Abstract:

It has been generally accepted that training for sustainable employment, preparing students for active citizenship and personal development, creating a broad advanced knowledge base and stimulating research and innovation count among the most important purposes of higher education (I. Harkavy et al, 2020). The trying time of the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the role of higher educational institutions as a social factor attaining for the public good and consequently the problem of curriculum re-shaping has sprung up as a response to the challenges of the period. As the practice of modern curriculum design in foreign language teaching covers developing objectives to address the learners’ needs, as well as determining the appropriate methodology and syllabus for this purpose (Richards, 2001), the new social reality requires certain adaption of exactly what and how is taught in a language class. The paper describes a range of innovative materials, activities and tasks related to COVID-19 situation offered to English students (speakers of Russian) in the wide scope of courses currently taught by the authors: English for Specific Purposes (Economics and Management), Translation and Interpreting, Functional Stylistics and Pronunciation Training (for English majors). These are mostly targeted at students at B1, B2 or C1 levels and implement Critical Thinking as a basic principle. The sources of the didactic materials are found in the open media. The introduction of the burning issues into the (virtual) classroom heightens both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation of the students (Daskalovska et al, 2011) who, coming into contact with them on the international arena, learn to become responsible citizens of the world.

Keywords:

Critical thinking, didactics, foreign language learning, learner motivation, social factors.