. That helped us to analyze the students’ communicative competence and work out the ways to overcome the drawbacks and arise students’ motivation.

The interview and focus group discussion help us to unveil the reasons of the lack of motivation to acquire a foreign language, clear up the professional interests. By means of that it was aimed to develop the ESP courses at SFedU and MIPT and divide students into different levels of language learners (elementary, pre-intermediate, etc.).

The table below illustrates the results of the entry test for the first year students in 2017. We chose two largest Institutes of our university as the example.

6. Findings

In the conditions described above, the formation of professional competence requires an increase in the proportion of independent work of the student, which implies constant self-education and self-development. Professional self-improvement, in its turn, is possible with developed analytical skills that need to be formed in the process of student training by combining traditional teaching methods, individual research activities and interactive forms of education.

In addition, the use of a foreign language in collaborative and experimental learning is considered highly effective for the development of information, analytical and professional competencies. The use of such teaching methods as business and role plays, as well as the method of projects are the most interesting and pragmatically directed forms of training having great theoretical and practical value.

At the Departments of Foreign Languages and Linguistic education of the Institute of Management in the Economic, Environmental and Social Systems of the SFedU, the formation of the social capital of students in the process of foreign-language professional socialization takes place in two stages of training: in the context of “general language training "(1^st – 4^th semesters), and "the level of conceptual cognition, or professional language socialisation (5th-8th semesters) ( Sidelnik, Burenko, & Melnik, 2016). As for MIPT, the course of General English can last for 3 or 4 years of studying depending on initial level of the language learner. It is practised in order to form English speaking and listening skills in academic and socio-cultural context. Students also deal with additional scientific texts, but as it is proved by regular practice, students can cope with technical texts easier and faster, while speaking and exchanging opinions give more difficulty.

Both for successful development of a professional secondary language personality of future specialists, and for the creation of the prerequisites for the formation of social capital in the course of foreign languages studying, the staff of the departments developed and applied in practice a series of textbooks on the course ESP. These textbooks were developed in accordance with the program requirements for the course "Foreign Language for Professional Purposes", for use in technical universities in the field of computer engineering, radio engineering, aircraft engineering, electronic engineering (Bondarev et al 2015; Bondarev, Bakulev, Trach, & Osadchaya, 2013; Bondarev, Lyaxova, Melnik, & Opryshko, 2015; Danilova, Melnik, & Yakovlev, 2017). In the course of work on each of them the situation of foreign-language professionally oriented communication is developed in discussion of the problems presented in the textbook.

The inclusion of multicultural educational material allows using the process of learning English to expand students' own outlook, awareness of the cultural diversity of the modern world and their own country. It is known that communication requires the ability to understand a language. However much of the communication is nonverbal: our body language, our attitudes, hand-shaking, etc. Some researchers estimate that up to 93% of all human communication is nonverbal, although according to recent studies, it's actually closer to 60%. That is why two years ago a special course for the engineering students “Intercultural communication in the informational society” was designed and added into the so called “students’ basket of optional disciplines”. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology as well as Southern Federal University are the universities with a mixed national composition. They welcome a significant percent of students from different regions of Russia. The latest political events of 2014 added students from Ukraine to the traditional multinational composition of the SFedU. Despite the fact that they speak Russian, the practice of working with such students has shown that most of them have a keen desire to emphasize their own cultural identity. Foreign students from Central Africa, Latin America, Middle East and Asia are also interested in this course. Discussing the differences between the English and Russian cultures the students become aware of their personal discomfort which helps their better adaptation. We would like to stress the idea that the educational strategy should be formed taking into account the regional language educational policy.

Every year students’ conferences take place at the university. Presenting a speech at the conference develops the skills of compiling a literary survey, highlighting the main idea, structuring the statement and presentation of the processed material. Public speaking enhances the student's confidence in his own abilities, allows him to fully reveal his creative and academic potential and develop basic personal, cultural and professional competencies.

The authors argue that such combination of different types of educational activity determines the multidimensionality and multifunctionality of the educational process. In this regard, the use of a foreign language in the teaching of a specialty promotes the circulation of professional knowledge and significantly expands the boundaries of information retrieval, which improves the quality of vocational training.

7. Conclusion

Analyzing the test results and summarizing the above mentioned we can draw the following conclusions:

• the sociolinguistic knowledge acquired during the training at the university, the assimilated social norms and values of a foreign professional society in the future will help the individual to build social networks in a new linguistic and professional community and thereby multiply their social capital, the presence of which will undoubtedly contribute to successful socialization and professional adaptation in the global world community;

• the use of such teaching methods as business and role plays, as well as the method of projects are the most interesting and pragmatically directed forms of training having great theoretical and practical value;

• participation in role-playing games, debates, round tables, in the preparation and presentation of projects and other forms of educational work simulate situations of natural professional communication;

• we would like to stress the idea that the educational strategy should be formed taking into account the regional language educational policy.

Thus, the inclusion of multicultural educational material allows using the process of learning English to expand students' own outlook, awareness of the cultural diversity of the modern world and their own country. and, as the result, our students are more in demand among employers throughout the world because of their global training.

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