Shaping a creative environment to improve language proficiency and communication skills of Bauman University students

• Main Authors: Margaryan, Tatyana D., Butenko, luliia l., Ryazantseva, Olga Y.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Classrooms; Cognition & reasoning; Colleges & universities; Communication; Communication skills; Cultivation; Engineering education; English language; Foreign languages; Language; Learning; Mastering; Mechanical engineering; Schedules; Students
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0035814

The paper discusses advantages of the informal approach to learning a foreign language participating in "Literature in the context of different cultures" salon organized at the Department of English for Mechanical Engineering at BMSTU. According to BMSTU educational standards, communication skills in oral and written forms both in Russian and in English are the key competencies for BMSTU students. Bauman educators of the English department came up with the idea of a literary salon to encourage their engineering students to communicate in English despite the fact that their focuses are sciences and engineering subjects. Its primary purpose is to shape the creative environment and to enhance students’ language learning possibilities. BMSTU students’ schedule is very concentrated, therefore literary salon activities tend to be flexible and agile. The mission of the literary salon is cross-cultural interaction, spiritual and moral development, soft skills cultivation, fostering communication, and mastering a language. A stage performance helps to remove a psychological barrier in communication and to develop students’ cognitive skills, first, a memory. English literary salon as a kind of non-formal, extra-curricular activity can affect English language learning positively and become a fabulous teaching tool and reinforcement. Both formal and informal education settings offer different strengths to the educational process. While both curricular and extra-curricular programs serve students, many of them who feel disenfranchised in classes, blossom in after-classes settings. Real learning can happen in a setting where students feel less intimidated or more comfortable than they do in a formal classroom. The ultimate goal is that their success in an informal setting can lead to greater confidence in the formal classroom.