Features of teaching of a second foreign language and the influence of psycho-cognitive characteristics of students on the process of teaching foreign languages in a non-linguistic university

In the modern world, knowledge of foreign languages is becoming an integral part of successful international cooperation. It allows you not only to expand your professional horizons, to communicate with colleagues from other countries, but also to find new areas for applying your knowledge, skills and abilities. Since it is important for specialists working in a certain field to communicate with colleagues from other countries, not only and somewhat on general topics, but, first of all, in order to effectively interact with them in the professional field, professionally oriented training for foreign languages.

The specificity of teaching foreign languages in higher education at the present stage is due to the growing need of society for competent specialists who speak a foreign language as a means of professional communication. In this paragraph, the concept of a professionally oriented foreign language will be given, its goals, content and principles will be indicated. Special attention will be paid to the role of the teacher and the problem of teaching materials in the study of a foreign language for special purposes.

The system of teaching a foreign language consists of the interaction of two subsystems: the subject “foreign language” and methodology as a science that determines the success of the functioning of the first subsystem. The components of the system are the goals of teaching a given subject, its content, methods and material means of teaching [2]. Within the framework of this study, the training system and its components will be considered in relation to professionally oriented teaching of a foreign language.

Professionally oriented (PO) is understood as training based on taking into account the needs of students in learning a foreign language (FL), determined by the characteristics of the profession or specialty, which, in turn, require its study. It presupposes both the mastery of students in the foreign language and the development of their personal qualities, the expansion of knowledge about the culture of the country of the target language and the acquisition by them of special skills based on professional and linguistic knowledge. Software training of foreign language can take place in two cases: during the training of specialists and their advanced training [1]. Within the framework of this study, we will talk about the training of specialists, namely, teaching the students of the agrarian university in the English language.

An important factor that requires taking into account when developing a methodology for teaching a second foreign language is the psycho-cognitive characteristics of students. They determine the methods of receiving and processing information, as well as the ways of mastering the linguistic picture of the world. In this work, an attempt is made to generalize the available factual material concerning the individual characteristics of people with one or another leading hemisphere and certain sensory preferences in order to take this knowledge into account when compiling exercises for different groups of trainees.

Since the 19th century, the idea is actively developing that in a number of cases one of the hemispheres of the human brain turns out to be dominant in relation to the other. This phenomenon, confirmed experimentally, is called interhemispheric asymmetry.

Most scientists consider the dominance of one or another hemisphere to be an innate characteristic [3]. There are two main hypotheses. The first postulates the difference in the functioning of the hemispheres as a difference in the type of material processed by each of them (verbal / visuospatial). Second, the difference lies not in the type of material, but in the method of processing.

Since a survey of students of the agrarian university showed the presence of both those with a dominant left hemisphere of the brain and those with a dominant right hemisphere among them, further we will consider the characteristics of each of these groups of students.

To date, native and foreign scientists have collected a huge amount of material concerning the functioning of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. In the most general sense, we can say that the left hemisphere recognizes letters, words, numbers, translates them into a form convenient for analysis and storage, classifies and generalizes. It is associated with logical thinking. The right hemisphere operates with images. It provides the ability to communicate at the prespeech level, recognizing gestures, emotions, intonation.

The dominance of one of the hemispheres affects the psycho-cognitive personality traits of students. The differences associated with IPA can be divided into two main groups:

Vх differences in the type of information received by each hemisphere;

V differences in the way of assimilating information.

The first group includes differences in attitude to time, as well as in the behavior of students in a communication situation.

Speaking about time, it can be noted that the thoughts of the students are far from specific situations. They often make unrealistic plans for the future. At the same time, students always operate only in real time and in a specific space, and if we compare them with the students, they are more likely oriented to the past.

Students successfully work in a team, because for them it is paramount to be heard, understood, and they make every effort to this. When communicating, they react to a greater extent not to words, but to “how” it is said, i.e., to emotion. Linguistic abilities are provided by verbal-logical and analytical processes, and, therefore, are associated with the functioning of the left hemisphere. It is fundamentally important for students whether all of what they say is understandable by the audience. In the process of communication, they listen only to words and respond only to them.

When choosing a basic course, a teacher can be guided by various criteria, the leading ones of which are:

• •    Does the given course correspond to the interests, needs and capabilities of the students;

• •    Does this course sufficiently develop the necessary language, speech and socio-cultural skills in various types of speech activity;

• •    whether the materials of this course provide optimal models for the use of natural language, whether meaning, form and use are closely related in context;

• •    Do the materials of this course stimulate the cognitive activity of students.

• •    The article prospects lie in the possibility of further application of the developed exercises in the practice of teaching professionally oriented English at an agrarian university.

The article prospects lie in the possibility of further application of the developed exercises in the practice of teaching professionally oriented English at an agrarian university.

"Экономика и социум" №4(83) 2021