Formation of skills of independent work as a factor of increasing of efficiency of the process of learning foreign languages

In recent years, higher education in Kazakhstan has undergone a number of reforms, the main task of these reforms is to improve the efficiency of training in order to prepare highly qualified specialists, the level of qualification of which would meet the social demand of modern society. Kazakhstan seeks to integrate into the modern global educational space in order to increase the competitiveness of domestic specialists and to open new horizons of development in various fields of activity. In this situation, to achieve this important goal, the education system faces the task of bringing education to a new level by creating conditions for maximum disclosure and realization of the potential of each student. At all levels, it is necessary to create conditions for the formation and development of students such qualities that will allow them in their future professional activities to fully realize their capabilities and become highly qualified specialists capable of independently improving their professionalism.

In the conditions of high rates of scientific and technical progress, intensification of world integration processes, increasing the role of international cooperation in various spheres of society, in the ever-changing conditions of professional activity, a modern specialist must perceive and interpret a huge flow of professionally important information, including in a foreign language. Therefore, a graduate of the University must know a foreign language at a high level. To achieve it, it is necessary to form the needs of future specialists, and most importantly — the ability to independently maintain and improve the existing level of foreign language training. As a result, it is necessary to teach students not only to acquire and acquire knowledge and skills on their own, but also to practically apply the acquired knowledge in solving various problems. The concept of «learn» includes a new content — the ability to search for information, independently assimilate it and assess the level of their own readiness for its use, as well as the development of the ability to understand the meaning of the studied, plan and constructively apply knowledge not only in educational activities, but in any situation where their use will contribute to the solution of the task. Therefore, we must teach not just to think, but to think effectively and productively. The experience of implementation of the Bologna agreements in higher education shows that one of the «weak links» of our education system is the low level of autonomy of students and their inability to carry out independent work. It is known that our students are significantly inferior to Western students in terms of autonomy. It should be recognized that this not only hinders the personal development of our students, but also hinders the successful implementation of reforms and prevents the integration of domestic and Western educational systems [1, c.63].

In this regard, currently in the field of education there is a transition from a knowledge — based approach to a competence-based approach, in which there is a need to develop abilities that previously remained in the shadow of the educational process. One such ability is learning autonomy, which means the willingness and ability of learners to take over the organization and management of their learning activities. This refers to the ability to put aim activities, to plan their actions, to choose the methods of learning activities, methods of work, to take responsibility for the outcomes of their activities. When teaching a foreign language, educational autonomy implies the ability to consciously master the language, during which the student acquires skills and abilities that allow him to carry out self-education and self-improvement both at the present time when studying at the University and in the future.

For the development of educational autonomy it is necessary to teach students learning strategies based on the development of their metacognitive skills, which imply a conscious attitude to the learning process, understanding the mechanisms of teaching, possession of methods of independent work, possession of skills and abilities of self-study and readiness for it, the presence of students as an Autonomous student, awareness of their own communicative and cognitive features. It is considered proven that the development of metacognitive skills can improve the ability of the individual to learn.

The presence in the names of metacognitive skills prefix «meta» (from Greek. meta — after, beyond, between) means that the mastery of these skills requires Mature reflection. As a rule, reflexive skills are considered synonymous with metacognitive. Therefore, the process of mastering a foreign language, based on the principle of consciousness, involves a high level of reflexive readiness of students, which should cover not only the awareness of their co — holding the subject of assimilation, but also awareness of the ways of their educational activities and ways of their improvement.

Under this system each student is given the opportunity along with the mastery of basic requirements of state standard to create its own individual training program taking into account the peculiarities of its language training (degree of development of knowledge, skills and abilities in all kinds of speech activity) and the tendencies for the professional activities of the individual program of self-study includes: independent formulation of student goals and tasks of individual work; drafting the work plan; selection of means and methods of educational activities, forms and methods of control; implementation of individual consultations with the teacher; implementation of the work plan (implementation of certain exercises and tasks, work with reference materials, search for the necessary information in print and on the Internet); monitoring and evaluation of the results of their work; final report on the results of their individual work in a small group, formed taking into account the specialization and professional interests of students.

We would like to consider development of the skills of independent work on the example of tasks for learning to read newspaper articles in the process of learning a foreign language.

Students are offered an article «Sieger starten leicht». First performed introductory work, in order to activate existing knowledge and to generate interest in the proposed material, then offered the job to work directly with the text and at the end after reading task, which can be controlled as the material is understood, and the possibility of using the obtained information from the text as a meaningful support when retelling or in the dialogue.

Pre-reading task: Did ever you make small talk (Smalltalks)? What is meant by small talk? / In some situations, can the ability to conduct small talk be useful/ Can help/ required?

1. Read the title and subtitle. Collect ideas / assumptions (what is the article/ text about? What do you expect from the article? For whom would the article be interesting?)

Pre-reading task:

2. Choose the title of the article /text to the paragraphs/ title paragraphs (viewing reading)
3. Compare the assumptions and content of the text;
4. The group is divided into several subgroups, each group reads only 1 paragraph (learning/ detailed reading), then introduces the other groups to the read information (think-pair-Share method);
5. Match the sentences to the text content or not/ Mark the sentences that match the text content/ Correct the sentences with incorrect information.
6. Find in the text English / German analogues to these Russian words/ expressions/ terms./ to select words antonyms/ data nouns find the verbs.
7. Answer the questions on the text.

8. Make a text to retell the text using the given words and expressions.
9. Simulate small talk, and you have to break one of the rules. (The group listens to the dialogues and the plenary discusses what was wrong.)

Also noteworthy is the method of Think-Pair-Share, which has successfully established itself in cooperative learning and promotes the development of the skill of independent and creative solutions to the problem, as well as activates the skills of speech and communication. In the first stage of the think-pair-Share Method, each person solves one problem (Think), after which the second stage is an exchange with a partner (Pair), and finally, in the third stage, there is an exchange in the group (Share). The three phases are characterized as follows:

1. Stage Think: students get the selected task, for example, to read and understand the text or diagram/description of the chart or create notes. After this stage, they should be able to present their results to the partner. For the treatment you need to follow some time (5–10 min).
2. Pair stage: students work in pairs and share their information. Partner A first presents the results to partner B, partner B takes notes, and then vice versa. After these stages, both students should be able not only to present their topic, but also the topic of the partner (5–10 min).
3. Share stage: the results are presented in groups, and the group tries to prepare a report from individual reports (poster, presentation, etc.). (10–20 min).

When planning this method, it is important to think through the tasks in advance and clearly define the task and organize the individual stages of the work in such a way that they are understandable to students. In addition, the division of partners and groups and the allocation of time should be planned in advance. After the Share stage, the teacher helps in summarizing the results of each group. Feedback from both the teacher and students plays an important role after the work. The possibility of using the think-pair-Share method is diverse, it can be used both at the stage of introducing a new topic, and studying the topic (brainstorming) in one lesson or in a project for several hours.

Also for the formation of skills of independent work of students in the study of a foreign language, the acquisition of new knowledge, skills, providing the ability to self-organization and self-management of foreign language learning activities is recommended to use the method of projects. This method is based on the joint activity of the teacher and students aimed at finding solutions to a specific problem (the formation of the communicative component of educational autonomy). The need to solve the problem, to create a certain «product» creates conditions in which the student purposefully works with information: analyzes theoretical knowledge, different approaches to solving the problem, makes conclusions and as a result acquires its own knowledge. The training project can be carried out in individual, pair and group form. This method promotes the development of critical thinking of students, reflection, and ability to work with information, make independent decisions, as well as interact with other participants of the educational process, in other words, to form professional and socially significant competencies. When teaching a foreign language as a project, you can use the creation of podcasts and work in the wiki. Wikis are websites that are accessible to everyone or protected by a password that is accessible only to group members. You can create your own website for use in the classroom to develop writing skills for free with the help of www.wikispaces.com Information on the site each user can read, add or change. This type of work is well suited for work on the project, for writing texts on various topics, for example. Discussion of the film, preparation of the presentation «Opportunities of tourism in Kostanay region», keeping the diary of the group, etc. the Advantage of the Wiki over other social networks is that all published texts by the group members are available to all, they can be supplemented, corrected, discussed. When writing joint texts, social and cultural competence is developed. Group work and discussion motivate students to search for information independently, promotes the development of creative thinking skills.

References:

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