University Of Economics In Bratislava Research Articles

EXPLORING LANGUAGE INTERFERENCES: SLOVAK LEARNERS OF SPANISH AND THE CHALLENGES IN PAST TENSE USAGE

Different linguistic classifications of Spanish and Slovak make the differences between these two languages. The genetic criterion classifies languages, clustering them into language families, the largest among which is the Indoeuropean one. The typological criterion divides languages according to their grammatical structures. Meanwhile, Slovak is genetically a Slavonic language, and Spanish is a Romance language. Therefore, they both belong to different language families. Also, according to the typological criterion, Slovak is a synthetic language, and Spanish is an analytic language. Based on a theoretical study of the standard features and differences between the Slovak and Spanish verb systems, we formulated the hypotheses about language interferences, which are accepted or rejected at the end of the research. The current research aims to examine the errors in the use of past tenses by Slovak university students who study Spanish as a foreign language, and then analyze where these errors are due to interference with their native language. The present paper observes what errors students make in using past tenses in Spanish. The research question is: What interferences do Slovak learners of the Spanish language experience in the use of past tenses? We applied scientific methods (an observation, a textual analysis, a synthesis) to conduct the study. The first method was an observation. Applying this method made it possible to gather data by watching the process of doing grammatical exercises in Spanish during classes held from September 2020 to May 2022 for the first- and second-year students at the Faculty of Applied Languages of the University of Economics in Bratislava. These students knew English and were generally better at it than Spanish. We also conducted a textual analysis that primarily looked at the learners’ short-text writing skills. We used a form with 30 phrases the respondents needed to complete using past tenses. Then, we assessed the written and spoken communication skills of students. The analysis results show that, on the one hand, most respondents needed help distinguishing between the past continuous and simple past tenses, resulting in misuse. On the other hand, we found some slight errors in phrases in which the present perfect tense was supposed to be used.

Greening in the Process of Providing Municipal Services of Local Collective Transport on the Example of Poland and Slovakia

The aim of the paper is to determine the relevance of services for public transport undertakings in terms of externalities. The article develops a methodology for researching and evaluating the quality of public utility services and the degree of saturation of the use of environmentally friendly modern technologies in the field of local public transport. Multi-criteria evaluation was used to assess the degree of quality of utility service delivery systems in the field of local public transport. The article is based on the experience of scientific partners from the University of Economics in Kraków and the University of Economics in Bratislava, using the examples of Poland and Slovakia.

The utilization of a reading app in business English classes in higher education

The article presents the research of empirical mixed methods on the use of a modern mobile reading app compared to traditional forms of teaching in English business classes in higher education in Slovakia. The research belongs to the theoretical frame of the mobile assisted language learning field that has generated an interest since the early 1990 thanks to the development of mobile technologies, their features, and their functions all over the world. The research sample consisted of 40 freshman students from the University of Economics in Bratislava who were equally divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental treatment lasted one semester and was based on analyzing books on a biweekly basis from Blinkist, the reading app based on the protocol the authors created, where three higher-level thinking domains of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) were identified. Students were also asked to read/listen to the books every week. Even though the current findings indicate no relationship between enhancing English reading skills and incorporating reading apps in a foreign language learning, SWOT analysis from focus group interviews shows different results. It is regarding the positive perception of working with the reading app in business English classes. Based on these findings, the authors make pedagogical implications about using reading apps as a part of the curriculum of blended learning in business English classes in higher education.

Evaluation of Student Feedback as a Tool for Higher Education Quality Enhancement

Student feedback is crucial for a thorough and meaningful university course evaluation process. It should be essential for a teacher´s reflection about teaching and learning in their courses. An efficient system of student feedback evaluation should not only collect feedback from students but also encourage teachers to use the feedback to improve their teaching practice to improve student learning. The article describes a new student feedback form and a system of follow-up conversations about the survey results between teachers and students developed and piloted at the Faculty of National Economy, University of Economics in Bratislava, in the academic year 2021/2022. It also presents the main results of using the conversations in the newly piloted system, based on interviews with participating teachers and students and thematic analysis of their verbatim transcripts.

Perceptions of plagiarism by students at the University of Economics in Bratislava

Plagiarism undermines the very purpose of obtaining education, and plagiarising final theses diminishes the value of university education in society. Therefore, it is necessary to tackle this issue in all university courses, including foreign language courses. Stemming from the definition of plagiarism and its classification the paper aims to analyse how students perceive plagiarism. The analysis of students’ perception of plagiarism is based on a questionnaire distributed among students at the University of Economics in Bratislava. A Likert scale was used to measure students’ attitudes. The goal of the study is to provide the ground for a better understanding of plagiarism from students’ viewpoints and thus help find effective ways how to eliminate this phenomenon.

WHAT WE KNOW AFTER THE PANDEMIC. ONLINE AND FACE-TO-FACE TESTING IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

The article aims to find out the impact of online education on on-site education by analysing the results achieved by the respondents in the tests. We used descriptive statistical methods to analyze the data. The reason was that such methods allow us to better understand the correlation between the results obtained in traditional testing and online testing. The research was conducted in the summer semester of the academic years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. 2508 students of the University of Economics in Bratislava participated in the research. The respondents were first-year Bachelor's degree students at the University of Economics in Bratislava whose first foreign language was professional English. When analyzing the data we took into account the test results, the number of students who did not take the test, the number of students who had to retake the test, and the number of students who did not take the test. The results confirmed that students who took the test in the home environment performed significantly better than students who took the test in person at the university. The results of on-site education were influenced by the online learning process. As students adapted to the online environment, they changed their study habits, which had a negative impact on learning. This negative impact was also reflected in the results of the on-site testing. The solution to this situation is to better prepare teachers for online learning and to ensure that schools are equipped with the latest technology.

Designing Holistic and Sustainable Educational Development

The system of educational development in higher education should help university teachers continuously make their teaching more efficient in such a way that will lead to improved student learning. We argue that such a system should be based on at least three pillars, all leading to the enhancement of informed pedagogical conversations among teachers with the aim to improve student learning: educational development courses for university teachers, student feedback evaluations focusing on teaching and learning in the courses provided by the university and rewarding excellent university teachers. The article describes and analyses the important aspects of all the three pillars in a case study of the University of Economics in Bratislava and presents some of the intellectual outputs of an Erasmus+ project. Some of these outputs are already being piloted at this university in the academic year 2021/2022.

Cultivation global business literacy in the classroom

Graduates of study fields focused on business and marketing face intense competition on the labor market, which is becoming more and more international. Hence, it is important to cultivate the ability of students to apply acquired knowledge and skills in key areas in the global context in order to know how to effectively analyze, justify and solve problems in different situations. The paper introduces the concept of global business literacy and evaluates it on a sample of students of the Corporate Business and Marketing master's degree study program at the Faculty of Business Economy of the University of Economics in Bratislava, with seat in Košice, who completed the course International Business. The aim of the paper is to identify, whether the completion of this classroom-based course contributed to cultivation of global business literacy of the affected students. For the purpose of the analysis, descriptive analysis as well as paired t-test are used. The results show positive shift toward higher level of global business literacy of the students after completing the course, especially in the dimension of international business competence. Implications for development of pedagogical activities in the global context are further discussed.

Education in Online Environment from Students’ and Teachers’ Perspective

The pandemic related to COVID-19 has affected education particularly in terms of the massive shift towards online teaching and study. Students and teachers had to face new challenges they had not met before. The aim of the paper is to research how both, students and teachers perceive the online educational process, to identify advantages and disadvantages of online teaching, as well as to analyze and evaluate the quality of online teaching in comparison with the attendance form of education from both students’ and teachers’ perspective. In order to fulfill this purpose, we carried out two separate questionnaire surveys (among students and teachers at the Faculty of Economic Informatics at the University of Economics in Bratislava). Based on conclusions resulting from our research, we can affirm that both students and teachers prefer the attendance form of education rather than online teaching, students mainly because of need of socialization, personal contact with teachers and classmates, better and faster communication with teachers, and active class discussion. The attendance form of education eliminates technology related problems, such as outages of the Internet, electricity, missing technology equipment, and this form of education is performed on higher quality level in comparison with online education. Among the most frequently limitations of online education mentioned by teachers were anonymity of students, complexity of preparation of study materials, and cheating during exams and tests. There are also some advantages the online education offers, such as time savings, more effective, creative and flexible modern way of teaching, and recording lectures.

WORLD ENGLISHES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Over the past few decades, the notion of World Englishes has achieved much attention among linguists, language teachers, and other professionals. The present study explores the impact these trends have had on university education in the field of English philology and culture, focusing on the study programmes run by the Applied Languages Faculty, the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia. Our research was designed to gain insights into the students’ perception of varieties of English and identify those areas which require more attention in order to provide students with the most relevant content. The research sample contained 130 students of one BA and one MA programme. Our research was based on a questionnaire which provided us with the data on students’ awareness of the studied issues. The data were subsequently processed using combined quantitative and qualitative methods. One part of the data was statistically analysed with regard to the frequency of certain aspects. The second part was analysed focusing on students’ attitudes and evaluative statements. Results of the analysis indicated both the key tendencies in their thought and the orientation of the occasional excentric views. The research outcomes enabled us to establish several important facts, e.g. a relatively insufficient understanding of the relevant terminology and concepts, high awareness of the existence of varieties of English, and, simultaneously, low awareness of the features distinguishing those varieties, etc. The conclusions point out those areas which should be represented more extensively in our curricula to reflect the actual current situation in the English language.

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE SKILLS IN BUSINESS ENGLISH COURSE: EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

It is evident from the PISA 2018 results that a trend in mean performance in reading has been declining in the Slovak Republic. The KEGA Project “Idioms in Business Communication”, run at the Department of English Language, aims at improving reading literacy, widening formal and informal vocabulary and facilitating business communication. Both traditional and modern styles of language teaching are used. The control group of students does a traditional course and the experimental group of students enrols in a “Business Communication” e-course on LMS Moodle platform, as well. With the use of the Internet and supporting materials, this group is involved in various activities. The paper compares the study results of 144 first-year and 97 second-year students of the University of Economics in Bratislava achieved in departmental standardised business English tests after completing three courses in business English for advanced students. The method of Hypothesis Testing (t-Test) assesses the significance of the difference between the levels of knowledge of both groups. The research findings prove that the experimental group of students achieved better results in final evaluation than the control group of students. The results also confirm that an alternative form of business English teaching was effective.

TEACHING BUSINESS ENGLISH WITH THE SUPPORT OF WEBLOGS

In this paper, we focused on the mediation of the research results of using weblogs as a form of supplement to traditional teaching in the classroom and their influence on the development of business writing skills. The aim of the research was to prove that the weblog had an impact on improving the business writing skills and on the motivation of students to devote themselves to write contributions in a foreign language at an increased rate. In the research, we used quantitative research methods such as experiment, pre-test, post-test, and research instrument questionnaire. The research was carried at the University of Economics in Bratislava and 60 respondents took part in the experiment. Through the pre-test and post-test, we found out to what extent were the business writing skills of the respondents of the experimental group influenced by the use of weblogs in teaching business English. We used the student test to analyse the data obtained. The results confirmed that the use of the weblog in teaching business English had an impact on the development of business writing skills. We used the questionnaire to collect data in survey research aimed at finding out to what extent the use of the weblog affected the motivation of respondents to write to a greater extent in a foreign language. The analysis of the responses confirmed that the respondents perceived the weblog as a new, non-traditional form of the supplement to traditional teaching, which had an impact on their motivation to devote themselves more to write in a foreign language. Research has confirmed that the weblog, as one of the tools of Web 2.0, has a positive impact on the development of business writing skills.

Discussion forum (course) – a practical approach to communicative competence development

The paper describes and discusses the observations and findings of three years of teaching a unique English language course – “Discussion Forum” within the study programme Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication at the Faculty of Applied Languages, at the University of Economics in Bratislava. It presents the original format as it was introduced in 2010 when the study programme was accredited and its development and alterations based on the collected experience and evidence of both students and teacher. Three debate formats, speech duel, round table and team debate, are described and their shortcomings and merits are evaluated. Finally, the findings and conclusions arrived at since the first implementation, are discussed.

LABOUR MARKET REQUIREMENTS FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION WITH A FOCUS ON SPANISH

The paper focuses on education in the field of foreign languages, particularly Spanish, in the framework of university study of economic and managerial orientation in Slovakia in order to find out what the labour market requirements are for graduates in the field of foreign language skills. In our research, we focus on Spanish, as no similar relevant research has been done to date in this foreign language. Current research shows that the graduates of economics and management fields lack the link between the content of education and the requirements of the labour market, as well as preparation in the field of foreign language skills. This calls for a better understanding of the real needs of employers and graduates. This paper is based on a questionnaire survey among potential employers of graduates of the University of Economics in Bratislava who require foreign language skills, mainly Spanish, as well as of graduates of the University of Economics in Bratislava who use foreign languages, in particular Spanish in their employment. The paper provides an overview of the specific language competencies and knowledge that are needed in the labour market. The ambition of research is to contribute to improving the link between higher education content and the real needs of the labour market, and thus to boosting the employability of graduates in the labour market.

THE ROLE OF TEXT ANALYSIS IN TRANSLATION

The aim of this paper is to describe and explain the function of text analysis for understanding a source text, producing an acceptable translation and the assessment of that translation. Basic concepts (e.g. extratextual and intratextual factors, stages of the translation process, understanding of the source text, readability of the target text, and translator competences) are discussed in terms of translation theory in the theoretical part of the paper. Translator analysis of internal and external textual factors contributes to the knowledge of external and internal text factors of the source text and enables the translator to better understand the text itself, its function and aim, which the client (one who orders the translation) wishes to achieve, so that the translation fully meets the translation order. In the course of a text analysis, the translator forms an overview of the source text and acquires a clear idea of how the text should and will look.
 Students of the University of Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of Applied Languages are expected to acquire knowledge and skills that would enable them to translate relevant documents from the source language to the target language, and vice versa, as well as to search, analyse, and process foreign language materials for their future employers’ needs. The final part of the paper contains an example illustrating how the training of the initial stage of text analysis should be conducted. It contains the description of the authors’ experience in translating professional German and English texts and teaching translation classes at the University of Economics in Bratislava.

TOWARDS TEXT DIDACTISATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEVELOPING TRANSLATION SKILLS

The authors deal with one of the key issues in teaching translation, namely selecting suitable texts for in-class translation training. Translation belongs to the core courses in the study programme “Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication” at the Faculty of Applied Languages, University of Economics in Bratislava. For the text to be selected for the purpose of its didactisation, and in this way to contribute to the development of translation skills, it has to fulfil numerous criteria. The focus of this paper is on text topic and its content, text type, text length, and degree of text complexity. Learners need to be prepared for diverse situations; therefore they have to be exposed to diverse text types in terms of topic and genres. As far as the criterion of text length is concerned, we consider shorter texts more suitable for training translation, because they enable teachers to work with several texts within one lesson unit and study texts on various topics. We deal with the text complexity in terms of content, as well as syntactic structures and lexical density. Text complexity has to be adapted to learners’ language, professional and cultural level of students. Features of this kind of text and criteria of text selection described in the paper are based on domestic and international sources as well as on authors’ experience in teaching translation and their own translation activities.

Pedagogical Innovation of French-Language Teaching as a Tool for Educating Managers in the Context of Internationalization

Abstract Objective: Characterize pedagogical innovation in the context of internationalization of French-language education on the example of international study programme in French language - Sales management at the Faculty of Trade of the University of Economics in Bratislava and testing of its attractiveness from the perspective of the relationship between students and educational institution. Methodology: Article deals with the analysis of the influence of internationalization of the university education within the study programme Management of sale, as well survey of the opinions of its graduates. Findings: Pedagogical innovation is not only the tool of the educational policy but also creates conditions of the project European term and excellence in the development of Professional competences of the future managers. Value Added: International study programme in French language overcomes cultural and disciplinary barriers and contributes to offsetting of the national and international differences. Recommendations: Introducing of pedagogical innovations is the tool of new approaches, strategies, methods, as well as new content and new organization of education to guarantee employability of students on the home and international markets.

TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS IN BRATISLAVA IN CONNECTION TO THE NEEDS OF THE LABOUR MARKET

The objective of the authors of the article was to analyse the labour market from the point of view of languages used by individual foreign companies in Slovakia. Since insufficient language competence of employees is one of the causes of youth unemployment in the European Union, the paper focuses also on language preparation of the students at the University of Economics in Bratislava, and contemplates the fact whether real foreign language knowledge of the graduates meets the requirements of the labour market, and whether the curricula of individual subjects reflect these requirements. English was proven to be the most frequently selected foreign language by the students, followed by German. Since there are many American, British, as well as German and Austrian companies located in Bratislava, we find this situation rather positive. However, we highly recommend students to acquire at least basic knowledge of German in order to increase their competitive advantage.

Improvement of the quality of teaching of accounting at technical universities

The article is focused on the analysis of the options for the use of LCMS systems, and other ICTs in the process of education. On the basis of the survey, we ascertained the impact of the number and the quality of the interim instructions for the overall outcome of the students during the semester. The research was carried out at the Slovak technical university in Bratislava in teaching the subject of accounting in the context of an enlarged teaching of economic subjects. The aim of the research was to assess the impact of ICTs use, in particular, independent of the educational internet portal implemented on its own and the total outcome. At the same time we have tried to analyze the impact of the self-regulation and self-evaluation during the study on the overall evaluation. The obtained results should become the starting point for the implementation of the wider research in the framework of the Slovak universities. e.g. Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, University of Economics in Bratislava, Paneuropean University of Bratislava, but also of the partner foreign universities.Keywords: quality of education; self-regulation; self-evaluation; teaching of accounting; technical universities

Improvement of the quality of teaching of accounting at technical universities

The article is focused on the analysis of the options for the use of LCMS systems, and other ICTs in the process of education. On the basis of the survey, we ascertained the impact of the number and the quality of the interim instructions for the overall outcome of the students during the semester. The research was carried out at the Slovak technical university in Bratislava in teaching the subject of accounting in the context of an enlarged teaching of economic subjects. The aim of the research was to assess the impact of ICTs use, in particular, independent of the educational internet portal implemented on its own and the total outcome. At the same time we have tried to analyze the impact of the self-regulation and self-evaluation during the study on the overall evaluation. The obtained results should become the starting point for the implementation of the wider research in the framework of the Slovak universities. e.g. Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, University of Economics in Bratislava, Paneuropean University of Bratislava, but also of the partner foreign universities.Keywords: quality of education; self-regulation; self-evaluation; teaching of accounting; technical universities