The ministry of higher and secondary specialized

This method is complex, it includes all kinds of speech activity: reading, speaking, writing, listening. In English lessons cases can be used during and at the completion of work on a specific topic.
Case studies provide an opportunity to apply learned lexis and grammar in speech. The case can be presented in a multimedia or printed form: the inclusion of the photos, tables, charts in the text makes it more visible.
In the described situation task there can be from a few sentences on a page (short the European case) to many ones on several pages (long the American case). The problem contained in case doesn’t have a unique solution; essence of the method lies in the fact that from a variety of alternatives to select the most appropriate solution in accordance with the previously elaborated criteria and to develop a practical model for its implementation.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the case method is an effective mean of increasing the efficiency of learning in higher institution. It has significant functional opportunities, meets the needs of the revolution in education. It differs not only by an educational effect associated with obtaining professional knowledge and skills, but also by the impact on the socialization of students, formation of their personal qualities.
The main advantage of case-method is that it allows to realize the creativity of the teacher. As a constantly developing method, it needs constant interaction with the methodology, which develops its concept and enriches its content. In fact, the case method generates a progressive paradigm of teaching, which is characterized by a high level of efficiency and meets the requirements of the time. However, the case method is not universal. It must be used not instead of, but with classical teaching methods, i.e situational analysis should not replace but complement the lectures, seminars and workshops.
Undoubtedly, the use of case-method has some advantages and risks. First, the case method makes it possible to combine theory and practice optimally, to develop skills to work with a variety of information sources. Students do not receive ready-made knowledge, but learn to gain their own. Decisions made in daily situations are quickly memorized and it is better than to memorize the rules. Secondly, the process of solving the problem given in the case is a creative process of learning that involves the collective nature of cognitive activity.
However, as any other method, this method has difficulties in usage. First of all, you need a lot of time to prepare competent "case". The teacher must consider the form of its presentation and plan students’ activities, combining individual and group forms of work. The success of the case-method depends on three main components: the quality of the case, preparation of students and the willingness of the teachers to use this technology.

THE ROLE OF INTERNET AND DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Students of the XXI century are digital natives. Educators should embrace all the opportunities the digital era presents while doing their best to cope with its challenges. Teachers have been trying to keep up with the fastchanging world of informational technology while shaping their students’ minds. They turn to working online, which suits perfectly the XXI century learner. Digital formats allow interactive and motivating activities. Moreover, an increase of extra-class hours in higher school in Russia has urged teachers to reschedule their programs and curricular, so that students are engaged more in self-studies under the guidance of their educators .In this respect podcasts and WebQuests have become popular both with teachers and students.
Teaching English as a foreign language embraces the podcast and WebQuest technology for various reasons: to provide students with extra practice, develop critical thinking, provide background knowledge and a broad context, which students tend to lose, while googling for information, in pursuit of getting answers to very targeted questions. Whereas podcasts have great educational potential in developing students’ listening skills while learning from authentic materials about the burning issues of today and current events, they could be easily loaded onto any mobile device and listened to when convenient. WebQuests, in their turn, often provide students not only with stepping stones for carrying out online projects but also insight into the topic. The focus of this chapter is to show how podcasts and WebQuests tackle such major challenges facing the digital natives when learning English as lack of background knowledge and life experience as well as poor critical thinking skills. One of the major features of podcasts and WebQuests is mobility which is an important characteristic of modern education. Informational and digital communication technologies contain considerable potential for optimizing foreign language teaching due to the following three features:

1. Create conditions for self-studies

2. Develop listening and speaking skills of working on one’s own
3. Ensure a greater level of learning materials’ authenticity.

All in all, podcasts and WebQuests appear to be creative and entertaining on the one hand, and very motivating educational tools, on the other. Both podcasts and WebQuests carry great value for foreign language teaching as Internet resources

1. Are quickly and regularly updated
2. May be available any time through mobile devices
3. Are often free, especially for students.

Podcasts А podcast is an audio file that you download from the Internet. After you download it, you can listen to it on your computer or mobile devices or MP3 player. There are different genres in podcasts: audio blogs, music, technology, audio books, academic podcasts, interviews, news, policy, radioshows, sport, games. Academic podcasts to study English as a second language started in Russia in 2008 and allow to solve a number of problems as they provide increased flexibility, user control, portability, and allow for time-shifting and multitasking (Abdous, 2012). We chose podcasts as a basic technology for the first-year students and their self-studies in 2010. We’d like to stress that for the first time in Russia at higher establishments podcasts were chosen for self-studies not for class work. The reason was twofold: to compensate decrease of classroom hours and to improve communication and self-study skills. Before we started our project we discovered that our students were used to studying in class under their teachers supervision and had very poor self-study skills. So, a “Guide to Listening” was compiled which is a student’s workbook with tasks and instructions how to complete them. In the “Guide” we made a point of the fact that students could ask the teacher for help on /off line any time they needed it.. This workbook and the podcasts were sent to every student by email. The workbook comprises five parts as well as a personal guide list (a list of individual’s tasks with scheduling) for each semester. The personal guide list has a list of all podcasts each student has to listen to and complete all the tasks to strict deadlines for every podcast. Every student should work on four podcasts during each semester. Each part of the students’ workbook includes one podcast and four tasks to it. All podcasts were taken from an educational site www.eslpod.com. ESLPOd.com is run by a team of experienced English as a Second Language professors with over 30 years of high school, adult and university ESL teaching experience. They claim podcasts are very useful and effective sources for learning English. Most students take English classes, which help them up to a certain point. ESL Podcast is designed to help them to continue to improve their English. Often learners try to improve their English by listening or reading things that are too difficult for them. They understand only 40 – 50 % which means they are wasting half of their time. ESLPod.com team believe the fastest way to improve your English is to listen to 4 conversations and discussions you can understand. We chose a number of suitable thematic audio files for our students such as: “Time Management”, “Essential and Optional Things”, “Following a Dress Code”, etc. Each academic year the topics for listening are changed. In spite of the fact that the duration of one podcast is 15– 18 minutes, according to our survey it takes the students at an average three hours to complete all the tasks from one part. The podcast itself comprises five sections. All sections except the fourth and fifth have a common characteristic feature – they provide English audio files at a slower tempo. This appeared to be very important to our students as they never had such experience in listening previously. The students pointed out that this feature made listening to podcasts more interesting because it helped comprehension. The first part of a podcast is the Introduction in which an outline of the coming up audio materials is presented. Its duration is about one minute. The second section features an Original Monologue or Dialogue where the topic of the podcast is being discussed for about two minutes. The third section is the Language Explanation in which the speaker explains the spelling, the meaning and usage of some words and expressions from the new vocabulary (about 15 – 18 min.) The fourth section is either a Monologue or a Dialogue from the second section, but this time the reading speed is normal as in everyday life, its duration is about one minute. The fifth section is the Summary where the speaker gives additional information about the podcast itself for about one minute. There are four tasks on comprehension. All the tasks except Comprehension Questions were either compiled by the authors, or were a compilation of fragments worked out by the authors and offered on the site.

The use of case study method in teaching English as a foreign language in technical university

Nowadays English language plays a lot of roles in the modern era of globalization. Regardless of how one views English as a second language, globally, a lot of people are interested in acquiring English proficiency. One option for teaching English as a foreign language in technical university is using case study method. Unlike traditional lecture-based teaching where student participation in the classroom is minimal, the case study method is an active learning method, which requires participation and involvement from the student in the classroom. For students who have been exposed only to the traditional teaching methods, this calls for a major change in their approach to learning. The majority of scholars affirm that students can learn more effectively when actively involved in the learning process [2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13]. The case study approach is one way in which such active learning strategies can be performed in technical universities. There exist a number of definitions for the term «case study». As many researchers we define «case study» as student-centred activities based on description of an actual situation, commonly involving a decision, a challenge, an opportunity, a problem or an issue faced by a person or persons in an organization [1, 4, 5, 10, 14, 17]. An important point to be emphasized here is that a case is not a problem. A problem usually has a unique, correct solution. A decision-maker faced with the situation described in a case can choose between several alternative courses of action, and each of these alternatives may plausibly be supported by a logical argument. Undoubtedly, case studies are an increasingly popular form of teaching and have an important role in developing skills and abilities in students. Some teachers shy away from using case studies in the classroom situation for a number of reasons. First of all, they may feel that they will be engulfed in the content aspect of the case study and lose face before their students. Secondly, they may not be comfortable with the role shift in their teaching – from teacher to facilitator. Finally, teachers who are used to a transmission style of teaching may feel that teaching is not really happening if they use simulations or case studies. Nevertheless, there are numerous advantages to use cases while teaching a foreign language. Study cases help to:
1) develop and raise critical thinking (application/synthesis/evaluation) and reflective learning in the learner;
2) develop problem solving skills;
3) improve the student’s organizational skills – as case studies are sometimes very dense in information, the key is to condense this information into logical sections and organize them so that a clear picture of the problem/issue can be understood;
4) enhance communication skills – case studies can be used to improve the student’s written and oral communication. Non-verbal communication skills are also practised by using case studies;
5) train managerial communication skills such as holding a meeting, negotiating a contract, giving a presentation etc. Case studies force students into real-life situations to require them to get involved in managerial communication;
6) enhance the listening/cooperative learning skills;
7) encourage collaborative learning and team-working skills in the language learner;
8) get you thinking and brainstorming;
9) connect theory and practice;
10) allow students’ naive questions to precipitate profound change in approach;
11) teach students that there may not be one «right» answer, after all;
12) encourage attention to and self-consciousness about assumptions and conceptions;
13) reflect the contextual, situated, complex nature or knowledge;
14) build partnership/collegiality among learners and teacher;
15) get students to be active, not passive. Provide both possibilities for all learners to be successful and a variety of roles [1, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17]. The case study method usually involves three stages: - individual preparation; - small group discussion; - large group or class discussion. While both the facilitator and the student start with the same information, their roles are dissimilar. It is extremely important that the case studies should be well-prepared in advance so that each student knows what his role is. It is not sufficient just to give the case study to the student and hope that they will understand how to use it. This is the mistake made by many teachers unfamiliar with the case study method. In contrast to lecture-based teaching, the case method requires intensive preparation by the students, before each class.
The following case-based process can be used to help students use cases to their best:
1) determine the facts of the case. To grasp the situation described in a case study, it is necessary to read it several times. The first reading of the case can be a light one, to get a broad idea of the story. The subsequent readings must be more focused, to help the student become familiar with the facts of the case, and the issues that are important in the situation being described in the case – the who, what, where, why and how of the case;
2) define the presenting problem.
The student must also acquire a thorough understanding of the case situation, through a detailed analysis of the case. During the case analysis process, he/she must attempt to identify the main protagonists in the case study (organizations, groups, or individuals described in the case) and their relationships. The student must also keep in mind that different kinds of information are presented in the case study There are facts, which are verifiable from several sources. There are inferences, which represent an individual’s judgment in a given situation. There are also assumptions, which cannot be verified, and are generated during case analysis or discussion. Clearly, all these different types of information are not equally valuable for managerial decision-making. Usually, the greater your reliance on facts (rather than speculation or assumptions), the better the logic and persuasiveness of your arguments and the quality of your decisions;
3) generate a possible course of action or generate, assess, and propose a number of possible solutions;
4) evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to each course of action;
5) make a decision regarding a satisfactory or at least workable plan of action [5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17]. While preparing for the case discussion, the student can also make notes with respect to the key aspects of the situation and the case analysis. These could include the following points: - which company (or companies) is being talked about? Which industry is referred to?; - what are the products/services mentioned?; - how/why did the company land in problems (or became successful)?; - what decision issues/problems/challenges are the decision makers in the case faced with? While choosing a case, the teacher should take into consideration the following steps: - identify clear learning objectives; - know his/her learners; - understand how the concepts of the case fit into the overall concept map for the course or unit; - choose the best strategy for using the case materials.
Additionally the following steps should be executed during the case study introduction class:
1) read the case study thoroughly with your students. Here the teacher can deal with any lexical or grammatical issues. You may also like to ask your students to represent the background information in a visual form;
2) provide the students with some input on how they should analyze the case study: - read the case several times; - define the main issues/problems; - set out objectives; - identify solutions; - select the best solution; - decide on how the solution should be implemented; - draw up an action plan to implement the chosen solution.
3) pre-teach the language required to discuss the case study. Note that it is important to select the skill you would like to focus on and teach the specific language.

The standard procedure for using case study method at lessons involves the following aspects:
1) students need to come to class prepared to discuss the case (students will understand the case better, if they are given careful introductory directions);
2) unless there are specific pedagogical reasons, key facts should be introduced in the written case and not added during the discussion. The safest way to discuss a case is to be sure that everyone has a clear understanding of the facts;
3) cases need to be complete enough so that the problem can be defined;
4) the size of the group should allow for free exchange among all participants. Groups larger than 12 tend to exclude many members from participating (larger groups can be divided. Combined contributions of members of different discussion groups improve the learning experience). If a group of students is asked to analyze a case, they must ensure that they meet to discuss and analyze the case;
5) facilitators need to be objective without being emotionally invested in the case. They should be aware of the larger goals of the case. The facilitator has to make the classroom safe for conversations. This doesn’t happen right away. Students have to get to know each other and develop a certain level of trust;
6) facilitators should ask carefully designed questions. The first question that the teacher asks is crucial. The primary criterion is to get students to talk, preferably thoughtfully. If you start with a question that is too obtuse, too formidable, or looks like a trick question, no one will answer. Questions should not let the discussion get submerged in the details of the case, but rather ensure that discussion focuses on the ways to solve the problem The best opening questions are open-ended, where there are multiple reasonable answers, or where the question is neutral and simple to answer. The teacher should periodically try to paraphrase students’ points saying, «Jack, do I understand correctly....» The teacher should not make the discussion a glorified quiz show where he runs through a series of questions, saying «right» or «wrong». Nor is this discussion a lecture in disguise. The teacher must connect one student’s ideas with another. He should ask Jack how his ideas square with Vivian’s earlier point. The teacher should operate at several levels during the discussion. Firstly, he must be aware of the case material and how to get the content out. Secondly, he must be aware of the process, thinking about whom to call on next to spread the discussion about, how to resolve the conflict that has just exploded, how to stop the private conversation in the corner, how to move to engage the bored student sitting to his right, when to shift tempo. Thirdly, he is thinking of the bigger picture, how these people are doing in the course and how this case fits into the overall syllabus. He will be thinking how asking a particular question might affect a particular student; how to be encouraging to Isabella and yet skeptical of Nicholas; and how this will impact on their personal development. During the case, the teacher should write on the board. He has to move forward to listen seriously to a speaker or move to the side to let students engage one another;
7) role-playing can help clarify some concepts by engaging students in problem solving from the perspectives of different key players [1, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17].
A classroom case discussion is usually guided by the facilitator. Students are expected to participate in the discussion and present their views. In some cases, the teacher may adopt a particular view, and challenge the students to respond. During the discussion, while a student presents his point of view, others may question or challenge him. Case facilitators usually encourage innovative ways of looking at and analyzing problems, and arriving at possible alternatives. What is more, students shouldn’t seat in a row. Ideally, a U- or horseshoe-shaped seating arrangement for case study lesson. The open part of the U should face the blackboard. This permits the teacher to walk into the U with the blackboard at his back and the students at his front and sides. This arrangement permits all of the students to see one another.
The interaction among students, and between the students and the facilitator, must take place in a constructive and positive manner. Such interactions help to improve the analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills of the students [2, 3, 4, 10, 15].
During the controversy students must be careful that the contributions they make to the discussion are relevant, and based on a sound analysis of the information presented in the case.
The facilitator may ask questions to the class at random about the case study itself or about the views put forward by an individual student. If a student has some new insights about the issues at hand, he/she is usually encouraged to share them with the class.
Students must respond when the facilitator asks some appropriate questions. The importance of preparing beforehand cannot be emphasized enough – a student will be able to participate meaningfully in the case discussion only if he is knowledgeable about the facts of the case, and has done a systematic case analysis. A case discussion may end with the facilitator (or a student) summarizing the key learning points (or «takeaways») of the session.
Student performance in case discussions is usually assessed. The extent of participation is never the sole criterion in the assessment – the quality of the participation is an equally (or more) important criterion. There are many opportunities to assess students’ performances when they are using case-based learning approaches. Here are some assessable activities students might engage in as they work on their investigations: - their participation (quality and extent of participation) and contribution to work in groups; - the kinds of issues they identify; - the questions they develop; - the investigations they propose; - where and how they locate resources; - how they conduct investigations (communication skills, logical flow and structuring of the content, quality of analysis and recommendations, etc.); - the presentations they make; - written case analyses (logical flow and structuring of the content, language and presentation, quality of analysis and recommendations, etc.).
Discussions can often leave students and facilitator with an unsatisfied feeling. Both may wonder what they have really accomplished. Board work isn’t always enough. Giving the students a follow-up assignment usually does the trick. Have them write up a summary of the case, write a letter to the company head or develop a strategic plan. These are all good homework exercises. You don’t have to have each student hand in a paper for each case. They might write up something for say half or a third of the cases. This approach makes the workload more manageable for everyone.