Developing Non-Linguistics University Students’ FL Oral Communication Skills Using Digital Technologies

The article concerns the issue of developing non-linguistics students’ FL professional communication skills in the digital educational setting. The methodology is based on the fundamental research in dialogic pedagogy by M.M. Bakhtin and the theoretical principles of the concept of "dialogue of cultures“ which received a new interpretation in the works of modern scholars. Relying on the analysis of existing communication models, the Lasswell model was regarded as a prototype for the FLT technology at a non-linguistic university. The technology consists of five stages, each containing specially designed lexis, grammar, texts, audio/video content, and speaking/writing activities, i.e. the educational content meeting the students’ real needs in mastering FL for future professional communication. A feature of the technology is the use of digital technologies (the ‘Dailo’ dialogue simulation program) to activate the material under study. The proposed teaching technology was tested in FL classes and positively evaluated by the teachers and the students of the State University of Education.