ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 39 (# 20) Year 2018. Page 3

Development of entrepreneurial competence of students through training in business English and information technologies

Desarrollo de la competencia empresarial de los estudiantes mediante la capacitación en inglés comercial y tecnologías de la información

Zuriyat A. MURTAZOVA 1; Lana Z. MURTAZOVA 2

Received: 20/03/2018 • Approved: 18/04/2018

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Materials and methods

3. Results and discussions

4. Conclusions

Bibliographic references

1. Introduction

As it is known, the successful development of the country and the growth of its incomes are closely connected with the development of entrepreneurship and the implementation of business projects. Strategic documents of the federal and regional level mandatory develop tasks for the development of small business and incentives for its activation. At the present stage, the development of entrepreneurship and business activity among young specialists is actively stimulated in the Russian society. Professional associations united representatives of small business are created. The Government of the Russian Federation is also carrying out a number of measures to promote the development of youth entrepreneurship. Thus, in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated May 7, 2012, No. 596 "On Long-Term State Economic Policy," one of the priorities of the long-term economic policy is the creation of high-performance jobs, which requires appropriate modern training programs. All this confirms the importance of developing the modern methodological tools for the implementation of the task (Report on measures… 2015, p. 24).

Russian scientists are actively studying innovative approaches to the entrepreneurship education. So, in the papers of G.N. Franovskaya (2013, p. 192), N.Sh. Zaripova (2014, p. 220), and others the problems of entrepreneurial education were considered. Examples of innovative approach to entrepreneurship education in Russia were presented in the papers of E.A. Shcherbakova (2012, p. 83), Z.A. Murtazova (2017, p. 96), S.V. Khachin et al. (2012, p.137), etc., and the study of entrepreneurial competences was presented in the work of G.V. Shirokova and A.V. Kulikova (2011, p. 120).

However, the development of small business in Russia lags behind the level of countries with developed market economies and this is despite the state interest and all-round assistance (Elizarova et al., 2017; Adamenko et al., 2017; Buley et al., 2017). As it is known, most of the graduates of universities often do not realize their professional capabilities in the chosen specialty. The rest either choose a job which is not related to the specialty they gained, or register as unemployed. In economically developed countries, entrepreneurship is considered as the most successful way of solving the country's economic problems.

G.L. Begiev and A.N. Asaul (2001, p. 95) argue that the main task of entrepreneurship is to create situations that maximize the creative activity, as well as the possibility of implementing the innovative abilities. Indeed, the society needs a purposeful youth, capable of entrepreneurial activity and the implementation of innovative ideas. Therefore, the pedagogical community needs to pay special attention to the formation of entrepreneurial competencies of young people. Under the entrepreneurial competencies we mean the knowledge and skills of a successful business (Rubin, 2014, p. 80). According to a number of scientists, for a successful career, a modern entrepreneur needs to have professional competencies in 5 types of activity: business generation and social initiatives, organizational and management activities, information and analytical activities, calculation and economic activities and production and technology activities (Dheer and Lenartowicz, 2016, p. 12; Safin et al., 2012, p. 82; Schwens et al., 2017, p.5). A special role is given to mastering a foreign language and knowledge in the field of modern computer technologies.

A peculiarity of the author's approach to the formation of entrepreneurial competencies among students is an attempt of comprehensive training in the business foundation, business English and information technologies on the developed modular program. The purpose of the study was to analyze the effectiveness of the developed program on the formation of entrepreneurial competencies among students studying individual training modules on entrepreneurship. In the process of research methods of collection, processing and analysis the information, sociological methods, including expert survey and interview were used.

The study was aimed at solving a set of theoretical and practical problems:

• Analyze the entrepreneurial competencies, the features of their formation and the conditions for their effective development;
• Develop the practical ways of teaching the business foundations and experimentally test their effectiveness as an integrated means of forming the future entrepreneur.

In the process of study a set of theoretical and practical methods of research were applied:

• theoretical analysis of scientific literature
• methods of interviewing, questioning, pedagogical observation
• pedagogical experiment, which consisted in organizing and conducting experimental training on the program developed by the author.

It included three modules: teaching business English, business foundation and information technology and was aimed at developing the entrepreneurial competence of students and provided for:

• activation of students in the classroom: from passive listening to active discussion of problems;
• acquisition by students the necessary knowledge in the field of business English, business and computer technologies;
• developing own startup concept using all the gained knowledge.

The group carried out a special work on the formation of entrepreneurial competencies of students. We have identified the most effective forms and methods of organizing training sessions aimed at achieving the goal. The idea of gaming of the educational process was fundamental. Gaming of the educational process makes it possible to increase the motivation of students, to actualize their subjective position, to increase the interest in the profession (Zichermannin and Linder, 2013, p. 186). Table 1 presents the forms and methods which develop the selected characteristics of entrepreneurial competencies.

Table 1
Development of entrepreneurial competences

Experimental training was conducted in Kabardino-Balkar State University in 2016. 20 students aged 22-26 years who received a bachelor's degree in various specialties were involved in the training process. To assess the initial level of proficiency in business English and computer technologies important for the entrepreneurship at the course beginning, the available level of knowledge and skills necessary to study the entire course was revealed. The students were offered tasks in a test form and, based on the results obtained the author's program was compiled, which included three main modules: business English, business foundations and modern information technologies, and an additional module on improving the entrepreneurial skills and developing the leadership skills (enhancement activities).

The students were trained during one academic year, twice a week, 2 hours for each class. The following methodical techniques were used: interviews, heuristic conversations, case-study technology, reasoning, discussions, role-playing games, problem statement of questions, etc. In the process of forming the entrepreneurship skills, it was important to teach the students to generate knowledge, carrying out research in the development of new areas of entrepreneurship or new problems in already known business areas (Murtazova, 2017, p. 100). Great importance was attached to the formation of leadership qualities and the development of emotional intelligence of students, as this will allow solving the tasks facing the modern business community more qualitatively (Khlevnaya and Garnov, 2011, p. 75). Emotional intellect of the entrepreneur is understood by the author as a cognitive ability to perceive and analyze emotions, to increase the effectiveness of thinking with the help of emotions, to understand emotions and emotional manifestations and to reflectively control emotions (Mayer et al., 2004, p. 200). A number of trainings were held in this direction: "Wheel of emotions of R. Pluchek", "The power of empathy", "Emotional skills" with the involvement of practicing psychologists for a deeper understanding of this competence. Also business trainings with the participation of successful entrepreneurs of the region in the framework of the program "You are an entrepreneur", "Great pumping", "Women entrepreneurship", "Startup", etc were conducted. In the modeling the future professional activity of entrepreneurs, an important place is occupied by business games. They are a part of professional activity. The series of business games were carried out within the framework of the World Entrepreneurship Week.

A special role in the training is played by the analysis of entrepreneurial activities in the region using the SWOT technology, which later allowed students to determine exactly the real possibilities of opening their own business. Also, the students studied the well-known and effective technology of setting and formulation of goals (SMART), which will help to better define the tasks and ways to solve them in entrepreneurship (Danchenok and Nevostruev, 2014, p. 70).

The implementation of the all above mentioned tasks allowed using the latest information technology (Web 2.0), as this is the most effective tool for the development of entrepreneurial thinking at the present stage. The students studied such programs as Slide Share, Prezi, Animoto.com, Team Viewer, Wiki, Google Drive, Cloud, Voxopop and many others, which allowed taking a fresh look at the use of the latest programs in business. Electronic forms of training allowed students to learn a lot from the field of computer technologies applicable in entrepreneurship, as well as improve the quality of traditional education, allowing them to study the learning material independently at a time convenient for the student.

One of the components of success in entrepreneurship is a good knowledge of business English. At the present stage of the development of society, the ability to use English competently in the business sphere is required. Business language is different from the everyday one and has its own nuances and features. We offered to the students the module "Business English", which includes the terminology of conducting telephone conversations, presentations, business idioms, summaries, preparation for the interview and many other questions (Eugstera and Hasanov, 2016; Hasanov, 2016). Much attention is paid to the development of business communication skills, the removal of the language barrier, the development of skills in the preparation of summaries and reports as well as negotiation. The peculiarity of the program is that the studied business English language becomes more complicated as the material passes. By the middle of the course, students can cope with more complex assignments, such as listening to a lecture from the Internet site TED.com and presenting its content or delivering presentations in English on a specific business topic.

Also, we cannot fail to point out the important role of the use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC, from English massive open online course), which is one of the most innovative technologies of modern education. MOOC is a special kind of online learning, built on the principles of the open learning, which implies a wide range of freedom for admission to MOOC, training from any level, training free for choosing the learning environment, aimed at the self-development of the learner, and a number of others more. In this case, the students studied the online courses of the University of Pennsylvania (USA) "Career growth" and "English for business and entrepreneurship" on the Coursera platform, which allowed the deeper penetrating into the sphere of entrepreneurship using business English and modern information technologies.

Thus, we can conclude that the pilot training on the development of entrepreneurial competencies can significantly increase the business potential of students. In the final questionnaire, students indicated that their knowledge of entrepreneurship, information technology and business English had improved. At the end of the course, 100% of students decided on the subject of their entrepreneurial activities and made business plans in two languages. Moreover, all students could make a resume in two languages and competently prepare for an interview.

Figure 1 shows a pie chart showing the ratio of employed listeners after the course described above. As can be seen from the figure, 60% of the listeners succeeded in finding a job and started their duties by the end of the course, 20% of students prepared all the documents to open their startups, 10% of students opened their business through Internet resources, and 10% were in search of sponsors for realization of their business plans.

Figure 1
Self-determination of students after the end of the course,%

The results of this project were described in the handbook and were announced in the poster presentation at the TESOL World Teachers Convention in Seattle, USA in March 2017, which aroused great interest among the pedagogical community. The described experience has found a response also in the Russian educational space and successfully implemented in 12 regions of Russia.

In conclusion, it should be said that the program is a great success. The course participants mastered the business foundations, learned the modern information technologies Web 2.0, which are extremely necessary for a modern business person. Also, students learned how to correctly compose business plans, prepare and conduct presentations in English, effectively use English in their professional activities (trips, negotiations and meetings), compile a resume in English, freely master the information on finding the distance courses required for the profession on Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Among the entrepreneurial competencies that received the most attention there were: the ability to work in a team, the ability to set and solve innovative tasks; ability to take risks; ability to conduct business negotiations. For the formation of the mentioned competencies such technologies as online learning (MOOC), case study technology, team facilitation and business game formats were used.

The approaches considered in the paper to the development of organizational and methodical modules for the formation of entrepreneurial competences of students can be applied in any educational institutions for the training of students of entrepreneurial activity.

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1. Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences. Kabardino-Balkarian State University. E-mail: murtazovaz@mail.ru

2. Student. Kabardino-Balkarian State University. E-mail: lana.murtazova@mail.ru