Quarantine is not an obstacle to communication and learning English!

 During the extension of quarantine and the introduction of the "yellow" level of epidemic danger of the spread of COVID-19 in most regions of Ukraine at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine full-time and distance classes keep on going.

English language classes are conducted by instructors of several departments of the faculty of humanities and pedagogy and, in particular, instructors of the department of English philology, at different faculties of the university. The educational process at the university takes place in a mixed form: first and second year undergraduate and first year students studied in classrooms from the beginning of the academic year 2021 - 2022 to September 17, and from September 20 they were replaced by third and fourth year undergraduate and second year students. year of master's degree.

September is a very busy month in student life! Almost every day in NULES of Ukraine were held creative competitions, sports competitions, workshops, meetings with interesting people: scientists, writers, politicians and more. During this eventful period, instructors of the department of English philology sometimes held classes in the fresh air in the ecological classes of the Botanical garden of NULES of Ukraine. Thus, for second-year students majoring in "Accounting and taxation" of the faculty of economics, classes were held in the format of Speaking Club, and first-year students majoring in "Professional education" of the faculty of humanities and pedagogy and specialty "Software engineering" of the faculty of information technology participated in a chess tournament and developed dialogic speech skills in English.

Warm days and the period of full-time study for first and second year students, unfortunately, passed very quickly and now they, chained to their homes and gadgets, continue their studies. During distance learning teachers need to show not only digital skills, but also ingenuity, creative approach to the formation of foreign language grammatical competence in students.

As the results of the annual CEE show, bachelor students should be prepared not only for professional specific communication, but also to develop their competencies of situational dialogic speech; perception, understanding and retransmission of information from various spheres of human life and society. To do this, teachers of the department of English philology of the faculty of humanities and pedagogy use innovative, non-traditional approaches to learning, including distance learning. Thus, second-year students majoring in "Accounting and taxation" in English during the "warm-up" (Warming up) shared information about their pets, trained the skills of prepared oral speech, gave clarifying answers to questions from their classmates.

During distance learning, it is important to socialize students and instructors, their adaptation to communication through gadgets. Through dialogues it is interesting to share information about your hobbies and pets, thus gaining extra strength and inspiration from the learning process and communication, and the ability to wittily joke, tell something interesting, is not superfluous to create a friendly atmosphere and unite the team.

So, quarantine is not an obstacle for communication and learning in English for students and teachers of NULES of Ukraine!

Vadym Ovcharenko,
associate professor of the department
of English philology of
the faculty for humanities and pedagogy of NULES of Ukraine