Foreign language business writing skill formation among university students using the Microsoft Teams platform

Introduction. The modern labor market requires university graduates to be able to communicate in a foreign language in their professional field. Foreign language business writing skills are especially in demand, i.e. ability to correspond with business partners, be able to write business letters of various types. In the context of digitalization of the educational environment, within the framework of a competency-based approach, teaching foreign language business writing involves the use of the MS Teams digital platform, which has wide educational functionality. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to identify what impact the use of the digital platform MS Teams has on the development of business writing skills in English among non-linguistic university students. Materials and Methods. The study involved 96 undergraduate students of Vyatka State University studying in the majors “Biotechnology” and “Chemical Technology”. Forming foreign language business writing skills involves training in the digital environment of the MS Tims platform, where the initial, intermediate and advanced stages of training are implemented, including the use of a special system of writing exercises. Pearson’s χ2 test was used for the results of statistical processing. Results. The formation of foreign language business writing skills using the MS Tims platform based on the text approach went through the initial, intermediate and advanced stages. For each of these stages, tasks were developed with a gradual complication of the communicative task, allowing the creation of written texts of a business nature. The results of the experiment showed that the number of students in the experimental group with a low level of business writing skills decreased from 35.4% to 4.2%, with an average level decreased from 45.8% to 41.6%, with a high level increased from 18.8% to 54.2% (χ2 = 18.006, p ≤ 0.05). Conclusion. The significance of the study lies in the approach used to solve the problem of developing business writing skills in English, which involves training in the digital space of the MS Teams platform. The inclusion of digital technologies and resources in the learning process plays a key role in language acquisition by students at their own pace, increases independence and motivation to master language skills, and compensates for the lack of language environment.