Use of authentic materials in teaching english to non-linguistic university students: a neurodidactic and motivational perspective

Abstract

The proposed article is the author's attempt to summarize the available scientific research on the use of authentic language material in teaching English to students whose majors are not related to linguistics, linguodidactics, or foreign language teaching methods. An in-depth analysis of a number of the most modern international and domestic studies in the field of didactics and neurolinguistics helped to integrate several existing approaches to the use of authentic language material in the educational process in order to eliminate the existing gap between the established academic system and the real communication challenges that the professional environment generates. To achieve this goal, the authors carry out a comprehensive analysis of the pedagogical, cognitive and motivational consequences of using authentic materials in classes with students of various specialties. Based on the results of the analysis of scientific literature and empirical data obtained during the experiment in classroom conditions and taking into account the specifics of curricula and methods of knowledge assessment, the researchers propose a structured model of using authentic materials in classes. In this regard, the introduction of the concept of "neurocognitive scaffolding" looks both natural and innovative, which is the scientific novelty of the work. Particular importance in the study is given to the phenomena of "multimodality" and "emotional engagement", which are integrated into specially designed professionally- oriented tasks, which, according to the authors, significantly increases the effectiveness of learning. As conclusions, the authors raise the question that the use of authentic materials in classes with a professionally-colored context should be systematic and natural, since they themselves are motivators for learning, means of activating cognitive activity and positive factors for improving professionally-determined communicative competence.