ORGANIZING STUDENTS’ SELF-STUDY AS A COMPONENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The article substantiates the theoretical and methodological foundations of organizing students’ independent work in foreign language instruction at higher education institutions. Independent work is considered as an integral system of organizational, psychological, and didactic components of educational activity aimed at developing personal and professional autonomy of future specialists. The structure of independent work as an activity is analyzed, including its subject, object, motives, goals, conditions, process, product, and learning outcomes. Particular attention is paid to internal and external conditions of students’ learning activity, as well as to the role of motivation, cognitive interest, and professional orientation in the process of foreign language acquisition. The system of general didactic, professionally oriented, and linguodidactic principles of organizing independent work is revealed. Among them, the principles of activity, consciousness, systematicity, accessibility, professional orientation, and communicative-functional focus of instruction are identified as key. It is proved that the main goal of independent work in foreign language learning at higher education institutions is the formation of foreign language communicative competence, information culture, and readiness for professional self-education. Models of interaction between the teacher, the learner, and the learning material, as well as forms of organizing independent work (individual, pair, group, and collective), are outlined. A classification of methods for organizing independent work into training and research-oriented methods is proposed depending on the nature of activity and the level of students’ autonomy. The results of the study can be used to improve the content and organization of students’ independent work in the process of foreign language learning.