Core approaches to teaching a foreign language at universities in the era of digitalization

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Chair of Foreign Languages, Odessa National Economic University, Odessa

Languages and Translation, National University “Odessa Polytechnic”

Core approaches to teaching a foreign language at universities in the era of digitalization

Karpova Olena Olehivna Doctor of Philosophy

Bublyk Violeta Vadymivna Senior teacher of the Department of Germanic

Odessa

Abstract

The article highlights core approaches to teaching a foreign language that would help develop students' abilities and skills for future successful cooperation in a multidisciplinary environment. The authors present such approaches as multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and cross- or transdisciplinary. It is mentioned that old approaches to teaching specific topics or developing four language competencies as speaking, writing, listening and reading are no more in the focus from pedagogical point of view as before.

Today the development of technologies and the creation of new jobs require to educate such a professional who would work in a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment effectively. Thus, the implementation of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to teaching a foreign language require the combination of knowledge and skills from different disciplines in order to create an innovative product or a service. Interdisciplinary teaching of a foreign language has been defined in the article as a process by which students integrate insights and modes of thinking and processing of information from two or more disciplines to advance their practical understanding of a discipline that stands beyond the scope of one discipline.

The authors identified the ways of interdisciplinary approach to teaching a foreign language at universities such as socio-economic articles / blogs analysis, case studies, boosting research activity, real- life interdisciplinary role-plays and project-based learning. The analysis of scientific literature has shown that Intradisciplinary means working within a single discipline, Crossdisciplinary implies viewing one discipline from the perspective of another; Multidisciplinary occurs when students from different disciplines working together, each drawing on their disciplinary knowledge. Interdisciplinary integrates knowledge and methods from different disciplines, using a real synthesis of approaches. All the approaches mentioned can be implemented during the lesson in various forms and ways provided all the preconditions and peculiarities of the approaches are chosen according to the goal of the lesson and desired outcomes.

Keywords: multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, intradisciplinary, integration.

Анотація

Карпова Олена Олегівна доктор філософії, доцент кафедри іноземних мов, Одеський національний економічний університет, м. Одеса

Бублик Віолета Вадимівна старший викладач кафедри німецьких мов та перекладу, Національний університет «Одеська політехніка», м. Одеса

ОСНОВНІ ПІДХОДИ ДО НАВЧАННЯ ІНОЗЕМНОЇ МОВИ В УНІВЕРСИТЕТАХ В ЕРУ ЦИФРОВИЗАЦІЇ

У статті висвітлено основні підходи до викладання іноземної мови, які б сприяли розвитку здібностей та навичок студентів для майбутньої успішної співпраці в багатодисциплінарному середовищі. Автори представляють такі підходи як мультидисциплінарний, міждисциплінарний та трансдисциплінарний. Зазначається, що старі підходи до викладання конкретних тем або розвитку чотирьох мовних компетенцій, таких як говоріння, письмо, аудіювання та читання, перестали бути в центрі уваги з педагогічної точки зору, як раніше. Сьогодні розвиток технологій та створення нових робочих місць вимагають виховувати такого професіонала, який би ефективно працював у мультидисциплінарному та полікультурному середовищі. Таким чином, реалізація мультидисциплінарного та міждисциплінарного підходів до викладання іноземної мови потребує поєднання знань і навичок з різних дисциплін для створення інноваційного продукту чи послуги. Міждисциплінарне викладання іноземної мови визначено у статті як процес, за допомогою якого студенти інтегрують уявлення та способи мислення та обробки інформації з двох чи більше дисциплін, щоб покращити своє практичне розуміння дисципліни, що виходить за рамки однієї дисципліни. Автори визначили шляхи міждисциплінарного підходу до викладання іноземної мови в університетах, такі як аналіз соціально- економічних статей/блогів, тематичні дослідження, активізація дослідницької діяльності, реальні міждисциплінарні рольові ігри та проектне навчання. Аналіз наукової літератури показав, що внутрішньодисциплінарний означає роботу в рамках однієї дисципліни, міждисциплінарний - розгляд одноі дисципліну з точки зору іншої. Багатодисциплінарність виникає, коли студенти з різних дисциплін працюють разом, використовуючи свої дисциплінарні знання. Міждисциплінарний підход інтегрує знання та методи з різних дисциплін, використовуючи реальний синтез підходів. Усі зазначені підходи можуть бути реалізовані під час уроку різними формами та способами за умови вибору всіх передумов та особливостей підходів відповідно до мети уроку та бажаних результатів.

Introduction

Today methods and tools of teaching a foreign language have changed not only due to digitalization, E-learning and globalization that fostered teachers' communication and student learning worldwide, but also because of the new requirements of employers of the market economy. Thus, teaching a foreign language is impossible without discipline-orientedness and versatile skills formation. This can be possible due to the use of such approaches as multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and cross- or transdisciplinary.

Analysis of recent research works and publications. When it comes to teaching a foreign language in modern conditions, it is important to consider such approaches as multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdiciplinary that suggest the combination of several disciplines in contemporary problem-solving. These notions have been often used interchangeably within higher education as a way of demonstrating collaboration between disciplines and highlighting adaptive pedagogical practices.

One of the definitions of multidisciplinarity is the combination or involvement of two or more academic disciplines or professional specializations in approach to a topic or problem. In this case their knowledge content and structures are not mixed up.

Methods that will assure the reach of professionally-oriented goals should comply with the learning goals of teaching a foreign language. The following chart presents the interdependence between the methodical processing of the core subjects and a foreign language:

Table 1. Methodical Preconditions of Multidisciplinary Teaching at Universities

Thus, fostering language practice is crucial at the lesson but it should be made in the professionally-oriented context whatever is taught - grammar, vocabulary, listening or speaking skills, etc. Very often a lot of attention is paid to teaching grammar at the lesson, but the grammar approach is far in the past so it is highly recommended to include grammar only in the language practice so that students will pay attention not to the formation of verbs, conjugation, etc. but to how a language functions in practice. The golden middle here is Submersion as the sink or swim method to learning a second language, when students who have acquired this language naturally and those learning the same language are put in the same learning environment and required to learn as much as much as they can.

Simplicity is a key to a modern and effective language teaching. People value time today more than ever. So, the traditional approach to teaching a foreign language as well as other disciplines is becoming an old school. Micro credentials and short term online courses are more demanded these days as never before. Therefore, it is important to choose the best innovative tools to teach a foreign language as well as to refine material to satisfy students' needs as simple and clear as possible.

One of the ways of teaching a foreign language is teaching this language from the first lesson without any explanation or a word given in their mother tongue. This method is fast, effective, but, at the same time, hard and can demotivate learners of any age. Thus, when teaching a foreign language itself or a discipline in a foreign language, a teacher sometimes switches to their mother tongue so that primacy for the first language is given.

When teaching a foreign language, it is very important to consider the contents and basics of other disciplines through group learning and teamwork, flexibility, foreign-language sensitivity assurance and, of course, motivation-oriented learning.

The combination of all these preconditions will help to reach multidisciplinarity at the lesson.

In fact, the multidisciplinary approach is very broad in the sense that there are many different ways to go about it which vary in intensity of integration. One of the options for using multidisciplinary integration is referred to as the intradisciplinary approach.

According to Oxforddictionaries, when two or more disciplines are integrated and based on the same ideas and methods, this approach is called as interdisciplinary. Interdisciplinary is described as relating to more than one branch of knowledge. Whereas, transdisciplinary is defined as something relating to more than one branch of knowledge that breaks professional borders [6].

In the intradisciplinary approach to multidisciplinary integration, subdisciplines are taught within a specific subject area. Focusing on reading, writing and oral communication as a whole in language arts is a very common example of this. This approach focuses mainly on big ideas of the subdisciplines and although integration is only happening within one subject area, the content is taught at a greater depth of understanding.

Unlike the intradisciplinary approach, which focuses on one subject area, interdisciplinary integration organizes the teaching of several disciplines around commonalities between them. ability skill speaking writing

The analysis of scientific literature has shown a great number of definitions of the notion of interdisciplinarity and search for categorization (Klein, 2010).

Interdisciplinary concepts or interdisciplinary education is considered best when it comes to boosting learning outcomes and making the whole understanding process interesting and enthusiastic for students.

Interdisciplinary teaching allows students to think critically, identify their own prejudices, accept the unknown and respect ethical quandaries with enabling the students to understand different insights and perceptions of different disciplines, also synthesizes information surrounding a topic and, ultimately, offers a more complete understanding of an issue.

Interdisciplinary teaching goes beyond multi-disciplinary or cross-disciplinary teaching which is a bit more complicated due to its requirement of multiple teachers or educators and their mutual collaboration to execute the approach properly.

Thus, interdisciplinary teaching of a foreign language can be defined as a process by which students integrate insights and modes of thinking and processing of information from two or more disciplines to advance their practical understanding of a discipline that stands beyond the scope of a single discipline.

Students can integrate information, data, techniques, tools, concepts, theories, etc. from two or more disciplines to create new ideas, concepts, products, solve problems in ways that would be impossible to implement through a monodisciplinary approach.

Transdisciplinary concepts or transdisciplinary education that brings integration of different disciplines in a harmonious manner to construct new knowledge and uplift the learner to higher domains of abilities and sustained knowledge and skills.

Transdisciplinary integration involves organizing the curriculum around student questions, interests, and concerns. This is done through either project-based learning, where students get involved in a local problem solution, or negotiating the curriculum, where the basis for curriculum is formed around the interests and questions of the students. Transdisciplinary integration is similar to interdisciplinary integration because standards from more than one discipline are addressed.

An approach to curriculum integration that dissolves the boundaries between the conventional disciplines and organizes teaching and learning around the construction of meaning in the context of real-world problems or themes.

Both of these techniques have got different point of views and perceptions by researchers and educationists belonging to different disciplines and research paradigms.

Thus, as a summary the following table was made to identify key peculiarities of every approach:

Table 2. Key Approaches to Teaching a Foreign Language

For successful implementation of these approaches, a teacher should choose appropriate teaching and learning formats for the discipline itself (in this case for teaching a foreign language) and finding relevant aspects to get more insights from other disciplines.

The aim of the article is to highlight core approaches to teaching a foreign language at universities in the era of digitalization in order to develop skills that would be crucial for working in a multidisciplinary environment.

Method. To study the current condition of teaching a foreign language using a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, the following methods of research as questionnaires, tests, quizzes, a pedagogical experiment, observation, consultations with teachers and students, methods of mathematical statistics have been used.

During the formative experiment on the basis of common forms of education, such as workshops, seminars, classroom and out-of-class individual work and group work, these approaches were introduced.

The experiment showed that the most popular and effective approach among the abovementioned was the Interdisciplinary approach.

When teaching a foreign language, we defined the following ways of implementing them in the classroom:

1. Socio-economic articles / blogs analysis that provides real-world interdisciplinary problems. Using skills and concepts from different subjects, students process, discuss and rethink acute problems developing their critical thinking and research skills.

Case study is the best way of realization of the interdisciplinary approach. We also introduced a “web-case” that differed from a paper-based case in that all the material was presented on the website so that students could do the tasks online getting information from official websites of companies, articles and other related documents. A web-case consisted of Background information about the companies, Problems to be solved, Tasks to be done and Writing an e-mail with a final decision of the team.

Before solving a web-case the students were divided into teams of 4 or 5 persons, they learnt the rules and started working. As a case study method implies collaborative learning, there was no teacher's guidance during the process. The students decided how to work, how to divide responsibilities and do the tasks themselves. The assessment criteria were timing, teamwork and a final decision.

Boosting the research activity -- delving into more disciplines -- by asking students, for example, to examine one of the styles of management from different points of views - business, historic, psychological, gender, social, etc. This exercise focuses on independent research into the core of managing people. Specifically, it can involve: investigating the qualities of a manager, basic managerial skills, the difference between a manager and a leader, etc.

Role-plays that give insights into business, philosophy and social studies with this introspective activity.

As an example, one of the activities starts by dividing the group into subgroups and the classroom (physical or virtual) into three or more sections. Each group has a budget of $2,000, which they must choose to invest. Each section has a unique category of pre-made options, representing a distinct incentive. For instance, an economic incentive could be to get faster transportation to university for $200, whereas a social incentive could be to host a student party for $1000. A moral incentive could be to make a charity donation for $500 and so on. Once every group has spent their budget, the purchases are considered to see which section got the most incentives. Afterwards, discuss how much each group spent on every section and why.

Project-based learning, which involve students designing, developing, and constructing solutions to a problem or working in small teams on a project that requires knowledge and skills from two or more disciplines. The educational value is that this activity aims to build students' creative capacity to work through difficult and acute problems. Typically, a task included the following phases or steps:

Identifying a problem

Agreeing on or devising a solution and potential solution path to the problem (i.e., how to achieve the solution)

Designing and developing a prototype of the solution

Refining the solution based on feedback from experts, instructors, and/or peers.

Research has shown the effectiveness of this approach on student engagement, skill-development, communication, and content retention, mainly when the Kolb Model of experiential learning is employed [5].

As an example, the project that was offered for consideration was called “Business Culture in Ukraine”. The aim was not only to raise knowledge of students on business culture in Ukraine, but also make profound research on the topic because the Ukrainian business environment, stereotypes and common knowledge on business culture has not been widely presented for the people who are interested in it from different countries.

Thus, a questionnaire was made with various questions concerning working hours, dress code, superstitions at work, gender issues at work, etc. More than 100 Ukrainian companies both governmental and private ones took part in this survey. The answers to the questions created a picture of current Ukrainian working environment, acute problems and interesting facts. Several solutions could be used to improve working environment taking into account that most of the students will likely work in Ukrainian organizations, banks and other companies, or are already working, so this research may have some impact on their professional activity or business.

It is important to mention that the tasks that were offered to university students were differentiated (the volume of the task, the level of complexity, the width and depth of the research, etc.) according to the year of study and level of the group.

Moreover, to create an interdisciplinary lesson, it is highly recommended to make a plan that would clearly define the lesson's Phase, Type of learning goals, activities and approximate timing. To illustrate this, the following lesson plan has been presented:

The Plan of an Interdisciplinary Lesson

Table 3.

Conclusion

The analysis of scientific literature made us come to a conclusion that there has been an increased interest of scholars in recent years to multidiciplarity and interdiciplinarity at higher educational establishments. Intradisciplinary has been defined as working within a single discipline, Crossdisciplinary implied viewing one discipline from the perspective of another; Multidisciplinary occured when students from different disciplines working together, each drawing on their disciplinary knowledge. Interdisciplinary integrated knowledge and methods from different disciplines, using a real synthesis of approaches. Finally, Transdisciplinary created a unity of intellectual frameworks beyond the disciplinary perspectives. The use of one or more approaches to teaching a foreign language at universities will help students learn a foreign language in practice faster, develop knowledge and skills necessary to work in a multidisciplinary team, create new innovative products and services and enjoy their studying process truly.

References

1. Baumgдrtner S., Backer Ch. (2005) Wissenschaftsphilosophie interdisciplinдrer Umweltforschung. Marburg: Metropolis.

2. Blдttel-Mink B. (2003) Nachhaltigkeit und Transdisziplinaritдt: Ideal und Forschungspraxis. Arbeitsbericht 229. Der Akademie fьr technikfolgenabschдtzung in Baden Wьrttemberg.

3. Horlebein M., Schanz H. Wirtschaftsdidaktik fur Berufliche Schulen. Berufsbildung konkret. Band 8. 241.

4. Mansilla B. (2010) Learning to Synthesize: The Development of Interdisciplinary Understanding. In R. Frodeman, J. T. Klein, & C. Mitcham (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity (pp. 288-306). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

5. Project-based learning. Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. Iowa State University.

6. Schier C., Schwinger E. (2014) Interdisziplinaritдt und Transdisziplinaritдt als Herausforderung akademischer Bildung. Pдdagogik. 319.

7. Thomson Klein, Julie (2013) Transdisciplinary Moment(um). Integral Review 9(2). 189-199.

Література

1. Baumgдrtner S., Backer Ch. (2005) Wissenschaftsphilosophie interdisciplinдrer Umweltforschung. Marburg: Metropolis.

2. Blдttel-Mink B. (2003) Nachhaltigkeit und Transdisziplinaritдt: Ideal und Forschungspraxis. Arbeitsbericht 229. Der Akademie fьr technikfolgenabschдtzung in Baden-Wьrttemberg.

3. Horlebein M., Schanz H. Wirtschaftsdidaktik fur Berufliche Schulen. Berufsbildung konkret. Band 8. 241.

4. Mansilla B. (2010) Learning to Synthesize: The Development of Interdisciplinary Understanding. In R. Frodeman, J. T. Klein, & C. Mitcham (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity (pp. 288-306). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

5. Project-based learning. Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. Iowa State University.

6. Schier C., Schwinger E. (2014) Interdisziplinaritдt und Transdisziplinaritдt als Herausforderung akademischer Bildung. Pдdagogik. 319.

7. Thomson Klein, Julie (2013) Transdisciplinary Moment(um). Integral Review 9(2). 189-199.

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