Employees’ ability to interact with international business partners in writing determines the success of their work, but difficulties conducting business correspondence in a foreign language complicate this process. The study aims to assess undergraduate students’ readiness for participation in intercultural written communication in a foreign language. The initial research data included the English language proficiency level for 169 undergraduate economics and management students and a list of difficulties performing written assignments. The study determined the degree of students’ awareness of how to write a business letter and readiness to conduct intercultural written communication. The level of the readiness was divided into high (8.88%), medium (66.27%), and low (24.85%). Such levels are enough for development of the students’ writing skills.
The aim of the article is to look at the concept of e-portfolio for language learners, discuss the perspectives of its application in higher educational institutions of Russia and analyse the degree of readiness for introducing it in the system of education on a wide scale. Using the observations described by different researchers, training experience in teaching foreign languages and the results of interviewing students and University professors and tutors the authors arrive at a conclusion that the educational community is generally prepared for e-portfolio application. Most difficulties are related to the absence of administrative regulation, insufficient digital competency and other reasons of psychological origin which make the university staff and the students prejudiced against this highly efficient digital tool. The authors formulate a number of didactic recommendations to facilitate the introduction and effective application of e-portfolio for language learners.
The article is devoted to the issues and problems connected with e-teaching of foreign languages for students in higher school. The results of pre- and post-pandemic surveys after two lockdowns which universities of the Russian Federation suffered from during 2019/2020 and 2020/2021academic years have been compared. The comparative analysis of pre- and post-pandemic students’ attitude to e-learning at the university on the whole and to foreign languages e-learning in particular has been weighed. The authors assessed students’ reaction to possible transition to e-learning, following gradual adaptation to new conditions during lockdown and the role of information technologies in e-learning. Aiming at fundamental analysis of distant learning the authors conducted students’ opinion surveys of the State University of Management on the issues of risks, disadvantages, convenience and advantages of the electronic and blended learning generally and on the issues of foreign language acquisition particularly. Besides, the attainments and skills that the students acquired during the periods of e-learning and which are, in students’ opinion, an essential part of their professional acquirements, have been studied.The article presents the results of postpandemic opinion survey, shows the main problems and advantages of electronic learning, reveals the types of foreign language activities, most recommendable for e-learning, makes conclusions about the advantages of the electronic and blended learning for foreign language acquisition in modern conditions. The conclusions about the necessity of the individual approach to each student even during e-learning have been made.
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