Keyword: «professional communication»

The article focuses on the possibilities of using case study when teaching students of marketing professional communication in English based on the textbook Market Leader. The author analyzes the results of the experiment showing the achievements of the two groups who took part in it. The results of the experiment show that only the system of additional tasks as well as language, logical and communicative props can ensure more productive classroom activity and guarantee that the language and communicative skills have been developed. One more advantage of such an approach is a better insight into a certain communicative situation within the framework of professional communication.

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.

The article focuses on the problems of developing communicative competence when teaching students of marketing. The research is based on practical experience of using textbook “Market Leader. Intermediate” when working with second years students. The author gives her idea of possible ways of adapting tasks from the textbook to ensure language and communicative skill formation. The article shows that a high level of communicative competence can be achieved only if there are preliminary exercises and tasks than train language skills and introduce the necessary professional terminology in the English language. Such an approach guarantees that the skills are developed and students get a better insight into their future specialty. All that serves the purpose of interdisciplinary integration and makes the process of university education more productive.

The development of soft skills is a priority in the modern era of mass communications. The presence of mass communication mechanisms: social networks, makes it possible to exchange information, teach, promote a personal brand and provide various services. These circumstances place significant demands on the availability of soft skills. Such requirements are valid for students not only of humanities, but also of engineering specialties since full provision of information about their activities will improve the position of the speaker and achieve consistently high communication skills. The concept of soft skills is quite broad and can be interpreted by students through the prism of everyday experience rather than academic experience. This circumstance can lead to an incorrect perception of the soft skills requirements that the industry and possible employers place on graduates of engineering universities. This study is aimed at identifying the level of awareness of engineering students about soft skills. Also, one of the goals of the study was to identify the role of teaching materials and the use of such materials by students in practice in assessing the main components of soft skills. As a research method, a survey method was used, which was aimed at identifying the most important components of soft skills in the opinion of students. Next, as a training component, we chose the TED talks resource, which clearly illustrates the successful use of soft skills. After studying the training material and group discussion, the students were given the task of preparing a public speech as a team. Soft-skills components from the training materials were selected as evaluation criteria. After completing the task, students were asked to take the survey again and adjust their assessments of the important components of the soft skills considering the experience gained. Data from the two surveys were analyzed and compared. The results of the study can contribute to the formation of soft skills and will improve the quality of the educational process for non-humanitarian students.

Modernization of higher education opens up new prospects for the use of electronic resources in order to ensure the quality of foreign language education. The use of interactive tools (simulators, flash cards, virtual boards) meets the requirements for training programs for specialists involved in choreographing dances and the challenges of the international sports movement. The authors examine the issue of justificating the effectiveness of the use of digital flash cards for didactic purposes in the foreign language interaction of specialists in the field of dance and physical education to improve the quality of their professional training. The purpose of the work is to study the potential of using digital flash cards in the training of choreographers for the development of their foreign language communicative competence. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the didactic potential of using digital flash cards in foreign-language interaction of choreography specialists is substantiated in order to improve the quality of their professional training. Theoretical significance – the revealed didactic opportunities are supported by foreign language communication when organizing the work of dance groups, when teaching plastic movements, when staging theatrical or variety numbers. The Quizlet online platform is used to work with digital flash cards. The control work contains questions grouped into sections "Computer technologies in dance art" and "Foreign language in communication (the field of dance and physical education)". The study involved 54 third-year students of the Orel State Institute of Culture. Area of training: 52.03.01 – Choreographic art (bachelor's degree level). The χ2-Pearson criterion was used in statistical data processing. The system of working with flash cards in foreign-language professional communication of teachers-choreographers is described: the study of functionality, work with ready-made sets of cards, efficient improvement of vocabulary use, development of original thematic sets. The peculiarity of the program is the adaptation of its content to the specifics of the area of training. Students of the experimental group used Flashcards, Speller, Scatter, Quizlet Live modes in independent work and network collaboration. The authors draw the conclusions about the potential of including flash cards in the training of choreographers: competitiveness and getting positive emotions; resources for self-development. Some difficulties are also highlighted: low initial level of language proficiency and digital skills; different motivation; specialization in dance. The results obtained can be used to update choreographers' training programs, professional development programs, online-courses in dance art.