Abstract:

Education should provide students with knowledge and skills and simultaneously reveal their personal qualities. This research aims to create modalities for learners’ moral and aesthetic development. We propose the following modalities: inclusion of moral and aesthetic material into foreign language learning in classes; cultural interaction between students, teachers, and, occasionally, students’ parents; elaboration of creative and productive intercultural learning material; integration of science and art with the moral and aesthetic aspect of classes and extracurricular activities. Results: In 2020-2021, on the basis of the Medical institute of the RUDN University and of the school center "Vertical" we implemented activities aiming to form moral consciousness, aesthetic taste, and social behavior, and performed a survey in the end of the academic year. After one year of work withing the new modalities, students in medicine (35 first- and second-year students) and 12 Moscow schoolchildren participated in a survey on the effectiveness of the methods proposed. The final projects dedicated to New Year's traditions in different countries were held in French and English (Hyperconcept "Christmas tree" in the modern code of the New Year ritual; "Qui sont les autres personnages de Noël?"; "French cuisine in Russian culture in Pushkin’s poem Eugene Onegin"). Each project contained moral and aesthetic components and had humanistic, historical, and axiological characteristics. It included the following: choice of cultural material, group discussions of the concepts of beauty, kindness, generosity, etc., work on the visual content of the project (aesthetic aspect). In terms of the formation of professional competencies, medical students were offered project-related topics for discussion ("Coniferous trees in medicine", "The benefits and harms of food products"). Thanks to these educational and cultural events, we achieved a balance between the linguistic, developmental, professional aspects of the content to be studied. Conclusions: Foreign language acquisition process is an excellent way to acquire cultural and social behavior, and the proposed modalities are especially effective for moral and aesthetic development.

Keywords:

ESL students, Aesthetic education, Moral qualities formation, Educational functions, Distance learning.