METHODOLOGY OF ESP TEACHING IN MULTICULTURED UNIVERSITY GROUPS

Diana Dobrovolska; Liudmyla Dobrovolska

doi:10.23856/3857

Diana Dobrovolska Odessa National I. I. Mechnikov University http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2868-5203
Liudmyla Dobrovolska Odessa National I. I. Mechnikov University http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5584-7709

Keywords: methodology, English for Specific Purposes, multicultured group, thesaurus- thematic cycle, team work

Abstract

Teaching a foreign language for the specific purposes to the multicultured University students is quite challenging due to the fact that this category of learners is characterized both by numerous peculiarities of mentality, national traditions and general level of background education, nevertheless all the academic group students should fulfill the ESP programme’s requirements. The mentioned factors stimulated the teachers of Odessa National I.I. Mechnikov University (Ukraine) to undertake the analytical investigation of: teaching methods and techniques used in the world, so that to estimate their value for ESP; of psychological and psycholinguistic characteristics of the students from different countries – in order to find out the possible ways of creating positive learning atmosphere which would allow every individual to develop his or her personality, as well as to equip all the students with the strategies of learning through team and group work. The primary aim was to find out which method would be the best for ESP teaching to the learners from different national background, the secondary one was to prove the hypothesis that thesaurus-thematic cycles methodology is efficient for developing linguistic and communicative skills of the students in the multicultured groups due to envolving each and every individual into the common goals learning activity. The mentioned above methodology was pioneered by us, its validity having been checked during a decade. The data obtained (test and exam results) demonstrated that the methodology was valuable, one of its merits being the easiness of application both for off-line and for on-line ESP teaching which was of special importance during the COVID-19 quarantine period. The present article discusses the work done, demonstrates real tasks, forms and regimes of work at the faculties of Mathematics, Law, Biology, History, Philology, International Economic Relations and outlines the perspectives of the future investigation.

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