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45Volume 4 Issue 1, 2020, pp. 8-21 doi: 10.22363/2521-442X-2020-4-1-8-21
Guest Editor Dr Robert O'Dowd
Original Research
Profession-oriented training of foreign language teachers in modern conditions
by Tatiana A. Dmitrenko and Olga A. Kadilina
Tatiana A. Dmitrenko Moscow Pedagogical State University [email protected] Olga A. Kadilina Kutafin Moscow State Law University [email protected] Date of submission: 22.01.2020 | Date of acceptance for publication: 2.03.2020
Recommended citation format: Dmitrenko, T. A., & Kadilina, O. A. (2020). Profession-oriented training of foreign language teachers in modern conditions. Training, Language and Culture, 4(1), 8-21. Doi: 10.22363/2521-442X-2020-4-1-8-21
The study discusses the problem of competitive specialist training in the field of intercultural contacts and aims to assess the opportunities and main means to improve professional training for competitive specialists, which are considered quality indicators for university education. The authors analyse global educational practices, define the concept of 'profession-oriented training technologyidentify relevant problematic affecting the efficiency of vocational training quality, consider general trends and principles for modelling profession-oriented technologies, and argue that applying profession-oriented training technology ensures high quality training results for a competitive specialist whose qualification complies with the world standards.
KEYWORDS: foreign language training, intercultural communication, profession-oriented technology, multicultural environment, competitive specialist
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0)
1. INTRODUCTION
When it comes to training competitive specialists in the multicultural environment, preparation of pedagogical corps conforming to the needs of modern life is a priority task. Today, profession-oriented training of future foreign language teachers in higher education institutions is implausible without the intensification and optimisation of the learning process.
High-quality professional training of future specialists in the system of language education im-
plies, on the one hand, optimisation of training, which allows the most appropriate building of the educational process by selecting and organising training material correctly, and, on the other hand, enhancing educational activities, where the main focus is on creating favourable psycho-hygienic and aesthetic conditions for training.
When training teachers in universities, profession-oriented technologies guarantee the necessary and sufficient level of efficiency and quality of education and reduce the negative consequences
© Tatiana A. Dmitrenko, Olga A. Kadilina 2020 This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
of the work of low-skilled teachers; they also provide each student with the opportunity to study according to an individual programme that fully suits their cognitive abilities, motives, inclinations and other personal qualities.
The most important characteristics of profession-oriented technologies are: effectiveness (high results achieved by each student); cost-effectiveness (a large amount of educational material is effectively assimilated per unit of time without high loss of time and effort on the part of both the teacher and the student); ergonomics (psycho-hygiene) (training takes place in an atmosphere of cooperation and a positive emotional microclimate, in the absence of overload and overwork); creating high motivation to study the subject, which allows to identify and improve the best personal qualities of students, to reveal their reserve capabilities (Dmitrenko, 2009).
Profession-oriented educational technologies in higher education incorporate the latest achievements in didactics, psychology, computer science, etc., increasing the informative capacity of the educational content, developing general educational skills, educational and methodological support, ensuring students' active mental work, etc.
The practical implementation of such training technologies is possible only if this process is effectively managed both from the outside and from the inside, i.e. systemically at all levels of consideration of the student's educational activities: at the socio-pedagogical, psychophysiological and, finally, didactic levels. Therefore, there is a need to create systems of techniques, tasks, exercises, etc. that stimulate learning activities that not only lead to learning process intensification, but also affect the personality as a whole. They influence a person's desire for self-improvement, self-education, and self-government, which is why a synthesis of control actions at all levels occurs and we get the expected effect of productive, economical, psycho-hygienic, and highly motivated training and education - a new personality, responsible for the effective self-management of further educational and cognitive activities (Dmitrenko, 2020).
2. MATERIAL AND METHODS
The analysis of recent national and foreign developments has shown that the intensification of vocational training involves extending the independent work of students, which is considered today as one of the most important ways to improve professional training quality for a future specialist. In this regard, the issue of students' independent work occupies one of the central places in the university training of a specialist. Its solution is directly related to matters of further self-education and professional growth of graduates.
In modern conditions of the rapid development of science and technological progress, the solution to this problem is associated with the development of critical thinking among students, the desire for self-improvement and continuous enrichment and updating of knowledge. All this can be achieved with the intensification of vocational training, following the path of extending the independent work of students.
The most important indicator of educational and cognitive activity at a high level is the students' motivational readiness to master knowledge: the desire to comprehensively consider problems that arise, expand the amount of knowledge by referring to additional sources, the need for self-improvement, and the search for innovative ways to solve problems. Self-improvement and self-education outwardly express the most active side of the regulatory and managerial function of self-awareness (Akiba et al., 2007).
Most educators believe that bettering a person's education first of all implies accustoming them to self-education throughout life. Another way to intensify professional training of specialists is to bring training closer to future professional activities. The essence of profiling is the requirement for a focused and optimal content of the material, strictly focused on solving the problems of full-fledged training of a future specialist. A promising way to increase the effectiveness of vocational training is to solve the psychological and pedagogical problems of ensuring the transformation of one type of activity into another - educational to professional.
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Teaching students in the context of future professional activities is currently considered as a way to improve the quality of future specialists' profession-oriented training:
- from the very beginning, the student is placed in an active position, since academic subjects are presented in the form of activities (educational, quasi-professional, educational and professional) with a specific scenario for their deployment, dy-namisation;
- the full potential of student's work is activated - from the level of perception to the level of social readiness to make mutual decisions;
- students acquire knowledge in the context of resolving future professional situations presented in training in a didactically sound form, which provides the conditions for the formation of not only cognitive, but also professional motivation, the personal meaning of the learning process;
- students' activity is both individual and joint collective in nature, which determines the formation of business and moral qualities of the future specialist personality and allows everyone to perform a teaching function in relation to other students;
- acquisition of experience in the use of educational information as a means of regulating student's activity, which is increasingly becoming professional and ensures the conversion of this information into a means of professional activity, into knowledge itself as a personal asset of a future specialist.
We believe that there are three main ways to improve the quality of vocational training in higher education. One of them is the students' application of learning outcomes in their future professional activities. For this, the teaching of any subject in a university should be carried out in the context of the future profession of students - this is the way to generalise the acquired knowledge and skills.
Another way to increase the effectiveness of vocational training in the higher education system is to provide students with a clear understanding of the basic structure of the course of the subject under study, its theoretical and practical significance,
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'To understand the structure of the subject, it is important to understand the basic relationships within it. In order for the learning outcome to be fruitful, training should be structured so that the result achieved in one step helps learning in the next steps and is useful in future professional activities'
and the components of the course. To understand the structure of the subject, it is important to understand the basic relationships within it. In order for the learning outcome to be fruitful, training should be structured so that the result achieved in one step helps learning in the next steps and is useful in future professional activities. The continuity of training depends on the students' mastery of the subject structure.
Another promising way to improve the quality of vocational training involves the creating of favourable conditions in the learning process. The educational process, like the educational activities of students, should be emotionally saturated. The emotional background that accompanies the study and assimilation of material and the development of skills, is of great importance. It can contribute to increasing the working capacity of students or vice versa to reduce it, to influence the memorisation of educational material, facilitating it or not. Emotionally coloured knowledge, as the knowledge that is acquired independently, permanently settles in memory and becomes very strong. Lasting knowledge also becomes the knowledge that is applied in practical activities.
Proponents of this way of intensifying the process of future specialists' training widely use in their arsenal the following (Imbernon et al., 2020):
- the Internet that creates a global educational and developing environment in which the future generations will not only communicate, but also build professional and personal relationships, efficiently positioning their interests and representing themselves;
- search task statement, which contributes to the development of critical thinking among students who can see and creatively solve problems that lead to their cognitive independence, search skills at a high level of communication, ability to apply knowledge in unfamiliar situations, include them in new systems to expand knowledge boundaries;
- use of active teaching methods (projects, role-playing, business games, analysis of business situations), the flexible variation of which in class provides an individual educational trajectory for students;
- use and further development of cognitive abilities of students, the disclosure of students' reserves, which are inherent in their genetic inclinations and holistic socio-cultural experience.
Creating favourable educational psycho-hygienic and aesthetic conditions for training makes it possible not only to optimise all training and correctly select and organise training material, but also to intensify students' mental activity.
Profession-oriented teaching technology is aimed not only at quantitative changes (more study time, more training material, etc.), but, above all, qualitative changes in the education system. Many experts interpret it as the best way to implement the trends of scientific and technological progress (Dmitrenko, 2009). The result of teaching a foreign language using profession-oriented technology is embodied in the students' mastery of professional and communicative competence, their ability to actively and creatively participate in communication on the subject under study.
The strategic direction of enhancing the efficiency and quality of education today is not only increasing the amount of information transmitted in the learning process, but also creating didactic and psychological conditions for understanding it.
It seems that the quality of mastering the subject depends not only on the abilities of the trainees, but also on the scientifically developed system of teaching this subject. In this regard, currently, among the problems associated with improving the quality of professional training of future teachers, specialists highlight psychological issues.
Moreover, linguistic, methodological and other problems related to the specifics of the subject under study become less significant.
Over the past decades, conditions for improving the quality and effectiveness of vocational training in higher education have not yet been fully created. One of the conditions for the quality training of future foreign language teachers in the higher education system is the possibility of involving each student in the active cognitive activity, applying their knowledge in practice and obtaining a clear understanding of where, how and for what purposes this knowledge can be applied.
The concept of education is complex and mul-tifaceted: it includes not only knowledge and skills, but also the ability to think critically, to evaluate historical and any other events in the world from a highly moral standpoint, and to implement the knowledge creatively.
The integration of education, science and production allows us to intensify the use of such teaching methods as problem lectures, practical exercises of a problem-search nature, business and heuristic games.
The latest technical tools are becoming an indispensable link in vocationally oriented education in higher education. Information and communication technologies based on personal computers are gaining recognition.
Many countries associate the future with achievements in the field of scientific and technological progress, especially in the field of information and communication training technologies, primarily, information and computer support for training courses. Some authors suggest that with the development of new information technologies there will be no need for books, and laptops will replace paper and pencil, both in schools and in industry and commerce (Tomlinson & Jarvis, 2014).
Today, computer literacy can significantly increase a person's intellectual abilities, contribute to making optimal decisions in the most difficult situations, and to a certain extent expand the prospects for the development of the economy and technology, science and culture. Knowing the capabilities of a personal computer and the ability to
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use it are included in the concept of general computer literacy, which is becoming a necessary component of modern general cultural training.
In this study, the development of profession-oriented training is discussed at a conceptual level, which helps identify the main guidelines, understand pedagogical experience and the conditions for achieving goals and objectives. The review analysis of leading research in the field of professional training for future specialists showed that effectiveness increase in professional and pedagogical training for future teachers in higher education is possible only if creative approaches prevail in the students' activity at all stages of the educational process.
Profession-oriented technologies in higher pedagogical schools should meet the following requirements: individualisation and differentiation, professionalisation, deeper insight into creative research studies, computerisation, the use of various forms, methods and means of activating educational process, etc.
3. STUDY AND RESULTS
This study will consider various ways to improve the quality of vocational training of future specialists in the field of foreign languages, which have become profession-oriented training origins, as they are of specific professional interest for foreign language teachers.
The suggestive way of a profession-oriented technology for training specialists in the field of a foreign language is founded on three main principles - joy and relaxedness in the training process, the unity of the conscious and subconscious, and the presence of a suggestive connection between the teacher and the student - formed a substantial basis for the subsequent development of this direction by many researchers (Canals & Al-Rawash-deh, 2019). The proposed type of educational process helps solve new problems, the essence of which is:
- in accelerated learning of new material at a creative level;
- in an accelerated educational effect, moving simultaneously in the following four directions -
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developing global thinking in a personality, creating motivation for lifelong learning, developing students' self-control skills and easy achievement of the state of 'concentrated psychorelaxation', and overcoming the difficulties of communication;
- in the comprehensive development of all reserves of a personality.
A profession-oriented technology for teaching a foreign language by activating the capabilities of an individual and a team is based on the active use of psychological and socio-psychological capabilities of the individual in the team (Roberts, 2016). This way of profession-oriented training is based on the following principles:
- collective interaction;
- personality-oriented communication;
- role organisation of the educational process;
- concentration in the organisation of educational material and educational process;
- multifunctional exercises.
A profession-oriented technology for teaching a foreign language based on an emotional-semantic context is focused on an emotional-semantic approach aimed at practical mastery of a foreign language (Matsuda, 2017). With such training, the following scheme operates: reality - meaning -sounding speech - knowledge - language.
Unlike others, the profession-oriented technology for teaching foreign languages to scientific employees (the so-called 'immersion method0 is a focused, controlled, accelerated process of teaching foreign oral speech in the environment of the language under study artificially created and maintained throughout the course, the environment as close to reality as possible (Freeman, 2016).
'Immersion' is provided by the training system, including goals, conditions, content, principles, means and methods of training. In creating an atmosphere of high emotional mood in the educational process using the immersion technique, a special role is assigned to the song cycle. In addition to the general aesthetic purpose, musical visualisation in teaching a foreign language via this technology is an effective means of psychothera-peutic influence for relaxation or, conversely, enhancement of emotional activity.
The rhythmic and melodised language material performs an important educational and suggestive task: it is easily assimilated by students and is firmly imprinted in their memory, as the musical accompaniment provides a vivid, imaginative, and emotionally coloured perception of the material in a foreign language and thereby its subconscious memorisation. The song cycle allows perfectly illustrating lexical and grammatical material and it fixes it with the help of sounding melodies. The musical component in the content of teaching a foreign language helps effectively address a whole series of tasks in the educational process at once: to stimulate foreign language communication, to motivate a positive attitude towards the given subject, to illustrate the content of a text, to acquaint students with the musical culture of the country of the language, etc.
Each of the researchers listed above has contributed to the study of the theoretical and methodological foundations of profession-oriented teaching technologies. Thus, the following main characteristics, which have developed in educational theory and practice, are inherent in the new direction of future specialists' vocational training: appeal to the student's intellectual and personal reserves; activation of cognitive processes (especially memory); positive impact on the emotional sphere; fatigue removal and the creation of the 'effect of rest' in the classroom; psychotherapeutic effects - mitigation of aggressive tendencies, optimisation of social adaptation processes.
Profession-oriented educational technology in the current sense implies a rather high concentration of training. Concentration favourably affects those aspects of educational activity that require concentration when entering a situation. These aspects of educational activity are characterised by the need for continuous reinforcement; provide greater flexibility in behaviour in the future by covering the entire system. In the conditions of profession-oriented training, this problem is solved in a new way, because here a distribution in the concentration system is formed. A specific feature of profession-oriented teaching technologies is the presence of an urgent need. Each student is aware
'The rhythmic and melodised language material performs an important educational and suggestive task: it is easily assimilated by students and is firmly imprinted in their memory, as the musical accompaniment provides a vivid, imaginative, and emotionally coloured perception of the material in a foreign language and thereby its subconscious memorisation'
of the need and the conscious need finds itself in the subject of educational activity, i.e. in the assimilation of the studied subject.
The coincidence of motive and goal gives the activity a reasonable meaning and makes this activity effective. They study a subject intensively and qualitatively only when it is needed, and this need is recognised. The very organisation of profession-oriented training in modern forms of its implementation contributes to the strengthening of this need.
A feature of profession-oriented technologies for teaching students of higher pedagogical schools is also the creation of high mental activity among students. Active mental work is caused by a problem situation, the solution of mental tasks. A distinctive feature of such profession-oriented teaching technology is also the dominance of unconscious over conscious memorisation and the predominance of awareness of the content plane over the formal one.
Thus, at present, the psychological feature of profession-oriented training is, on the one hand, a clear organisation of educational material and educational activities of students and, on the other hand, the correct distribution in the concentration system of educational activities, the correct organisation of trusting relationships, through which the student is aware of and comprehends (with the help of a teacher) educational material and a genuine communication situation, in which the mastery of a subject, a foreign language in particular,
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is determined by meeting the need to find a means and a way to express one's thoughts.
Profession-oriented training in general should be defined as a creative educational process, in which a large amount of educational information is assimilated at the highest possible quality level using the student's personality reserves. It is possible only with the creative influence of the teacher's personality and under favourable conditions for learning, with no fatigue or overload. The learning process in this case is much faster and requires less labour effort both for the teacher and students (Dmitrenko, 2009).
New profession-oriented technologies used in training future foreign language teachers in the higher education system are expressed:
- in the methodically rational organisation of classes, in which every minute of study time should be used productively to achieve the goals;
- in the communicative orientation of the entire learning process, the motivation of students' speech activity, the necessary emotionally coloured atmosphere;
- in the variety of methods and forms of work used in view of the individual characteristics of students, the type of activity, the nature of the material and the level of knowledge, methodologically appropriate combination of frontal and individual forms of work;
- in the widespread use of modern technical means that are organically included in the learning process where they can give the maximum effect compared to 'non-technical means';
- in the introduction of intensive educational technologies in teaching practice in all cases where they can intensify and individualise the learning process.
Therefore, the main thing for teachers is to build the educational process in such a way as to teach students to think, understand, find, solve, prove, reason, seek confirmation, etc. An important feature of qualified teachers of a foreign language is that their messages contain a large number of interrogative phrases that place students in problematic situations that activate their thinking. In this case, the teacher's monologue turns
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'Therefore, the main thing for teachers is to build the educational process in such a way as to teach students to think, understand, find, solve, prove, reason, seek confirmation, etc.'
into a hidden dialogue, involving the consideration of the problem from different points of view.
In modern didactics, the debatable principle of presenting material has entered the practice of teaching various subjects in the form of problemsolving based learning, when the teacher offers a initial data so that students can find a solution to a particular issue in the process of self-searching. Today, it seems that students should receive knowledge in foreign language classes on a communicative basis, i.e. the teacher's task is to turn learning into interesting communication on the subject of the academic discipline.
The highest emotional tone of the audience and emotional involvement in the educational process ensures the implementation of the installation for the disclosure of the student's personality reserves. The most progressive-minded teachers are trying to find new ways to 'revive' the educational process, widely attracting students to active creative work, using various forms of explanation of educational material. It is about giving the educational activity non-standard, original techniques that enhance the activities of students, increase interest in knowledge, nurture inquiring thoughts and enthusiasm, while at the same time ensuring speedy memorisation, understanding and assimilation of the educational material, taking into account the individual abilities of students.
To increase the effectiveness of profession-oriented technology for teaching any subject, including a foreign language, it is necessary to think not only about revision, but also about ways of presenting educational material, about the organisation of educational activities and about the formation of cognitive interests. It is important that the educational material itself should be interesting, and then the process of mastering it changes quali-
tatively: the goal of cognition and the form it takes turns into a means of cognition.
The transition from a monologue to dialogue in pedagogical activity is a definite form of manifestation of the humanisation of the process of training and education. Adaptation of the learning process to the individuality of each student should occur through a thorough study of their natural data and the development of the necessary abilities for the qualitative mastering of the subject.
The humanistic purpose of education requires a review and its content. It should include not only the latest scientific and technical information, but also humanitarian, personally developing knowledge and skills, experience in creative activity, an emotional-value attitude to the world and a person in it, and a system of moral and ethical feelings that determine people's behaviour in diverse life situations.
The emergence of the problem of profession-oriented teaching technology of a new generation is associated with the introduction of innovations in the educational process at universities. A system of quality training of future specialists for creative and inventive activity, especially in the field of intercultural communication, is impossible without the use of modern technical means. This is due to an increase in the volume of creative work that increases the amount of information processed at the same time.
Modern technical means providing a qualitative breakthrough in improving the quality of students' educational activities; significantly expanding the possibilities of accumulating and presenting information for educational and research activities; and contributing to the formation of the students' reflection on their activities. All profession-oriented training technologies should be based on the following principles: scientific; systematic; connection of theory with practice; co-creation by teacher and students; trust in the creative powers and abilities of students; unity of the intuitive and the logical, conscious and unconscious, concrete and abstract, rational and emotional, etc.
A brief analysis of some promising modern ways to improve the quality of professional trai-
ning of future specialists in the higher education system (including individualisation and differentiation, further professionalisation, intensifying the creative search work of students, computerisation, the use of various forms, methods and means of enhancing the learning process, the hygiene of academic work, humanisation of educational activities, etc.) shows that profession-oriented training technology is based on the use of the latest achievements of didactics, psychology, computer science, cybernetics, and a number of other sciences. This process includes such terms as purpose-fulness of training, accelerating the pace of educational activities, developing the skills of academic work, use of new technical means, etc.
Almost all new profession-oriented teaching technologies are designed only on the basis of practical experience and, in most cases, are traditional teaching technologies with the introduction of various innovations in the latter. It follows from this that theoretical studies of profession-oriented training technologies for future specialists lag far behind the results achieved by many years of practical experience. Therefore, the design of profession-oriented teaching technologies for any educational subject should be preceded by a systematic approach to the learning process, especially in terms of predicting the further improvement of this process.
Here is a brief description of some profession-oriented educational technologies.
Problem-solving based training is a modern, highly effective profession-oriented teaching technology that yields great results in creating motivating learning activities, which assumes a sequence of immersion of students in the critical analysis and resolution of problems. Scholars emphasise the importance of problem-solving based learning for the personal development of students: Problem-solving based learning is designed to incorporate psychological mechanisms; the claim is to obtain a positive result independently and develop cognitive motivation, self-regulation aimed at understanding and managing one's own actions, and forming an internal need to overcome cognitive difficulties; the development of self-esteem; the
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formation of a positive attitude towards the process of cognition' (Moust et al., 2019, p. 94).
The technology of full assimilation as a profession-oriented teaching technology assumes that learner's abilities are determined not under average conditions, but under optimally selected conditions for a given student, therefore an adaptive training system is required, allowing all students to fully master the programme material. This requires a complete reorganisation of the traditional class-lesson system, setting for all students the same study time, content, working conditions, but having mixed results in the output (Rochebois, 2019).
The concept of full mastery sets a uniform level for students to master knowledge and skills, but makes time, methods, forms, and working conditions variable for each student. The key concept of this technology is the stages (criteria) of complete assimilation, i.e. the planned learning outcomes that all students must achieve.
Multilevel learning technology as an option for profession-oriented learning technology is based on the level differentiation of students and their features. At the same time, various student inclinations, motives, temperament characteristics, thinking and memory properties, emotionality, and learning abilities, etc. need consideration.
The flows of students are divided into mobile and relatively homogeneous, each of the groups masters the material in various educational fields at the following levels: minimal (state standard), basic, and variative.
The pedagogical technology of modular training represents a profession-oriented training technology that makes it possible to implement fundamental changes. The new paradigm is that students must learn by themselves, while teachers are responsible for motivational management; i.e. motivate, organise, coordinate, advise, control (Calderón, 2018). The underlying reasons for the emergence and use of new profession-oriented training technologies are seen in:
- the need to introduce a system-activity approach to teaching in teaching methods;
- the need to motivate and intensify students' educational and cognitive activity, replace the in-
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'As for the goals of education, they are largely determined by social conditions, as teaching technologies depend on the goals that society sets before education'
effective verbal way of transferring knowledge and education (according to psychologists, a student assimilates no more than 36% of the information 'from the words');
- the possibility of designing a technological chain of procedures, methods, organisational forms of interaction between students and the teacher, providing guaranteed learning outcomes and reducing the negative consequences of the work of unskilled teachers.
Thus, learning technology is understood as the theoretical project of pedagogical management of educational activities and the system of necessary tools to ensure the functioning of the pedagogical system in accordance with the set goals of education and students' development.
As for the goals of education, they are largely determined by social conditions, as teaching technologies depend on the goals that society sets before education. An important task of teaching technologies is to design, together with students, the teaching technology that correlates with the corresponding educational purpose. When developing educational technologies in the system of higher professional education, it is necessary to proceed from the fact that the goal of improving the educational technologies in this system is to train specialists of a new type who can increase the prestige of the country they work in.
4. DISCUSSION
The teacher ensures the interconnection of all components of the educational process: the content of training and its capacity, methods, forms and means of training. This can explain the fact that new profession-oriented technologies are generally developed based on the content of the material of specific educational subjects and the technologies of their teaching.
Profession-oriented teaching technologies of a new generation are aimed at:
- reorienting the goals of higher professional education aimed at the development of personal abilities;
- updating the content of education;
- optimising the teaching process, focused on achieving the goals of training highly qualified specialists with little effort on the part of educators and students and at the same time achieving not only high-quality knowledge, skills, but also developing professional and creative work experience;
- shifting emphasis from the teaching process to the self-learning process of future specialists.
In the design of profession-oriented teaching technologies it is advisable to move from the beaten track (experiment - design - testing - theory) to the new trajectory (theory - design - adjusting -refinement to meet modern practice requirements). Profession-oriented teach-ing technologies in higher education are not a 'frozen scheme' of the educational process, not a combination of ready-made templates and stereotypes, but a lively creative process of solving numerous problems of training future specialists, based on classical didactics and being its practical continuation.
We consider profession-oriented teaching technology in the system of higher professional education as a system of psychological, general pedagogical, didactic procedures for the interaction of teachers and students, considering their abilities and inclinations, aimed at implementing the content, methods, forms and means of training that are adequate to the goals of education, future activities and professionally important qualities of specialists - future teachers. The design of such profession-oriented teaching technologies should be carried out through the interaction of theory and practice, a combination of individual and collective work, mentoring and self-education. The building principles include the integration of training with science and industry; the professionally-creative orientation of training; a personality teaching orientation; based on the development of the experience of future specialists' self-education (Dmitrenko, 2009).
The use of profession-oriented technology, which involves the optimal combination of the most promising technologies, has the following effect. It ensures the effectiveness of the development of the subject taught; it allows a reduction training time; it frees students from heavy loads of homework; it not only eliminates extreme levels of fatigue, but also, on the contrary, leads to a feeling of emotional and physical comfort. It has an emphasised psychological effect.
The analysis of various models of concentrated learning as a component of a profession-oriented training technology allows us to identify common features of the technology itself, which include:
- variety of complementary forms of educational activity;
- group and individual forms of training;
- cooperation of the teacher and students;
- integrity of the perception of information by students;
- integrity of knowledge; saving study time;
- the possibility of in-depth subject study;
- comfortable learning;
- teachers using profession-oriented teaching technologies in their work with the ability to systematically view the material and be fluent in various forms of educational work;
- rhythmic building of the educational process during the day, week, academic period, and academic year;
- development of educational and methodological support for a particular subject and experimental verification of the impact of various means on the effectiveness of training.
The possibility of simultaneous impact on the conscious and unconscious spheres of students' mental activity opens up great opportunities for mobilising brain reserves, in particular memory. We refer to the factor of students' emotional susceptibility, the motivational factor and professional orientation factor as psychophysiological aspects of great influence dealing with the ongoing process of training.
Educational and methodological support factors play the most important role in improving the quality of vocational training. They, in a scientifically
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sound reasonable combination with each other, psychophysiological factors and factors related to the specifics of the subject under study, ensure the achievement of the set goals in the shortest possible way and meet the requirements for specialists in the current period of social development.
The influence of each of the effectiveness factors of the profession-oriented training is obvious and can be summed up in five arguments.
1. The intensification of the educational process due to the predominant use of business and role-playing games is effective and economical at the same time, since, as a rule, it does not require heavy expenditure to acquire. Furthermore, the form of the game is closest to the real professional conditions of the future specialists. A system for determining the level of knowledge acquired by students is implemented in the process of conducting educational games, resolving problem situations, discussions, etc. and is carried out by the students themselves together with the teacher as facilitator.
2. Game training allows you to design the educational process of profession-oriented training as a set of games with different levels, purposes and complexity, with the only goal - to prepare highly qualified specialists who meet all modern requirements and are able to complete their business duties after graduation at a professional level.
3. Educational games, by their nature and quality, most successfully and effectively interact with psychophysiological and other factors of educational and methodological support (technical means of training, music, artificially created environments characteristic of the subject under study) and factors related to the specifics of the subject. At the same time, the scientifically substantiated reasonable combination of the game factor with other factors provides a significantly greater effect than the use of games in a 'pure', i.e. isolated form.
4. The intensification of the process of teaching a subject with technical teaching aids greatly facilitates the teacher's achievement of the goal, to ensure the proper quality of knowledge of the subject studied and the training of students, significantly reducing the time of general training.
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5. The scientifically substantiated complex use of a variety of technical means of training in the students' mastering of a subject (foreign language) has proved that with their help it is possible to set new educational tasks that could not be solved by other means. The effect of the technical means of training focusing on improving the quality of vocational training of future foreign language teachers becomes even more noticeable and tangible when technical means of training are combined with other means of educational and methodological support.
Profession-oriented technology absorbs everything progressive in the development of psychology, pedagogy and other sciences. Thus, the society as a whole is constantly being improved.
The main indicator of the quality of vocational training of a specialist in the field of intercultural communication is the demand for a graduate in the educational labour market. A competitive specialist is an indicator of the quality of university training. The creation of optimal psychological and pedagogical conditions for vocational training in the system of higher language education contributes to the preparation of a competitive specialist who is fluent in his or her profession at the level of international standards (Alkheshnam, 2012).
One of the goals of university language training today is to build students' readiness for intercultural communication and achieve a level of communicative competence that would ensure effective communication with native speakers of the language under study.
From the standpoint of realising the ultimate goal in preparing a competitive specialist, it is advisable to talk about the formation of their intercultural communicative competence, which includes not only knowledge of language material but observance of social norms of speech communication, rules of speech behaviour typical of the representatives of a foreign language culture.
Today, interest in a foreign language as a reflection of sociocultural reality is sharply increasing, which accordingly makes it necessary to study a holistic picture of the world, present in the cultural tradition of one's own people and the people stu-
died. One of the most significant trends in teaching a foreign language in the system of higher language education is the trend of co-study of language and culture with an emphasis on culture.
At the present stage, language training in universities is beginning to be delivered in the context of personal orientation and cultural dialogue. Its main goal is the language training of a competent specialist ready for professional and business communication in the framework of international cooperation. Comparison and analysis of facts and phenomena belonging to different cultures should be the main procedures for introducing students to a new cultural reality.
Nowadays, the theory of teaching a foreign language focuses on the students' active work in mastering the language. It fits into the ideas of developing education. Communication efficiency depends on many factors: knowledge of the language, communication conditions and culture, etiquette rules, knowledge of non-verbal forms of expression (facial expressions, gestures), deep background knowledge that all representatives of a given linguistic community are familiar with, etc.
Preparation for intercultural interaction involves the development of a person's intercultural sensitivity (Ennis & Riley, 2018). The formation of a tolerant attitude provides the recognition of those features of a stranger and one's own culture that may affect successful communication or good language training.
The student must be able to carry out intercultural communication in compliance with the norms or rules of speech behaviour adopted in the country of the language under study. In this regard, the course of speech etiquette is an integral part of the pedagogical training of a future specialist.
An important part of speech etiquette is avoiding the communicative taboos that are in force in national communication, the prohibitions on the use of certain expressions or touching on certain topics in different communicative situations (Byram et al., 2013).
The desire to comply with the norms of a foreign speech culture shows respect for the repre-
sentatives of this culture and has a positive impact on achieving mutual understanding in the process of communication and helps establish friendly relations between communicators.
Modern profession-oriented teaching technologies allow us to gain experience in intercultural communication in the process of modelling cultural space during the lesson. Practice-oriented communicative tasks aimed at the formation of intellectual flexibility and tolerance towards foreign language speakers and their culture contribute to the assimilation of new knowledge and the development of skills and behaviours in a foreign culture environment.
The knowledge and understanding of the similarities and differences between the cultures of the native country and the country of the language studied allow students to choose a style of behaviour in the process of intercultural communication, to critically assess the situation of communication, to adequately and respectfully treat others national etiquette and to show interest in the culture and history of the country (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013).
The specificity of the foreign language studied and its culture becomes apparent when juxtaposing languages and cultures, similarly as one's native culture is revealed in comparison with a foreign one.
Therefore, the ways for the future specialist in the field of intercultural communications to form and develop a value picture of the world involve teaching foreign language communication in the context of a dialogue of cultures, developing the personality of students, and raising the need for constant self-education as a means of socio-cultural development of the world.
5. CONCLUSION
Profession-oriented technology in training a foreign language teacher in modern conditions is aimed at teaching intercultural interaction and involves sensory perception and interpretation of cultural differences. Introducing students to intercultural differences in relationships with the representatives of other cultures through situations that
Volume 4 Issue 1, 2020, pp. 8-21
'It is necessary to draw the attention of future specialists in intercultural communication to the knowledge of stereotypes that are important for intercultural communication and allow them to make assumptions about the causes offailures and possible consequences of theirs and other people's actions '
occur differently in various cultures allows students to overcome the stereotypes of foreign language verbal behaviour and prepare the transfer of knowledge to other situations. Ignoring cultural differences hinders the establishment of fruitful relationships between communicators.
It is necessary to draw the attention of future specialists in intercultural communication to the knowledge of stereotypes that are important for intercultural communication and allow them to make assumptions about the causes of failures and possible consequences of theirs and other people's actions. They are very useful and effective for communication, as they help communication partners to understand situations considering the socio-cultural context, they can clarify much about what is desirable and what is not, and what is taboo in a particular culture.
The ability to decode information about the identity of the interlocutor puts the communicant in conditions equal to those of a different culture. This knowledge allows not only choosing the right tone for communication, but also avoiding painful issues in discussion and better understanding the psychology of the partner. Thus, in order to speak a foreign language correctly, one needs to know the behavioural norms, psychology and the culture of one's communication partner in order to prevent misunderstandings.
The introduction of informational and communicative technologies in the process of profession-oriented foreign language teaching offers educational didactic opportunities, as well as significantly
doi: 10.22363/2521-442X-2020-4-1-8-21
enriching the educational process. A foreign language lesson is filled with new content, while students develop a creative outlook and rational working skills, which improve language acquisition qualities.
The concept of a new type of training is guided by the competent model of a specialist in the field of intercultural communication in accordance with modern requirements under new working conditions. The introduction of advanced teaching technologies into the educational process using modern technical means best contributes to solving the problem of training a competitive specialist.
At the present stage, the main feature in foreign language teaching methods' development is the transformation of the linguistic-educational paradigm from communicative to intercultural. This change is caused, among other things, by the use of computer programmes of various types (teaching, applied, instrumental, telecommunication), aimed at creating an integrated learning environment, with the help of which students are completely immersed in the linguistic environment being studied and in foreign language culture, which significantly expands and deepens their communicative and professional competence.
The teacher's facilitation helps students' improve their awareness of the purpose of work, their ability to choose rational means and techniques, i.e. the ability to independently acquire knowledge and work creatively with information. Naturally, this should have a significant impact both on the effectiveness of academic work and the development of a positive environment for teaching staff. The new concept of training competent specialists in the system of higher linguistic education involves creating optimal conditions for unlocking students' personal potential in the educational process.
Thus, training of competitive specialists is about raising the culture of foreign language teaching to a qualitatively new level, ensuring sru-dents' development and social adaptation, and contributing to the formation of an appropriate environment for social and personal development.
by Tatiana A. Dmitrenko and Olga A. Kadilina
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