Suchergebnisse

The South African politician, president and philanthropist Nelson Mandela once said: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart" ([1]). It is a widely held view that the knowledge of a foreign language plays an important role in young people's lives and their future career pathways. If an employee knows one or two foreign languages, then it increases his chances of being promoted and receiving a more attractive and lucrative job. Today in Russia there are a lot of opportunities to study different foreign languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, etc.). Private language schools and state universities provide multiple foreign language programs where young people can improve their second language skills and further apply them for specific business purposes. This research investigates the role of Russian university students' instrumental motivation in the foreign language acquisition as a part of their professional self-realization. Motivation or "a motive force" is a state of cognitive and emotional arousal, a state which leads to a conscious decision to act and gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort ([2]). Students with an instrumental motivation want to learn a foreign language for practical reasons such as passing exams, furthering their careers or getting social and economic reward through L2 learning. Special motivation questionnaires and surveys were designed and conducted to estimate the instrumental motivation level of Russian students in three higher education institutions: RUDN University, Moscow State Pedagogical University (Moscow); and Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical University (Chelyabinsk). University students' learning behaviors and learning outcomes were used as predictor and criterion variables in a series of quantitative and qualitative analyses. The findings introduce the correlation between university students' professional self-realization and their foreign language acquisition. The study also reinforces young individuals' instrumental motivation and attitudes in learning foreign languages for their business purposes in the modern world. Some recommendations are developed for foreign language teachers on how to manage the level of their students' motivation for better L2 acquisition results.

The mass media of the first decades of the new millennium (the new media), are characterized not only by the paramount informing function, but they are also distinguished by their ability to interact and influence the target audience in both spontaneous and dramatized modes. Simple navigation and a quick and easy access to their content stand behind the increasing popularity of the new media among younger generation. Modern new media provide the discourse space where young people, or "the millennials", feel as if they are in the centre of various political, social and economic events; the so-called "Big Brothers" having impact on people's life in the society. Taking into account the facts which are directly connected with the existence of the youth in the media discourse space this paper aims to track and analyze the influence of the new media on the bachelor's and master's students' professional self-concept. Our research introduces the working hypothesis that today's media discourse space affects both directly and indirectly on university students, no matter what their future specialization is. Our students' survey was conducted in three Russian higher education institutions: Institute of philology and foreign languages, Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPSU, Moscow); Faculty of Science and Technology, Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical University (CSPU, Chelyabinsk); and Ecological faculty, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (PFUR, Moscow). The survey included the responses of the junior and senior bachelor's students as well as the first and the second year master's students. Young respondents were asked to evaluate the degree of the perceived information credibility, a positive and negative impact of present-day social networks on the younger generation and on their professional future; foreign languages and cultural knowledge; the students' ability to interact with a foreign media discourse space, reading and leaving comments about different events in the Russian and foreign new media. Therefore, we established the correlation between the various types of variables which compose the system of the media discourse space and the students' multiple reactions to their comprehension of the new media. The key influencing factors in the course of information exchange between students' world perception and the media world were defined. The main conclusions about the extent of the new media influence (or its absence) on bachelor's and master's students and their professional development were drawn in the research.

In the present-day globalized world new media with their distinctive features have brought human society to a highly interconnected and complex level, penetrating and dissolving human boundaries and influencing the way we live, think and behave. The cyberspace formed by the new media allows people to generate virtual experience and reality. Moreover, it effectuates the free alteration of one's gender, appearance, ideology, occupation, personal and professional needs and values ([1]). Our research focuses on the discussion of the relationship between the new media environment and university students' perception of their professional values in the modern conditions of globalization. In fact, the globalization of young individuals' culture, ideology and lifestyle has become a conceptual magnet attracting research and theorizing efforts from a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinary formations such as psychology, political science, cultural, communication and media studies, cognitive linguistics, journalism and sociology. Multiple studies as well as our own findings show that many young people today see the meaning of life in interesting work, in their welfare, in the humanization of social relations and in building a truly democratic state, whose activities would be aimed at creating conditions for the harmonious development of a man ([2]). The formation of new media community that crosses all the boundaries of human society definitely challenges the way young individuals perceive their common life principles and professional values. And this community is also able to affect young people's professional consciousness and its key psychological mechanisms - goal-setting, professional reflection and professional self-concept - as it is stated in this paper below.

The mass media of the first decades of the new millennium (the new media) are characterized not only by the paramount informing function but they are also distinguished by their ability to interact and influence the target audience in both spontaneous and dramatized modes. Simple navigation and a quick and easy access to their content stand behind the increasing popularity of the new media among younger generation. Modern new media provide the discourse space where young people, or 'the millennials', feel as if they are in the center of various political, social and economic events; the so-called 'Big Brothers' having impact on people's life in the society. Taking into account the facts that are directly connected with the existence of the youth in the media discourse space, this article aims to track and analyze the influence of the new media on the bachelor's and master's students' professional selfconcept. Our research introduces the working hypothesis that today's media discourse space affects both directly and indirectly on university students, no matter what their future specialization is. Our students' survey was conducted in three Russian higher education institutions: Institute of philology and foreign languages, Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPSU, Moscow); Faculty of Science and Technology, South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University (SUSHPU, Chelyabinsk); and Ecological faculty, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University, Moscow). The survey included the responses of the junior and senior bachelor's students as well as the first- and the second-year master's students. Young respondents were asked to evaluate the degree of the perceived information credibility, a positive and negative impact of present-day social networks on the younger generation and on their professional future; foreign languages and cultural knowledge; the students' ability to interact with a foreign media discourse space, reading and leaving comments about different events in the Russian and foreign new media. Therefore, we established the correlation between the various types of variables that compose the system of the media discourse space and the students' multiple reactions to their comprehension of the new media. The key influencing factors in the course of information exchange between students' world perception and the media world were defined. The main conclusions about the extent of the new media influence (or its absence) on bachelor's and master's students and their professional development were drawn in the research.