Zhovnych O. Methodology of Teaching Professionally Oriented English Writing to Future Journalists by Means of Blog Technologies

The thesis deals with the problem of teaching professionally oriented English writing to future journalists as an essential component of their training in the university. The didactic essence, specificity and lingua-didactic fundamentals of teaching professionally oriented English writing to future journalists have been substantiated. It is indicated that important aspects of the issue of teaching English writing are the concept of computer linguadidactics; the computer-information model of foreign languages teaching; the methods of development of competence in writing in English. The competence of future journalists in English writing has been determined as readiness to use knowledge, abilities and skills in English writing with the professional and communicative purpose in situations of cross-cultural professional contacts. It has been cleared up that the structure of competence in English writing consists of linguistic, discourse, communicative, lingua-socio-cultural and professionally oriented components. The blog technologies have been substantiated as the most expedient technologies in the educational process for future journalists due to the specifics of their further professional activities. The blog technologies enable not only to form knowledge and abilities in English writing of future journalists, but develop motivation, creativity, informative competence and information culture. According to the functional purpose, these technologies have been divided into three types: the teacher blog, the student blog, and the group blog. It allows future journalists to develop components of writing competence efficiently. The content of teaching English writing to future journalists has been determined; it includes such aspects as lexical and grammatical, spelling and punctuation, lexical and stylistic, structural and organizational, subject, communicative, and socio-cultural, professionally oriented (applied). The considered aspects reflect the essence and components of English writing of future journalists and are laid in the basis of the methodology of students’ training in professionally oriented English writing. The main groups of methodological principles which should be taken into consideration in the process of developing the competence in English writing have been grounded. They are the general-didactic principles; the principles of professional education; the principles of learning foreign languages; the principles of teaching foreign language writing; the principles of teaching foreign languages by means of information and communication technology (ICT). The model of teaching professionally oriented English writing to future journalists by means of blog technologies has been developed on the basis of scientific and methodological references and educational experience. It allows to substantiate functions and relationships of all the components of this process; the nature and development of educational interaction; the continuity and consistency in the dynamics of its development in the process of forming the competence of future journalists in English writing.