Yesterday, May 15, the "Linguistic and Didactic Support for Technical Education" section was held at the Belarusian National Technical University. The event took place as part of the 25th International Scientific and Technical Conference "Water. Gas. Heat. 2026."
Dmitry Livansky, Dean of the Faculty of Power Engineering, opened the section. He welcomed the participants and emphasized the importance of integrating new technologies and systems into the educational process. He expressed hope that the conference will become an engaging educational platform for the exchange of cutting-edge ideas.
The participants' presentations focused on current issues in modern foreign language teaching methods, the development of listening skills, and the integration of authentic materials into the educational process to improve the quality of technical education.
Of particular interest was the presentation by Dr. Zahia Farhat, a representative of the University of Tobruk (Libya). Her report and presentation focused on an analytical study of innovations in artificial intelligence and the evaluation of human-neural network interactions in higher education.
– I am very pleased to be here and deliver a presentation to wonderful students and faculty. This conference was very useful for me. There was a lot of new information and excellent presentations; a truly excellent job was done. I especially remember the talk on listening skills and how we can integrate authentic materials to develop listening skills in our students. It was amazing for me, – Dr. Farhat shared.
Answering the question of whether students should be allowed to use artificial intelligence and where the line between benefit and harm lies, Zakhia Farhat noted that the future is inextricably linked with technology, so it cannot be ignored. AI is a great time-saver and aids in searching for information, including when learning foreign languages, but precision and a competent approach are essential.
– Every teacher can immediately determine whether a text was written by a machine or by a student, because we know the true level of our students perfectly well. That's why it's necessary to develop specialized training courses that teach the correct use of these tools and help avoid simple cheating. Artificial intelligence should be our advantage, not a disadvantage, – Zakhia Farhat noted.
As a practical solution, the expert proposed introducing neural networks directly into the classroom:
– We can give students the opportunity to practice right in class, for example, by opening a chatbot and allowing them to work with it under the strict supervision of a teacher. This way, we can guide them, advise them on the reliability of the information provided, and teach them to critically analyze it before using it.
The organizers and participants expressed their deep gratitude to the international guests for their valuable contribution to the overall scientific discussion and their willingness to share best international practices. The work of the section demonstrated its high practical significance for the development of modern education.
