In this study, an attempt was made to justify the use of digital technologies in the formation of communicative competence of bachelors in Economics and Finance who study Spanish as a second foreign language. Modern conditions for the development of education in the multicultural world form new challenges that require a change of approach in the teaching of foreign languages. The paper presents the results of a study of the level of integration of digital technologies in the process of teaching a foreign language and their effectiveness in the formation of various skills and abilities in the framework of the development of communicative competence. One of the main tasks of a modern university is to educate a highly motivated student who is ready to work in constantly changing economic conditions. The study identified the most effective motivational basis in the study of a foreign language.
Background. The growing importance of international cooperation among universities have increased the number of joint training projects. Common Bologna principles followed by Russian and Spanish tertiary institutions helped perform a pilot study focused on telecollaboration and plurilingual and pluricultural competence implementation. The project aimed at forming plurilingual and pluricultural competence and communicative competence among students studying either English or Spanish or both through the integration of digital technologies into the learning process.Methods. This 7-month study took place in Moscow (Russian Federation) and Valencia (Spain) from November 2019 to June 2020. Participants were university students aged 20–23 from Teaching Training Faculties from Lomonosov Moscow State University and CEU Cardenal Herrera University. The undergraduates who volunteered to participate in the focus group took part in five telecollaboration sessions (March-May 2020). The participants were divided into two mixed (50% Russian and 50% Spanish learners) subgroups and discussed suggested topics during online studentled bilingual sessions. After each online interaction, researchers collected their opinions through questionnaires and discussion with a lecturer.Outcomes. All participants announced that the study gave them a chance to improve their language abilities, update their vocabulary and enhance their intercultural experience. None of the partakers reported having experienced any difficulty doing the project and only regretted that interaction time was too short. Additionally, lecturers were able to test new curricula implementation and assessment procedures.Conclusions. The pilot study was feasible to deliver and there was a clear, satisfactory result with the focus groups participants and teaching staff.
Communicative and active learning is recognized as a dominant didactic model in foreign languages teaching and learning paradigm, wherein Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) seems to be very promising. The key principle of CLIL is its dual focus: learning a subject through a language and learning a language through a subject. The focus of a CLIL lesson is on the subject content, which students need not only to understand and learn, but to interiorize in a foreign language. Being placed in a specific cultural context, the content gains certain linguistic and cultural features which are country specific for each professional sphere. The article also addresses how the students develop Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). The students not only master the subject but also improve foreign language skills by mastering lexico-grammatical patterns and discourse formulas focused on a specific subject area. Using several foreign languages (plurilingual approach) would allow the students to master the subject even more effectively.
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