Abstract:

The current competence-based model of higher education in Russia and its multilevel structure determine the basic principles of educational programmes and educational settings to meet the requirements of the modern world. It is highly demanded to provide students with opportunities to be personally involved in the process of their education and influence their educational outcomes. From this perspective, it seems reasonable to consider the contribution of each curriculum discipline to the entire process of students’ personal and professional development in higher educational settings. We suppose that addressing the Moodle e-learning platform can contribute to finding innovative ways of enhancing master’s students’ EFL communicative competence development in their professional field. Teaching English to master’s students also requires individualization. On the one hand, it is determined by the very nature of foreign language learning, which can be viewed as a process of the target-language culture transformation into one’s personal world regarding all the aspects of human being, including their professional dimensions. Such a perspective prescribes applying a student-centered approach to organizing educational practices while teaching a foreign language. On the other hand, our own experience in teaching English to non-language master’s students’ show that their level of EFL communicative competence may vary within the same group and this must be taken into consideration while carrying out the educational process. An individual educational path seems to be beneficial to intensifying the process of English learning in higher educational settings because it enables students of all levels of higher education to follow their own path and pace in fulfilling their educational curriculum requirements. This paper focuses on the problem of using the Moodle e-learning platform in the educational process to intensify English teaching and learning and provide non-language master’s students with a tool for implementing their individual educational path. Based on the analysis of the students’ needs in the context of their personal and professional development in higher educational settings we are going to discuss main principles of creating, organizing and implementing an ESP course via the Moodle platform. Due to the fact that access to the Moodle system is carried out through the Internet or other networks, students can work there anytime and from anywhere in their own way of learning. The electronic format allows using not only texts as textbooks but also integrating a lot of interactive resources of any format (electronic encyclopedias and dictionaries, audios and videos, pictures and photos, virtual laboratories and simulators). Our own experience in teaching English as an ESP course to non-language-majoring master’s students in higher educational settings enables us to assert that these students, in most cases, are personally mature individuals who have a rather high level of competence in their professional field, a high level of motivation, an extensive experience of independent work, including conducting research, and an experience of using information resources for learning purposes. Therefore, these students’ knowledge, skills and abilities allow them to involve electronic resources successfully when learning a foreign language and be ready for achieving their educational outcomes using the Moodle e-learning platform.

Keywords:

Moodle e-learning Environment, EFL Communicative Competence, Blended Learning.