Modern challenges and trends of teaching ESP to non-linguistic students

Abstract

The rapid integration processes, the growth of professional and academic exchanges, and the deepening of international cooperation stimulate the progressive development of foreign language teaching.  Under these conditions the training of specialists with a high level of comfort with advanced technologies requires the revision and updating of ESP approaches and curriculum to fit the job market requirements.  At present, professionally-oriented teaching of a foreign language should be aimed at: development of communication skills  with the focus on business communication covering all language skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing);  gaining linguistic knowledge (of phonetic phenomena, grammar, word formation, lexics) in foreign language teaching should be incorporated into simulated real-life professional communication cases;  development of intercultural awareness, which will allow students to build appropriate communication strategies with foreign partners, help to adapt to the multicultural working environment, avoid misunderstandings in communication;  gaining a relevant ESP vocabulary and special terminology in their sphere of activity. Modern language teaching leads to combining language and culture in the process of learning.  Intercultural competence as an integral part of foreign language acquisition enables students to understand why people communicate in a different way and to see the logic of the differences.This can result in the adequate choice of both the right strategies and foreign language means as well as elimination of stereotypes. Global companies view with intercultural competence of their employees as the main requirement for efficient cooperation in multicultural teams.  At present the essence of ESP language teaching  lies in its interdisciplinary integration with major disciplines with the aim of obtaining additional professional knowledge and developing of professional qualities of a personality that can lead to gaining essential soft skills. The issues that are crucial to mastering students’ professional and communication skills are: the focus on developing the conceptual terminology for a specific major;  the expansion of the information-analytical data based on the authentic texts activities, including students’ own information search  and analysis  to support their arguments;  mastering learning strategies;  ability to interpret,  to conduct discussions;  to provide ideas;  to deal with typical work-oriented tasks. 

Modeling work-related communication cases, providing team interaction, activating students’ critical thinking have become possible due to implementation of advanced technologies such as Web 2.0 based on the principles of problem-solving, interactivity, situationality that are of paramount importance in upgrading and fostering ESP teaching and learning.