Teaching English in Universities for IT Students

Abstract

Modern standards of higher education put forward new requirements for the preparation of students: they must be communicative, have a high level of professional competencies, be ready to use them in non-standard situations and strive for constant self-development. Competitiveness in the labor market determines the ability of a specialist to solve problems in foreign language communication. The relevance of this study lies in the use of active and interactive teaching methods and technologies by the teacher. These techniques help to solve the problem of the impossibility of creating optimal conditions for the development of the competence of oral foreign language communication. The number of classroom hours devoted to language disciplines at the universities of non-language areas is limited; therefore, the Teaching Approach is the methodological basis for the development of such technologies, which explains the relevance of this study. The object of the research is the process of teaching a foreign language in a university of non-linguistic areas (IT). The subject of the research is a technology developed on the basis of an educational approach for teaching oral foreign language communication at the university of non-linguistic areas. The aim of the study is to determine the specifics of the technology of communicative training in teaching a foreign language and to identify components that could be used as a basis for developing a system of training exercises for teaching foreign language communication to students of non-linguistic areas. In this study, the following methods were used: Theoretical: analysis of sources on the problem under study, description, generalization. Empirical: 1) questioning; 2) a survey of practicing teachers; 3) analysis of teaching aids in order to study the communicative tasks offered in them, as well as analysis and their teaching potential; 4) observation of the educational process. Upon achieving this goal, the following results were obtained: 1) The main methods of formation of foreign language communicative competence in the university of non-linguistic areas have been determined; 2) The degree of knowledge of the problem of using the training technology as a way of developing the foreign language competence of the university has been determined; 3) Studied the features of the technology of communication training from the point of view of psychology, pedagogy and “linguodidactics” (teaching linguistics) and determine its educational potential; 4) Developed and tested a set of tasks for communicative training in English classes for students of non-linguistic areas (IT). The conclusions of the study are that the process of teaching a foreign language to students of IT areas can be more effective when the teacher uses the training technology of teaching, which assumes: the interactive nature of teaching, the development of students’ skills in oral foreign language communication, the use of a set of communicative-oriented tasks that allow students to master communicative technicians.