VAREČKOVÁ, Ľubica, (2018). Potreba výučby jazykov v sociálnej oblasti. České Budějovice: Vysoká škola technická a ekonomická v Českých Budějovicích. 130 p. ISBN 978-80-7468-133-2.
PaedDr. Ľubica Varečková, PhD., submitted for review a scholarly manuscript of a monograph entitled Potreba výučby jazykov v sociálnej oblasti (2018). In the monograph, the author addresses the issue of educational policy with a focus on language education in the field of social services and counselling. The accession of the Slovak Republic to the European Union and the related changes in society, globalization, and large-scale migration movements are currently influencing changes in the requirements for every individual, not only in their personal but also in their professional life. The increased demands concern, among others, workers in helping professions, which are reflected in the requirements for expertise, quality of work performed, supplementary qualification, as well as in the area of language knowledge and skills.
Based on valid European documents in the field of educational policy, which also relate to the mastery of foreign languages, the author analyzes this skill and its necessary implementation into education in the study program Social Services and Counselling, which has a positive impact on graduates of this field and their position in the labor market. She is aware of the importance of implementing European social policy, which presupposes a sufficient number of educated people in the field of social work, into the educational policy of the Slovak Republic in the context of the provided language education in helping professions, to which social services and counselling belong. The inclusion of comprehensive instruction and language education with a European undertone belongs at all educational levels, including lifelong learning. Only active communication in a foreign language, feedback, mutual interaction and acceptance is one of the possibilities when performing the work of a social worker abroad, or work in the process of integration or assimilation of foreigners on one's own territory.
The monograph is based on the author's own experience, who has been working in the field of language teaching for social workers and workers in helping professions at a university for many years. Due to the aforementioned entities, the focus of the work's topic is unique, and through its theoretical content and its treatment within the intentions of the state's social policy, as well as adopted legal norms in the context of current valid legislation, it brings unique perspectives to the environment of theoretical and practical concepts of preparing social workers. Theoretical foundations are mediated throughout the entire content of the work.
The author judiciously set the goal of this elaboration as an analysis of current European documents in the field of educational policy and its gradual development in the area of language education in individual documents, which reflect and express the need for foreign language knowledge when entering the labor market. In connection with these entities, the findings of students' opinions on language education in the field of Social Services and Counselling, its need and use in the practical implementation of social work with clients are also focused, with resulting recommendations that fully reflect valid legislative European documents. Clearly defined objectives of the work in both the theoretical and empirical parts, oriented towards the need for foreign language education and the acquisition of language competences in the field of Social Services and Counselling and its application in providing work in the social field, including the proposed module of quality foreign language teaching in the addressed field as part of long-term, comprehensive foreign language instruction using the CLIL method, correspond to current legislatively grounded requirements.
The author draws on classical methods (analysis of primary and secondary sources, domestic and international comparison, social, psychological and statistical analysis and synthesis, induction, deduction, etc.). In terms of evaluating the knowledge base, the reviewed work has 130 pages, including a list of references and appendices. It is monothematic with a theoretical-empirical character; in her research the author utilized an integrated quantitative-qualitative approach (data collection using a questionnaire technique among students of the 3rd year of bachelor's and the 1st and 2nd year of master's study in the field of Social Services and Counselling at the Faculty of Social Sciences of UCM in Trnava; descriptive statistics were used to characterize all variables — mathematical-statistical methods; logical analysis and synthesis, including the method of generalization of concepts; work in Microsoft Excel 2010 with statistical procedures; the Chi-square test of independence in a contingency table was used to find common relationships between variables) with clearly applied arrangement of data (43 tables, 23 graphs and 1 figure). The language used in the reviewed work is scientifically professional; word formulations and constructions demonstrate the author's orientation in the addressed issues and prove her professional approach. Freely paraphrased scholarly text of several authors is presented, complemented by her own attitudes and thoughts based on her own experience and interest in the addressed issues, including the educational language activity carried out at the university. The work is also easy to read thanks to the logical ordering of chapters.
The first chapter is devoted to the Educational process and languages in Europe and Slovakia (Social policy in relation to education and its European dimension; Important milestones of the European Union in the field of language policy; Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, intentions, tasks, objectives; Current strategy of language education in the Slovak Republic; Working environment and the need for languages in current documents).
The second chapter deals with Modern strategies and needs in foreign language teaching (Development of foreign language didactics; Didactics in the work of a university teacher; Changes in foreign language teaching; Strategies, methods and methodological approaches in foreign language teaching; Communicative or existential level of foreign language proficiency; Cognitive capacity, cognitive approach and cognitive processes in foreign language teaching; Foreign language strategies, skills and atmosphere for teaching; Facilitation and effective communication in a foreign language; Interactive communication; Languages and their need in the social field). The third chapter presents in detail the Research and interpretation of results. The work with scholarly literature is effective; the author generally observes citation standards in accordance with scientific ethics and citations are incorporated adequately into the text in accordance with the required citation standard and speak of the author's great personal and scientific enthusiasm for the researched issues, as well as for the very process and manner of conducting research.
Issues connected with the topic of education in the social sciences with a link to social services and counselling currently belong to topical themes and are closely related to the changing social, political and economic conditions that bring a new dimension and needs for the inhabitants of individual European states. Based on the analyzed materials, comparison of foreign language curricula at selected Slovak universities according to the valid accreditation in the addressed field and the results of her own research, the author points out how necessary and unavoidable foreign language education is in the contemporary world of postmodern society. She details the requirement for a thorough expansion of the portfolio of educational activities in the preparation of university-educated workers in the field of Social Services and Counselling in the form of communicative proficiency in foreign languages and concentration on individual language skills, which will be used even after graduation for the performance of their future profession, not only on the territory of the Slovak Republic, but also as a response to the reflecting and changing conditions and requirements of the open European Union and its labor market.
The presented publication of Ľubica Varečková represents as a whole an undoubted contribution of an erudite and mature author with good analytical skills, enabling one to penetrate beneath the surface of the questions of the addressed issues, which is enhanced by the author's own experience as a university teacher, which is a prerequisite for providing undistorted information on the implementation of language teaching and its importance for helping professions from the perspective of the present time, and not only for this social target group. The timeliness of the presented elaboration, the author's breadth of vision and inventiveness lead the reviewer to the conclusion in which she recommends the publication to scientific and pedagogical workers, as well as to the wider public that deals with the issue of teaching foreign languages in the university environment, in this case the teaching of languages in the social field at universities in the Slovak Republic.
Author: doc. RNDr. Jaroslava Pavelková, CSc. Faculty of Humanities, Tomas Bata University in Zlín Publication: VAREČKOVÁ, Ľubica, (2018). Potreba výučby jazykov v sociálnej oblasti. České Budějovice: Vysoká škola technická a ekonomická v Českých Budějovicích. 130 p. ISBN 978-80-7468-133-2.