USING TEST TASKS FOR LEARNING TECHNICAL ENGLISH IN A HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to highlight the use of a system of test tasks in a technical higher educational institution for mastering and assimilating professional vocabulary (the specialty «Fire Safety» is given as an example). For this, the types of test questions, their goals and objectives are considered. The work also indicates the advantages and disadvantages of using the test system for mastering technical texts in the specified field. In addition, attention is paid to the expediency of using the test system when learning a foreign language in a technical higher education institution. In the scientific work a number of various test tasks are presented, which are advisable to use when mastering professional terminology. Test tasks are considered as a kind of training exercises, which are aimed at consolidating the acquired knowledge and working out the lexical minimum. The use of a system of test tasks is appropriate and effective in combination with certain educational complexes. Using the example of the Career Paths educational series of Express Publishing, namely the «Firefighter» educational complex, an algorithm for working with technical texts was proposed, which aims to effectively master professional vocabulary for further work with professional texts. We have chosen the specialty «Fire safety» to give examples of practical test tasks, which are preceded by work with professional texts and a lexical minimum. Test tasks should become a kind of exercise in learning vocabulary, because the constant repetition of certain words or certain set expressions leads to their automatic memorization. Test tasks can simultaneously perform several functions, namely, contribute to the automatic memorization of certain material through constant repetition; to assess the level of mastery of the material; to identify problematic parts that need more time or even need to be redone.