Traditional Teaching Of Applied Foreign Language In Dynamic Interaction With Modern Technologies

Abstract

Nowadays graduates of non-linguistic universities do not use a foreign language at all in their professional work or as a rule use translation services. One of the reasons for this is ineffective, insufficiently practice-oriented teaching of foreign languages in non-linguistic universities. We are convinced that it is necessary to modernize the teaching of an applied foreign language in order to create a modern educational environment for future graduates to acquire not only excellent professional knowledge but also good language skills in order to cope with the challenges of a tough labor market and the requirements of modern intercultural communication. To acquire good results in the modernization of teaching languages, we analyze the foreign languages being in use in accordance with their priority and linguistic expectations in the job market. Linguistic diversity based on cultural equality and solidarity makes business possible and successful; connects people; makes available other countries, peoples and their cultures; strengthens intercultural understanding and prevents or eliminates conflicts arising on this basis. Foreign language skills play a very important role in expanding the employability and mobility of both technical and humanitarian professionals. Modernization of teaching foreign languages in order to increase its effectiveness should increase the competitiveness of graduates of non-linguistic universities. Good language skills are clearly defined professional benefits and not just in technical field. There is no area where language skills are useless, but there are examples of failure due to insufficient knowledge of a foreign language and absence of cross-cultural skills.

Keywords: subject orientation, students, a non-linguistic university, modernization, teaching foreign languages

Introduction

Nowadays a great amount of information in all spheres and directions of education is needed and very often it is available just in a foreign language. This fact proves the importance of good language skills for everybody. Proficiency in one or more foreign languages improves the quality of a graduate's profile and higher education institutions are paying more and more attention to this educational area. Modern human society is forced constantly to solve numerous global and national problems connected with the exacerbation of the political, socio-economic, environmental situation, which in its turn, due to abruptly transformed values, alienate a person from nature, from the usual humane, humanistic and moral foundations of social coexistence and associated with these qualities of interpersonal and intercultural communication. It is necessary to outline the meaningful role of mutual understanding of business, cultural and other communication based on knowledge of different languages, values of other peoples, the basis of their behavior patterns and views, in order to find ways and means to negotiate in different areas more successfully.

Based on the important role of the educative environment of the educational process of a university, when teaching a foreign language, we adhere to the position that “the core of spirituality is made up of values or peculiar models of life that have become internal regulators of behavior for a person” (Bondarevskaya, 2001)

For productive official and professional communication, it is advisable to know a business foreign language, relying on knowledge of the vocabulary and the general rules for using the grammatical minimum (too much grammar annoys students and as a result lack of interest leads to a decrease in their academic performance). Students prefer to get good basic knowledge for understanding and comprehension of speech and interlanguage texts, communicate in chats, investing energy and time in this. Interesting for them, in this case, may be a schematic acquaintance with the rules of translation and construction of sentences, memorizing vocabulary and the practice of using a variety of authentic expressions in dialogues. Didactics and the underlying principles of teaching translation develop communication skills, deepen the already acquired knowledge and determine the profile of language skills for a specific job, maybe in a specific company. Subject orientation will help to ensure the strengthening of intercultural understanding of the content of the languages to study in a common system of coordinated multilingual didactics.

Problem Statement

With the increasing technologization of the scientific, technical and socio-economic development of the world community, the development of theoretical and applied foundations of linguistics as well as electronic linguodidactics as a discipline, combining the fundamental experience of traditional teaching of foreign languages and the objective linguo-methodological advantages of digital and information technologies over analog is needed. At the same time, it is necessary to indicate the new role of the teacher in the framework of combination of digital and traditional education, where he is responsible for coordinating the educational process, adjusting the content of the course of studying, consulting, managing educational projects, monitoring the assimilation of the material etc.

Taking into account the benefits and drawbacks of different kinds of educational process we have to state that the most optimal form of teaching foreign languages in non-linguistic high schools today is blended learning, which involves both the participation of a teacher and the use of digital technologies in the classroom – combination of on-line and off-line technologies.

Research Questions

Today the importance of using digit-technologies in teaching foreign languages ​​is beyond doubt. Due to the rapid development of computer, information and communication technologies and their active implementation in all spheres of life and in the educational process, we can talk about the gradual replacement of traditional technical teaching aids by new ones – digital. For reference, digitalization is the translation of all types of information (textual, audiovisual) into digital form, in other words, the transition from offline to online mode, in which students become digital consumers who are looking for the necessary information not on the pages of books, but in search engines. Hundreds of thousands of websites are replacing encyclopedias, educational literature and magazines.

At the beginning of 2020, due to the coronavirus epidemic around the world, the education system faced an unprecedented challenge – to organize, as soon as possible, high-quality distance learning for all students in all subjects, including foreign languages. Numerous online platforms have been created and presented, providing educational courses, webinars, communities and technology solutions to enable online learning, as well as instructions and guides to assist decision-makers, schools, universities and individual teachers and educators switch to distance learning and interact with students.

This experience has confirmed that a digital educational environment with a set of various functions and activities creates quite acceptable conditions for teaching a foreign language using distance learning technologies. Thanks to the work on the educational electronic platform, a student can master the educational programs, regardless of their location and at a convenient time (Vorobieva, 2011).

But at the same time, a number of problems of informatization of the educational process were identified.

Purpose of the Study

The improvement of the process of teaching a foreign language is accompanied by the active development of modern methods, with a focus on innovations in teaching, bringing it in line with the level of competence and established requirements. Specific opportunities for teaching foreign languages are presented in many authors` textbooks containing cognitive and linguo-cultural teaching material that contributes to the formation of linguistic, intercultural and professional competencies of non-linguistic students in a technical and humanitarian non-linguistic university. Language skills are scarcely measured, but there are real advantages of using them in specific interpersonal relationships, even in individual businesses etc., on the basis that the international labor market is extremely volatile and requiring flexibility to adapt to a given job.

In the process of imbedding new technological methods of education all members of educational interaction can face some difficulties, including:

1) the need for technical equipment of students and constant access to the Internet.

2) lack of direct communication with the teacher, and therefore the emotional coloring of the transferred knowledge.

3) the issue of user authentication during knowledge control.

4) lack of well-developed training programs, as well as highly qualified specialists – developers of multimedia courses for teaching different foreign languages.

5) low percentage of completion of courses due to insufficient experience of using online learning, etc.

Based on the above, the question arises how to perform the most optimal combination of traditional and e-learning for improving language skills of non-linguistic students in a technical and humanitarian non-linguistic university?

Research Methods

In the course of the study, the following methods were used: comparative and retrospective analysis, questionnaires, testing, assessment and self-assessment, systematization and generalization of the experimental results.

Findings

Mobility of activity is necessary in order to tangibly use the advantages of knowledge of this area of a foreign language. However, the authentic text continues to be a tool for illustrating and explaining grammatical rules and their adopting in constructive exercises, allowing you to understand the possibly initially incomprehensible source text; for testing students who do not have the advantage of multiple visibility, or diverse, largely uncertain knowledge and skills, in which the assessment of these tests, as a rule, focuses not only on linguistic correctness, or stylistic adequacy, but also on determining the educative value of the content. Comparative translation of the text can be characterized as its semantic, linguistic-cultural and substantive equivalent, and the essence of the translation is an attempt to preserve the meaning of the linguistic, language and cultural unit of the original, with the possible use of a certain cultural filter; the formation of students' skills of logical thinking, analysis and synthesis of information, understanding, reflection, communication.

«In communication, the individual receives not only rational information, forms the ways of mental activity, but also through imitation and borrowing, empathy and identification assimilates human emotions, feelings, forms of behavior» (Dridze, 1980) and also «in communication, moral relations and communicative properties of the individual are formed, it precedes any activity, accompanies it and follows it» (Ananiev, 1968)

The general language concept lies in the fact: all non-linguistic students should be able to participate in forms of professional and other exchange involving language education. Such a teaching methodology by means of translation of foreign texts is integrated in detail into a specific professional activity and creates additional resources to improve average indicators. Speaking about exercises for the text, we are sure that they allow to acquire certain knowledge in the field of communication in a foreign language, develop creative thinking and intellectual abilities of students. «The role of independent work is increasing, which like the entire educational process should become problem-oriented, include differentiated, variable assignments that maximally take into account the individual capabilities, needs and interests of students, encourage them to active creative educational, cognitive, educational and professional activities that promote development of the need for continuous self-education and self-development» (Nefedov, 2013).

The modernized concept of textual learning is based on a structured process that is implemented and supported by an accompanying computer information system. Going deeper into text, words, images and the information embedded in them, it is important for students to determine their meaning for closer learning. The teacher should make a didactic review of the original teaching texts offered to students, guided mainly by the didactic and methodological aspects of student education in non-linguistic universities. These prerequisites optimize the teaching and learning process and are necessary for the effectiveness of teaching, psychological and pedagogical, as well as technical, organizational and personal conditions of perception. Educational texts, in our opinion, can be defined as an effective part of pedagogical science, which accelerates the processes of foreign language and cultural socialization and teaching of students, as well as expanding the possibilities of enlightened education, culture, and the formation of adequate information and communication behavior. «Involvement in the values of another» is a mirror reflection of the previous function and is also achieved with the participation of all three sides of communication. In this case, the decisive role is played by the desire and aim of the subject to cognize and perceive the elements of a foreign culture, directly to the communication process, which, no doubt, can only be carried out on the basis of interaction based on mutual understanding and a tolerant attitude to the interlocutor's worldview (Kuklina, 2018).

Comparative analysis of the idea, content, critical explanation of one's perception contributes to a qualitative improvement in the understanding of the text as a carrier of information related to teaching and learning of a foreign language and an intermediary for the transfer of information in various types of texts, which generates a kind of code for students to recognize a foreign language content.

Work on the text begins with informational reading, familiarization with the general idea. Then listening to the text understanding of which is a kind of exercise with multiple options. The topic of the text under consideration is relevant, explained and provided with exercises with explanations, familiarity with the lexical minimum, and / or audio or video listening. Students should implement the new words in their own short original dialogues. This systematic work develops their skills in listening and understanding, reading, writing and speaking. Then reading and (line by line or semantic) individual translation of the text by each student. After analyzing the different options, exercises are performed to consolidate the grammatical and lexical minimum. «The vocabulary of any language is mobile and open: the words themselves and their meanings can change over time, there is an active process of borrowing from other cultures, some non-equivalent names of new concepts and phenomena are recorded by dictionaries, others become obsolete and even can go out of active use, various word-formation models are activated over time and processes of rethinking are underway» (Ananiev, 1968).

In the process of teaching a foreign language using texts, there are many ways to adequately convey a variety of content in the best possible way. In the process of teaching in foreign language texts, there are many ways to adequately convey a variety of content in the best possible way. Comparative translation of texts is extremely important for teaching foreign languages, since it reveals the reliability of information, bringing it closer to native speakers, although sometimes something is exaggerated or misunderstood, but still the texts are original and students show interest in them. It is very important that the text read by the teacher is listened in the recording. This will help students to understand the differences, cope with difficulties in mastering pronunciation, acquire a sense of language, and develop listening skills. Students have the opportunity to work in computer labs with programs aimed at language improvement. The teacher can teach students to navigate the texts well, both in fictional literary works, as well as in politics, culture or other topics, news, commentaries, fashion, music, painting, etc.

The didactic function of textual teaching of a foreign language should be understood as a function within the structural field of a text of a certain content, which in relation to the learning process designates a space for making decisions about correctness and incorrectness where the justifications may differ. Also, the didactic function is three-way mediation: – understanding the idea and meaning; transferring in more detail the object, as well as the conditions of the decisions; – uniting common efforts in serving the didactic function in the didactic sense.

The teacher acts as an intermediary in his function as a personal environment, as he personally participates in the process of understanding and misunderstanding by students of the originality of the text. «Die Lehrenden werden als Sprachlernberatende und – unterstützende noch wichtiger: Förderung der Lernenden in ihrer Selbststeuerung – Ermöglichung der sinnvollen Nutzung der oben genannten Möglichkeiten. – Punktgenaue Hilfe bei inhaltlichen und vor allem formbezogenen Problemen aller Art» (Würffel, 2018). «Teachers occupy a more important place as consultants regulating learning: encouraging students in their self-control giving the possibility of meaningful use of the above opportunities; assisting in solving various problems associated first of all with the content and form of all types of education» (author's translation).

Therefore, it’s important for the teacher to pay attention to some aspects such as approximate predictability and reproducibility as translations are individual and variable so the content can be changed. Nevertheless, different variations, different approaches to the same text and different exercises intensify the process of memorising lexical and grammatical structures and therefore make the processes of teaching and learning more productive.

The goal is to develop students' communication skills and motivate them to speak a foreign language. In this context, teaching on texts fulfills its practice-oriented function in meeting the various purposes of using the language. The means of teaching ways of translation prove its validity (or its absence) in the context of the fact that they also contribute to a pragmatic goal of developing certain abilities and skills connected with better understanding of a foreign language. In other words, they develop students’ motivation to study by means of translating; their tolerance to different languages and cultures; their willingness to review and correct stereotypes and prejudices. (Alekseeva, 2020).

Teaching material must be carefully reviewed and examined to specifically meet the expectations of the instructor and students. For this, it is important for the teacher to pay attention to some aspects, such as: approximate predictability; reproducibility, because translations are individual and variable, therefore, it is possible that the content can be changed, however, different versions, a different approach to the same text and different exercises enhance the process of memorizing language means, lexical and grammatical structures intensify the teaching and learning process. The efforts and time spent by the teacher and students are paid off by reducing the time of high-quality integration into a foreign language, foreign culture environment. Rationality that allows students to see through complex contexts and extract meaningful contextual information (Lushchinskaya, 2007).

The presented means are guiding students, motivating and optimizing the teaching of a foreign language on texts, fulfill pragmatic, cognitive, value goals, and the general goal: the ability to communicate in everyday, business or in special situations. For pragmatic purposes, the skills of using linguistic means are trained to understand texts about the achievements of science and practice on specific issues in business and professional activities.

The success of the linguistic and intercultural content of the educational environment to a decisive extent depends on: didactic investment in them, expansion of mobility, ease of assimilation, consistency, practice-orientedness and harmonization of all the above aspects in the process of comparative analysis of texts and their collective discussion, as well as an important principle of «the cognitive orientation of the learning process, which is associated with categories such as knowledge, thinking and understanding processes, intellectual abilities that provide language skills, the solution of speech-thinking problems» (Galskova, 2004)

The availability and use of modern technical means, constantly updated training programs and alternative teaching aids help: to advance the teaching of foreign languages ​​to a new, more modern level; to learn a foreign language in terms of efficiency, practice-orientation and motivation; to follow the rule: to teach in a targeted, specific, intensive, high-quality and useful manner. This is facilitated by the partial use of e-learning, with the help of computers and the Internet, expanding the field and geography of the use of languages, intercultural communication, value outlook, common culture, «Mutual understanding of centuries and millennia, peoples, nations and cultures provides a complex unity of all mankind, all human cultures, the complex unity of human literature» (Gadzaova, 2014).

New learning opportunities associated with improved hardware and software create an environment for the virtual development required for further language education. First of all, these are the possibilities of flexibility in terms of both time and location, which obviously evolve in the process of acquiring different knowledge, including the field of learning a foreign language.

In this context, educators face new challenges in planning and implementing digital learning processes. Students are mostly familiar with modern media, but contrary to expectations, the corresponding concepts turned out to be much more complex in terms of stability. «Die meisten Lernenden sind zwar nicht medienkompetent und nutzen Lehr- und Lernmedien nicht zum Selbstzweck, sondern verstehen diese eher (arbeitsökonomisch gedacht) als Instrument zur Zielerreichung. Sie nutzen Medien sehr pragmatisch, häufig vor allem in der Zeit vor den Prüfungen und meist im Selbststudium» (Hess, 2018). «The majority of students, although they are not informatively competent and use teaching aids not just as an aim in themselves, but rather perceive them (from an economically beneficial point of view) as a tool to achieve the goal. They use the media in a very pragmatic manner often especially in the period before exams and mainly in self-study » (the author`s translation).

The subject of e-learning should in our opinion be considered in a specific cognitive empirical linking with the comprehensive basis of a sustainable strategy subject to social changes, including in the pedagogical paradigm, based on so far unshakable competencies: didactic, general educational and pedagogical practice.

Graduates have a thorough understanding of their educational role, which ranges from teaching specialist skills to their individual development and participation in society; responsibility to take a well-founded position and take this into account in their own experience in professional activity; understanding the educational significance of the subject content of learning a foreign language against the background of its areas of application and prospects for personal development, in accordance with the situation.

Conclusion

In recent years more advanced approaches have been developed applied specifically to teaching a foreign language: the purpose of teaching is to promote each student in accordance with his personal ability; encourage in the course of training, the acquisition of language education by him with the aim of its productive use in professional work, in a specific, already defined area, taking into account political, cultural and even religious aspects, socio-economic status, general education and culture, expectations and requirements of the society. Students learn to consider their skills and characteristics of foreign language competence as a resource and potential in personal and social terms; be aware of the dangers of stereotypical social and cultural contexts and reflect on their role as patterns. Our educational activity and the definition of its tasks are based on the study and knowledge, differentiation, individualization of scientific and pedagogical, methodical and methodological principles. Thus, the statement of the fact that the modern market makes high demands on the level of knowledge of foreign languages and today there is no company where knowledge and use of at least one foreign language would not be an important requirement in our opinion makes it absolutely necessary for our university language training to meet expectations, develop, be suitable for any company as a service. It is beneficial to have a good knowledge of the business language and the development of foreign language communicative competence. Technical and other specialized languages are not as homogeneous as business language. Traditional methods of learning a language, in general, cannot yet be completely replaced, but they must be supplemented with modern technologies, which are being worked on by teachers of foreign languages in non-linguistic universities, including us. We orient the process of teaching a foreign language to «when presenting a phenomenon or concept from the point of view of a native speaker, to explain to students the perspectives, or experience of acquaintance with another culture. This will be facilitated by special text materials containing information about other national cultures and disclosing it from a social or cultural point of view, taking into account the patriotic public interest» (Gadzaova; 2014).

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