Keyword: «technical university»

At present time, technical higher educational establishments of the Russian Federation have to respond quite actively and promptly to the reforms in the system of education. Ever-changing federal state educational standards of higher education define the necessity of conceptually new approaches to the problems of the education content as well as the ways of their solving. The problem of choice of course books for teaching English at a technical university is not just the exception but is of great importance, as one of the main employer requirements to a competitive engineer is well-developed linguistic competence aimed at successful social and professional communication. Thus, the aim of presented research is to analyze the structure and contents of Russian and foreign course books and their correspondence to modern course book criteria developed by the authors after having observed the opinions of some methodologists as well as taking into consideration the own experience in this area. The notion of a course book is formulated in the paper, the research results to the selection of the content and structure of a modern course book are demonstrated. The authors present some positive aspects of analyzed foreign and Russian course books in accordance with federal state educational standards of higher education and specificity of a technical university. During the research work the authors were using the analytical method (quantity and quality analyses, interpretation of the received results, formulation of conclusions and practical recommendations). The research results are presented in the form of formulated criteria and requirements to both structure and content of a modern English course book, in the form of positive aspects and comparative characteristics of Russian and foreign course books, as well as in the form of some recommendation to their use. Practical relevance of the analyses conducted is authors’ try to search for the solution of the problem of choosing the appropriate course book structurally and contextually aimed at successful development of linguistic, social, cultural and professional competences of a future engineer.

The article discusses the specifics of teaching the course "Social Psychology", determined by its introduction into the curricula of training future engineers. The relevance of this discipline is noted, its great importance for ensuring the preparation of the future graduate for activities in the constantly changing social sphere. The need for a careful selection of the content of the discipline, corresponding to both the level of training of students and modern trends in the development of society, is revealed. A number of methods, technologies, forms of education are noted, which will be most effective in organizing the study of the course "Social Psychology" in a technical university.

The relevance of the research is due to the need to develop modern educational technologies for teaching foreign languages at a technical university. There is an obvious objective necessity to update the content, methods and principles of foreign language teaching, their orientation to the development of socially and professionally important skills in a dynamically changing world. Such interpersonal, communicative and analytical skills are commonly called "soft skills" in modern scientific and pedagogical literature; in the context of this research, "soft skills" are interpreted and defined as "flexible skills". As a result of the work carried out, the purpose of the research was realized – to study and interpret the concepts, definitions, content of the term "soft skills" (flexible skills), to determine the methodological justification and the potentials of their integration into the structure of students' universal communicative foreign language competence in the process of implementing educational "flexible skills" (soft skills) development technology into foreign language teaching at a technical university. The structure and principles of educational technology are described, taking into account the psychological and didactic, organizational and methodological, evaluative and reflexive peculiarities of "flexible skills" (soft skills) development in the given article. The scientific and methodological potential of the issue under research in the framework of the discipline "Foreign language" in a technical university is determined. The theoretical significance of the article is related to the author's interpretation of the term "soft skills" (flexible skills) as a complex of supra-professional skills, they guarantee a comfortable interpersonal interaction, they are responsible for successful academic results, obviously increase life comfort, and ensure the effective students' career development. The leading research methods: the case method and the project method are used in a new combination. It has been scientifically proved that their joint use application as the case-project method provides a synergetic educational effect by involving students in research activities in the process of studying specific cases together with successful situation examples of implementing flexible skills (soft skills). At the same time, the foreign language communicative skills are improving during the project implementation. The practical significance of the research is provided by the results of the article, which are presented in various formats corresponding to the pedagogical, psychological and methodological goals of integrating the soft skills (flexible skills) development technology into the educational process of teaching foreign languages at a technical university.

The article describes the author's system for constructing practical classes in a foreign language at a technical university. The criteria according to which the typology of practical classes is carried out are revealed. Four types of practical classes are offered: familiarization-training, preliminary-speech, proper-speech, generalizing-control. It is noted that work on this system of constructing practical classes can significantly increase their effectiveness, improve the quality of teaching students of a technical university a foreign language.

The article is devoted to highlighting the basic forms of working with text in the classroom with Kazakh students at a technical university, which will contribute to the development of students' communicative competence. It is noted that communicative competence implies the ability to communicate in a given language in order to achieve one's goals. The main types of work with the text are the perception of the text, the definition of the topic and the main idea of the text, commenting, working with texts of different styles, the ability to express one's opinion, one's point of view on the problem posed in the text, communication based on the text, compliance with oral and writing, creating your own text, etc.