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The subject of the study is the identification of effective factors of altered communication of seniors with acquired cognitive impairment in the context of the possibilities of music therapy intervention. Epistemological starting points are clinical aspects of the target group, further verified and functional non-pharmacological approaches to its representatives and theories and methodologies of expressive approaches. The paper specifically describes the partial results of one of the parts of longitudinal research, continuously carried out since 2013 in specialized research projects for universities at the Institute of Special Education Studies, Faculty of Education, Palacky University in Olomouc. This part of the research took place in 2019/20 in the Home for the Senior Citizens in Hrubá Voda near Olomouc. The research sample consisted of seniors with incipient cognitive impairment. The researchers focused mainly on the identification of basic communication categories, within which they monitored such communication manifestations that were useful in conversation with clients and which were supported by music therapy intervention. Their goal was to identify optimal strategies leading to the activation of preserved communication skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is devoted to the issues of lawyers' communicative competence and intercultural interaction which are given the priority in international professional activities of lawyers. The author's experience of teaching English to Bachelors and Masters studying at the Institute of Law, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) is analyzed. The process of studying the interlocutors, involved into professional communication in tactical and strategic aspects, should precede professional contacts; the most important is the last stage when the lawyers' goals and plans result in successful communication with the addressee. The correctness of words and speech patterns' choice is important as well as the considering communication's specifics - interpersonal, with groups or individuals. It is significant to bear in mind the stereotypes and socially imperative norms of communication and hierarchy. These issues are in the focus of this paper. The main attention is paid to communicative competence formation. The purpose of this work is to identify the key communicative skills necessary for intercultural interaction of lawyers. The problem of mastering foreign language communicative competence in the intercultural context is widely addressed in numerous scientific and methodological approaches to the formation of trainees' skills of intercultural interaction in the process of professionally directed foreign-language communication. It became apparent that humanity was evolving in ways to enhance the relationship and interaction with different countries and peoples at the turn of the second and third millenniums. The necessity and interest to improving the quality of teaching languages and cultures is stated in this paper. This is manifested in the form of focus on the study of lawyers' intercultural interaction and foreign languages' implementation, primarily English as the language of international communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on communication skills and methods in the context of crisis intervention, the aims of the paper are to detect and identify what procedures, methods and principles of work with the client are the most used by the staff of the crisis intervention in Slovakia and to analyse communication skills during crisis intervention. A quantitative research strategy has been chosen; we carried out research of procedures, methods, principles of work with the client and communication skills of professionals working in the field crisis intervention through a questionnaire of our own construction, which was composed of 18 questions. Professionals in field crisis intervention in Slovakia work with clients mainly using methods of interview, observation and counselling. During the work with the client, the catastrophic scenario is very little used, and the workers provide the client with insufficient opportunity for emotional ventilation. The most useful communication skill is active listening. An interesting research finding is that field crisis workers are not fully aware of some of the crisis intervention principles known from the theories; some workers have even indicated that they tend to disagree with the claim that the purpose of work with the client within crisis intervention is to solve the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper is to present an overview of the findings about applicable models (algorithms) in the area of Breaking Bad News (BBN). The paper presents an overview of selected models with an emphasis on their practical application. The overview was produced by means of an analysis, comparison, discussion and synthesis of relevant findings. The search procedure was performed in line with the specifics of the research strategy using keywords (aimed at methodologies, procedures, and models applied in relation to the BBN process). A well-developed area is the BBN process in (adult) clients with cancer diagnoses. This is a well-designed area in terms of both methodology and feedback with an emphasis on training future doctors (professionals). The oldest and the most frequently used model is the (S)PIKES model (). Other approaches include the BREAKS model, Kaye's Ten Step Approach, NURSE model, ABCDE model, PEWTER model, etc. Less frequently used models include for example "In Person, In Time", COMFORT, The 3phase model, SBAR, TALK, ASK-TELL- ASK model, Breaking Bad News Skills Rating Form Checklist (BBN Skills), relevant derived models and some other models. The components of the SPIKES model follow the chronology of the BBN process; other models more or less copy the chronology (including various alternatives adapted to the needs of a specific model). The models use the following components: preparation - setting (up the interview/interaction) - perception (patient's perception and preparation) - invitation (obtaining the patient's invitation; information; invitation or information; invitation and information needs) - knowledge (giving knowledge and information to patient; knowledge of the condition) - emotions (addressing the patient's emotions with empathetic response; empathy; empathy and exploration) - strategy (strategy and summary; summary; summarize or strategize; summary and strategic planning). The process of BBN is a comprehensive and very important communicative competence of each professional. Breaking unfavourable (bad) news is one of the most significant and at the same time difficult forms of clinical practice and requires a set of skills that professionals should learn as routine part of their training. The learning process is an essential component of undergraduate preparation of future professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to develop communication skills on professional topics to students studying oil and gas activity. We argue that it is effective to organize the teaching by means of using professional context, developing lexical skills. In order to design a professional context we suggest role-play activities related to oil and gas theme for students; development of lexical skills is possible in both language exercises and communicative ones. Methods of research presuppose theoretical analysis of relevant literature including analysis of teaching materials for the course, personal experience obtained via the interview of the professor teaching technical English of the mentioned major. Conclusions of research are the following: designing a professional context for communication will help to increase motivation of students in acquiring communication skills in their specialisation; expanding professional vocabulary is a necessary must for developing communication skills in students’ specialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is devoted to the issues of teaching English to non-linguistic Universities' students in interdisciplinary context. The author's experience of teaching English to Bachelors and Masters studying at Institute of Law, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia is analyzed. The paper touches upon the subject of study of the Judiciary, Judges and related activities while teaching law-students English for special purposes (ESP). Brief review of the Judiciary in Russia, United Kingdom and United States of America is given here. Analysis of competence approach and orientation on professional aspects in English teaching is made. Examination of frequently used English terminological set expressions used by the Judges in their activities in Russia, United Kingdom and United States of America is specified here. Interdisciplinary and personal achievements of non-linguistic Universities' law students are accentuated. Teaching them make good use of adequate Law terminology in professional English-language communication is justified here. The necessity and actuality of professionally oriented English teaching in an interdisciplinary context, focused on the unique of its kind conceptual system of law, is stated in this paper. The mentioned issues are constantly in the center of attention of theorists, methodologists, and practitioners due to the greater than ever demands and requirements for graduates' proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper primarily concentrates on how future teachers of English reflect on the level of proficiency in their field of study acquired during their pre-service teacher training and its effectiveness for their future teaching practice. Secondarily, the survey aims to characterise the relation between specific competences students acquired and used during the first compulsory teaching practice. In order to collect relevant data, a non-standardised questionnaire was distributed among first-year master's degree study programme students. The questionnaire is a part of an extensive long-term survey being executed by the authors due to be finished later in 2017. The theoretical part of the paper deals with specific competences teachers of English should acquire during university studies to be able to perform the profession of a teacher proficiently and efficiently; namely linguistic, linguodidactic and communicative competences. The practical part of the paper concentrates on the analysis of the questionnaire data. The questionnaire was based on students' reflection of gaining specific competences in selected compulsory and optional subjects during their university studies. The research addressed a question of direct correlation of pre-service teacher training efficiency of future English language teachers with the compulsory teaching practice as a part of the programme. As a result, the authors present suggestions for possible adaptation of the course syllabi in order to maximise the effectiveness during later teaching practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to systematise the factors of functional efficiency of business discourse and to analyse the specificity of a complex interaction of language elements within a text, due to which discourse acquires semantic accretions. The article makes the case that nowadays the function of rhetoric impact is regarded as the leading one for business discourse, alongside other language functions. Therefore, speech functional efficiency implies enhancing the desired rhetoric effect in reflecting extralinguistic contents through linguistic means. The outlined issue is very topical, as the proper functioning of verbal tools is helpful in harmonizing business interaction, while their inappropriate use may lead to serious complications in business, politics, social and other activities. Analising samples of different registers of business discourse the author uses methods of functional linguistics, i.e. looks into the assumed communicative goal(s) and discourse functions intended by the speaker/writer, and reveals the actual semantic and pragmatic functions synergistically performed by the text elements. The article proves that the way information is perceived by the recipient is largely predetermined by such means as a certain combination of lexemes and a certain pattern of data structuring, an emphasis on favourable data and obscuration (even without distortion) of undesirable data, as well as other forms of the text pragmasemantic modification. With competent use of such means even the mere rendering of true facts forms additional sense accretions and the intended impacts on the recipient. The article also discloses the basic principles of speech impact (accessibility, associativity, expressiveness and intensiveness), gives their characteristics and exemplifies their functional significance in business discourse. Finally, the author comes to the conclusion that the strongest rhetoric effect is achieved through the common actualisation of these principles in their influence on the addressee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the results of the longitudinal experiment held at the department of the extracurricular education - the Further Study Training Centre - at the RUDN University, Moscow. The study was aimed at measuring the added value gained throughout the course in English as a foreign language in the context of Academic skills development. The urgency of the study derived from the growing popularity of scorebased grading evaluation methods commonly implemented in Russian educational institutions and in most cased overshadowing its alternatives. Verification of the ability of quantitative techniques as an objective tool to measure developed skills and competences and, at the same time, respond to all challenges of modern education presents itself as a priority task. So, the focal point of the current research was the comparative analysis of qualitative and quantitative assessment of the English learners' academic outcomes and the role of each type in building academic confidence. The latter was measured by means of the Academic Behavioral Confidence Scale (ABC) initially suggested by Sander and Sanders in 2003 and widely deployed by later methodologists. On total, 142 learners were able to participate in all the experiment phases, roughly equally divided into the control and experimental groups respectively. All of them were mastering the programme of English as a foreign language for at least two academic terms based on the extracurricular training centres at two of top Universities of Moscow, Russia: RUDN University and national research University "Higher School of Economics". All the subjects were mastering the programme of English for scientific and academic purposes for at least two academic terms. The main research focus was made on the productive skills, i.e speaking and writing, as these kind of activities may be appraised by both quantitative and qualitative methods. The control group was presented by the qualitatively assessed students, so their skills and competences were evaluated based on the customized score banding scale. The students in this group were made familiar with the criteria set and skills assessed. The experimental group comprised the participants whose SLOs (student learning outcomes) were measured based on reviews received as teachers', examiners' and peers' feedback, cooperative analysis and narrative descriptions, main focus being shifted from the rubrics to notes and observations. Verbal appraisals were granted for any interim or final oral tasks and written assignments performed. Contrary to the expectations, the results of the experiment revealed a slightly higher level of English competence increase demonstrated by the control against experimental group participants; whereas students in the latter group significantly improved the level of their academic confidence compared to the pretest numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the issue of the state of media literacy and the level of interpersonal and communication skills of social pedagogy university students. The theoretical basis of the thesis is based on the definition of basic concepts such as literacy and competence, especially with regard to information literacy and the definition of media socialization, critical media literacy. Reflected is education leading to the acquisition of media linguistics. The paper presents the results of a research study aimed at finding out the links between the level of media literacy of university students and the level of communication skills in the individual specified areas, as well as the relationship between the level of media literacy and the approaches of the respondents' trust in the media. 256 respondents from faculties, which prepare students to become teachers in the Czech Republic, took part in the research study. Obtained results are ambiguous. It turns out that the influence of the level of media literacy on the level of communication skills of students is only marginal. The level of media literacy, however, has a greater impact on students' approach towards the media, especially their trust in the media. Overall, media literacy appears to be a concept that has not yet been theoretically firmly anchored, and there are not enough valid empirical studies. The results show the need to revise the curricula of social pedagogy and the need to include more courses with a focus on media education. It is not only about the level of application, but especially about the theoretical level and the level of empirical grasp of the whole concept of media literacy. At the same time, it appears that there is a need in the Czech Republic to anchor and define the profession of social pedagogue in order to act as official pedagogical staff in schools, especially in the field of primary prevention of socially pathological phenomena. Then, the full potential of social pedagogy can be used to reflect current events in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teacher has a crucial role in the process of education. Educational studies suggest that the essential qualities of good teachers include the ability to be self-aware of one's biases; to perceive, understand and accept differences in others; to analyse and diagnose student understanding and adapt as required; to negotiate and take risks in their teaching; and to have a strong conceptual understanding of their subject matter. An ideal teacher is someone who has a combination of qualities, such as being very knowledgeable on his subject, able to effectively manage his classroom, genuinely enjoys teaching and dealing with students, has high expectations for his students, good communication skills and an engaging teaching style. Some other qualities are patience, resourcefulness, adaptability, resilience and a good sense of humour. What are the most valuable qualities of a good teacher? There are hundreds of characteristics that go into being an effective teacher and they all add up to a good education for students, an enjoyable classroom experience, and a satisfying career. To add to these qualities foreign language competence is required as well. The paper presents and analyses the approaches of 250 students - future teachers who expressed their opinions on the image of an ideal teacher in their essays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of development of research competence of the younger generation, regardless of where they live is especially relevant for rural areas of Siberia and the Far East, taking into account the scale of these regions. As a tool to solve this problem, we offer a network research community that brings together students and teachers of the Pedagogical University and the students and teachers of secondary schools. This paper presents the results of the investigation of the factors influencing the efficiency of the network community. The research methodology is based on the system approach and information-and-activity-based approach. The achievement of the required quality has been measured by objective test procedures (Creativity Assessment Packet by Williams in modification made Tunik and others), the analysis of students' research papers. We have also developed the diagnostic card to identify the level of development of student research competence. The performed research allows us to conclude that the most significant factors affecting the efficiency of the network research community are the choice of the topics of joint research, competence graduate students and University teachers in the use of network technologies in the development of the research competence of secondary school students, competence of secondary school teachers in the field of joint research works, software and technical support of interaction between participants of the network community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of future specialists training is a turn-out of skilled employee of appropriate level and profile that is a competitive on the labor market, competent, major in his profession and related activities-based, aimed at effective job in his specialty at the world standards level, ready for steady professional growth, social and professional mobility. To achieve this goal the authors of the paper put forward a business communicative competence of future specialist as one of the conditions for the success on the labor market. Business communicative competence concludes several fields of knowledge and skills as grammatical, sociolinguistic and strategic competences in a business environment. The growing role of "Foreign Language" discipline as a factor affecting the quality of modern education served as a prerequisite for designing the program for additional qualification "Translator in the sphere of professional communications" organized by the structural division - the Department of Foreign Languages in the sphere of economics, business and finance of the Kazan Federal University. This program provides the formation of business communicative competence of future specialists in economics. Business communication becomes the main object of further consideration. Specialist in professional communication should be able to get acquainted with business partners, communicate with visitors, hold business negotiations, organize business trips abroad, to conduct business communication by the phone, etc., as well as possess the standards of social and cultural speech behavior - speech etiquette and rituals. The main methods used for research are analysis of the best pedagogical practices, observation and questionnaire survey. The survey was conducted among the students of the program and people in work. Questionnaire included open and closed questions with the aim to determine the components of business communication, which are prioritized and essential for the future experts in carrying out their professional activities. On the basis of the survey results, the authors suggested the contemporary strategies for the acquisition of business communicative competence in the context of globalization. The article submissions may be useful for faculty members of higher education institutions, teachers of foreign languages, for scientific community engaged in studies in the field of additional education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a novel integrated master level course "Scientific Rhetoric" aimed at developing rhetoric competence considered an integral part and the top level of communicative competence. The course involves activities on generating oral and written scientific genres. Its aim is to help students produce compelling texts both in native and foreign languages using persuasive language. The concept of the integrated course is justified by the principles of language learning and teaching considered to be a core in the interdisciplinary and integrated approach. The principle of comparative learning and teaching, the principle of bilingual learning or learning and teaching based on learner's native linguoculture, the principle of interdisciplinary and integrated learning and teaching are the basis of the course. The concept implies that the employment of background knowledge acquired and communication skills developed by students in a native language can eliminate learners' difficulties in developing the same skills and abilities in a foreign language due to comparative analysis of both language systems. Thus, the integrated assignments aimed at revealing similarities and differences in genre systems, genre structures, extra-linguistic features and general rules of text composing in Russian and English and a conscious use of language means by master students to generate original scientific texts encourage effective communication in two languages in academic, scientific and professional sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research is intended to prove the relevance of a writing for social media supplement to the ESL university-level course. Currently, the context in which language training is performed, features the stage of information society development where one has to generate, distribute and handle information efficiently in order to succeed in their professional activity. Progress in information technology as well as communication services and tools impacts the way people think, study, interact and collaborate. A variety of social websites, services and applications such as Facebook, LinkedIn, eBay etc. has become pervasive and ubiquitous. In addition, English is lingua franca of modern e-communication. Writing for social media in English is an expertise students should master to be successful in their social and professional communication in the 21st century. The paper provides the analysis of statistics of the use of English in social media discourse and results of Southern Federal University students interview about their attitude to the respective course supplement to be developed and implemented as part of the ESL curriculum. Consideration is given to the concept of social media, the phenomenon of virtual language identity along with linguistic characteristics of social media discourse being a hybrid verbal behaviour, viewed as a mixture of speaking and writing activities. The authors also focus on the main peculiarities of social media discourse to be taken into account while developing a writing for social media supplement as a plug-in to the ESL university-level course. The supplement is intended to help students develop and improve their communicative competence in the given area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authors of the paper consider writing as a process of activation and further development of students' thinking. They introduce fundaments based on unsatisfactory state of a written expression of present young generation. It is often characterized by no concept, chaos, incoherence, shallow-thinking, illogicality or inaccuracy in language expression. Stated defections also point out problems in cognitive and metacognitive area. During the creation of the mentioned conception the authors focus mainly on pubescent students. In this period the natural gradual development of cognitive and metacognitive processes take place. This development should be steadily and systematically supported during the whole educational process. Within this period, students' written expression is focused largely on explanatory, essay and argumentation texts. Mastering of these texts is conditioned by a considerable level of cognitive functions. Presented didactical concept is based on a strategy where both teacher and student are consistently oriented towards the process of creation of written communiqué in accordance with solution of a given task/problem; they do not tend to the final product only. The authors proceed from the basic classification of the stages of writing processes that are pre-writing, writing and post-writing. Balanced attention should be paid to all these stages. The authors pay attention mainly to direct relations between the given stages and thinking operations that are typical for them and that are developed through its activation and stimulation by a teacher. They warn of the necessity to respect the sequence of the particular stages, which ideally becomes evident in the gradual mastering and improving of the processes. The authors also point out an importance of support of the metacognitive processes and strategies during writing, which leads to the improvement of the cognitive processes and can be activated within the school environment during the intrapersonal and interpersonal communication. All presented activities and procedure suggestions are not only to teach the students to master the simple thinking operations, but mainly to be aware of relations, categorization and inductive and deductive operations. They should also be able to take more variables into the account and to deduce hypotheses which can bring them to both logical and objective arguments and creation of intellectual communiqué that is correct in sense of language and thoroughly structured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign language teaching methodologies make a frequent use of linguistic know-how. Intercomprehension, or interlinguistic comprehension, may be a part of it. The aim of the paper is to present the concept and see its utility in translators and interpreters training keeping in mind that the theoretical and methodological framework for strenghtening intercomprehensive (receptive) skills of translator trainees must always be developed in a close connection to the translatological basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education of the 21st century is aimed at getting students prepared for living and working in a changing global environment as responsible citizens, creative persons and efficient professionals possessing both general and special competencies. In Russian Federation the structure and content of professional competences is determined by state standards for each industry serving as benchmarks for creating study programmes and specified in descriptors as expected learning outcomes. Communicative competence development for master students in Management is of special importance. On the one hand, communicative skills and abilities are stated in the Bologna and UNESCO documents as key competences for any specialist with higher education, on the other, these abilities make an integral part of a professional managerial competence which enables a manager to set objectives for a contact, build communicative interactions, identify one's own and partners' positions in communication and analyse communication results regarding both personal and corporate aims achievement. The objective of this paper is to present the authors' model for communicative competence (CC) development which in our opinion adds to the efficiency of shaping master students' professional competence during training. The proposed model is based on the principles of scientific value, holism, consistency and integrity and integrated into teaching /learning under learner-centered and developmental approaches. The strategy for creating the model of CC development includes using experimental data, developing the structure and algorithm of CC development as well as the content to be taught/learned. Analytical method was employed to assess the efficiency of interaction forms in teaching/learning and for reflective analysis of students' communicative behavior. Strategic method enabled the authors to identify specific characteristics of a manager's CC and structure them into blocks, reveal interrelations of the model components. The developed model can be used in teaching/learning of subjects where CC is stated as expected learning outcome for master students in Management. Some psychological and pedagogical issues as well as procedures for assessing the results of master students' communicative behavior are still to be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]