Culture and the Common European Framework for Languages: A Comparative Corpus Analysis of 2001, 2018 and 2020 Texts

In order to provide “a common basis for the elaboration of language syllabuses, curriculum guidelines, examinations, textbooks, etc. across Europe”, The Common European Framework for Languages (CEFR) was published in 2001 by the Council of Europe. It has affected the way languages are taught, learnt and assessed and also how foreign language proficiency levels are defined all around the world. The CEFR adopts an intercultural approach to foreign language, and the main purpose is to protect cultural diversity and to give importance to cultural activities rather than being a part of foreign language education. For this reason, culture is at the very core of the CEFR. In 2018 and 2020, two Companion Volumes were published to complement the CEFR. The present paper offers a comparative corpus analysis of these three texts focusing on the occurrences of culture-related items using n-gram tool of Sketch Engine (Lexical Computing, n. d.), which creates frequency lists of sequences of tokens. Based on the findings, it is suggested according to the CEFR that rather than focusing on the national culture of the native speakers of the target language, foreign language education should focus more on the “new culture” formed by the encounters of people coming from different cultures.

Contemporary practices of foreign language preparation of future international relations specialists at universities

The article analyzes the changes taking place in Ukrainian education during the last five years, are compared with the processes taking place in Europe, and an attempt is made to identify the main trends in the development of domestic foreign language education in the near future, allowing us to: predict probable challenges and prepare for overcoming them; focus on the main areas; to formulate new tasks, review the content, and possibly approaches to methodological training foreign language teachers taking into account these trends. Special attention is paid to the training of specialists in the field international relations is due to the fact that the process intercultural communication is significantly complicated problems due to certain differences and differences in perception of the world around us native speakers of different languages and cultures, which often leads to misunderstanding of each other, and in some cases becomes the cause of undesirable situations. The purpose of the article is to analyze the peculiarities of the development of foreign language education in Ukraine, to investigate the tendencies of the influence of the European educational system on the development of foreign language education in our country. The article highlights the results of the study of trends in the development of foreign language education in Ukraine, them influence on the formation of methods of learning foreign languages in higher education, their effective used during foreign language training of future specialists in non-language specialties in modern times stage. Some aspects of the formation and development of foreign language education at different stages of it are analyzed formation in the context of the subject of research and their relevance in modern conditions of preparation for the future specialists in the humanities in higher educational institutions of Ukraine. The main directions are clarified development of trends in foreign language education through analysis of works and research of leading experts in the field. In the frame of the study, it was revealed that the concepts of "bilingualism", "plurilingualism", and "multilingualism" in the system of higher education in Ukraine have become the significant components of foreign language training of future specialists in a particular field. The research concluded that, at the present stage of Ukraine's entry into the European educational space foreign language education is an element of cultural interaction, that promotes the formation of interests in another mentality, increases motivation, and expands the scope of international cooperation. We see the conclusions and prospects for further research in this area in a more in-depth approach to creative development and finding new ways to improve efficiency of the educational process of students of the faculties of international relations in the light of the latest requirements of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for teaching foreign languages at a qualitatively new level.

Мethodological Support for University Students’ Independent Work

This paper focuses on the role of media linguistics and the use of media discourse in (foreign) language education. Based on an example of a specific critical incident in the context of teaching Bulgarian as a foreign language, the study concludes that (foreign) language teaching and learning should go beyond the normative spaces of the “standard” language, and that learners should be exposed to the lexico-grammatical and discourse features of different target language varieties and registers. Thus, they will expand their language repertoire beyond the perimeter of the codified standard norm of public communication, which will allow them to use the language appropriately in diverse social and cultural settings.

Instructional Guidance for Promoting Creativity in English as a Foreign Language Writing Classrooms: A Korean Case Study

As student creativity is increasingly emphasized in English as a Foreign Language education, it is necessary to consider instructional techniques to encourage it. This study examines the effectiveness of two instructional techniques on creative writing performance of English as a Foreign Language students in a South Korean university. These techniques are variations of brainstorming known as mind mapping and SCAMPER. Survey data from the participants ( n = 39) were analysed to determine which technique resulted in higher levels of perceived creative output (essays). Additionally, a creativity rubric was developed and used to assign analytic scores to the essays to examine the relative benefits of the two techniques for high and low creative ability students. Results show that SCAMPER produced statistically significantly higher levels of perceived creative output. The essays written using SCAMPER generally received higher creativity scores than those written using mind mapping, though this difference was not statistically significant. Finally, results suggest that both techniques may help to narrow the performance gap between high and low creative ability students.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRAINING OF STUDENT YOUTH IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: ANALYSIS OF SOME RESEARCHES

The article presents a theoretical generalization of the researches on the problem of foreign language training of student youth in the European Union. Today in the institutions of higher education of Ukraine there is a tendency to intensify the foreign language training of each applicant for higher education. Among the many aspects in the content of education, foreign language training of higher education in Ukraine focuses on itself special attention. At the same time, it was found out that currently in Ukraine there is a complex multi-level contradiction of the following nature: The European Union prepares graduates of schools that speak a foreign language at the B2 level, and Ukrainian pedagogical higher education institutions graduate students who do not speak a foreign language at the B2 level; Ukrainian schools require from students B2 level which their teachers do not have, and therefore, in a sense, Ukrainian students may be more competent than their teachers, which is unacceptable. The analysis of foreign language training of student youth in the European Union allowed the authors to identify the achievements and features of foreign language training of student youth in some European countries in order to outline the required by the domestic education system trends in foreign language training at higher education institutions. The authors of the article analyzed the professional training of future foreign language teachers in such European countries: Germany, Poland, Slovakia, France, Italy. It was found out that such training is thoroughly researched by Ukrainian comparative scientists and is gradually introduced into the domestic system of higher education.But taking into account such tasks, problems and challenges facing Europe and Ukraine in the field of foreign language education, as well as permanent forms of cooperation within the Bologna Process, the prospects for further research the authors see in a deeper study of the process of reforming foreign language education, which brings obvious benefits to Ukrainian higher education. Keywords: foreign language education; foreign language training; student youth; European Union countries; higher education; foreign language; institutions of higher education; Ukraine.

Grounded Theory in Second/Foreign Language Education Research

Grounded theory constitutes research methodology commonly used in the field of social sciences to investigate social phenomena. This research methodology, however, has rarely been used in the field of second/foreign language education. Given that second/foreign language education may be viewed as a social activity and that certain issues in second/foreign language education may be studied from social science perspectives, the present article surveys key literature on grounded theory. The goal is to help second/foreign language researchers assess the potential of this research methodology for studying relevant issues in the field of second/foreign language education.

Online foreign language education during the COVID-19 pandemic – teachers’ perspective

The pandemic that started in 2020 significantly influenced the situations of students and teachers, who stopped attending regular schools, with all classes happening online. Distant education itself transformed a lot, and the activities performed by teachers in autumn were definitely more advanced than those from the beginnings in spring. Teachers developed their ICT skills, and generally feel more comfortable teaching online. They notice some advantages of more systematic application of ICT and the distant form of education, however there are some drawbacks of it that cannot be easily overcome.