Training, Language and Culture (Dec 2024)
Technology for improving students’ communicative skills in the university digital educational environment
Abstract
The study addresses the problem of improving students’ communicative skills, which are an integral component of the ‘soft skills’ essential for many professions involving communication and activities in the field of language education. Despite the existence of certain methods and techniques for enhancing communicative skills, no technology has yet been developed that accounts for the specific nature of these skills. The article aims to develop a subject-activity-based technology for improving the communicative skills of linguistic students through the use of a university’s digital educational environment. It also seeks to evaluate and substantiate the potential of this technology within the educational process. The research employed theoretical, empirical, and statistical methods appropriate to its subject. The subject-activity approach, supported by a set of corresponding principles, formed the methodological foundation of the proposed three-stage technology. This approach significantly enhanced communicative skills by employing a system of orientation points and tools within the university’s digital educational environment. The technology was implemented and validated through an experiment conducted with linguistic students at Orenburg State University over the course of the 2023–2024 academic year. Positive dynamics in the experimental group’s communicative skills, compared to the control group, were confirmed through diagnostic methods and the t-test, demonstrating the effectiveness of the designed technology. The findings contribute to pedagogical theory by expanding the role of the subject-activity approach in language education. The technology is ready for practical application by educators aiming to improve students’ communicative skills across various training programmes.
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