Integration of online study techniques in the process of teaching foreign languages to non-philological university students

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Integration of online study techniques in the process of teaching foreign languages to non-philological university students

Olena Kravets,

PhD (pedagogical sciences), associate professor, Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University

Iryna Sviridenko,

PhD (pedagogical sciences), associate professor, Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University

Continuous learning is a major prerequisite for maintaining an adequate professional level. An important tool to help a person exercise his/her right to education, to obtain new information, to engage in continuous learning and develop independent learning skills is an online study mode. The main task of a higher educational institution is to create conditions for the formation of a personality possessing the qualities which are necessary for a contemporary individual: the ability to act independently and actively, to take decisions, to adapt oneself to changing life circumstances, to improve and develop oneself. The article deals with possible ways of developing and improving students' language skills by means of integrating online study techniques in the process of teaching foreign languages to non-philological university students. The task of the teacher is to organize students' independent work which is extremely important for teaching at higher educational institutions. Analysis of recent publications was made. The author analyzes the concept of distanced teaching mode as a motivating factor in studying foreign languages, as it facilitates the formation of students' general cultural and professional competences. The educational information design technology in foreign languages at non-philological faculty has been proposed. It has been proved the basic criterion of effective informational product - information-oriented competence of professional foreign language knowledge.

Key words: online study mode; foreign language study; higher educational institutions; process of self-education; process of continuous learning.

continuous learning online study

Кравець Олена Євгенівна,

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент, Житомирський державний університет імені Івана Франка,

Свириденко Ірина Миколаївна,

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент, Житомирський державний університет імені Івана Франка

ВИКОРИСТАННЯ ОНЛАЙН-НАВЧАННЯ В ПРОЦЕСІ ВИВЧЕННЯ ІНОЗЕМНОЇ МОВИ НА НЕФІЛОЛОГІЧНИХ ФАКУЛЬТЕТАХ ВИЩИХ УЧБОВИХ ЗАКЛАДІВ

У статті розглянуто можливі шляхи розширення та удосконалення особистих навичок студентів при вивченні іноземної мови за допомогою онлайн-навчання на нефілологічних факультетах. Завдання викладача - організувати самостійну роботу студентів, адже це є надзвичайно важливим для навчання у вищих навчальних закладах. Автор аналізує поняття дистанційного навчання як мотивуючого фактору при вивченні іноземної мови, так як воно сприяє формуванню загальнокультурних та професійних компетенцій студентів.

Ключові слова: режим он-лайн дослідження, вивчення іноземних мов, вищі учбові заклади, освітній процес, процес безперервного навчання.

Кравец Елена Евгеньевна,

андидат педагогических наук, доцент, Житомирский государственный университет имени Ивана Франка

Свириденко Ирина Николаевна,

андидат педагогических наук, доцент, Житомирский государственный университет имени Ивана Франка

ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ ОНЛАЙН-ОБУЧЕНИЯ В ПРОЦЕССЕ ИЗУЧЕНИЯ ИНОСТРАННОГО ЯЗЫКА НА НЕФИЛОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ФАКУЛЬТЕТАХ ВЫСШИХ УЧЕБНЫХ ЗАВЕДЕНИЙ

В статье рассматриваются возможные пути расширения и совершенствования личных навыков студентов в изучении иностранного языка посредством онлайн обучения на нефилологических факультетах. Задача преподавателя - организовать самостоятельную работу студентов, что крайне важно для обучения в высших учебных заведениях. Автор анализирует понятие дистанционного обучения как мотивирующего фактора в изучении иностранных языков, так как он способствует формированию общекультурных и профессиональных компетенций студентов.

Ключевые слова: режим он-лайн исследования, изучение иностранных языков, высшие учебные заведения, образовательный процесс, процесс непрерывного обучения.

1. Introduction.

Statement of the problem. Continuous learning is a major prerequisite for maintaining an adequate professional level. An important tool to help a person exercise his/her right to education, to obtain new information, to engage in continuous learning and develop independent learning skills is an online study mode. The task set for the system of online study by contemporary society is to provide each person with free access to education throughout the person's life, considering personal interests, talents and requirements [1; 2; 3].

Today we can speak with complete confidence about the formation of the global informational process. Information technologies have become the tool for creating global thinking; people feel to be the citizens not only of their own countries, but of the whole world. New information technology-based studying methodology is actively used in various educational institutions of varied forms and levels. Among the basic features of this study mode are absence of geographical boundaries and tolerance of considerable variations in the distance between the teacher and the learner. Online study mode is also called distanced learning (derived from the English noun `distance'), that is studying at a distance. Another term for this methodology is `distant' (from the English adjective `distant', or online). Among other terms are `open education', flexible education', and the most recent term `e-learning'.

Analysis of recent publications. Last decade has seen considerable scientific interest to distanced education as a means of new language learning possibilities available to the audience throughout the world. Significant contribution to teacher education at a distance was made by Howard and McGrath (1995), Nunan (1999) and others. Serious research of approaches to distanced language learning was done by Roger and Wolf (2000 descriptive studies); case studies (Crooks and Lamy 1995); pilot studies (Clisan); multiple-method, qualitative studies and research design (White 1999). In Ukraine the idea of distanced education hasn't been so widely developed. It can be explained by a difficult economic situation in our country and the absence of ICT base for education of such type. Among Ukrainian scientists who have studied this problem are Ye. A. Azimov, M. A. Bovtenko, L. F. Dunayeva,O. P. Kriukova, Ye. S. Polat, O. I. Rudenko-Morgun, and others.

The aim of the article. The main task of a higher educational institution is to create conditions for the formation of a personality possessing the qualities which are necessary for a contemporary individual: the ability to act independently and actively, to take decisions, to adapt oneself to changing life circumstances, to improve and develop oneself. Nowadays the idea of distanced language learning is drawing increasing attention in the Ukrainian society as it offers a unique opportunity to improve the knowledge of a foreign language.

Results

The main body. What is distanced language learning? There are many different points of view on this topic. An attempt to develop a theoretical framework for understanding the essentials of distanced language learning comes from White (2003) based around the notion of the learner-context interface. The concept of the interface emphasizes distanced learning as the relationship and interaction between the learner and learning materials. Shield, Hauck and Hewer have developed the idea of distanced learning as language tutor - student(s) online communication. An important study investigating how students respond to different course development approaches comes from Reynard. He describes this process in two modes: a correspondence program described as a linear-lock-stepped environment, and an online program providing Internet-based open self-selection of all content.

Ye.S. Polat considers online mode to be both a form and one of the components of the whole system of education. According to her, online mode of education is the form of education when a teacher-student and student-student intercommunication is exercised at a distance and reflects all components that the educational process includes (the purpose, the content, the methods, the organizational forms, the training resources), and they are realized by special IT-means or other means provided by the idea of interactive training [4].

Online study facilitates the realization of a contemporary educational paradigm with its integral components: individually oriented teaching, personalization and differentiation of teaching activity, the possibility of off-line teaching, students' self-education and self-development [5]. This teaching mode is also a motivating factor in studying foreign languages, as it facilitates the formation of students' general cultural and professional competences, a communicative foreign competence being the first and foremost of them.

According to N.Yu. Gutariova, the main peculiarity of online study is the indirect nature of telecommunication teacher-student interactions, and limited possibilities of the interlocutors' direct interaction resulting from it. This study mode allows maximum activation of students' independent work which is extremely important for teaching at higher educational institutions, because a future professional must know how to organize his/her cognitive activity independently [6].

With the appearance and active use of global networks with their complete set of informational and communication methods, representatives of linguo-didactical science for the first time obtained the possibility of appropriate presenting of the issue as to teaching foreign languages at a distance (Ye.A. Azimov, Ye. S. Polat, O.P. Kriukova, O.I. Rudenko-Morgun, M.A. Bovtenko, L.F. Dunayeva and others). It was specified in the course of the research that effective on-line teaching of foreign languages must be built on the basis of specially constructed virtual speech environment, which includes a complex of on-line educational, applied, instrumental and communicative means which enable the organization of a full-scale educational interaction both of currently contacting subjects of educational process and those divided by distance and time, with the use of the latest pedagogical technologies. Unfortunately, Ukraine doesn't possess an adequately developed informational and educational infrastructure, while national linguo-didactics can offer a repertoire of educational on-line services to a broad circle of consumers. We'd like to note that the global Internet provides a lot of information, enables easy access to original materials, which in its turn produces a positive impact on educational process. Consequently, foreign language teaching should focus on the student's independent cognitive activity.

At the contemporary stage of distant teaching of foreign languages, it is possible to consider the on-line mode as an effective technology of forming a foreign-language communicative competence. The basis of on-line teaching of a foreign language is made of a real situation of communicative interaction, which is directly exercised by means of telecommunicational oral and written interaction between interlocutors. Such authors as Ye.S. Polat, M.Yu. Bukharkina, O.O. Andreyeva, V.P. Kineleva consider that the foremost and the most important feature of on-line teaching mode is the provision of a real communication process which can take place in written, as well as oral form.

Based on the analysis of national and foreign theory and practice of on-line study mode as a special form of educational process organization, its key features include:

free access to educational information which is found in informational on-line educational environment;

flexibility of knowledge presentation (the provision of students' right to the choice of educational material of varied complexity levels);

asynchrony of education (in the process of studies, the instructor and the student are working according to an individually convenient schedule. University students engage in learning activities and in communication with the instructor in a convenient place and at a convenient tempo);

the communicative nature of studies (continuous or occasional subject-to-subject dialogue in educational process with the use of Internet services (E-mail, Mailing list, Internet Relay Chat, IP-telephony and others));

international character of studies. The on-line mode of education provides a convenient opportunity for export and import of educational services;

a new role of a teacher-instructor (that of a consultant and coordinator of the educational process);

a new role of a student (he/she becomes `autonomous' in determining the means of education, the time and place of accessing educational materials and in scheduling consultations with the teacher).

The realization of on-line mode of teaching foreign languages in a HEI poses a challenge for a teacher as to learning and implementing into educational process information-communication technologies, contemporary educational and technical means, as well as developing new on-line courses, each constituting a learning system constructed in the Internet environment. The selection and organization of content of teaching a foreign language in an on-line course depends on the purpose of on-line teaching and its model, on the software capacities, the competence and proficiency of the teaching staff and the students' readiness for network cooperation.

On-line mode of study is an organizational mode of educational process in which teaching a foreign language takes place at a distance with the help of computer telecommunication networks. It is a support mode for traditional teaching, as all educational and methodological materials are stored on electronic storage devices, which in its turn helps organize students' independent work in the subject they are studying. The foundation of students' independent cognitive activity is their skills of obtaining new knowledge and reinforcing the existing ideas by means of using various sources of information. Besides, the effectiveness of on-line study depends on the frequency of a student's learning sessions. The explanation is simple enough: it is impossible to develop a knowledge system under uneven study load. That is why strict reporting is an important aspect of on-line study system. A student must report each chapter or part that has been completed; otherwise, a student can't continue his/her studies.

In its technique of educational communication, on-line study has common features with correspondence study: students' independent work on the study material under teachers' supervision is the basis both for correspondence mode of study, and for on-line study; both educational modes are based on active use of contemporary forms of electronic communication. Using on-line Internet technologies, a teacher supervises students' independent work, checks their home assignments, answers questions, provides instructions, and monitors students' progress.

In the context of on-line foreign language teaching in HEE, we believe that on-line education is not only a new mode of teaching, but also a new form of education. In contrast to various forms of correspondence studies, on-line studying mode provides the following opportunities:

immediate transmission of information of various scope and type to any necessary distance (visual and audio, static and dynamic, textual and graphic information);

storing information in the computer memory for any necessary time; editing, processing the information and printing it out;

interactivity with the help of purposefully created multimedia information and operational contact with the teacher;

access to various information sources;

work with this information [4].

On-line studying mode is a flexible educational system which enables obtaining knowledge in a place and at a time which is convenient for students. There exist a number of functions performed by the computer in this studying mode. The most important of them are the following:

communicative (realized as a dialogical interaction of a student with a computer);

organizational and stimulating (realized a computer functioning as a means of technical support of the educational process within the framework of on-line study);

informational (the possibility of storing information;

training (there appears an unparalleled opportunity of forming strong skills in foreign language teaching);

supervising (due to the instructor's immediate feedback);

controlling and correcting (exercised as: 1) admission and identification of students' answers, 2) analysis and evaluation of the answers, 3) storage of the results, 4) final result evaluation for a definite text performance).

In fact, because of its ability to perform numerous functions, a computer can perform the following roles for a student: 1) of a teacher; 2) of an expert; 3) of an activity partner; 4) of an activity tool; 5) of a practical instructor.

There exists a variety of specialized computer programs aimed at teaching foreign languages on-line, among them: 1. programs for teaching parts of a language system (their main purpose being introducing and activating language forms and language struc- lures); 2. programs, aimed at teaching speech activities; 3. controlling programs designed to test and check the level of formation of language and speech skills.

Designing an on-line study course requires special software in the shape of so-called wrappers. These are, for example, LMS (Learning Management System) and Moodle - the system of management of on-line studies. Content and design are interrelated constituents of an on-line course. A course pedagogical design means text structuring, formation of reference system, the choice of instrumentation for educational process realization, external decoration and other elements [5].

While using the on-line mode of teaching foreign languages to students of non-language departments, the faculty of Foreign Languages and Innovative Teaching Technologies Department at Zhytomyr State Ivan Franko University faced the need to develop educational methodological materials to provide the academic process with electronic support and achieve more frequent use of network study elements; with the help of such materials teachers and students, irrespective of their location, have a personal computer and the Internet access. Teaching a foreign language course at non-language departments is aimed at students' obtaining foreign speech competence, the level of which provides the opportunity to use a foreign language in their professional activity, as well as for further self-education. Here is an example of on-line tasks given to the fourth year students majoring in Physics and Mathematics aimed at developing their speaking skills:

2. Write a list of predictions of future inventions in Information Technology mentioned in the text. Which of them have been already invented? Give your point of view about future possibilities for humanity. 3. 3. Conclusions and prospects for further research In conclusion, we would like to stress the idea that online education can be used as a part of full-time or part-time education aimed at stimulating students' self-development and monitoring their progress in learning a foreign language. Tasks for advanced students must take into consideration their high level of computer literacy and therefore be more creative, more challenging, focused on research, as well as based on authentic materials.

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