Филологический класс (Dec 2022)
Technologies of Developing Visual Literacy at University Foreign Language Lessons
Abstract
When working with information, it becomes crucial nowadays to employ various visualization methods. This fact leads every researcher to the necessity to master skills of work with information through using visualization technologies and to develop visual literacy, which is traditionally treated as the ability to understand and produce visual texts that make the communication process more effective. It is especially important to use technologies for developing visual literacy when working with modern students who belong to the generations of visuals. The article discusses the possibilities of applying the technologies for the development of visual literacy in the professionally oriented foreign language classroom for students of philology. A new term “communicative visual technologies” is introduced, which is defined as a way of integrated development of universal (analytical, communicative and creative) and professional competences when working with visual-verbal foreign language texts. The materials presented have been developed for the experimental training of a group of students studying the subject “Text layout” on the material of a foreign language (English, German and Russian as a foreign language). The training included work on the creation of lexical mental maps, professional infographics, literary videos and digital books. The results of the trial training of a group of students carried out in autumn, 2021 at the Northern (Arctic) federal university, Arkhangelsk, Russia, as well as the results of the diagnostic and control tests and reflective surveys show positive dynamics in the development of professional and foreign language skills, as well as the development of visual literacy of students. Purposeful training of philology department students to create complex professionally oriented visual-verbal texts of in a foreign language indicates that working with such texts allows students to better understand and remember the material being studied, as well as to make the process of natural communication in a foreign language more efficient. The suggested method can be used in the future when developing and testing communicative visual technologies of a different type (tasks for creating interactive maps, long format texts, commented presentations, etc.) in a variety of philological disciplines, as well as in teaching students of other specialties.
Keywords
