Multifunctionality: A Top Down Projection of University Foreign Language Education

Abstract

imperative of modern education is to form key competences or soft skills along with personal values and specific professional competences, the study aims to describe one of the types of tasks which contributes significantly to students' integral outcomes improvement. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted in the framework of university foreign language education. It involved language and non-language students with levels of communicative language competences varied from A1 to B2 ( CEFR). Qualitative and quantitative methods of research as literature review, work analysis, student questionnaires and interviews were employed in the study. A traditional PPP model (present, practice, produce) teaching model with further result assessment was used in the first part of the actual research. The second part involved multifunctional tasks and result assessment. The results of students performance were assessed according to the criteria developed by the authors. Chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relation between the use of PPP model and multifunctional tasks and the students' results. Results: As the students' outcomes were assessed and analyzed, the study confirmed the hypotheses that multifunctional tasks enable the achievement of higher level in both language competence and key competence which means that multifunctional tasks contribute to better integral outcomes. Discussion and Conclusion. The study has revealed that both models (PPP and multifunctional) boost students' foreign language communicative competence however the use of multifunctional tasks stimulate the key competences and personal qualities development which is necessary for every professional. Multifunctional tasks are versatile and can be tailored to different language level and adapted to different content.

Didactic Tools in Foreign Language Teaching Practices and Research Papers

“…Familiarity with didactic concepts and scholarly literature does not ensure the implementation of the didactic ideas and tools in everyday teaching. It can be assumed that teachers need clearer guidelineson how to use these tools backed up with a variety of practical examples and focus on multifunctional tasks which can simultaneously develop subject-specific and soft skills and lead to integral learning outcomes [13]. Pre-service and in-service teacher trainers as well as teachers themselves should have access to summative reviews or digests based on practical research data which present the logistics management system guidelines applied in blended foreign language education.…”

“…A mingle is an activity which involves learners` interaction with one another to complete a task with different partners in turn [10][11][12][13]. Mingles are an effective form of both offline and online classroom management technique when students can improve the flexibility of language sub-skills (vocabulary and grammar) and of productive speech skills (mediation, discussion, and conversation) being actively involved in interaction for different purposes with different partners.…”