Oxana L. Zabolotneva

The development of creative writing skills often has not only methodological, but also psychological value. The work on the development of creative writing skills is indirectly fixed both in general professional and universal competences, reflecting the ability of students to create texts as a part of the soft skills implementation for future professionals. Creative writing is a complex term that includes a wide variety of forms and formats, united by individualization, artistry and originality. Creative writing can be practiced with learners of different training levels, be part of a group project or individual assignment, be spontaneous (reactive) or be the result of long preparation (extensive). The objective of the article is to describe some of the techniques for working with creative writing; the above techniques can be adapted to different levels of foreign language proficiency. The methods described in the work are based on the experience of the authors, and are also the result of the analysis of domestic and foreign methodological literature. Scientific and methodological works on the study and analysis of creative writing reveal a wide range of its study: philosophical foundations, psychological and methodological aspects, development history, creative writing as one of the professional skills, etc. Traditional creative writing techniques (compositions of various types) rarely find emotional response from students, that is why the authors propose alternative forms of work using assistive devices, Internet technologies, artificial intelligence, the practice of creating collages, emotional coaching, etc. The theoretical significance of the work lies in the relatively complete depiction of the diversity of points of view and approaches to understanding creative writing in general. The techniques described in the study were tested on students of intermediate (B1) and advanced/professional (C1) levels of language proficiency. The conclusions provide generalized information on the topic under consideration.

The relevance of working with competences related to academic writing is registered in the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education 3++ in the area of training 45.03.02 "Linguistics" (bachelor's degree level) and is associated with active international contacts and the emergence of new forms of the scientific functional style implementation. Academic writing in its genre and stylistic organization tends to the scientific functional style (oral and written speech, taking into account the style and composition: structure, argumentation requirements, the use of metalanguage, discursive markers and other elements). The purpose of the article is a brief description of the methods for developing academic writing skills in Linguistics majors (language proficiency level B2-C1). Based on the material of modern literature on the topic of research, as well as on their own experience, the authors made an attempt to describe methods for working with academic writing. An analysis of domestic and foreign literature shows a high interest in the research topic and determines a variety of research priorities, presenting academic writing in the form of an umbrella term, which is considered as a set of methodological, pragmatic, linguistic and other aspects. The main results of the article describe the work on the scientific style and academic writing in native and foreign languages, with ready-made texts and with the preparation of texts. It is noted that academic writing, in addition to its basic form “argument - justification - conclusion”, can have other forms; work with academic writing also includes the development of critical reading skills. The work examines some techniques using information and communication technologies (Grammarly, Plagiarisma, AWL Highlighter, etc.) and case technologies. The theoretical significance of the work lies in the presentation of relevant information on the topic. The considered methods were tested on students with language proficiency level B2-C1; adaptation of methods makes their application possible at other levels. The conclusions provide generalized information on the topic under consideration.

Speaking is one of the key speech skills by which direct proficiency in a foreign language is assessed. The development of coherent speech skills in monologic, dialogic, polylogic forms, an adequate response to the formulation of a communicative task shows the speaker's complex skills: his/her general linguistic, pragmatic, grammatical, lexical and other competences. Analysis of domestic and foreign scientific literature allows us to speak of a consistently high interest of both theorists and practitioners of teaching methodology in the development of various aspects of speaking (fluency and tempo, purity of speech, the use of varied vocabulary), the development of speaking skills in a specialized environment, as well as the use of information and communication technologies for teaching and testing monologue / dialogue speech. The purpose of this article is to describe proven techniques for the development of oral speech at a high level of language proficiency. The purpose of the research determines the methods: general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, generalization and systematization. Also, the method of pedagogical observation was used to assess the feedback of students and the effectiveness of the proposed techniques. Techniques for enhancing and improving speaking skills are described in the practical part of the study. The authors single out among the effective techniques: a) specific situational tasks (prepared in advance and spontaneous, this category also includes game situations); b) polylogues (this type of speech activity allows you to learn thematic vocabulary and practice grammatical structures, defend your position, listen to the opinions of others); c) it is effective to use online technologies for interdependent teaching of listening, writing, reading and speaking in a foreign language (selection and correlation of the corresponding types of online platforms and sites is important); d) creating conditions for the development of not educational, but cognitive activity, so that the communicative motive is triggered by the cognitive; e) the author's method of developing speaking skills, which is based on the psychological comfort of students. The description of productive techniques for the development of various aspects of speaking is an important practical priority of the work. The above techniques can be used with some adaptation / correction or without adaptation at levels from B1 and higher. The conclusions summarize the information and outline the prospects for further research.

Listening is one of the key points in learning a foreign language along with writing, reading and speaking. All types of speech activity are interconnected and relevant at any level of language proficiency, for any goals and objectives. Analysis of domestic and foreign literature shows a consistently high interest of both theorists and practitioners of teaching methodology in the development of listening skills in learning a foreign language at different levels for various purposes, identifying the most problematic issues and ways to solve them, as well as using methods and techniques of related sciences for a deeper understanding of the essence of listening. The purpose of the study is to update the most effective (from the author's point of view) techniques for working with audio material at different stages of teaching a foreign language. The purpose of the work determined the research methods: general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, generalization and systematization. The method of pedagogical observation can be considered as a more specific method. In the practical part of the study, techniques for enhancing and improving listening skills are described. So, among the effective techniques, the authors distinguish: a) echo-repetition (prepared and spontaneous), used to work with intonation contours, the tempo of speech and its recognition; b) using graphs, maps, diagrams, tables and other visual support; c) work with the listening diary (variability is achieved due to the diversity of genres, as well as the freedom of choice and reporting forms provided to the student); d) creating context (for example, parallel texts) as preparation for listening; e) use of video materials (for example, work with video without sound, without an image, work with a freeze frame, mixed fragments, etc.). These techniques were successfully tested at the Faculty of Linguistics and Translation of the Chelyabinsk State University in the period from 2017 to 2020. The practical significance of the work lies in the actualization of productive listening techniques. The described techniques can be adapted to almost any level of proficiency in any foreign language. The conclusions summarize the information and outline the prospects for further research.

A lecture is a classical form of presenting information to a large audience. Saving its foundations, a lecture undergoes changes. Key innovations are associated with the implementation of information and communication technology elements. An analysis of Russian and foreign literature allows us to conclude that modern studies do not raise the basic question of the methodological potential of lecture courses from the students’ point of view. In this regard, a survey was conducted at the Faculty of Linguistics and Translation of Chelyabinsk State University, identifying the main methodological and organizational aspects of lectures. The authors used the following methods in their work: analysis of scientific and methodological literature, generalization; empirical methods include the survey and analysis of the results. The article presents the students’ survey results in order to determine the need of lecture courses at the university, as well as their partial psychological and pedagogical interpretation. Comments are divided into groups and subgroups according to aspects (temporality, information value, elaborateness, level of stereotype, etc.). Feedback is available online after completing lecture courses. The novelty of the work lies in highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of lecture courses from the point of view of students, relevance is determined by new experience in obtaining theoretical knowledge in the remote mode. The results are generalized, comments are valuable because they allow us to find promising areas of work both with students (psychological aspect) and with the professional community (pedagogical, methodological aspects). The authors share their experience of conducting online lectures as part of the all-Russian transition to a distance learning form. The conclusions offer recommendations for lecturing and outline the prospects for further research.