The principles of blended teaching of English for Specific Purposes at engineering and pedagogical higher educational institutions

Abstract

The article deals with principles of blended learning in ESP course at engineering andpedagogical higher educational establishments, namely the scientific principle, the principles ofconsciousness, accessibility, activity, systematicness and consistency, the strength of knowledgeand skills acquisition, visibility, the principle of taking into account the individual characteristicsof students, the principle of interactivity, the principle of professional orientation, the principle ofautonomy and the principle of flexibility in teaching English as a foreign language. It is shown thatan ESP curriculum within a blended learning framework should be realized on the basis of activeand autonomous methods of knowledge acquisition and work with information. The course isconsidered to be the most efficient within the framework of blended learning based upon bothbasic didactic regulations and methodological (general and particular) principles, consideringindividual student characteristics, such as age and specialization, ESP course peculiarities as wellas blended learning features. The article aims to address the peculiarities of the given technologyand prospects of its application for the purpose of ESP courses at engineering and pedagogicalhigher educational establishments. Taking into account the principles of blended ESP teaching, thefollowing conditions of its successful application were identified: increase in the level of students’autonomy; adaptability of the model; reasonable expenditure of classroom time and students’independent work; individual characteristics of students; use of various means of pedagogicalinfluence; increase in the amount of educational materials; interactivity; availability of the absoluteaccess to educational materials.