The method of projects in the process of preparing future teachers of English at a special faculty

One of the most effective methods that make it possible for students to realize their individual needs in accordance with their interests and abilities is, in our opinion, the project method where the acquired knowledge and skills are not the final abstract result of education, but a means of accomplishing their research task. The aim of our research was to work out and experimentally test a long-term educational project «English History through Nursery Rhymes». Experimental test of the long-term educational project was carried out in two steps: ascertaining and formative experiment. The results of the ascertaining experiment showed an insufficient level of the students' presentation skills. The next stage of our research was working on the project that consisted of 8 structural parts. The test conducted after the end of the project showed positive changes in the levels of students' presentation skills. As a result of an anonymous questioning, the difficulties that students had encountered while working on the project were revealed, one of which was an inability to work in a team. The positive aspects that the students noted were the opportunity to widen their horizons, deepen their knowledge in the field of culture and history of the language studied, to acquire the «learning by doing» skill when a language is learned in the process of research, preparation of the material, and presentation of their work results. We came to the conclusion that the use of the project method in the course «Practice of oral and written speech» is methodologically appropriate for the formation and development of the students' presentation skills, communicative competence, sustained motivation, critical and creative thinking, teamwork skills, self-assessment skills.