Professional thesaurus formation of agricultural university students in the process of speech practice with artificial intelligence tools

Importance. There are many artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can be used in teaching students a foreign language, including the formation of their lexical competence. However, the formation of a professional thesaurus for students of non-linguistic specialties through participation in foreign language practice on professional topics with AI is not the subject of a separate study. The goal of the study is to develop a step-by-step technology for the professional thesaurus formation of agricultural university students through practice with AI tools and to test its effectiveness in experimental training.

Materials and Methods. The experiment is conducted by the Voronezh State Agrarian University named after Emperor Peter the Great. The training is attended by undergraduates of the study field 35.04.04 – “Agronomy”. The participants of the control group (CG) (N = 15) are trained according to the traditional teaching method based on the elements of subject-language integrated learning and a foreign language for special purposes. The participants of the experimental group (EG) (N = 15), in addition to the traditional teaching methodology, participated in the practice of professional foreign language communication with the PolyBuzz web application. Statistical analysis of learning outcomes is carried out based on the Student’s t-test method.

Results and Discussion. The experiment proved the effectiveness of a step-by-step technology for the formation of a professional thesaurus for students of an agricultural university using extracurricular practice with the PolyBuzz web application (t = 2.25 at p < 0.05).

Conclusion. The novelty of the study consists in the step-by-step technology development for the professional thesaurus formation for students of an agricultural university using extracurricular practice with the PolyBuzz web application. The prospects of the conducted research consist in further study of the linguodidactic and methodological potential of specific AI tools in the professional training of agricultural university students.

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