Using virtual excursions in university language departments as a means of implementing the ideas of multimodal pedagogy

This article considers the possibilities of using virtual excursions in teaching a foreign language at the language faculty of the university from the standpoint of multimodal pedagogy. The authors consider multimodal pedagogy as an approach to teaching that uses various methods and formats of information presentation in order to meet the diverse needs and learning styles of students. The author substantiates his own understanding of multimodal pedagogy as a combination of various formats of information presentation in order to facilitate and improve the quality of assimilation of new information by students and thereby increase the interest of the students themselves in the new material. The authors reveal the main aspects of multimodal pedagogy: a variety of formats, interactivity, adaptation to different learning styles, technological tools, critical thinking, a cross-disciplinary approach, social interaction. The article emphasizes the main focus of multimodal pedagogy – creating a more inclusive and more effective educational environment. The authors give examples of using elements of multimodal pedagogy in the practice of teaching a foreign language at the language faculty and suggest that multimodal pedagogy can serve as a methodological basis for teaching a foreign language at the language faculty. The article considers a virtual excursion as a means of implementing the idea of multimodal pedagogy and reviews the use of virtual excursions in teaching various disciplines at school, in the process of professional training of university students. The authors identify the aspects that make multimodal pedagogy and virtual excursions complementary and effective in the educational process: variety of formats; student involvement; interactivity; contextualization of knowledge; accessibility; flexibility; technological integration. The article presents various types of virtual excursions focused on different communication channels. It discusses such advantages of virtual excursions for oral and written language practice classes at the language faculty as: the possibility of access to the cultural contexts of native speakers of a foreign language; interactivity and variety of topics of virtual excursions; their flexibility and accessibility; the possibility of teamwork of students. The authors present a method by which virtual excursions can be integrated as a means of implementing the ideas of multimodal pedagogy in foreign language classes at the language faculty. The article concludes that such integration of virtual excursions makes it possible to achieve the goal of teaching students of the language faculty, to train specialists with a high level of professional competence in the field of intercultural communication.

multimodal pedagogy, virtual tour, channels of perception, contextualization of knowledge, technological integration