The Peculiarities of Teaching Professional Terminology in English, German, Russian and Latvian to Sport Science Students in Virtual and In-Person Environments

Abstract

The evolution of technologies resulted in the transfer of teaching from the traditional classroom to the online environment in tertiary education, including language teaching. The present study investigates the advantages and limitations of learning sports terminology by sport science students online and face-to-face. A questionnaire to ascertain students’ experiences was distributed to 36 students from different study years, who studied English, German, Russian or Latvian. It was found that both online and face-to-face studies of sport terminology in foreign languages had their advantages and disadvantages from students’ perspectives. Students cited flexibility, access to online materials and choice of learning environment as the main advantages, which is consistent with the findings of other studies of online foreign language studies. The disadvantages relate to technical problems, the studies feeling less personal, difficulty in understanding new material and limited availability of the teacher. The conclusion is that synchronous online live classes would work best if supplemented by continuous support from the teaching personnel, regular offline meetings or classes and access to online resources used for studies outside the online lessons.