Cognitive Aspect of Learning Style in Differentiated Esp Instruction for the Future It Specialists

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of cognitive aspect of learning style of information technology (IT) students that is urgent in organising differentiated instruction of English for Specific Purposes at universities. R. Oxford's Style Analysis Survey and R. Amthauer's testing of intelligence have been used for studying the cognitive aspect. As the specifics of IT field are focused on such actions of IT specialists as perception, processing and implementation of textual, symbolic, graphical information, presented in oral and written forms, the most valuable parameters for organising the learning process and work with information for the future IT specialist are sensory modality (auditory, visual and kinesthetic) and the way of processing information (analytic and synthetic). Testing the third-year IT students and the fourth-year IT students has confirmed the statement of R. Oxford that learning styles are not dichotomous. Also, testing has shown that among auditory, visual, kinesthetic and mixed modalities of IT students, the dominant sensory modalities are auditory and mixed. Mixed modalities are represented by four groups of students: learners with visual, auditory and kinesthetic modality; learners with visual and kinesthetic modality; learners with visual and auditory modality; learners with auditory and kinesthetic modality. Testing results of the third-year and the fourth-year IT students' way of processing ideas in the learning process indicate the tendency of predominance of the synthetic way of processing information and also mixed synthetic and analytic ways of processing information in the IT students. According to the R. Amthauer's test of the verbal and nonverbal intelligence of IT students can be presented as the relation 3(spatial)˂1(mathematical)˂2(verbal). The theoretical and practical thinking of the third-and fourth-year IT students are relatively balanced. All the specifics of IT students should be taken into account in the differentiated instruction of English for specific purposes. The ways of using such specifics are presented in recommendations.

Developing Software Engineering Students’ Readiness for Professional Mobility Through Blended Learning

“…brought diversity into the educational process and increased the students' motivation, formed the skills of planning and organising their own activities. Students with a higher level of English could choose more complex tasks, thereby implementing the differentiation of education, which considers their individual perception peculiarities (Mikhnenko, 2015;Bihych & Okopna 2018;Synekop, 2018). In addition, changing the role of the teacher, who acted as a mentor, a coordinator, a moderator, a tutor and a scholar in the proper educational situations contributed to improving the quality of his communication with students providing feedback and qualitative assessment, and giving students the opportunity to receive recommendations as to enhancing their learning activities.…”

“…The research on readiness for professional mobility in the educational and information environment of the technical university is related to the problems of intellectualisation of professional training (Mikhnenko, 2015); ensuring engineering mobility in the world (Rakhmanov, 2018); learning a foreign language as a means of forming professional mobility (Merkulova, 2008;Kerdyasheva, 2010;Chizhova, 2014). It is also grounded on the main regulations of the interdisciplinary approach (Luzik, 2010;Kaur & Manan, 2013;Bodnar, 2016) and using innovative technologies of English for specific purposes (ESP) (Synekop, 2018) for integrating foreign language and professional training aimed at forming readiness for professional mobility.…”

Translation Project as an Assessment Tool: Ukrainian Context

“…Being widely studied in other educational settings (O. Synekop, 2018), with the help of translation project it can be easily adapted to translation pedagogy needs. In case of assessment it gives the opportunity to implement dynamic assessment practice based on the social constructivist concept by L. Vygotsky.…”

Motivational Aspect of Student’s Language Learning Style in Differentiated Instruction of English for Specific Purposes

“…Language learning style is a complex phenomenon which reflects different dimensions of an individual who needs variations in the ways teaching and learning take place. Despite the priority of the cognitive dimension with an emphasis on the perception (Dörnyei, 2005, p. 124;Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015, p. 112;Özerem & Akkoyunlu, 2015;Derkach, 2018;Synekop, 2018), processing of information (Dörnyei, 2005, p. 124;Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015, p. 112;Saienko, 2017;Synekop, 2018), and field dependence / field independence (İnce & Akdemir, 2013), the motivational aspect of the learning style is critically important for developing learners' skills in ESP. According to Guild and Garger (1998), "differences in motivation, judgments, values, and emotional responses also characterize individual style" (p. 58) and "an awareness of stylistic differences can help teachers recognize that every person does not seek the same affective response" (p. 58).…”