CULTURALLY SENSITIVE SPHERES IN TEACHING PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH TO STUDENTS OF HUMANITIES

Abstract

The paper focuses on the cultural component in teaching the English language to students specializing in English, Journalism and Law. This is a case study where the authors pursued the following aims:1) to fi nd out culturally sensitive spheres where students need more attention; 2) to evaluate the level of students’ cultural competence; 3) to outline the ways of coping with diffi culties; 4) to work out recommendations to eliminate the diffi culties. A mixed procedure was elaborated based on open and closed questionnaires carried out among senior students at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Forty-seven students majoring in English, 42 – in Journalism and 52 – in Law were involved in the research carried out in the autumn term of 2020. The results of the survey show that students are fully aware of the necessity to develop cultural competence. The contrastive approach revealed diff erent culturally sensitive spheres for students of three groups. The research discloses the necessity to integrate more deeply cultural studies into the curricula of specialties under investigation.

Keywords

• culturally sensitive sphere
• english
• journalism
• law
• teaching
• elt