In this article the influence of competency-based approach of foreign language teaching to successful passing First Certificate in English (FCE) has been shown and the empirical analysis of the effectiveness of this approach for students of non-linguistic specialties has been conducted. The range of research methods (theoretical, empirical, statistical) has been used to reach the research purpose and justify the research finding. It has been confirmed that the most relevant type of a competency-based approach to teaching a foreign language for specific purposes is the communicative competency-based one. The linguistic competence, which is considered by authors to be the central multicomponent notion has been defined and characterized from the perspective of teaching English as a foreign language. The linguistic competence is based on five practical competences: Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Use of English. To check the effectiveness of the applying competency-based approach of teaching foreign language (English) for specific purposes the empirical (diagnostic) methods such as: testing (oral and written), observation, discussion were used; the pedagogical experiment was also conducted with the students. Statistical methods (Student’s t-test) helped to evaluate the results of the pedagogical experiment. The t-value result ranged from 3 to 4.7 shows the difference between the sample data and the null hypothesis that is significant, which proves the statistical importance of the obtained results.
The current paper intends to describe the practice and analyze the results of using the website Write & Improve as an additional extra-class tool of developing writing skills in the course of preparation for the FCE exam for post-graduate students. The study has proven the hypothesis that the proposed algorithm for working with the service Write & Improve is effective for teaching FCE Writing for post-graduate students, and provided the experimental research of learners’ progress. Theoretical (analysis and synthesis), empirical (observation, testing, conducting pedagogical experiment) and statistical (calculating the Mean and the Standard Deviation) methods were used to achieve the stated aim. A significant difference was observed in the experimental group of 32 Kharkiv post-graduate university students where the experiment was carried out in 2017/2018 academic year. The obtained results of the experimental research demonstrate post-graduate students’ progress in the FCE Writing Test and can be regarded as the evidence that the service Write & Improve does have a positive impact on mastering post-graduate students’ writing skills. Furthermore, comparing the test results according to 5-band scale in four different criteria (Content, Communicative Achievement, Organization, Language) at the different stages of the course allowed to measure the development rate of the checked English writing skills. The resulting data confirmed the improvement in post-graduate students’ performance in all the criteria of Writing on average by 36.1%; the most significant progress has been in Language (vocabulary and grammar aspects) with the average increase from 3.0 to 4.5 scores (50 %) whereas the least advance to be claimed is in Communicative Achievement with the results ranging from 2.8 to 3.6 (28.6%); it proves the substantial increase. Provided that Write & Improve is implemented systematically with a careful consideration of post-graduate students’ problems and needs, the application of it can be said to have the obvious correlation with post-graduate students’ progress. The authors’ experience is significant in Ukrainian learning context as it proves the effectiveness of using innovative online instruments to teach English Writing to post-graduate students who aim to pass FCE exam.
The aim of this paper is to prove the hypothesis that in order to cope with the adversities and hardships and meet the demands of the wartime and pandemic challenges, a complex of tools and techniques has to be applied including new teaching strategies with the use of multimedia, mobile applications and employing learning possibilities of social networking sites, Google classroom tools and other instruments with online course “English Fastpass”. Methodology. In this research theoretical, empirical and statistical methods are used. Theoretical methods (analysis and synthesis) serve to analyze opportunities, advantages and disadvantages of social media as a new tool of teaching. Empirical ones (observation, testing, pedagogical experiment) provide conducting the experiment itself. Statistical methods (one sample t-test) helped make statistical analysis of the pedagogical experimental data. Results. The complex of tools and techniques to teach English is implemented effectively by online course “English Fastpass” aimed at preparing students for passing English Exam. The offered extra-class activities are definitely very successful: daily vocabulary and grammar tasks followed by weekly online analysis; challenges (one-week of three-week activities focused on improving general English proficiency and cultural awareness); exam boosters focused on practicing a particular exam task type; monthly webinars; quizzes and games. The resulting experimental data showed the significant progress in students' performance in both linguistic and intercultural competences, and specifically in use of English tasks. The final assessment in all English language practical skills, including the competence in intercultural communication, confirmed considerable advance of the all-language competences. Conclusion. The effectiveness of applying different unconventional extra-class activities is proven. They are followed by weekly online analysis. The most helpful of them for learning process are exam boosters, monthly webinars, quizzes and games. Using the visualisation techniques, influencing students' emotions and feelings, the abovementioned online course “English Fastpass” facilitates efficient acquisition and better memorizing along with the ability to use the knowledge in the appropriate tasks, which in the long run will help successful intercultural communication. Judging by the comments made by the students they would find such methods of teaching extremely encouraging and stimulating.
The recent globalization processes have created the new opportunities for young people"s international mobility making educational migration the major trend of our time. One common way to confirm an English-level qualification is to obtain a certificate in an international examination, e.g. Cambridge ESOL exams, which are intended to test comprehensively all language skills. One aspect that due to its complexity and even ambiguity deserves to become an object of thorough consideration and detailed analysis is the problem of reaching desired level of student"s proficiency in foreign language listening. This article presents a research that offers perspective on the problems of developing students" listening. Thus, the purpose of the article is to research the interaction between the improvement of students" listening comprehension skills in comparison with the advance of other academic competences and to offer the ways of the intensification of listening ability development. Among the research methods, following have been used: the students" progress in developing five language competences (Listening, Writing, Speaking, Reading and Use of English) was measured by testing (oral and written), observation, discussion; statistical methods (Student"s t-test) helped to evaluate the results of the experiment. In total, 90 University students in 2017/19 took part in this study. As our experiment has demonstrated, listening competence is less ready to progress compared with other component of the English language competence (Speaking, Reading and Use of English) surpassed only by Writing. It is found that the present investigation opens the perspectives for further researches.
The article represents the research of peculiarities of the semantic and pragmatic peculiarities of indirect imperative utterences of the modern English language on the example of novels by Ray Bradbury.The research has shown that the most common types in Ray Bradbury’s works are demands, offers and advice, however other types of indirect imperative utterances are not so frequent, so they can be hardly considered a distinctive feature of Ray Bradbury idiostyle. It has been found that the affiliation to one of the aforementioned types of indirect utterances depends on the features of the speech situation that generates them.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.