Organisational and Content-Based Approaches to Training Foreign Language Teachers at the US Universities

Abstract

The relevance of the study is conditioned by socio-cultural changes, according to which there is a need to review the methodological support for professional training of future foreign language teachers based on foreign experience. The purpose of the study is to determine organisational and content-based approaches to the training of future foreign language teachers at the US universities. The study uses a number of general scientific theoretical methods, namely thematic analysis, content analysis, and comparison. The paper analyses foreign scientific and methodological literature in the context of professional training of foreign language teachers, as well as educational programmes of higher educational institutions in the US specialisation. The paper highlights organisational and content-based approaches to training foreign language teachers at the US universities, as well as features of developing the content of educational programmes. It has been established that the content of foreign language teacher education is a symbiosis of requirements for the professional establishment and development of a teacher-philologist, presented in educational standards, visualisation by the scientific and educational community of professional competencies, selection of a repertoire of relevant thematic courses and interests, needs of students and local communities. The paper presents for the first time quantitative characteristics of curriculums of educational programmes for training philological teachers in American universities. It was determined that the most popular disciplines are methods of teaching a foreign language, linguodidactics, scientific research, assessment/monitoring in teaching a foreign language, the use of information technologies in teaching a foreign language, planning a foreign language educational process. The practical value of paper consists in identifying and systematising the features of American education with the further application of positive experience in training Ukrainian specialists in foreign language education