Content selection as a means to enhance the ESP’S successful mastering

Ісаєнко Світлана Анатоліївна,

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент, Державний університет інфраструктури та технологій

Гурінчук Світлана Василівна,

Кандидат історичних наук, доцент, Державний університет інфраструктури та технологій

Ножовнік Олег Миколайович,

Кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент,

Інститут державного управління та наукових досліджень з цивільного захисту

У статті проаналізовано та узагальнено існуючі науково-теоретичні розробки щодо виділення та відбору змісту навчальної дисципліни «Англійськамова професійного спрямування» у контексті міжкультурної комунікації. Зазначено, що наразі проблема організації навчального процесу в національній вищій школі вирішується таким чином, щоб іноземна мова вивчалася як явище національної культури народу, як бачення світу цими людьми та сприйняття ними гуманістичних цінностей. Автори переконливо доводять, що знання іноземної мови є впливовим чинником утворення духовності особистості студента, його свідомості, мислення, поглядів і переконань, а виховною цінністю іноземної мови є не лише засвоєння мовної системи чи використання іноземної мови як засобу отримання нової інформації. Аналіз та узагальнення наявної науково-теоретичної спадщини та досвіду дають підстави визнати наступні основні шляхи реалізації освітнього потенціалу іноземної мови в контексті підвищення якості професійної підготовки майбутнього інженера: принципи, на яких побудована інтенсивна методика навчання іноземних мов, із засадами свідомого оволодіння іноземною мовою та системного підходу до організації навчального процесу; органічне поєднання аудиторної та самостійної роботи студентів, забезпечення використання наявних мовних і мовленнєвих навичок, система ефективного контролю за процесом засвоєння студентами змісту іноземних навчальних дисциплін. Узагальнення власного практичного досвіду дає підстави авторам статті виділити дидактичні умови успішного засвоєння змісту навчальної дисципліни «АМПС», які є ефективними у розвитку здатності до повноцінного міжкультурного спілкування студентів вищих навчальних закладів.

Ключові слова: дидактичні умови, соціокультурна проблематика, міжкультурна комунікація, зміст навчальної дисципліни АМПС, практичне володіння іноземною мовою, здатність до міжкультурного спілкування.

Main part

Introduction. The humanization of education as a strategic direction of development of the entire modern European pedagogical process is a natural and historically determined phenomenon. The integration of the higher education system of Ukraine into the world and European educational space necessitates the use of didactic concepts in the pedagogical process aimed at training highly qualified professionals. In the context of dynamic social and technological transformations in the world, the requirements for the level of foreign language proficiency by future specialists in engineering and technical profile have increased. The need to communicate in a foreign language for a modern specialist is not objectionable, since even the most distant specialists from linguistic disciplines have already become convinced that without knowing a foreign language, a full-fledged exchange of scientific and technical information is impossible, which means that the progressive development of science and technology is impossible. Today, the problem of organizing the learning process in the national higher school is being solved in such a way that a foreign language is studied as a phenomenon of the national culture of the people, as a vision of the world by these people and their perception of humanistic values. In the process of teaching the English language, one of the determining factors is the cultural-specific system represented through a foreign language, focused on the relevant standards of culture (certain norms, values, beliefs, rules, and ideas inherent in the representatives of this culture and reflected in the language).

A brief overview of publications on the topic. One cannot argue with the fact that the fields of activity of modern specialists, where it is necessary to use their knowledge of the English language, are quite diverse and, accordingly, they require different skills and abilities from specialists. Therefore, the professional aspect in the English language teaching has always occupied a leading place in the curricula of non-linguistic curricula of non-linguistic higher education institutions. It is indisputably important for an engineer, in the conditions of a continuous increase in the number of periodicals and catalogues, to be able to navigate the rapid flow of information. Accordingly, this task is reflected in the programs of foreign academic disciplines for non-linguistic specialties of higher institutions, which set the main goal - mastering the ability to read original literature in the specialty to obtain the necessary information (Karnaukhova, 1998:12). In modern conditions of the wide development of international relations, English language teaching on the materials of the specialty is of great importance. Studying the English language at technical higher education institutions is a means of deeper acquaintance with a variety of information about the achievements of science and technology in one's own country and abroad. A modern specialist should be able to select the necessary information on foreign periodicals and critically evaluate it, present an abstract translation or annotate an article read in a foreign language, make a presentation or report at a conference, etc. (Karnaukhova, 1998:13). According to scientists, it is especially important, that with the appropriate organization of the educational process, there can be a transfer of skills and abilities in searching information, formed in the process of the English language teaching, into language activities in the native language. In other words, learning to read in a foreign language promotes the development of students' skills provided by the qualifications of the specialist (Karnaukhova, 1998:14). In addition, engineering activities at joint ventures, direct contacts with foreign firms require knowledge of the peculiarities of business communication with foreign partners and the application of this knowledge in practice.

Mastering the basics of business communication with foreign partners allows you to establish a favourable psychological climate in the process of business communication and is a prerequisite for creating reliable, long-term and trusting partnerships. Also, the ability to conduct a professional conversation or negotiation enhances the culture of business communication, ensures the achievement of the desired goal, creates a decent reputation and ensures the professional development of each employee.

For this you need to master the basics of professional and business communication in a foreign language (Klimashevskii, Shestopalov, 2010:21). Therefore, the main goal of teaching the English language is to teach practical knowledge of a foreign language as a new means of communication.

The term «practical command» of a foreign language can be defined as the ability to express one's own and understand the opinions of others in oral and written forms (Zviahintsev, 1964). I. Rakhmanov, L. Scherba, I. Salistra and others understand the term «practical command» of a foreign language as a communicatively sufficient level of language proficiency, which creates a basis for further professionally oriented mastery of the language (Zviahintsev, 1964: 11). We consider that «practical command» and the process of «practical mastering» of a foreign language should not be equated with the development of only oral speech, although historically such identification can be understood. At the end of the 19th century, when the grammatical-translational method, which was aimed at developing the subject's logical thinking and acquiring a philological education, was replaced by a direct method as a reaction to the emergence of the social demand of society for people who practically knew a foreign language, the concept of «mastering language» meant «be able to speak it.» But already at the beginning of the 20th century, some speeches appeared in defence of such teaching, which would give not only practical knowledge of the language, but also develop thinking and implement the principle of consciousness in learning, since there was an urgent need in society for the emergence of methods that would combine everything useful and expedient, that has already been accumulated in the old and new methods, in which consciousness and intuition would coexist. Since communication in a foreign language can be carried out not only orally, but also in writing, therefore, for many researchers, «practical command of» a language means mastering of all types of speech activity (Salistra, 1966). The authors of this publication share this understanding of «practical command of» a foreign language.

A prominent place in the world scientific heritage is occupied by theoretical and practical achievements in teaching foreign languages by L. Shcherba (Scherba, 2003), I. Salistra (Salistra, 1966), N. Borysko (Borisko, 2000), H. Kytaihorodska (Kitaihorodskaia, 1986), S. Nikolaieva (Nikolaieva, 1999) and other researchers. The works of such Ukrainian scientists as L. Volkova, Yu. Gapon, R. Martynova, A. Tarnopolskyi are devoted to the formation of foreign language communicative competence. The possibilities ofusing the educational potential of a foreign language to ensure high-quality professional training of future specialists attracted the attention of Ukrainian scientists. Thus, the use of foreign language was studied by scientists for the formation of professional orientation of the specialist (V. Volkova), professional communication skills (L. Morska), communication skills (L. Dariichuk, R. Zaitseva), foreign language socio-cultural competence (R. Gryshkova, O. Pershukova). However, the analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature indicates the need for further intensive search for effective ways to organize a holistic pedagogical process (in particular, and within individual academic disciplines) in order to form the ability for the most effective intercultural communication among students in accordance with modern social requirements for the personality of a specialist and his professional training.

The purpose of this article is an attempt to analyse and generalize the existing scientific and pedagogical heritage and experience in order to determine effective didactic conditions for the implementation of the educational potential of a foreign language in a professional direction. The object of our study is the comprehensive and operational content of the «English for Specific Purposes» (ESP) academic discipline in non-linguistic universities, taking into account the actualization of the problems of intercultural communication in the world. The subject of the research is the determination of effective didactic conditions for the implementation of the educational potential of the «English for Specific Purposes» while limiting the content component to the rigid target framework of the professionally oriented determinism of this academic discipline.

Materials and methods. The academic discipline «English for Specific Purposes» introduced into the curricula of non-linguistic universities, on the one hand, requires taking into account the cultural and professional realities reflected in a foreign language and realizing the high potential of foreign language socio-cultural issues. On the other hand, the limited number of academic hours not only actualizes but escalates the problem of effective selection of the content of the academic discipline ESP.

Modern requirements for the training of a qualified specialist include the communicative ability in the areas of professional and situational communication in oral and written forms, practical foreign language skills in various types of speech activity in the scope of topics, which is due to professional needs, and his/her ability to master the latest professional information through foreign language sources. The process of learning a foreign language in a higher educational institution should provide several interrelated equivalent aspects, including cognitive or general education, which involves enriching the spiritual world of the individual, acquiring and expanding knowledge about the culture of the country whose language is being studied. However, in the programs of foreign academic disciplines, first of all, students are supposed to acquire communicative competence, which, in addition to linguistic and speech, also includes sociocultural competence.

The formation and development of foreign language lexical competence in the process of learning English is aimed, according to the ESP program, at mastering the most commonly used words and phrases from the academic and professional fields (Bakaieva, Borysenko, Zuienok, 2005). Depending on the cultural material that has to be dealt with within the framework of the socio-cultural environment and the sphere of human activity, A. Markov and H. Birzheniuk propose, when designing a foreign language course containing a socio-cultural component, to single out the «fields» of life, which will simultaneously be priority directions for the formation of socio-cultural competence. According to the above mentioned «fields» of life, A. Markov and H. Birzheniuk identify the following areas of cultural issues in the content of the academic discipline: art culture, historical culture, socio-psychological culture, spiritual and moral culture, environmental culture, political culture (Markov, 1998: 61). Agreeing with the proposed scientific approach, we propose to single out the industrial (technological) environment of human life and add industrial (technological) culture to the content of sociocultural competence.

According to the Common European Recommendations for Language Education, sociocultural vocabulary includes a wide range of words related to everyday life, namely: food and drinks, table manners, public holidays, working hours and activities; living conditions; interpersonal relations associated with the class and family structure, relations between generations (Nikolaieva, Sherstiuk, 2003:102-103). According to this document, the socio-cultural component, as we see, does not apply to the vocabulary of the sphere of future professional activity. A. Fliier offers another view on the problem of selection of vocabulary related to culture. With the exception of words denoting objects and events that are not created and initiated by a person (their part, according to the scientist, in languages is from 3% to 5% of the lexicon), the rest of the vocabulary of any language is a list of cultural phenomena or its features, its elements, processes, technologies, etc. (Flier, 2002:212). A. Fliier believes that «all verbs used to denote any practical or intellectual actions performed by a person according to the rules of social coexistence, as well as all nouns that stimulate actions of this kind, constitute an exhaustive «toolkit» of culture» (Flier, 2002:214-215), and must be included in the content of the academic discipline. Accordingly, the task of selecting effective methods and techniques for mastering such an inexhaustible vocabulary arises.

Our analysis of various methods of teaching foreign languages suggests that they are mainly based on the principle of multiple reproduction of speech patterns in various situations of the communicative direction (i.e., on the principle of maximum approximation of the process of mastering a foreign language to the process of mastering the native language) (Khehboldt, 1963). However, our experience shows that with a limited number of teaching hours that are provided for by the curriculum at a technical university for learning a foreign language, the use of intensive methods of teaching foreign languages should be combined with the principle of a conscious approach to mastering foreign language educational material, which will become one of the main factors for activating educational activities of students and will help: 1) understand the integrity of the foreign language system to be studied; 2) highlight the constituent components of a foreign language and analyse their relationship and interaction; 3) to find in the system of the native language the appropriate language means (which very often do not coincide with the «speech detections» of the foreign language), which would correspond to the literary norms of the native language.

Relying on our own observations and practical experience, we fully share the views of Professor P. Halperin on the need for a phased formation of skills, mental actions and concepts and the allocation of «speech consciousness» as the main link in mastering foreign languages (Halperin, 1996). We believe that the formation and activation of the skills of choosing an authentic speech pattern should begin with the formation of students' skills and conscious actions to distinguish between the main foreign language (English) grammatical categories in speech situations of their native (Ukrainian) language. That is, it is the native (Ukrainian) language that should be the basis necessary for the formation of «speech consciousness», which is perfectly compatible with the principle of a conscious approach to mastering the code system of a foreign language. The mainstreaming of educational activity is achieved through the implementation of the principle of consistency: due to the special organization of the material, its concentration and distribution, specific forms and methods of teaching, as well as through the mobilization and more productive use of the potential of the subject and the lecturer, their interaction (Halperin, 1996:190).

The combination of the principles on which intensive methods of teaching foreign languages are built, with the principles of conscious mastery of a foreign language and a systematic approach to organizing the educational process, set a variety of versatile, but equally important problems-tasks for the person:

1) acquiring the stock of knowledge in the process of studying the rules of pronunciation and reading and a set of skills produced on this basis, and contribute to a more correct perception of oral and written speech;

2) acquiring of the most common words and word combinations; understanding of the versatile relationships between lexical units, displayed in polysemy, compatibility, synonymy, antonymy, (for example), a) the ability to determine the exact meaning of a word and its differences from other synonymous words (especially in cases of incomplete synonymy) and independently navigate in a very common vocabulary of the English language; b) the ability to use prepositions correctly and understand their content-variable possibilities in English; c) understanding of the multivariate correlation of Ukrainian and English morphemes);

3) understanding of the grammatical structure of a foreign language (for example, the correlation of three grammatical tense forms of the Active Voice in Ukrainian with 16 Tense forms of Active Voice in English, the difference between the grammatical categories of case and noun gender, the categories of the infinitive and participles in these languages and features usage, ways of translating Gerund into Ukrainian, etc.

4) familiarization and assimilation of phraseological expressions, development of skills for their practical use. A significant place in the educational process, organized according to such principles, is also occupied by the individual work of a person on the formation of skills for obtaining the necessary information from reference books and other sources, effective control (feedback that allows the lecturer to have an accurate idea of the progress of the student in the process of acquiring knowledge), organic combination of classroom and individual work of students, which should ensure the use of existing language skills and abilities, contribute to the development of independence, communicative-cognitive and social activity of students - future specialists who are able to work successfully in the conditions of established market relations and in a society where such conditions are still being created.

The essence of language is reflected in its inseparable unity with thinking and consciousness. However, the educational value of a foreign language is not only the assimilation of the language system or the use of a foreign language as a means of obtaining new information. As our study of practical experience of teaching a foreign language shows the knowledge of a foreign language, is an influential factor in the formation of the spirituality of a student's personality, his\her consciousness, thinking, attitudes and beliefs. In our opinion, general communication skills, in addition to being oriented towards self-knowledge, planning communication and expedient adjustment of the plan of foreign language communication, the ability to analyse foreign language communication, also consist in the ability to establish appropriate relationships with participants in the communication process, to maintain optimism, emotional stamina.

Conclusions. So, for the foregoing reasons we may conclude that at the present stage of development of educational processes in the world, the knowledge of a foreign language by a specialist in engineering and technical profile is recognized as a necessary component and indicator of the quality of his\her professional training. Effective didactic conditions for the implementation of the educational potential of a foreign language in the context of intercultural communication determined the careful selection of the content of the academic discipline «English for Specific Purposes» (ESP), the direction of students' educational and cognitive activity to master the sociocultural issues of means of adequate grammatical and stylistic formulation of thought. Analysis and generalization of the existing scientific and theoretical heritage and experience give reason to recognize the following as the main ways of realizing the educational potential of a foreign language in the context of improving the quality of professional training of a future engineer: a combination of the principles on which intensive methods of teaching foreign languages are built, with the principles of conscious mastering of a foreign language and a systematic approach to the organization of the educational process; an organic combination of classroom and independent work of students, ensuring the use of existing language skills and speech skills, and a system of effective control over the process of mastering the content of foreign language academic disciplines by students. We see the prospects for research in the comparison and further analysis of the functional features of foreign and native term systems of different fields of professional activity, the development of new and the upgrowth of existing methods of mastering the content of the academic discipline «English for Specific Purposes», etc.

References

1. Borisko N.F. (2000). Teoreticheskie osnovy sozdaniia ychebno-metodicheskikh kompleksov dlia yazykovoi mezhkulturnoi podhotovki uchitelei inostrannykh yazykov (na materiale intensivnoho obucheniia nemetzkomu yazyku): dys…. d-ra. ped. nauk: 13.00.02 [Theoretical grounds on creation educational and methodical complex for language intercultural training of foreign language teachers (based on intensive German language training): dissertation on… Doctor of Pedagogical sciences: 13.00.02]. Kyiv. hos. linhvist. un-t [in Russian].

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