CC BY
14Pedagogy
UDC 373
candidate of Philological Sciences,
associate Professor Zerkina Natalya Nikolaevna
Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University (Magnitogorsk);
candidate of Philological Sciences,
associate Professor Lomakina Yekaterina Alexandrovna
Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University (Magnitogorsk)
PROS AND CORNS OF ICT APPLICATION FOR MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRAINING
Annotation. Nowadays development of education as a process and as a system is organically connected straight to the increasing level of its digital potential. The formation of information culture among students is one of the significant components of their successful orientation in the global information space. The article considers ways of ICT application in the system of modern higher education: maintaining information and training environment on the learning platform of higher education institution; developing teachers' professional competence in the ICT application within the educational space; using ICT resources in the educational process of foreign language teaching and applying acquired communication skills in professional sphere and activities by future specialists. Special attention is given to self-organization practice alongside with using ICT resources in foreign language learning among students of non-linguistic specialties at University, naming positive and negative characteristics of this process. As a separate block there is considered organization of work in new hard conditions of self-isolation in general and the pandemic in particular.
Keywords: information resources, educational space, ICT, foreign\English language, pandemic.
Аннотация. Развитие образования в наши дни органично связано с повышением уровня его информационного потенциала. Формирование информационной культуры у студентов является одной из значимых составляющих их успешного ориентирования в мировом информационном пространстве. В статье рассмотрены возможности использования ИКТ в системе современного высшего образования: организация информационно-обучающей среды на образовательной платформе учебного заведения; развитие профессиональной компетентности педагогов в прикладном использовании ИКТ в образовательном пространстве; применение ИКТ ресурсов в обучения иностранному языку, с последующим применением коммуникативных навыков, будущими специалистами в профессиональной сфере и деятельности. Особое внимание уделено опыту самоорганизации изучения иностранного языка среди студентов неязыковых специальностей вуза, и выявлению положительных и отрицательных характеристик данного процесса. Отдельным блоком рассмотрена организация работы в новых не простых условиях самоизоляции в целом и пандемии в частности.
Ключевые слова: информационные ресурсы, образовательное пространство, ИКТ, иностранный\английский язык.
Introduction. The global network makes up conditions for getting any essential information from anywhere in the world. Global changes, which are inextricably linked-side by side with the process of Informatization, dictate new tasks and impose new requirements on a modern man. The current situation in the education system in general is basically characterized by a trend of transition from traditional to innovative training. This characteristic feature largely determines both directions of educational evolution as a social part and the future of global society as a whole.
However, at the very moment, the evolution of education is determined by external socio-political factors. On March 16, 2020 the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Valery Falkov signed the order for the purpose to protect the health of students, employees of educational and scientific organizations. Universities are recommended to "organize the students training outside the universities location, ensuring that they are able to master educational programs using distant technologies." Such measures were introduced in March 2020 due to the regrettable situation of corona virus infection (COVID-19). According to the epidemiological conditions in the Russian Federation, at that time it was meant to be a temporary transition to distance or online training, but over time, the accidental approach was transformed into a prolonged period of self-isolation as "measures to prevent the spread of virus".At present, and especially within the framework of a current situation, it is urgent to develop approaches to using the didactic potential of modern information technologies in developing the learner's personality, revealing creative abilities, forming an ability to think alternatively, and improving quality of information acquired in the learning process. Thus, a balanced educational process leads to the manifestation of well-formed knowledge, skills and abilities along with the learner's personal qualities that altogether build essential training competencies.
Modern Universities in Contemporary Digital Environment. Today, the modernization of all educational levels in Russia is carried out through the introduction of informational and communication technologies into the learning process. The process of modernization contributes to the development of students' skills to work with a large amount of information, to select, analyze and apply the necessary educational material, which implies the growth of an ability to find a way in the surrounding social environment, forming an idea of high-quality intercultural and business interaction in the chosen field.
The principles and methodological guidelines of an educational process which taking into account the modern digital technologies create the basis for revealing the possibilities of Internet resources use in foreign language learning. However, for an effective solution of its application, it is necessary to take into account the relationship between traditional and non-traditional forms and methods of teaching, as well as didactic and methodological aspects of digital and communication training in the shift of ICT resources from non-traditional to basic ones. "The information space as it is and ICT used in it are an important condition for modern production, as well as a driving factor in the economic growth of the global society as a whole." [3] The progressive combination of traditional teaching aids and informational technologies is associated with the formation of the didactically appropriate information-educational environment.
The creation of such a learning platform within a structure of the university implies the knowledge of background for information technology use in educational process of the university; the essence and content of Internet technologies, the possibilities of their use in foreign language study; special features of teacher's educational
activities in context of Internet technologies use; technology of Internet resources use and criteria for selecting material in foreign language learning.
Having in consideration a special status of the English language as a language of international communication, many researchers note that its linguistic situation in the world today can be described in one word - globaanglization, i.e. unequivocal leadership of the English language in the field of international communication. The sphere of international communication meets the interests of both personal and professional communication. As far as international business contacts are carried out mainly in English, which has a large-scale rank, that is, international production cooperation is built not only on a professional basis, but also on a level of foreign language knowledge and use in a chosen professional field.
Modern universities, including technical ones, work on not only professional training of students, but also train competitively capable engineering personnel who can survive and thrive in modern free market conditions, accompanied by a variety of forms of modern production activity, property, competition, etc.
One of the characteristics of modern Russian production and economy is its integration into global, international processes, which requires fundamental changes in the training of modern engineers and technical specialists. Engineering education has always been popular among young people, and employers value highly qualified personnel who are able to work at the international level and speak foreign languages. Such specialists-engineers perform their professional activities using a foreign language, which is, today, one of the most global means of communication. One of the relevant ways to improve the situation with language acquisition is to apply ICT tools in foreign language teaching. It should be noted that today despite relevance, modernity and effectiveness this method has both advantages and disadvantages.
Undoubtedly, the development of modern ICT technologies not only contributes to the promotion of a foreign language, but also emphasizes its relevance as a means of social, intercultural and business professional communication. It should be pointed out that modern technologies both take time and can be very useful aids in English learning. The era of modern technology, its accessibility and mobility both help and distract students from foreign languages learning, in particular English, which they surely need for high-level professional activities. Thus, the availability of mobile ICT tools, on the one hand, facilitates the process of obtaining, delivering, using diverse informational, including language resources, and on the other hand, in turn, impede the quality study and further effective use of English in a professional and industrial area.
We can say that ICT may provide a kind of "a disservice" by taking up a big share of students' free time (for example of independent work), being easily accessible for application, they at the same time focus attention of their most active users and disperse their focus from the necessary significant objects. Such an object is the English language, which to a certain extent is visibly and invisibly present in users' digital space being one of the basic and global way for using, communicating and learning via ICT. The modern society has made a powerful technological breakthrough in digitalization, computerization and mobility, the content of foreign language courses needs to be modernized in accordance with the requirements of scientific and technological progress. "Linguistic challenges of digital environment are related to the role of language and text units in the process of understanding, from the smallest components of these units to larger entities - associations of units at different levels" [1].
Thus, socialization and professional realization, self-determination of a future engineer as a competent, initiative, enterprising, mobile, independently minded specialist is impossible without foreign-language competence, and this is the reality of the modern world. Language learning, the ability to use and adequately evaluate language and verbal means, to distinguish functional styles of language and communication, psychological and pedagogical training aimed at forming the individual's resistance to the negative impact of language aggression, become an integral part of the professional competence within a wide range of modern specialists in various educational fields "One of the destructive problems of the modern virtual space that is connected with netiquette is linguistic aggression or verbal aggression, which refers to all types of negative or critical attitude of the speaker to the addressee, expressed by language means" [2].
In the era of new Millennium, the requirements to foreign language proficiency have gone under a certain shift from the point of studying classical grammar of the language towards the level of formation of communication skills, that is the ability to combine the tools of native and foreign languages to solve engineering or business, educational and general subjective and objective problems. In other words, a person should better possess certain stocks of information about history, culture, a system of national values, beliefs and traditions, in addition to knowledge and understanding of actual language structures, even when communicating at a professional level. Knowledge of norms, taboos within certain communicative behavior frames, contributes to students forming tolerant attitudes and ability to communicate on an equal basis with representatives of other cultures and following one's economic interests. So, on the one hand, foreign language proficiency implies basic acknowledgement with customs, lifestyles, traditions in whole the language interface, on the other hand, "foreign language + professional guide" = "professional foreign language", which requires special approaches to its teaching, so, such processes can be implemented by multi-variant ICT use in the multi-stage and multi-layer virtual communication world of modern students.
Modern digital devices and media offering kind of individual approach to students, act both as stimulating and technical means for organized collective creativity: participation in joint projects, making thematic publications, databases, and websites in language teaches how to do the joint decision-making and consolidates the tutorial groups of students. The way to introduce ICT in the process of foreign language teaching is the way to create new teaching methods based on the synthesis of fundamental techniques and work on teacher's computer literacy. Teachers' knowledge of methods about using information and communication technologies in teaching specific disciplines is one of key factors gaining success when making the education digital. Despite the importance of digital education, its current state can be assessed as satisfactory.
The teacher sometimes excludes digital tools outward the category of educational means, and does not appreciate its informative capabilities in teaching languages, or simply does not have time to use a computer for practical training purposes. It is possible to deal with such kind of didactic gaps and eliminate such shortcomings only if a teacher knows the computer, its capabilities, and is sure that this machine can be a real teaching instrument. In context of accelerating socio-economic and scientific-technical progress, and growing attention to a complex set of issues related to the analysis of a human factor and its role and place in intensification of social production - the problem of direct inner relations of pedagogical and technical factors is becoming quite urgent. This relationship is reflected in the process of interaction between a human and a computer technology, the highest manifestation of technical development of socially useful labour human activities. While systematizing and studying the experience on
organizing and self-organizing English language learning with ICT application, we conducted a survey among students Business Information Technologies and Business Information Department of Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University. How many times a day and where do you usually come across English? What is the most effective way to learn English? Why are you learning English? How are ITC and English related?
According to the results of the survey, the following facts can be stated:
1) Entertainment systems can be learning systems: Students think it is very easy and pleasant to learn English with the help of songs when choosing favorite music genres and favorite singers. The music and songs can be found in discs at stores, social nets, or the music applications for example the Play market and also in a search string of popular browsers. This is the easiest and most mobile way for language immersion. The next way is watching the foreign series with the original foreign-language sound sometimes with original or native language subtitles. There should also be noted the handy option of the visual support matters such as original lyrics or subtitles. Thus, immersion in a foreign language is performed both on a verbal and visual levels in a mode of hobby, leisure or free time. 2) The phone is not a luxury (not just a communication device, but a modern technical training tool): 100 % of respondents noted that English learning is available nowadays with the help of a variety of applications on a modern phone, which is always at hand. These applications are not only able to give knowledge of the language, but also to make a personal study program. The electronic dictionaries downloaded into the users' phones and browser on-line translators used via the Internet are also quite helpful. English First, Skyeng, LinguaLeo etc. are very famous ones. The applications can be installed on any computer, phone, or a tablet. The user starts working in it first passing a test that determines the level of language proficiency, then filling in a list of the interests. In the future, basing on this data, the program makes a personal training plan for each user. The modern language apps allow you to learn a language using materials that are interesting to the user: audiobooks, songs, videos, or texts. 3)Social networks -virtual communication: Life of a modern student would be unthinkable impossible without VKontakte, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Likee etc. In these platforms young people share their success with friends in diverse spheres from school matters to on-line gaming, including English learning or any other foreign languages, find a lot of like-minded people, as well as new acquaintances from abroad, which allows them to have live communication with native speakers. Surely, practice plays a special role in language learning, and this is where communication using applications such as Skype, Viber, Zoom, Microsoft Team etc. will help the users making it possible to get communicative practice with native speakers via instant on-line chat or virtual on-line lessons in a remote mode. 4) Real knowledge and emotions from Internet travel: the Internet provides an opportunity not only to study within a foreign language environment, but also to make virtual trips to countries of the language being studied. While doing these" trips", students are forced to use English to order something, to understand the guide speech. Virtual travelling allows users to get supplementary information in an autonomous way, make independent conclusions about any cultural monument, phenomenon or event. In addition, this form of work has a powerful motivating factor giving the students possibilities both to practice language knowledge and acquire new linguistic and communicative skills. So, the format of such a lesson helps to comprehend assimilate and digest in full information and knowledge mastered in the course of the learning process. The example of most popular applications now is a program called Google Maps. In this application, one can make an online travel around the world. With this program, the user or a student can "wander" through a three-dimensional projection of the city or any city streets over the Internet and can view images of the earth's surface, zoom in and out, or plan some private routes. 5) From banality to individuality: our survey participants noted that English can be learned with pleasure at regular lessons. The use of information and communication technologies make a standard English lesson a very interesting and exciting one. Computer presentations are a common and easy way to enliven and rearrange a lesson. The advantages are quite obvious: at first they are visual (animation and colorful design), then they are also very convenient for repetitive practice and make it possible to stop at any place, go back to any stage of a lesson, highlighting the main things. After all, the most effective ways to achieve an appropriate learning level - is the simple repetition. At the same time, students are much more interested in presentations, since they are much easier to perceive than just a boring text written in a book. 6) Paper VS Electronics: information technology in the study of English can be associated with the use of electronic textbooks, computer programs, CD, DVD, etc. Electronic textbooks allow students to study the lesson material, do training exercises and pass tests to identify the level of learned material independently. Electronic textbooks and computer programs are more visible and attractive to students than their paper counterparts; their use increases students' motivation and cognitive interest. Such way of presenting new material contributes to deeper and more effective understanding, awareness, develops memory, and expands vocabulary and imagination. In addition, the electronic textbook allows listening to the audio recording again, paying attention to the pronunciation of individual words and intonation features of sentences. 7) Face to face or a distance mode: professional approach in arranging the English language training using distance technologies or on-line consulting are becoming popular and affordable ways to learn English. Also, online conferences are now widely spread. In the responses of students LingvaLeo, English First, Skyeng were examples of educational institutions that carry out their activities in the field of distance additional education. Educational materials have been developed by leading European and domestic specialists according to modern standards and adapted specifically for distance learning language courses. The student is constantly in the center of attention due to a personal teacher's support and special instructive text-books.
Learning a foreign language in conditions of self-isolation\ pandemic. The modern reality makes its own adjustments to the consideration on the foreign language teaching issue. Such an extra-linguistic and extra-pedagogical phenomenon as the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the problem and confirms all of the above matters. On the one hand, ICT has become the only way to learn, and on the other hand, it is a challenge for teachers and students under specific circumstances of global pandemic. We conducted a small survey in a form of a student's letter to the teacher «Challenges of University Students at Quarantine: ICT to Help Them» at different non-linguistic departments and faculties and discovered the necessity of complex revision of language teaching at extraordinary social conditions as pandemic. These are 3 of students' letters (author's version with grammar mistakes) that make us reflect on the challenges.
1. Dear Mrs Zerkina,
Thank You for what you decided to ask what equipment problems experienced by the students during the quarantine. The main problem was the lack of a single platform for conducting classes. After translating all the pairs online, students complained about technical problems and increased work volume: quick oral responses turned into multi-page essays on the same topic. In addition, students began to spend more time building communication with the teacher, which for many students is not easy because of their shyness. And also many simply do not have a computer
at home and therefore always attended computer classes at their universities. Examination sessions, defense of term papers and theses in Russian universities have so far been conducted only in person. Now everything will change, and students still can't imagine how teachers will conduct exams.
Yours sincerely,
Pxxxxx Kxxxxxxxxxxxx
2. Dear Ms Zerkina,
I would be grateful if you would spend a few minutes of your time on one very important point. As a student who studies at home, I want to report that some of the tasks that the faculty spread are having errors. It is worth noting that homework has become several times more than during normal school hours, because of which many students do not have time to do everything on time. In this regard, I would like to ask you to slightly reduce the number of tasks as much as possible, based on the training schedule.Thank you for understanding.
Exxxxx Pxxxx.
3. Dear Natalia Nikolaevna,
I am writing to tell you what problems University students face in quarantine.
Here are some of them:
The first problem is that you have to sort out the topics yourself. Of course, you can use Internet resources to help, but it still takes longer. The second problem is that you have to download many programs that are available on University computers to your computers, which may cause it to run slowly. The third problem is the heavy load on the educational portal, which makes it necessary to reload the page several times.
Sincerely,
Ixxx Dxxxxxx
It is obvious that students suffer from: psychological non-readiness to the challenge; variety of platforms and applications; written communication skills; self-organization skills, skills to systemize the material; they can not cope with information overload from internet and assess the material critically ; awareness about exams as they have not got such experience; not thoroughly prepared, estimated online tasks and their volum; the heavy load on the educational portal; they use ICT in studying, at least Google Translator!!!
All the questions that students have as a result of online learning self-organization could be divided in technical ones, which are solved by IT specialists, and everyday ones such as people's financial resources so, therefore technical capabilities and actually educational issues, which can be corrected by a teacher, but should be done directly by students themselves. At first glance, such categories of questions do not seem unusual, because there are ICT problems that are solved within other training modes (distance, extramural), but such modes are initially determined by a precise form of the training tasks. However, in conditions of self-isolation in the Russian Federation, or a pandemic and quarantine on a global scale, such issues acquire a different resonance and angle of consideration. Thus, University teachers still have a lot to do and learn in this regard.
Conclusion. Computer technologies become an integral part of school and University education, including English learning, which allows students to create something particularly individual, interesting, modern and get an extremely interesting material and useful experience. Learning English with the help of ITC can be means to form a professional competence of future specialists, as well as a way to organize and manage both independent and parttime work of students. Modern ITC contribute to the English study and require a "revision" of some aspects on teaching the foreign languages methodology and structuring or arranging the lesson alongside with the ICT use.
Students should also be informed, and teachers should be competent in the issues of cyber-extremism and cyberbullying when using ITC technologies in the organization and self-organization of English language training in order to obtain the most positive results from the learning process.
The specifics of using ICT in foreign language classes in an emergency situation has become features that reveal special circumstances of learning for all participants within the learning process. We have to admit that in addition to the external organization and management of information resources, it is necessary to have a well-coordinated interaction between a teacher and a student, taking into account the specifics of a situation, an educational platform or a discipline as it is. Special social conditions, such as a pandemic, require certain restrictions and general agreement on educational policy on learning platforms, tasks scope and other characteristics.
References:
1. Zerkina N.N., Lomakina Ye.A. Linguistic and Digital Characteristics in Modern Information Environment // Russian Linguistic Bulletin. 2017. № 2 (10). P. 16-18.
2. Zerkina N.N., Lomakina Ye.A., Chusavitina G.N. Verbal Aggression in Virtual Environment // Modern Journal of English Teaching Methods. 2016. V.7 (8.1). P. 16-22.
3. Lomakina E.A. To the Question of philological and pedagogical problems of Informatics in Context of Information Environment // Foreign Languages: Linguistic and Methodological Aspects. Proceedings of Scientific Works. Tver: Tver State University, 2017. № 39. P. 44-50
