(489)MATURITY OF THE ACADEMIC STAFF AS A MOTIVATIONAL FACTOR TO DEVELOP THEIR PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH

摘要

The processes of globalization in all the spheres of human activity cause an urgent need for theintegration of Russian education system into the world academic environment. One of the mainobstacles to the integration is the lack of fluency in English of Russian academic staff. As theresponse to the urgent need to enhance the academic staff fluency in English the senior staff of theSouth Ural State University initiated the programme of additional language training "Lingva". 250members of the academic staff have been trained and the programme is clearly proved to be effective.However, the issues of improving the programme are always the focus of those responsible for it. Acritical aspect here is the feedback from the academic staff involved in training and the study of factorsthat influence the outcomes.The goal of the study was to identify the level of maturity of the academic staff participating in theprogramme. The paper defines the concept of maturity, identifies its key characteristics for theacademic staff (autonomy, intrinsic motivation, high level of emotional intelligence, tolerance, selfreflection,flexibility, accepting yourself and others). Based on the analysis made the questionnaire forthe academic staff was devised focused on determining the level of the academic staff maturity.The results of the survey were processed with a computer program "Statistical Package for the SocialSciences" (SPSS). We used the methods of descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, varianceanalysis, multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis.This study shows a high level of maturity of the academic staff mastering their English language skills.It also demonstrates their strong motivation, ability to set goals, assess strengths and weaknesses,and monitor the progress. The analysis of the questionnaire reliability revealed the possibility todecrease the number of survey statements, though, increase their level of consistency, which isimportant for improving the methodology for further surveys and research. Cluster analysis helped todefine the optimal number of clusters to split the academic staff. The characteristics of the clustersformulated give the possibility to choose the appropriate methodology, to adjust the education processto a particular group of learners.