Asta Statkevičienė

Value-added Experience Through Just a Step Aside

Value-added Experience Through Just a Step Aside

Asta Statkevičienė,

Lecturer of English, Institute of Foreign Languages,

Faculty of Philology, Vilnius University, Lithuania

The presentation contains the experience of the past eight years teaching English to students at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (MIF). Specifically, it provides an overview of the practical enrichment of the assignments included into the Course Description. This includes the application of three interdisciplinary CLIL modules integrated into the language teaching curriculum during the study years of 2017-2019 and two trans-faculty Student Conferences of 2022 and 2024. Challenges and benefits will be highlighted, focusing on interdisciplinarity and students’ empowerment for future work and life. Students’ feedback will also be presented and analysed.

Aditionally, a future virtual exchange (VE) project will be introduced. The project is planned for the implementation in the autumn semester of 2024. The VE project will be based on a debate assignment conducted between MIF students and Bologna University students from Italy, thus achieving the highly desired international dimension. By participating in the international VE project, students will have a brilliant opportunity to experience technology-based interaction, communicate with another culture, and gain an international perspective on the content discussed. Moreover, students will develop their soft skills. Exposure to different worldviews and attitudes will impact students’ motivation to learn, exchange ideas, accept diverse opinions, and build their own arguments, all of which will enhance their critical thinking.

Key words: interdisciplinary, CLIL, virtual exchange project, soft skills, critical thinking

Asta Statkevičienė is a lecturer at the Institute of Foreign Languages, within the Faculty of Philology at Vilnius University (VU). Her research interests include language teaching methodology, with a particular focus on interdisciplinary approaches, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and the integration of international virtual exchange projects. These projects aim to internationalize the language teaching syllabus by developing soft skills in parallel with subject-related content.