Development of English Language Student Teachers’ Phonetic Competence in Times of Crisis

Abstract

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of development of phonetic competence in English language student teachers in the times of crisis. The article focuses on the fact that mastering English phonetics plays an important role for student teachers of English, as their ability to articulate and intonate their own statements and understand the speech of others which is based on a complex dynamic interaction of relevant knowledge, skills and general linguistic and phonetic awareness is fundamental. The difference between the concepts of «distance learning» and «emergency distance learning» is considered. The article describes the software used for teaching the elective course Linguistics of English Academic Discourse: Phonetic Aspect is taught to 4th year students studying in the speciality 014 Secondary education, specialisation 014.021 The English language and literature in a distance modality in the times of crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. The article highlights the purpose of studying the elective course and the expected results, describes in detail what served as teaching material and what tasks were performed by students at the lessons and during their independent work to develop their phonetic competence in a distance modality. The paper also reveals the results of a survey of bachelor’s graduates, who chose this elective course, on the effectiveness of organising the study of this elective course for the development of phonetic competence in English language student teachers in the times of crisis. The factors that caused the most difficulties in mastering the discipline are presented and recommendations and suggestions for improving the teaching of the elective course aimed at developing phonetic competence in the times of crisis are provided.