Abstract:

When teaching students of foreign languages and assisting them in reaching the key learning results (first: a high level of foreign language competence and language usage; second: skills to speak publicly and present thoughts and ideas in front of the audience; third: the ability to organize and educate yourself independently), teachers try hard. They integrate various effective methods, innovative technologies and modern educational tools into the teaching-learning process. Yet, an education conference in the target language remains undeservedly underestimated by the teaching community. Systematically organized and carried out for the students of foreign languages, it might prove itself to be a powerful teaching tool for achieving the necessary objectives mentioned above.

The study focuses on the special educational event titled the EDU Conference. This organized occasion originates from the well-known and loved by numerous people conference — TED. We would like to point out that the EDU Conference has absorbed some remarkable features of the TED Conference, but has undergone changes and alterations to meet the needs and requirements of foreign language students. To share achievements and replicate good practices, we present the technology of organizing and holding the EDU Conference for students who learn English as their second language. The technology consists of 4 stages: knowledge (it is aimed at the process of getting information about the TED event by the teacher himself/herself, an active search for opportunities to embed the conference into the real educational process), action (the goal is to proceed teacher’s preparation, fill it with some concrete activities on organizing and holding the event for the students of foreign languages), evaluation (it deals with gauging students’ success at the event, forming an opinion of the value, pros and cons of the event, students’ speeches and their live performances), communication (it places at the top the feedback from students about the event itself, their personal performances, preparation process and some possible corrections for the future).

In addition, the authors consider it necessary to present some recommendations. All these are prone to help teachers to more easily and helpfully implement the technology, and the concept of the EDU Conference as the educational event and the fruitful teaching tool for the students of foreign languages.

Keywords:

Students of foreign languages, teaching-learning process, teaching tool, teaching technology, methods of teaching, educational event, communicative skills.