The St. Petersburg Mining University Linguistics Center developed a unique digital foreign language course for engineers as part of the Scientific Incubator project. Its components are not only textbooks and online tests but also animated situational videos lasting 15 minutes each. The target audience includes young scientists, university professors, and employees of industrial enterprises.
The relevance of the new program is due to the difficult sanitary and epidemiological situation, which often does not allow specialists of mining and fuel and energy companies to participate in training courses in person. In this regard, the demand for electronic sites has increased. However, consumers want to be sure that this format of training will be effectively integrated into the system of additional education. And will not turn into a “tale of wasted time.”
“We were able to find the best combination of learning conversational English and professional communication in a digital format. We also tried to cover as many situations as possible that engineers can face while communicating with foreign partners. Whether it's conferences, seminars, business negotiations, or anything else. This kind of project does not exist today,” assured Irina Gerasimova, Director of the Language Center of Mining University.
She noted that in the case of the production of similar video clips, their diversity would be much less obvious. Animation allows, first, to cover all the necessary thematic areas to enrich the luggage of knowledge, and, secondly, through simple tricks to focus on the most important aspects of learning a foreign language.
“Visual imageries draw attention to the content of the course, not to the figure of the lecturer. A marketing ‘trick’ is that by highlighting certain fragments in color or intonation we let the course participants know that now they need to concentrate on the material as much as possible," said the director of the Center for Continuing Professional Education Mining University Alexei Blinov.
At the moment the University has created 5 situational animation reels. The plan is to release a new series at least twice a month.
