Abstract
The purpose of this study is to identify the effectiveness of the task-based approach to teaching business vocabulary to master’s degree students while studying business English. The discipline of business English aims to develop students’ ability to analyse and solve problems of the business environment, improve their foreign language competence on the basis of acquired business vocabulary. The authors used the task-based approach in teaching business vocabulary which was aimed at encouraging students to social contacts, discussions, use of the necessary lexical units in situations close to real business life. The participants of the study were 34 students who studied for a master’s degree at the National Aviation University (Kyiv, Ukraine) majoring in aviation, rocket and space technology. The study of the course required 34 academic hours. According to the methodology of the experiment, the two groups of students (control and experimental ones) had the same learning materials during the course, but the teaching methods were different. In the control group, we used traditional vocabulary learning methods which implied the presentation of the new vocabulary by the teacher, practice exercises which made learners more familiar with the lexical units and the use of the new vocabulary by students in context. In the experimental group, task-based learning method was used which required students to work on solving real business problems with special attention to the development of teamwork skills and communication skills based on the students’ experience of work in business and communication with colleagues from other countries. Specially designed tasks were used to intensify the process of learning business vocabulary. The study showed significant positive dynamics in the acquisition of business vocabulary by students of the experimental group. The results of the test confirmed that task-based approach to vocabulary learning allows students to learn the necessary business vocabulary on a particular topic more easily and quickly It has been concluded that the task-based approach is not only efficient in vocabulary learning, but also increases the students’ confidence in their professional and communicative competence.
Highlights
Learning a foreign language is a difficult task which in the past was often associated with memorising words and phrases, thoughtless repetition of the material learned in class and complete inability to speak outside the classroom
Based on the results of our research, we can conclude that the task-based approach to vocabulary learning allows students to learn the necessary business vocabulary on a particular topic more and quickly
As we can see from the positive feedback of students of the experimental group, they liked the taskbased method in learning business vocabulary, as it helped to enrich the vocabulary and to enhance teamwork skills, overcome their uncertainty in communication, develop individual language learning strategies
Summary
Learning a foreign language is a difficult task which in the past was often associated with memorising words and phrases, thoughtless repetition of the material learned in class and complete inability to speak outside the classroom. The use of teacher-centred methods that focus mainly on learning content through memorisation and translation has gradually shifted to more communicative methods and approaches, one of which is the task-based method. Prabhu (1987) first mentioned task-based learning (TBL) in 1982 as a method of the learner-centred approach. Bhandari (2020) consideres task-based language teaching to be one of the widely discussed teaching approaches at present with its characteristics and advantages. He insists that though English language teachers hold positive attitudes on task-based language teaching as a current EFL approach, they are not well aware of the methods of using this approach in their classrooms
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