Abstract:

Current day foreign language teaching tools are widely found in the Internet, “TED talks” platform being among them as one of mostly viewed multilanguage resources for those who develop their career in science or simply want to keep up with the world technological progress and get closer to the scientific community. The variability of videos and the talks format allow a comprehensive immersion into scientific experience and guarantee adequate language skills acquisition for future scientists and engineers. The paper aims to show the teaching potential of “TED talks” to enhance listening, speaking and presentation making skills for Upper-Intermediate language level learners of English. The research procedure is based on the use of the recommended teaching tools for 1st and 2nd year science students learning English as a foreign language and studying for Bachelor’s degree and includes materials mainly addressed to the faculty of radio engineering and telecommunications and the faculty of computer science and technology which have always been highly popular among applicants. The investigation process involved both self-study and group work in class. The above-mentioned directions of technical training are defined as the main criteria of talks selection. The authors point out the most typical and desirable grammar and vocabulary features of reports and design tasks to practice certain elements of any decent talk on professional themes. Most challenging grammar issues are also highlighted. Another critical point for the students to consider is the language style of every single presentation which reflects the personality of the speaker and, therefore, can be tracked through reports. Unfortunately, this feature is often ignored by the speaker, though it does affect the audience in positive or negative ways, no matter what the importance the invention or discovery may bring to the society. So, the students involved in the study were told to compare the talks and define the criteria of the most successful and elegant performances, which is also covered in the paper and is regarded as a specific language competence. The authors conclude that TED talks are highly methodical and can certainly be used not only as an authoritative source of academic knowledge, but as an effective tool of scientific talk planning.

Keywords:

Curriculum design, efficiency criteria, English for special purposes, EFL, ESP, language course design, TED talks.