The Model of Educational Environment for Prospective Ukrainian ESL Teachers within Competency-Based Education
Ukrainian Universities today encourage the principles of competency-based education in higher education, but the study of literature generally seems to discourage this process in a more theoretical way. The research reported here is a part of a more extensive doctoral study that aims to examine the process of competency-based education of English as Second Language teachers in Ukraine. This paper seeks to answer the following questions: could one apply the principles of competency-based education to create an appropriate educational environment for prospective English as Second Language teachers; would it improve the way to design the programs for their professional training and advance the language teaching process in Ukrainian Universities? This article reports on an investigation associated with the implementation of a pedagogical experiment that proves the effectiveness of the specially modeled educational environment created to design the training programs for prospective English as second language teachers within competency-based education at Taras Shevchenko National University and Donbas State Pedagogical University. This paper contains the comparative analysis of two Philology Master students groups to discover whether the traditional educational environment or competency-based one produces a better educational effect on the language teaching process. This study employs a mixed-method resulting in qualitative and quantitative data. The paper concludes by presenting recommendations for Ukrainian Universities, which major in training prospective English as Second Language teachers. Moreover, future research related to applying this educational model for students in different grades is still a potential area to be studied further.