Abstract:

The question of motivating students to learn English at the lessons is under consideration nowadays despite much research done in this area. Students today are more concerned about getting actual and modern information about other cultures in English, which can be useful for them in their online communication with friends worldwide. The authors view Internet memes as the key to increasing learners’ motivation and as a good supplement to accompany teaching materials in the process of language skills and cross-cultural competence development. The paper is thus aimed at describing the specific features of an Internet meme and proving its great educational value as an effective means of increasing motivation and promoting language and culture acquisition at the lessons of English. The context discussed is the university general English coursefor first-year students whose learning ambitions and expectations have to be satisfied at the university. The use of Internet memes in addition to regular coursebook materialsis proved to be effective for enhancing language and culture awareness on the basis of the data collected through needs’ analysis, statistics interpretation and surveys. Internet memes are found to be helpful in the following aspects at the lessons of English: speaking skills development as they serve as a good source of discussion, vocabulary extension to get modern clichés and words from memes, writing and cross-cultural skills development. Thus, the implementation of such sign of the modern digital age as an Internet meme into the educational process can be beneficial in both ways – it contributes to the English language and culture acquisition and it increases learners’ motivation.

Keywords:

English as a foreign language teaching, Internet memes, features of memes, learners’ motivation, cross-cultural competence, university students.