Andragogical principles in teaching professional foreign languages: challenges and perspectives

Abstract

The research shares the experience of the Vladimir branch of Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation in applying the andragogical principles in distance learning and teaching a professional foreign language for part-time and night school students. The research is aimed at considering the specific social and psychological features with a different nature of goal-setting, learning process and its outcomes in the adult student environment which are likely to cause the barriers, as well as the ways to reduce them during the pandemic of COVID-19 and an overall switch to distance learning. The subject matter is focused on the specific obstacles which prevent adult students from successful building of language skills. The research methods include monitoring, interviewing and content analysis. The outcomes showed that the andragogical principles of the adult students, including a student-oriented motivation, focus on personal individualization, mutual interactive activity with the teacher, immediate implementation of learning outcomes, might be available to eliminate the barriers and shift the focus to practical ways of learning and teaching a professional foreign language. The outcomes of the research have practical use in arranging online learning of part-time and night school students in the Vladimir branch of Financial University. The experience is recommended to be considered for the adult target audience to enhance their motivation for building professional foreign language skills.