Specifics of teaching professional English to non-philological students at high school

Abstract

The article is devoted to the solution of the problem of effective teaching professional English to future economists, politicians, ecologists and students of other non-philological specialties. The problem is regarded from the viewpoint of changing the existing now knowledge-centered approach to competence approach to teaching foreign languages. Students’ priorities in learning professional English should also be taken into consideration. The results of the experimental research in which more than four and a half thousand students of non-philological specialties took part proved that the teaching process should be based on the following positions: integration of all kinds of the development of speech activity in a foreign language with professional disciplines on the target profession; interdisciplinary coordination in teaching professional English and subjects aimed at mastering future specialty, differentiating the notions of ‘integration’ and ‘coordination’. The next position is connected with the necessity of intensification of social and cultural components in teaching materials basing on the principle of ‘teaching language through culture and culture through language’. The author considers teaching students to read and understand professional texts to be the first condition of effective English learning at high school. The second condition is connected with learning national manners of behavior, different styles of negotiations, rules of business etiquette in the countries where the potential partners live. Special attention should be paid to tutors’ competence in methods of teaching ESP.