Using LMS moodle for mastering English skills as an interactive competition tool

The paper outlines the use of Learning Management System Moodle as a tool for running an international competition in English. Since 2012 partner universities from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have initiated an international student competition in English based on the facilities and resources of the Moodle platform. The participating students from partner universities were exposed to interactive activities and networking resources with the aim to demonstrate and master their English and communication skills. The use of virtual learning environment was intended to assist students in developing their digital competence as well. The competition included several rounds based on different Moodle features and services and enabled the participants to demonstrate their skills in listening comprehension, reading comprehension, use of English, creative writing, and public speech. The participation of students from different universities and managing the English competition by an international team of teachers are described as challenging experiences that resulted for both sides in promoting their personal and professional development

Adopting the Thesaurus Approach to Develop Textual Competence among International Students while Teaching a Language for Special Purposes: Experience from Russian and Belarusian Higher Institutions

The article addresses the issues of the textual competence formation using the thesaurus approach, and the importance of the textual competence development in foreign students who study in higher educational establishments in Russia and Belarus. It also posits that the textual competence is an important part of the communicative one. The thesaurus approach is proposed as a privileged tool when teaching international students to work with professionally oriented written and oral texts. The article proposes a set of steps (stages) to implement the thesaurus approach. It also introduces a framework of exercises and their types for each of the steps. The research is based on the data collected during English and Russian as a foreign language classes and is conducted in three universities of Russia and Belarus by means of observation, discussion, testing, and statistics analysis. Theoretical ground has been set for further research, focusing on the ways to assess the level of the textual competence development in students