FORMING STUDENTS’ TERMINOLOGICAL COMPETENCE IN THE MOODLE-BASED E-LEARNING COURSE

Abstract

The paper highlights, analyses and interprets the results of the pedagogical experiment on applying the authors’ teaching methodology to form students’ terminological competence in bilateral interpreting in the Moodle-based e-learning course. It is stated that online instruction as a competitive option to regular forms of classroom learning is establishing an apparent connection between students’ outcomes of learning and the modern world at large enhancing their responsibility in acquiring and exploiting knowledge in practice. The authors argue that future translators and interpreters are more stimulated to learn technical terminology in the digital environment through subject-oriented terminology courses on the basis of e-technologies. In this study, the mixed research design was based on quantitative (experiment, measuring variables, finding frequencies, hypothesis testing) and qualitative methods (analysis of the data collected, monographic method – to interpret the results obtained in a coherent logical perspective). The experiment, conducted by the authors, engaged the fourth-year students of the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” (after this, officially abbreviated name – Igor Sikorsky KPI), majoring in translating and interpreting. To carry out the pedagogical experiment, the subsystem of exercises for forming terminological competence in bilateral interpreting in Moodle-based e-learning course was developed in collaboration between the educators from Kutahya Dumlupinar University (School of Foreign Languages) and Igor Sikorsky KPI (Department of Theory, Practice and Translation of the English Language). The proposed subsystem of exercises was supposed to: meet the ultimate goals of forming terminological competence; gradually contribute to acquiring knowledge and skills, which determined the three-stage training process; have a unified structure; have a built-in assessment system; provide students with self-test capability when performing the exercises. It is noted that the opportunity to do the designed course from any convenient device (smartphone, tablet, laptop, PC) makes it easily approachable, and helps students improve the skills of autonomous learning and self-monitoring.