Productive Method as the Basis for Soft Skills Development in Engineering Foreign Language Education

Education Sciences

Olesya Dmitrievna Medvedeva¹  Anna Vladimirovna Rubtsova² 

[1] Department of Foreign Languages, Institute of Humanities, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, 195251 St. Petersburg, Russia;Graduate School of Applied Linguistics, Translation and Interpreting, Institute of Humanities, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, 195251 St. Petersburg, Russia;

关键词: soft skills;    productive method;    foreign language teaching;    engineering students;    educational standards;    professionally oriented foreign language;   

DOI  :  10.3390/educsci11060276

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The modern world requires engineering specialists with excellent hard skills as well as soft skills that contribute to better communication, creativity, and self-realisation of a person. The authors discovered that modern educational standards are starting to focus on soft skills development, proposing requirements for educational programs that contain competencies covering soft skills. To fulfil such needs, there is the productive method of foreign language teaching that implies interactive technologies and masters foreign language communicative competence and soft skills at once. Therefore, the study aimed at developing a technology of soft skills development in engineering foreign language education using the productive method and checking its effectiveness. The authors designed a questionnaire and investigated engineering students’ opinions on a need to develop soft skills, which revealed high relevance of the topic, and the possibility of their development while studying a foreign language, which proved the productive method’s prospects. Based on findings received and literature analysed, we implemented case studies, problem-based learning, and essay writing in the technology and designed assessment criteria. Testing of the technology was performed by a pedagogical experiment, where qualitative and quantitative methods were applied. To critically analyse the results, we used Cronbach’s alpha, which revealed good reliability of the questionnaire, and t-test showed high efficiency of the technology that improved students’ soft skills.

【 授权许可】

Unknown