Title:Infographics Use in Teaching Foreign Languages for Specific Purposes
VOLUME: 9 ISSUE: 2
Author(s):Veronika Pisarenko and Maxim Bondarev
Affiliation:Foreign Languages Department, Institute of Management in Economic, Ecological and Social Systems, Southern Federal University, 44, Nekrassovsky Lane, 347928 Taganrog, Russian Federation.
Keywords:Infographics, electronic educational resources, English for specific purposes, foreign languages, higher education,
language training, visualization, communicative competence, forms of representing information.
Abstract:Background: The paper is devoted to the problem of modernization of
teaching foreign languages in high school. The existing education system, its structure,
the maintenance, and current methods, also described in various patents, do not correspond
to an increase in the information stream that demands search of new approaches
to a solution of a problem for increase in efficiency of educational technologies. Education
system modernization in the modern concept includes the following components:
development of new educational technologies; creation of experimental educational institutions; studying and wide
introduction of experience of separate experts - the researchers who have received significant results in the decision of this
problem. The realization of the innovative educational visualization-based technologies increases learning efficiency.
Methods: The main goal of visualization-based technologies is the formation of the students’ professional foreign language
competence necessary for their future development as specialists in their field and allowing their personality to be
developed in the training process. Visualization as a system of icons and symbols promotes deeper understanding of professionally
focused foreign language text. It provides a convenient perception by means of sight. It represents a natural
and effective method of training a foreign language for specific purposes. Infographics is an alternative way of the information
representation, combining the illustrations presented by drawings and verbally-logic fullness of the text.
Results: The application of the infographics-based educational technologies results in quantitative increase of factor of
mastering; it is expressed in qualitative increase of the level the students’ foreign language communicative competence.
The general index of students’ satisfaction with a technique of foreign languages teaching tends to increase during all the
period of studies in experimental group; it means that the education technologies based on infographics are more interesting
and more useful for students.
Conclusion: Visualization-based technologies applied in education process are effective. They have potential to develop
not only students’ foreign language communicative competence but their imagination, memory, mental abilities and critical
competence. Inforgaphics allow using all channels of information perception effectively and provide faster analysis
and storing of the new educational information, production, and substantial conclusions as the trainee is given not only the
text, images, figures, schedules, but also the balanced visual set. New personality-focused paradigm considers visualization
not only as a teaching method but also as a means of development of students’ personality. Application of infographics
elements in ESP training course guarantees an active acquisition of knowledge by the trainee, analysis of a studied material,
intellectual activity stimulation. Visual information allows to transfer a great volume of the information about difficult
structures quickly and to involve directly cognitive mechanisms lying more deeply than analytical and language layers.
