INTERNET MEMES AS A WAY OF DEVELOPING FUTURE ENGINEERS’ MOTIVATION TO STUDY A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THEIR PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY

Abstract

Introduction The article considers the issue of increasing the motivation of technical university students to study a foreign language using English-language Internet memes, which are considered to be significant material for teaching Generation Z students. The purpose of the article is to theoretically substantiate and experimentally test the memes’ effectiveness in building motivation to study a foreign language. The research’s scientific novelty is identifying ways of organizing future engineers’ work with memes based on a variable methodological apparatus. Materials and methods The author analyses the literature on the study of the motivational processes among students of a non-linguistic university studying the English language and using creolized texts to organize their English language-learning process. The research material comprises memes taken from the Internet that correspond to the sections of their discipline program. Results and discussion A workflow for increasing students’ motivation to learn English based on their work with memes has been designed, including methodological and technological, content-motivational, and reflexive-evaluative modules. A methodological experiment has been carried out to test the proposed methods of increasing students’ motivation. An example of organizing the work with memes is given. Conclusion. The results of the methodological experiment conducted at the Trekhgorny Technological Institute confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed methods of developing students’ motivation. It was revealed that memes could become a powerful teaching material that helps to increase the motivation of future engineers to learn English.