ON SOME NEW POSSIBILITIES IN TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES TO GRADUATE STUDENTS

The paper discusses ways to increase effectiveness of teaching foreign languages to graduate students. It describes changes in distance learning caused by the pandemic and analyses prospects in the development of ELT methodology under the present circumstances. It claims that a sharp transition to distant learning of foreign languages has not worsened the quality of education, but even opened up new opportunities to enhance the quality of teaching under the circumstances. It argues that new ways to teach foreign languages to graduate students are necessary to compensate for the known shortcomings of traditional ways of teaching. It claims that pedagogical facilitation can serve a useful means to introduce innovations into teaching foreign languages. It is interpreted as a prospective teaching methodology, which helps students to master professionally oriented communication in a foreign language. The paper outlines the terms under which the facilitating process can be realized and the tasks a teacher-facilitator has to solve to make the process successful. It also lists the stages of a facilitation class, which include preparatory stage; opening of the session; team building; facilitation cycle; presentation of results and team reflection on group activities. The authors describe their experience of using the technology in question in teaching English to graduate students. The paper concludes that facilitation can serve as a useful means to develop students’ communicative skills and critical thinking and to increase their motivation to learn foreign languages. It widens the possibilities to implement innovative educational technologies into foreign language teaching and learning, introduces changes into teacher — learner relationships, and makes the atmosphere in a virtual classroom supportive.

higher education, master’s degree, traditional learning, distance learning, foreign languages, learning process, pedagogical technology, group work, facilitation, teacher functions

Kavnatskaya E., V., Kuzmina L. G., Petrosyan Zh. V. On some new possibilities in teaching foreign languages to graduate students. Business. Education. Law, 2022, no. 4, pp. 358—364. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2022.61.429.