FOREIGN LANGUAGE COMPETENCE AS A DECISIVE COMPONENT OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF FUTURE SPECIALISTS IN THE FIELD OF TRADE AND ENTERPRENEURSHIP / V. L. Ishchenko, N. M. Bobukh

Nowadays the task of training a competitive specialist in the sphere of trade and entrepreneurship is really crucial. Labor market demands highly qualified specialists that demonstrate a lot of competencies including knowledge of foreign languages. This sets the task of organizing the educational process in a foreign language in such a way as to ensure a high level of language training.
Learning foreign languages is one of the forms of learning in general. Students who learn a foreign language (and even better several languages) is a key factor in the process of learning it. His/her success or failure is determined by how much this person contributed to this process. It is known that the positive attitude of students to language acquisition increases their interest. Therefore, when students find the whole process enjoyable and rewarding, they learn better. Questions arise: how do we motivate students to learn foreign languages? How does the process of mastering a foreign language contribute to the development of their skills to use this knowledge for their professional development?
Learning is a living organism for which it is necessary to create appropriate conditions. As teachers, we influence this process when we create an environment to encourage students to do their best to achieve the goal of learning a foreign language. The characteristic features of this environment are:
- giving students the opportunity to choose how to work and not necessarily insist on your version of the tasks;
- rewarding each student according to his/her result;
- constructive criticism, which focuses on behavior and results, not on the student’s personality;
- attentive attitude to students, their ideas, disappointments and mistakes. Respect for students is the basis of trust, which, in turn, is a powerful factor in further motivation in learning a foreign language;
- optimistic and positive attitude towards students not only when they cope with tasks, but also when they fail. Otherwise they will stop trying to continue working.
Recognition and celebration of student success contribute to the achievement of the collective goal and the solution of more complex problems. Under these conditions, we help students to develop their active attitude to the process of mastering a foreign language, to determine their commitment to how high their goals will be and how hard they are willing to work to achieve them.
Learning a foreign language is like starting a new life. We see the process of learning a foreign language as a window of opportunity for students to understand the reasons that led them to university and thus lead them to insight – understanding their purpose in life. In turn, students’ understanding of their strengths and weaknesses helps them make the most of the learning process for their growth, and most importantly understand that the learning process never ends.
As our experience shows, the active study of a foreign language is facilitated by the use of information written in the original language about people who have succeeded in business. Examples from the lives of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Jack Welch, Donald Trump and many other famous people who, through their tireless work on themselves, thanks to enthusiasm and dedication to their work, were able to make their companies world leaders. Instruction and work with “Screw it, Let’s Do it (Lessons in Life)” by Richard Branson is fascinating. Nine chapters of this book talk about the path to success of a particular person – the author of this book, who had a great desire to understand his personality, the world of business and its driving forces. First of all, you need to have faith in yourself, trust yourself, and have goals and work tirelessly to achieve them. Trying to take a step towards the goal deserves respect and support even when the first attempt was not entirely successful. Developing discussions on these topics help students construct knowledge and apply it when needed. They make students think, activate their mental process, lead to an active state – finding a solution to a problem by means of a foreign language.
Richard Branson’s web page on business lessons is a vivid and, in our view, effective illustration of the active use of English to understand that the business environment is becoming more complicated and increasingly complex, which in turn requires other approaches to success and belief that young people have a strong potential for change for the better. Particularly valuable in this attempt is that each student has the opportunity to communicate in the language he/she is learning with the author of the book – a well-known leader of a global company who constantly shares his tried and tested approaches to business and its role in society. His recent advice on the skills needed for start-ups is to team up with like-minded people, work on a project in which all team members are interested, not be afraid to make mistakes, and try to make new attempts when necessary and not back down under any circumstances. These lectures strengthen faith in business start-ups, the desire to learn and think, first of all, about others and only then about yourself. They include rethinking the root causes of modernity, explaining them wisely and finding solutions to support such evolutionary thinking, proving that the central goal of any business initiative is to improve the living conditions of the family, the region and the country as a whole.
So, language education of a competitive specialist in the sphere of trade and entrepreneurship is a vital part of professional training. Success of language training of the future specialists in the sphere of trade and entrepreneurship basically depends on the choice of a teaching strategy. As an experience shows it is highly effective and efficient to use information written in the original language about people who have succeeded in business.

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