Education of Future Language Workers: Supporting Students’ Startups as a Teaching Strategy

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Abstract

The article discusses the role of student start-ups in general and their introduction into the academic curriculum as graduation projects in particular. The paper provides an overview and short history of the student start-up as a concept and the term, underlining, on the one hand, a contemporary demand for student entrepreneurship encouragement, their social capital built-up and University-industry collaboration but problematic ambiguity of their realization, on the other. The authors claim the innovations as it goes is most challenging for both teachers and students of non-business academic programs and requires a certain shift in teaching strategies as well as the curriculum. The paper dwells on the existing background of student start-ups in non-business fields and underlines that in such circumstances teaching and extracurricular activities become a major tool to promote the entrepreneurial intentions among the students. The authors claim the academic training can benefit from a suchlike approach and the transdisciplinary projects may serve as a practice-oriented cumulative ground for student start-ups. The paper illustrates how these projects can be implemented. The authors have stepped up their efforts towards introducing a student start-up to show how a certain student project can later launch them into business resulting in creating a new venture.

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Introduction

The research of students’ startups in entrepreneurship and the university's entrepreneurial ecosystems is still rather limited, but the number of publications has been growing recently [4-10; 12; 15-17; 20]. Most authors emphasize the importance of entrepreneurship education and requirements for the university entrepreneurial environment.

Many of the world's leading firms have been founded by students and recent graduates. The success of students’ startups can be explained by different factors. Margaret Dalziel and Nada Basir argue that ‘student ventures are technologically more proximate to highly ranked university departments and to more innovative work term employers, and the students' software skills impact their ability to invent in proximity to their work term employer’ [5]. Meanwhile, the differences between the characteristics of university and corporate startup entrepreneurs is not large [4]. In both cases education in general, and entrepreneurship education, in particular, play a very important role, as well as public support programs for (academic) startups. Start-ups need support from the authorities at different levels; otherwise, if the feasibility of the project seems to be uncertain for the students, they will not be able to overcome the challenges. Entrepreneurial intentions are fundamental in the entrepreneurial process, yet their transformation into actual behavior isn't guaranteed, as supported by existing evidence [10]. Experiential learning and university-industry collaboration contributes to startups [15]. The importance of self-regulated learning, team learning and psychological safety is discussed in detail in [9].

Some authors study the factors of the university environment and its readiness to help students in their first carrier steps, such as the relations between the factors of the start-up environment and entrepreneurial intentions of students in universities [16]. If a startup is created within the structure of a university, not only specialists in the field corresponding to the main specialty, in this case – a foreign language (philology), but also specialists in economics, mathematical statistics, computer science, etc. should take an active part in its development.

As a preliminary part of work on setting a students’ startup some universities organize seminars which enable student entrepreneurs to learn more about the field of their potential applications. These seminars are action-oriented, and the students are mentored by the invited representatives from the startup scene. The students write reflective diaries, fill out the standardized evaluation forms for each seminar and provide feedback on the course [6; 17].

Organization of students’ startups brings non-monetary benefits to both the university and students, as there happen ongoing interactions with various stakeholders in the field of the respective application. However, students’ startups in the jobs connected with languages are not widely presented in the literature. The article by Steven Fraiberg [7] can be the exception. The lean startup method (a collection of tools and techniques that can be employed to build business ventures faster and at a lower cost) might be suitable for the students’ startups in this sphere. It can be used as the basis of an experiential learning program, with learning defined as the change in knowledge or skills produced by a certain experience [9].

Problem analysis and proposed solutions

In contemporary university environment, the changes mentioned depend heavily on whether the Bachelor or Master programs are business oriented [21]. If yes, it is obviously easier for both the teachers and their students to join the trend since it is a familiar domain for them. In most other cases, for students specializing in the fields less business or economy related, teaching and extracurricular activities become a major tool to promote the entrepreneurial intentions among the students. Teaching strategies adjust and become multidimensional and more context centered [18; 19]. Deciding to introduce student start-up as a graduation project for students of linguistics, pedagogy, biology and even engineering demands crucial shifts in teaching strategies and methods since now it is not only necessary to train students to become more complete entities of knowledge, skills and attitudes but also to ensure effective teaching and learning of that specific topic.

Therefore, the teacher begins to plan carefully teaching activities to promote project oriented entrepreneurial thinking. Individual and team efforts are invested into looking for commercially potential activities in a certain field of studies as a basis for a multidisciplinary student start-up: they 1) find a specific need for the consumer, 2) improve or speed up an existing business, 3) make expensive products/services available less costly or time and effort consuming.

Borrowing from and lending to the knowledge and skills from different disciplines to solve a problem, students benefit from the translation of knowledge gained through academic learning and research into practice by means of creating a project that can later launch them into business.

In this article, we will turn not so much to the theoretical aspects of a student start-up but more specifically try to highlight the educational potential of such academic integration with everyday entrepreneurship. It should be noted that the Department of Philology, Linguodidactics and Translation of the NVSU for a certain period on a regular basis have carried out suchlike projects.

In terms of creating the necessary project environment, content and implementation requirements, developing analysis, etc., the basic concepts of a student start-up can successfully rely on and derive from the transdisciplinary projects designed and implemented by the department [2; 14]. The following criteria and requirements seem to be crucial.

  • The ideas forwarded should be commercially reliable and potentially profitable.
  • The project is fully aimed at creating a bridge between NPD learning and practice.
  • Group teacher guided research or self-regulated learning is required.
  • Creating a new venture or solving a startup problem should be a final aim.

In what follows, we illustrate the concept of a lean student start-up, that is a business project based on the collection of existing tools and techniques that can be employed to build business ventures faster and at a lower cost through a student start-up NordWord, a business linguistic support center.

At the initial preparatory stage, the teacher set the project goals, specified and assigned the tasks, framed the objectives and shaped the working team. The students 1) conducted SWAT analysis, 2) weighed the risks of potential competition, 3) studied the target consumer preferences as well as the market capacity. They carried out independent research using industry publications and resources, mastering engine statistics and so on. The teaching strategy here was to plan carefully the teaching activities and design actions to achieve a specific goal or series of goals to implement the project desired. At this stage, the technological tools and project agenda were outlined, the concepts, ideas, and deadlines for individual tasks and the entire project as a whole were negotiated and determined. The project maintenance and monitoring were carried out and supported by weekly meet-ups and progress discussions.

The results implemented were presented as a graduation project, e.g. designed as business linguistic support center online which is aimed at channeling and supporting local businesses go global.

 

Pic. Business linguistic support center web site

 

Conclusion

The project implemented and its presentation revealed a need to reinvent certain strategies and methods in translator education to include and develop new career oriented projects beside the traditional career orientation of today. Start-up projects are realistic, engaging, and appealing but also shape the students’ minds towards gaining constructive cumulative knowledge and advancing their integrated skills, rather than staying within the narrowing brackets of traditional academic disciplines.

The one-semester “Startup Experience” is welcome into the curriculum as it enables student entrepreneurs to explore potential applications based on existing business experiences and low-cost technologies.

The framework of the carried research serves only as an initial step in circulating the start-up approach in the translators’ academic education highlighting teamwork and learning, entrepreneurship encouragement and University-industry collaboration.

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About the authors

Svetlana Y. Bogdanova

Irkutsk State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: nina.plastinina2011@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4804-4788

Doctor of Philological Sciences

Russian Federation, Irkutsk

Nina A. Plastinina

Nizhnevartovsk State University

Email: nina.plastinina2011@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7658-890X
ResearcherId: GSO-3432-2022

Candidate of Philological Sciences, Assistant Professor

Russian Federation, Nizhnevartovsk

Marina A. Stepanova

Nizhnevartovsk State University

Email: nina.plastinina2011@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6351-408X
ResearcherId: GSO-2809-2022

Candidate of Philological Sciences, Assistant Professor

Russian Federation, Nizhnevartovsk

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