IMPLEMENTATION OF THE US EXPERIENCE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION IN UKRAINE

Abstract

Ukraine’s commitment to reforms in its educational sector has intensified the need for up-to-date information in terms of the prospects of its development. The problem of foreign language teacher education in the USA remains an underresearched area among the Ukrainian academia, despite the wide recognition of its considerable achievements in the world education arena. This paper set out to explore the possibilities of deploying the progressive ideas of the US experience to renew the Ukrainian system of foreign language teacher preparation. In the study, the methods of comparative analysis and scientific extrapolation were utilised. The obtained comparative data of tendencies of development and functioning of educational systems of the USA and Ukraine served as a basis for discerning future directions of modernisation of the Ukrainian system of language teacher preparation, taking into account innovative ideas of the American experience. It was contended that to expedite the quality of the Ukrainian system of language teacher preparation, the following steps could be taken: adoption and implementation of standards of professional training and development of language teachers; reformatting the content of university programmes by emphasising the block of disciplines related to language teaching, as opposed to linguistics and other general content areas; introducing in the Ukrainian universities education tracks, which open the possibility to choose between the advanced preparation in the applied issues of language teaching or its scientific aspects; updating the didactic approaches of professional competencies development; restructuring and rationalisation of approaches used during teaching practicum, to name just a few.