Students’ healthy lifestyle formation in english classes (using materials of Polish and Ukrainian authors)

Abstract

The article aims to present the comparative results of a study of the formation of a healthy lifestyle among students of some pedagogical specialties; to analyze the content of the students’ healthy lifestyle formation in English lessons, and to present materials on health issues from the works of Ukrainian and Polish authors which could be integrated into the content of English lessons. The following research methods were used: analysis of scientific literature, surveys, quantitative and qualitative analysis of the obtained results. Motivational-value, cognitive and behavioral-activity criteria for the formation of a healthy lifestyle for students are determined. The participants of the study were first-year students majoring in “Biology” (n=34, the experimental group – EG) and “Primary Education” (n=86, control group – CG) at Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (Ukraine). The pedagogical possibilities for solving the outlined tasks through teaching English are proved. It was found that “health improvement” is possible under the following pedagogical conditions: systematic and purposeful inclusion of healthy lifestyle issues in the content of education, use of additional literary works, especially by Ukrainian and Polish authors, and writing effective teaching aids on techniques for the use of additional literature in the process of healthy lifestyle formation in both classroom and extracurricular work.