Candidate of Philosophy
Cutsova E.L., senior lecturer Trusova T.V.
t. Shakhty, Russia
On development of professional mobility of future
specialists by means of a foreign language
Modern society lives in the era of rapidly developing
information technologies, which creates new environment and conditions for the
formation of a personality in the professional field. Hence there has been an
increased interest in research in such academic fields as psychology, pedagogy,
sociology, foreign languages, so the level of professional and personal
training of specialists, their culture and mobility should meet new demands.
Nowadays a specialist is supposed to be able to sort out intensive information
flows, be mobile, develop and be aware of new technologies, learn, be in search
of missing knowledge and use other resources rather than simply possess
particular information.
The joining of Russia to the international educational
society dictates the necessity to use new forms of teaching foreign languages
in engineering universities and makes it important to look for new effective
ways of teaching them. Scientists are more and more focused on finding effective
ways of training that are to form in every student the ability of constant
self-perfection in his professional activities that will allow him to respond
to every change in his career flexibly and quickly. In other words, they are
supposed to train competitive specialists, who are socially protected according
to the quality and professional opportunities their education gives them and
who are personally prepared to work in constantly changing conditions. Numerous
studies of the international labor market state the fact that the training
level of specialists of most common professions does not meet international
standards due to the lack of particular skills and personal qualities that a
specialist should have in order to be competitive in the international labor
market. In many cases one of the reasons for this is the lack of language
skills.
The necessity to develop a linguistic competence of a
future specialist is dictated by time. High school graduates should be
competitive in the labor market, and for this they must acquire not only
professional but also linguistic competence, learn to adapt to the market
changes flexibly, rapidly and effectively, that is to be professionally mobile.
This quality of a specialist becomes particularly relevant if we bear in mind
the fact that he must constantly be ready to make non-standard decisions and
solve non-typical professional problems. The training of a modern specialist is
significantly affected by the content, material resources, educational
techniques, the appropriate level of preparedness of the teaching staff of
educational institutions.
Long-term observations allowed the researchers to
claim that professional mobility is not formed and does not appear in the
structure of the student's personality all by itself. It should be developed
purposefully. In this view foreign language as a subject has a definite
potential. Nowadays teachers, acting as managers of education should not only
develop in their students the ability to analyze and realize their previous
experiences, but also develop their skills to plan their own professional
future. The provision of real professionalism and competence of a future
specialist should be the purpose of university teachers, since the
effectiveness and quality of higher professional education are generally
defined by such indicators as graduates’ employment, their social status, the
level of portfolio and competitiveness of young professionals in the labor
market [1].
It is well known that at present the demand for
specialists with good knowledge of foreign languages has increased
considerably. This is due to the transformation of Russia into an open society,
the development of international business contacts, the development of new
technologies, the organization of joint ventures and the intensification of
professional activities in close contact with foreign specialists. Therefore it
is quite on purpose that the university course of studies is professionally
oriented. Its objectives are determined primarily by communicative and cognitive
requirements of specialists in the particular sphere. The above is claimed in
the new concept of teaching foreign languages in non-linguistic universities,
where it is emphasized that a foreign language is an integral component of
training a modern specialist [2]. In order to specify this statement the State
Educational Standard for higher professional education especially emphasizes
the necessity for a graduate to be professionally competent both in translation
of the original technical literature concerning his specialty, and in writing
scientific papers in a foreign language. A university graduate “must also be
able to continue his education and professional activities in a foreign
language environment." The Program in foreign languages for non-linguistic
universities states that "the purpose of the university foreign language
course is to acquire by students a communicative competence necessary for a
skillful information and creative activity in different areas and situations of
a business partnership" [3].
The peculiarity of training specialists aimed to
fulfil these goals is to train them in such a way that the level of their
communication in a foreign language could allow them to use it to meet their
professional needs, to maintain their personal business
contacts, and to go on with their professional self-education and
self-perfection. Thus, the professional viability of a non-linguistic
university graduate is determined in many respects by the degree of his
uncomplicated and effective participation in a foreign language interactive
communication, by the completeness of his involvement in intercultural
communication. In other words, an engineering university graduate should be
able to use a foreign language in different constantly varying social and
professional situations.
Some aspects of the students’ training for their
professional competence by means of such subject as a foreign language are
considered in a number of methodological papers. In particular, the researchers
are interested in the problems related to the content of professionally
oriented foreign language training in non-linguistic universities (N.I.
Almazova, D.V. Bulatova, M.V. Ozerova, etc.), with the development of
professional thinking of engineering university students while studying a
foreign language (T.V. Aldanova), with continuous professional education
through a foreign language (E.A. Aliluyko), with the improvement of the
professional training by means of a foreign language (S.V. Vasilieva).
The problems of improvement of training materials used
for teaching a foreign language in engineering universities attract great
attention of researchers (T.A. Anokhina, A.R. Balayan, M.J. Beilina, V.G.
Beilinson, I.L. Bim, etc.). Such interest in the creation of high-quality
training and methodological support of the process of foreign language teaching
is explained by the desire to improve the quality of the training of a modern
specialist, capable and ready to be actively involved in the new activity and
professional environment.
Therefore, the problem of creating modern, more
perfect training aids in the process of restructuring the system of higher
education is by right among the priorities. It is necessary to develop training
aids not only in order to provide high quality and socially oriented education.
They are also necessary to enhance the personal component of education and
develop productive thinking to ensure the adaptability of the individual in the
system of professional relations.
In spite of the fact that in methodical science there
is a number of papers, directly or indirectly aimed to solve the problem of
professional development, flexible adaptation to the constantly changing
professional environment, this problem has not been completely solved for the
present. It is quite obvious that it is through the well-organized and
well-designed textbooks and training aids that professional mobility of a
future specialist could be developed. Mobility as a whole and its separate
qualitative components (social, pedagogical, educational, professional, etc.)
is the property, which in many respects ensures the painless and effective
transformation of individual manifestations in the dynamic conditions of social
and professional environment (O.V. Amosova, L.V. Vershinina, O.A. Gladkaya,
V.S. Stoyanov).
In general, the professional mobility as a quality of
a non-linguistic university graduate, the ways of its development by means of a
foreign language as a subject have been beyond the sphere of interest of
scientists and methodologists. Foreign language as a subject has important
didactic possibilities in terms of developing professional mobility of the
students of engineering universities. Thus, there is an obvious contradiction
between the urgency of acquiring professional mobility by the graduates of
engineering specialities and the lack of methodical scientific research
connected with revealing the specific character of formation of this personal
quality in the process of mastering the foreign-language communication as well
as the development of particular methods for its formation.
The creation of training aids in foreign languages,
capable of overcoming these contradictions, and implementation of educational
opportunities of such subject as foreign language in order to positively affect
the development of professional mobility in the process of training a future
specialist will be a practical solution to this problem. We believe that this
problem should be solved mostly by university teachers.
Thus, the practical importance of a training aid is
due to the following factors:
1. Professional mobility as a qualitative characteristic of a specialist
is the ability (expressed in his skills) of an individual to rapidly and
effectively respond to the changes in the professional sphere of his
activities, to control and correct his actions according to the situation.
2. Foreign language as a subject has important didactic possibilities in
terms of developing professional competence in the process of training
non-linguistic university students.
3. A training aid in a foreign language can be considered as a means of
developing professional mobility of students, if it meets the general didactic,
methodical and specific requirements: problematization of the content,
inter-subject integration in the selection of the problem training material,
problematization of methods and techniques, the availability of praxiological
recommendations (regulators) of students’ activity.
1. Milrud, R.P. Modern conceptual principles of communicative foreign language training [Text]// R.P. Milrud, I.R. Maximova // Foreign Languages at School. – 2000 – No 4. P.19
2. Conception of modernization of Russian education for the period up to
2010. – Moscow, CGL, APK and PRO, 2004. – 24 p.
3. Foreign language (English, German, French, Spanish) [Text]: basic
program in foreign languages of the federal component in the sphere of arts and
social and economic knowledge in the State Educational Standard of higher
professional education of the second generation / approved by G.K. Shestakov;
recommended by Scientific and Methodical Council for Foreign Languages of the
Ministry of Education of Russia. – Moscow, 2000.