THE ROLE OF MOTIVATION IN THE PROFESSIONAL FOCUSED FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRAINING IN A TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Introduction. The article provides a brief overview of the employment prospects of the technical universities graduates and describes one of the most urgent issues of modern Russian society which is the problem of successful employment of university graduates and optimal realization of their professional and personal potential. The realities of the modern Russian labor market are uncertain, so many university graduates do not have the opportunity to find a job in their specialty, to find a worthy application of the professional knowledge gained at the university. Aim and objectives. The aim of the article is to analyze the problems of motivation in foreign languages learning in the technical university and justify the need to develop certain measures to encourage motivation of students. Material and methods. In pedagogy and psychology, there are different approaches to understanding the essence, nature and structure of motivation. The methods of study and formulated interpretations of the concept “motivation” vary widely. In this article we analyzed pedagogical approaches, according to which motivation, actively involving students of technical higher education institution in the learning process, contributes to the formation of their foreign language competence. Results and discussion. As a result, the problem of creating certain conditions aimed at the increasing of the university graduates’ adaptability at the labor market is raised. This adaptability is based on the obtaining of additional knowledge and competencies. One of the ways to increase the competitiveness of the university graduates at the labor market is foreign language competence which is the complex of knowledge and skills that allows a university graduate to use a foreign language effectively both in professional activities and in social life. Moreover, foreign language competence is regarded today as an integral part of the general professional competence of a technical specialist. In order to obtain the optimal level of foreign language competence the authors recommend using the professional focused foreign language model which takes into account professional and language needs of technical specialists. The successful realization of professionally-focused foreign language education claims for a certain system of motivation, especially at technical universities, whose students have low motivation to study the foreign language due to the technical style of thinking and underestimation of the importance and value of foreign language knowledge in the future professional functioning. That is why the important pedagogical task is to motivate students to consciously perceive and learn a foreign language. Conclusion. Analyzing the general problems of motivation in the educational process, the authors generalize the pedagogical experience of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the Platov South-Russian State Polytechnic University (NPI). The article shows that professional development of future engineers, expansion of their socio-cultural, cognitive and informative horizons, are largely associated with the foreign language competence. The authors call for the technical universities teachers to expand the measures aimed at increasing the motivational level of students in the process of learning a foreign language.

improving of the adaptability of university graduates, foreign language competence, motivation to learn a foreign language, optimal organization of the educational process, the development of cognitive and professional motives, professional focused foreign language training, the educational potential of a foreign language