Empathy in teaching foreign languages in a distance format at universities

¹ Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Department of Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication, Department of Political Science, Moscow, Russia
² Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan

Abstract

Empathy is a key factor in teaching foreign languages, making it possible to establish an emotional connection both between the teacher and students and between students themselves, as well as between students and a target language, which has a positive effect on learning outcomes. The distance learning format is no exception, but it requires more attention to this factor, since there are objective obstacles to the emergence of empathy in a natural way, which often occurs in face-to-face training and requires certain awareness when it is introduced into the educational process by the teacher. The research purpose is to develop practical recommendations for language teachers at universities on the introduction of psychological-methodological elements that contribute to an increase in the empathy of all participants in distance and hybrid classes to improve the effectiveness of learning. The research methodology includes an experiment, observation, deduction, survey, post-analysis. As a result of the study, specific recommendations were formulated to build an emotional connection in distance classes in a foreign language. Thus, it is recommended to use methodological and psychological tools, gamification, and discussion format of classes, to control the dynamics of seminars. Establishing an empathic connection is facilitated by less formal and more benevolent communication at distance seminars, preferably a targeted appeal to students, to the whole group, keeping the camera on and enriching seminars with various emotionally charged and substantive elements, the teacher’s active presence in social networks during off-hours, engaging all types of work in real time: interactive whiteboard, editing shared documents.