Since Lithuania’s integration into the EU the aims and objectives of foreign language teaching/learning have changed dramatically. Since the year 2005 alongside with their diplomas the graduates of the Lithuanian University of health Sciences (LUHS) have to receive foreign language proficiency assessment. The number of foreign students who annually come to LUHS to complete their course in a foreign language is significantly increasing. Therefore the strategy of teaching/learning of Lithuanian as a foreign language is changing as well.

This poster aims to introduce the project which is being carried out at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, to depict the direct (tandem) language teaching/learning method pointing out its advantages and disadvantages in the context of professional language learning; to evaluate its efficiency in the context of intercultural communication. This method has been slightly transformed: i.e., the process of tandem teaching/learning is guided and coordinated by the third person (a teacher). Experimental classes are carried out at university (LUHS) and inter-university (LUHS and VMU) levels in accordance with the main criterion - the students’ native and foreign language proficiency. The choice of tandem method is based on the assumption that it is one of the most pleasant language learning techniques: it increases students’ self-esteem, motivation, raises their intercultural competencies and accelerates the process of their integration into the local community.

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