CC BY
59
УДК 378.147:802.0
PROFICIENCY TRAINING OF THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY
THROUGH ENGLISH
G. V. Goritskaya (Kazan, Russian Federation)
Abstract: The article deals with an approach to competence oriented training of the technical university faculty through English. The pedagogical and andragogical learning as a basis for this approach is discussed. This work calls for pedagogic reengineering in learning process by providing adult students with proficiencies in intercultural and professional communication. Recommendations on ways to improve the training classes are offered.
Keywords: technical faculty training; andragogical learning; intercultural communication; competence; ESP.
РАЗВИТИЕ ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНЫХ НАВЫКОВ ПРЕПОДАВАТЕЛЕЙ ТЕХНИЧЕКОГО ВУЗА СРЕДСТВАМИ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА
Г.В. Горицкая (г.Казань, Российская Федерация)
В статье описывается компетентностный подход к обучению преподавателей технического университета английскому языку. В качестве основы для такого подхода обсуждаются педагогическая и андрагогическая модели обучения. Эта работа призывает к педагогическому реинжинирингу учебного процесса путем развития у взрослых студентов навыков и умений в области межкультурного и профессионального общения. Предлагаются рекомендации о путях совершенствования профессиональной подготовки.
Ключевые слова: преподаватели технических дисциплин; андрагогическое обучение; межкультурная коммуникация; компетентность; ESP (английский для специальных целей).
Introduction
Changes of the tertiary education paradigm and basic approach to students training make the modern university faculty meet new requirements to improve their professional practice. Engineering profession is in continuous development that's why engineering education has to adapt to educational standards in terms of outputs. Consequently, universities need competent faculty and the latter will have to educate themselves to contribute to the development of Engineering Education.
Effective formation of the foreign language communication competence is possible on the basis of use in educational process ESP (English for Specific Purposes) teaching praxis and CLIL (content and language integrated learning), involving the mastery of not only verbal and semantic code of the study of a foreign
language, but also an extensive extra linguistic information necessary for the communication and understanding at the intercultural level.
What is the aim of the technical university faculty training?
Experts at the European Commission suggested eight main areas of key competencies and communication in foreign languages is one of the most important among them. Communication skills, the ability and readiness to the lifelong education are more and more required nowadays. Key competences of the university professor include communicative, cultural, information, and intellectual pedagogical competences. However, it should be mentioned that the majority of technical university professors haven't got special pedagogical training.
There's also another problem: many professors from Russian Universities lack intercultural competence due to the fact that they do not know any foreign languages. Self - education and foreign language courses can be a good impulse for further development [12].
The central idea in the context of adult learning is that it is only after convincing oneself of the rationale of learning that an adult will decide to (and be able to) learn. Hence, adults cannot be treated like children if one hopes to see learning [8]. The andragogical model assumes adult learners feel responsible for their own learning. Knowles et al. explain: "Once they (adults) have arrived at the (independent) self-concept they develop a deep psychological need to be seen by others and treated by others as being capable of self - direction. They resent and resist situations in which they feel others are imposing their wills on them" [3].
Among the key differences between pedagogical learning and andragogical learning is the minimized role of the educator in the latter. If someone fails to learn in an andragogical context, then it is not assumed to be the failure of the instructor.
The andragogical model is also cohesive with other learning theories. The model aligns with Bloom's taxonomy, constructivism, and transformation theory. Bloom's taxonomy encourages higher levels of thinking which falls in line with treating students as if they're capable of self - direction. Like the andragogical model,
constructivism and transformation theory recognize the undeniable influence of an individual's experience on his or her learning [4].
Gaining agreement on objectives is one way to ensure that students know why material is important. Shared objective setting helps learners understand and commit to the objectives. It also motivates students, makes the learning more self - directed, allows the instructor to use varied methods, and allows students to gauge their progress toward meeting the objectives.
Taking into consideration the particularities of adult learners mentioned above, the specific roles and functions of learners and teachers in adult learning, the distinguishing patterns of the technology of adult learning we share the classification of the fundamental principles of adult learning formulated by S. Zmeyov. They are as follows:
•Predominance of the self-controlled learning -the principal mode of learning activities of adult learners.
•Principle of the collaboration which foresees the mutual work of an adult learner with the teacher and other learners as to the planning, the realization, the assessment and the correction of the learning process.
•Experiential learning due to which the social and professional life experience of a learner is used as a source of his/her learning.
•Individualization of learning (accordingly to this principle every learner, in cooperation with the teacher and sometimes with other learners, creates an individual programme of learning, aiming the concrete target attainment and the satisfaction of the determined educational needs, taking in account the experience, the preceding training, the psycho-physiological and cognitive particularities of a concrete learner.
• Systemic learning. This principle foresees conformity of objectives, contents, methods, techniques of the learning and of the evaluation of the results of learning.
•Contextual learning (the term of the contemporary Russian scientist A.A. Verbitsky). Accordingly to this principle the learning of an adult must be organized in the context of his/her anthroposphere, i.e. it must aim at the concrete and
vitally important for a person objectives and, on the other hand, it must be designed in accordance to the professional, social, familiar activities and time, area, everyday factors of life of an adult.
•actualization of the results of learning. This principle supposes an immediate application of the knowledge and skills obtained through the learning in the real life.
•elective learning. This means a certain learner's freedom of choice of objectives, contents, forms, methods, sources, means, terms, time, place of the learning, of procedures of the evaluation of the results of the learning and also of the teachers.
•Principle of the development of educational needs [13].
The ESP teaching praxis and CLIL
While generally speaking about language teaching, we should follow scientists' recommendation to teach listening and speaking first, reading and writing next. This principle is the basis for the audio-lingual approach [11].
The most important difference lies in the learners and their purposes for learning English. ESP students are adults who already have some acquaintance with English and are learning the language in order to communicate a set of professional skills and to perform particular job-related functions. An ESP program is therefore built on an assessment of purposes and needs and the functions for which English is required.
We concentrate ESP teaching more on language in context than on teaching grammar and language structures. The ESP focal point is that English is not taught as a subject separated from the professors' real world or job; instead, it is integrated into a subject matter area important to them [2]. Trainers normally use some combination of lecturing, exercises, and games as methods of teaching and reinforcing material. As one of the promising ways of learning languages we consider parallel corpora [10]. Writing is also a powerful means in mastering a foreign language. Underestimation of writing leads to poor results in language learning. Throughout the language experience writing offers a means for ensuring total student participation on an individual basis in developing and improving his skills of listening, understanding,
reproducing and improving. At the same time, productive writing is an independent speech activity and should be taught as a skill in its own right especially writing scientific articles [5; 6; 7; 9].
What is CLIL?
CLIL stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning. CLIL is the term used to describe the methodology of teaching a foreign language through another subject (content). In English language teaching, various forms of CLIL have previously been known as 'bilingual education', 'English across the curriculum' and 'content-based instruction'. Through this method, language is used to learn as well as to communicate and it is the subject matter which determines what language needs to be learnt. CLIL refers to teaching subjects such as Science, History, Geography, Art and Craft, Music, Physical Education and English Literature to students through a foreign language. This can be achieved either by the English teacher using cross-curricular content or by the subject teacher using English as the language of instruction [1]. Both methods result in the simultaneous learning of content and of language.
Many countries have been teaching English at secondary school level through a CLIL curriculum very successfully for some time. It is now becoming increasingly popular to introduce the CLIL curriculum at primary level in situations where there are the resources and the motivation to learn English through other subjects.
The adult students' abilities in their subject-matter fields, in turn, improve their ability to acquire English. Subject-matter knowledge gives them the context they need to understand the English of the classroom. In the ESP class, students are shown how the subject-matter content is expressed in English, thus helping them learn English faster.
Methodology and data analysis
The study combines two research methods: The quantitative method used here is based on a correlation design on the basis of Likert-type questionnaires; for qualitative research in-depth interviews were conducted. To apply both methods,
questionnaires with both types of components were prepared: closed items to elicit quantitative data and open-ended items for qualitative information. The questionnaires examined the research questions in detail; several items for each question helped us understand the connections between the scholastic environment and the students' perception of it, along with components related to their attitudes toward pedagogical learning and andragogical learning. The qualitative component included five in-depth interviews with a representative sample of adult students in Year 2 of their English study.
Descriptive and inferential statistics relating to the quantitative data are presented. The descriptive findings relate to the entire population of respondents; the analysis of the effects of the independent variables on the dependent variables, in contrast, focuses only on PhD candidates (excluding those participating in the PhD program).
Conclusion
The results obtained from using both pedagogical learning and andragogical learning demonstrate meaningful learning in professional communication. While presenting her own competence oriented teaching praxis of the technical university faculty through English, the author of the paper aims at opening a discussion which would be helpful in her investigations on the best ways of introducing pedagogical and andragogical learning through ESP teaching and CLIL into the teaching practice of the technical university faculty.
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Зарегистрирована: 19.05.2014
Горицкая Галина Владимировна (г. Казань), Казанский национальный исследовательский технологический университет, кафедра «Иностранные языки в профессиональной коммуникации», доцент, кандидат педагогических наук. Тел.: 8-927-241-44-13. E-mail: [email protected] Goritskaya Galina Vladimirovna (Kazan), Kazan National Research Technological University, chair «Foreign languages in professional communication», associate professor, Candidate of pedagogic sciences. Tel.: 8-927-241-44-13. E-mail: [email protected]
