DEVELOPING COLLABORATION SKILLS THROUGH EXTRACURRICULAR PROJECT WORKING IN GERMAN LANGUAGE LEARNING AT A NON-LINGUISTIC FACULTY

This paper is devoted to one of the most important problem in foreign language teaching and learning – forming and maintaining motivation by vocational education at non-linguistic faculties.

Some research was made to find out what are the reasons for losing motivation in foreign language training, why some students will not study foreign language and have to break off study completely.

The fundamental question was how to prevent it. The conclusion was that it would be necessary to search for some new methods, which can give students an additional stimulus to further foreign language study.

The students in question study German as a professional foreign language. The foreign language training develops communicative competence mostly in professional area. But this is not enough for sustaining motivation. So it was decided to research some ways for developing communicative skills.

The first stage of research was devoted to the problem of increasing motivation. The modern teaching and learning technologies were thoroughly studied. One of the research outcomes was a possibility to maintain the motivation through some kind of extracurricular activity. The students were interviewed to find out what interests them besides the compulsory program. Most of the students answered that it would be interesting to get acquainted with foreign culture. They also noted they were ready to develop such projects, which are connected with collaboration and creativity. So the conclusion was made, that the best way to meet all the suggestion is to organize a project working based on collaboration where the main point is the “German culture”. So it was decided to create some cultural event devoted to specific aspects of German culture.

The second stage of experiment was to organize project working for preparing such events. The main goals were the following:
- developing team working skills;
- extending the intercultural knowledge about Germany and its culture;
- increasing motivation for the further German language study.

During the last two years, three events were organized, which are described in detail in the article, and some positive results were received.

The research allowed us to come to the following conclusions.
1. Extracurricular activities assist the student in developing team working skills.
2. Students have a possibility to learn more about German and its culture.
3. Such projects help students develop the main competences, such as: communicative competence, social competence and intercultural competence.

This research seems to break new ground for further studies in the field of extracurricular activities in foreign language studies.