Kateryna Kravchenko
Future
foreign languages teachers’ professional training at the modern stage of
pedagogical researches development
The article deals with the notion of future foreign languages teachers’ training. The typical features,
trends in education of Ukraine are shown.
Functions, requirements for professional training of foreign languages
teachers in Ukraine and Germany are given.
Keywords: training, reform,
modernization, integration, humanitarization, the requirements for practical
training, personality, teaching profession, professional core competencies.
The statement
of a problem. Education and science are the most important fields
of human activity. They are complex hierarchical systems, strategic priorities,
basic for socio - economic development of a
society. The
priorities of
public policy among others are personal orientation of education, the formation of
national and universal values, equal opportunities for citizens in education obtaining, continuous improvement of
education quality, its contents and organization of educational process updating,
continuing education and lifelong learning development, integration of national
education to european and world educational space. While
constructing
new socio-economic, cultural, educational models and the ways of their
implementation determining, it is important not only focus on the inner
realities but also track general civilizational trends of modern humanity in
order to achieve advancing development. As V.Kremen
said,
"humanistic and democratic dimensions of education should
promote an integrated system of values ineducation. It
is about the development of national curricula, plans, publication of
textbooks etc. In the foreground should be individual work with pupils
and students, the introduction of new advanced methods. Equally important is
the focus on modern teaching aids (training modules, case studies,
business games, consulting projects, informational technologies, etc.), smart balance of
natural, social and technical subjects.
The analysis of recent
researches and publications. The question of teachers’ training
in different countries and Ukraine is multidimensional and includes different
aspects, it has been studied by many Ukrainian and foreign researchers. In
particular, Ukrainian researcher Abashkina N. investigated the development of
vocational education in Germany in the late 19th - early 20th century. Gamanyuk
V. paid her attention to the development of teachers’ training and their skills
improvement in Germany. The thesis written by Kozak N. is dedicated to the
didactic basis of the professional training of teachers in Germany in the
second half of 18th - the late 20th century. Pukhovska L. researched teachers training
in Western Europe in the late 20th century. [3] Ryabushko S. in the scientific
studies highlighted the problem of the formation of the culture of
communication of future foreign languages teachers. Turchin A. deeply studied
teachers training for vocational education in Germany. [4] Polischuk V. focused
on postgraduate teachers’ education in Germany. Synenko S. considered the
development of postgraduate education and training of teachers in Western
Europe, particularly in Germany, France and England.
The statement of the tasks. The
aim of this article is to define the concept of future foreign
languages teachers’ training, characteristics and tendencies that are typical
for education in Ukraine today.
The main material
presentation. The primary means of higher education of Ukraine
integration into the European educational landscape and its modern
transformations, particularly in teachers training, is the Bologna process
which requires that the entire teaching community coordinates education policy
in order to achieve the objectives of the European Higher Education Area.
Now Ukraine faces four strategic objectives for the modernization of
education and science: 1. strengthening of public understanding of the absolute
priority of knowledge and education and its actual provision; 2. upgrading of
educational activities, significant adjustments of educational process; 3.
transfer of material and technical basis of educational process to its modern
level; 4. linguistic breakthrough in education by providing skills in the state
language and learning foreign languages. [1]
Everything above said can be realized only by teachers that have seven
key competencies of a specialist (the ability to learn, social competence,
general cultural competence, health preserving competence, competence in
information and communication technologies, civic competence, entrepreneurial
competence).
As for the features of teaching profession, a teacher is a person who
teaches others (his students), sends them some knowledge about life. In a
narrow sense - specialist who conducts training and educational work with
pupils in schools of various types.
According to the classification proposed by Ye. Klimov, teaching
profession refers to the group of occupations for which the subject is another
person. But teaching profession is distinguished from the number of other ones
primarily by way of its representatives thinking,
high sense of duty and responsibility. Therefore teaching profession builds a
separate group. Its main difference from other professions of the type
"person-person" is that it belongs at the same time to the class of
transforming and controlling jobs. With the aim of a personality’s formation
and transformation a teacher must manage its intellectual, emotional and
physical development, the formation of the spiritual world.
Speaking of the personality of a teacher we should mention the necessity
of his pedagogical culture existing - the combination of high level of
development and improvement of all components of teaching activity and the same
level of development and realization of essential personal traits of a teacher,
his skills and opportunities. V. Slastonin provides the following components of
vocational and educational culture:
1. Axiological component of vocational and educational culture created
with a set of educational values developed by mankind and
originally included in a holistic educational process at the present stage of
education.
2. Technological component of vocational and educational culture
includes ways and methods of teaching.
3. Individual and creative component of vocational and educational
culture reveals the mechanism of its mastering and its implementation as a
creative act.
To work effectively a teacher should be endowed with such personal
qualities as the ability to be empathetic, sensitive to the interests and needs
of students, the ability to provide personal character to his teaching, the
ability to control himself and children, possession of various styles of formal
and informal communication with his pupils, emotional stability, self-control,
self-confidence, buoyancy, the ability to regulate conflicts with non-violent
means, respect for foreign traditions and beliefs, creativity, capacity for
reflection.
As N.Moyseyuk mentions, the holistic teacher training process solves two
problems - adapting and humanizing. Adaptive function is associated with the
preparation of a student for a particular social situation, to the specific
demands of society and humanistic one - the development of his personality and
creative individual traits.
When speaking about a teacher of foreign languages and
basic requirements for his theoretical training a teacher of foreign languages
should know and understand:
• Milestones of methods of foreign languages teaching
development;
• basics of the theory of communicative competence of students that consists of speech competence, language
(linguistic) competence, sociocultural competence, sociolinguistic competence,
geographic jurisdiction, educational competence, strategic competence,
discourse competence, etc.
The main requirements for practical training (in accordance with state
educational standards in a foreign language) [2]
Teachers of foreign languages should be able to implement:
communicative-learning function which consists of informational,
motivational incentive and control corrective components that mean the ability
to apply modern principles, methods, techniques and training aids in foreign
language communication teaching;
educational function that means solving of the problems of moral, cultural, aesthetic and labor students’
education by means of a foreign language taking into account the level of
education;
developing function which includes prediction of the formation and
development of intellectual and emotional areas of a student, his cognitive and
mental abilities in the acquisition of foreign speech;
educational function which means the assistance for students by
mastering learning skills, expanding their horizons, learning themselves
and the different system of concepts
through which they may realize other phenomena.
Besides the four above-mentioned functions, the teacher must be able to
perform gnostic, design and planning, organizational functions.
Conclusion and prospects for
further research. Thus, the analysis has showed that
at the present moment the question of modernization and reformation of
educational system is vital for Ukraine, it is being realized primarily through
radical humanization of education, enhance of personal dimension. One of the
areas of education reformation is its integration into European and world
educational landscape. An important condition in this regard is the appropriate
level of teachers’ training, particularly of foreign languages teachers.
The list of the literature used:
1.
Higher Education of Ukraine and the Bolonga
process : manual / V. Kremin. – Ternopil : Navchalna khyga – Bogdan, 2004. –
384 p.
2.
State educational standard in a foreign language
( general secondary education ) V – IX grades / under the guidance of S.
Nikolayeva. – Ę. : Lenvit, 1998. – 32 p.
3.
Pukhovska, S. Teachers professional training in
Western Europe : common and different features. – Kyiv : Vyshcha shkola, 1997.
– 180 p.
4.
Turchynov, Ŕ. Teachers training for the institutions of
vocational education in Germany : thesis : 13. 00. 04 / Andriy ˛vanovych
Turchynov. – Ternopil, 2003. – 221 p. – The list of referencies : p. 185 – 221.
5.
International Guide to Qualifications in Education / The British Council, The National Academic Recognition
Information Centre (NARIC) for the United Kingdom. – Fourth Edition. – Manchester : The Bath Press, 1996. – 919
p. – ISBN 0-7201-2217-1.