From our point of view, a joint project in this area is undoubtedly of mutual interest to teachers of the Harbin Institute of Technology and St. Petersburg State University, and will lead to fruitful results both in terms of exchange of experience, and in terms of developing joint programs, courses and teaching aids.
The goal of the visit to the Harbin Institute of Technology is researching the problems of teaching fundamentals of intercultural communication through teaching ESP, taking into account the shift of focus from a sociocultural approach to multicultural and multilingual one.
The first task in learning English is the effectiveness of communication in various theoretical and practical areas in the multicultural and multilingual community in the era of globalization.
The main objectives of the research project are the following:
1. To investigate the patterns of foreign language teaching for students of Bachelor’s, Master’s and postgraduate programs at the Harbin Institute of Technology
2. To explore the standards of the Harbin Institute of Technology in the field of language education
3. To compare and describe the methodologies of higher professional language education of the Harbin Institute of Technology and Saint Petersburg State University
4. To prepare a Web of Science/Scopus paper on the issues in question
5. To discuss opportunities for future cooperation (joint publications, conferences, students exchange programs)
The project is aimed at extending the existing experience of cooperation between St. Petersburg State University and the Harbin Institute of Technology, covering the humanitarian sphere, namely, the theory of teaching foreign languages and intercultural communication.
To reach the goal the following events are planned:
1. To deliver a set of lectures for language teachers of the Harbin Institute of Technology:
a. Intercultural communication fundamentals in ESP teaching (S. Rubtsova)
b. Methodological fundamentals of cross-cultural communication among professionals of the digital community (M. Kopylovskaya)
c. Academic English of the 21st century from an essay to theses (T. Dobrova)
2. To conduct workshops for language teachers on the use of digital technologies in the development and promotion of the multicultural experience and multilingual community (basing on the analysis of academic discourse)
3. To provide relevant consulting on preparing academic papers in English in a certain professional field