Irina V. Kulamikhina

The changing picture of the world and the development of technologies and means of production determine training of a new generation of specialists for Russia. The competence-oriented model of vocational education becomes relevant. Using new generation educational materials that meet the modern requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard is the condition for achieving the high quality of education. Educational literature, as the main means of teaching, should ensure the formation of competences of future specialists. We devote the study to the analysis of the effectiveness of textbooks and manuals in a foreign language for agricultural universities in terms of their focus on the students’ communicative competence formation. With the help of the methods of problem and comparative analysis of textbooks in English for agricultural universities, presented in the electronic library system “Lan”, we evaluate educational materials in terms of their competence conformity, communicative orientation, and functional completeness. The analysis has shown that educational materials in English perform the following functions: informing, developing, managing, motivating, and systematizing. However, the controlling component is not implemented, since the materials do not contain in full the basic didactic units that are subject to verification at the stage of knowledge control. Thus, the following issues are referred to the actual problems of educational and methodological support in teaching a foreign language in an agrarian university: problems of a content-didactic and organizational-methodological nature, the effectiveness of educational materials in English. Examining current pedagogical studies in the area of educational literature in foreign languages allowed for an explanation of the above issues due to inconsistency in methodology: educational resources are created utilizing the principles of the knowledge paradigm, learning results are designed as competences.

This article is devoted to the study of "love" concept in modern English-speaking musical culture. In order to describe the modern linguistic and cultural specifics of "love" concept, the authors selected and systematized the lexical means of expressing "love" in the lyrics of contemporary English-speaking musicians. On the basis of the semantic and contextual analysis of text fragments, the authors concluded that love is the most significant feeling and value in the life of native English speakers; the concept of love can include the broadest, sometimes contradictive meanings in the minds of English speaking people; it combines both the national and cultural specifics and more universal ideas of love, reflecting the emotional state of any person beyond time or nationality.

The article is devoted to the problem of organization of Student Olympiads as one of the effective forms of extracurricular work of university students. The article describes the experience of organizing the Foreign Languages Olympiad movement at Omsk State Agricultural University. The study allows to come to a conclusion about the effectiveness of the Foreign Languages Chair instructors’ work for organizing the extracurricular activities of students.