Alternative assessment as a means of business English skills formation in non-linguistic students

Abstract

Introduction. According to the requirements of the labor market, a modern specialist with a higher education must speak a foreign language in his or her professional field, i.e. be able to communicate in a business foreign language. Within the competence-based approach, teaching a professional business foreign language involves the use of not only practice-oriented teaching methods and technologies, but also alternative techniques of evaluating students' learning activities. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to identify how the use of alternative assessment affects the formation of Business English skills among non–linguistic students. Materials and Methods. The study involved 96 undergraduate students of Vyatka State University studying in the fields of "Biology", “Biotechnology”, “Chemistry” and "Chemical Technology". The formation of Business English skills is based on the “assessment as learning” approach. This assessment includes practice-oriented methods: Case Study, electronic portfolio (iPortfolio), pair work (We Create Activity), imitation of an interview (Mock job interview), reports (Reports) in the form of formal letters. Pearson’s χ2 test was used for the result statistical processing. Results. The results of the experiment showed that the number of students in the experimental group with a low level of Business English skills decreased from 37.5% to 4.2%, with an average level decreased from 50% to 41.7%, with a high level increased from 12. 5% to 54.1%; χ2 = 18.006, p ≤ 0.05. Conclusion. The significance of the conducted research lies in the "assessment as learning" approach used to solve the problem of the Business English skills and abilities formation among undergraduate students. This approach provided not only conditions for the development of Business English skills, but also for the development of critical thinking, creativity, and cooperation. Keywords: Business English, Business English skills, alternative assessment techniques, Case Study