Mobile Applications in Mastering Mining Engineers' Competences

Being one of the leading coal mining regions in the world, Kuzbass (Russia) demands from its regional higher educational institutions to master a range of competences of the graduates, namely mining engineers. Foreign language competence is considered to be among the key ones. The article reveals the concept of the competence, its relevance for mining engineers. We also analyze existing mobile applications from the point of view of their educational potential and present the results of the experiment conducted to assess effectiveness of mobile applications in mastering foreign language competence of mining engineering undergraduates. Our methods included interviews with students, classroom observations and surveys of students. The results suggest that integrating mobile applications in educational process is likely to have a positive impact on foreign language competence and increase students' motivation and satisfaction with foreign language learning.