DEVELOPMENT OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ LINGUOCULTURAL COMPETENCE UNDER CONDITIONS OF CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: UKRAINIAN DIMENSION

The aim of the study is to analyse the educational means facilitating the development of the linguocultural competence within the academic environment in Ukraine under conditions of the coronavirus pandemic. About 60 senior students and 15 university instructors giving classes in English and Chinese participated in the research. The research methodology is based on analytical and practical analyses of the normative documents facilitating the correlation of foreign language education standards in Ukraine, Europe and China; interviewing; observation (within the experimental study/training). The results show that all students and instructors admitted the importance of culture-related issues in the process of teaching and learning languages; 99% of the teaching staff and 75% of the students chose a more detailed content of culture-related issues to be taught/learnt; 80% of instructors and 78% of the students highlighted the importance of organising culture-related events. The research results show that it is crucial to accomplish a balanced integration of language and culture in the teaching process. Teachers should clearly understand what cultural information is significant and how to make efficient use of it by applying digital resources. The key issues teachers should pay attention to are the evaluation of cultural information, its accessibility and the most efficient ways to present it to students.