C.p.s. L.F.Avdeeva

Taganrog, Institute of Management and Economics

Development of students’ cognitive self-activity while

mastering foreign languages

In conditions of the higher educational system reforming we have to move from the traditional approach of gaining knowledge and skills to the competence-based approach while training future specialists. In this regard, the problem of creating an active learning environment as one of the most important conditions for the development of personality is becoming of special priority. It is the environment, i.e. the reality that is dominant in shaping the most significant activities. In connection with this approach the question of ways and means to achieve the intended results is becoming the most urgent.

The concept of the educational environment is being studied over the past decades by a number of scholars both in our country and abroad. The team of scientists - educators and applied psychologists from the Institute of Educational Innovations RAO ( M.M.Knyazeva , N.B.Krylova , VA Petrovsky ,V.I.Slobodchikov and others) developed techniques and technology of its design . O.S.Gazman , Davydov , M.V.Klarin , Yu.S.Manuylov , I.F.Frumin , V.A.Yasvin , the Institute of Psychology V.I.Panov RAO , V.V.Rubtsov, B.D.Elkonin were also engaged in research in this area.

Commonly speaking, the educational environment is considered to be a subsystem of social and cultural environment, the whole complex of historical facts, circumstances, situations. It is expressed in the integrity of the specially organized pedagogical conditions for personal development. In a more narrow sense of the term it is the environment where a student is brought up and he/she generates and displays his/her personal qualities. In this regard, the teacher’s task is to create an environment that would develop the student’s personality, create the conditions for his/her cultural development, self-expression, a personal choice for the content and method of education in accordance with their needs and goals. That is why when students are being taught foreign languages - language can be considered as a unifying element of the entire educational environment, as a tool to translate knowledge. Actually, the general approach to creating the language learning environment should include:

- existence of a special scientific concept;

- a logical sequence that provides an opportunity for students to consider information as a whole, and in conjunction with other parts ;

- the presence of freedom of necessary information choice or its correction ;

- availability of interests beyond learning activities ( extracurricular activities ) for more efficiency according to the results ;

- technological organization of the educational environment should be based on the following system of pedagogical and psychological principles:

- business activities;

organization of incentives;

- organization of cooperation;

Since we are interested in studying foreign language for communication purposes , it seems meaningful to create educational environment that is associated with the development of students’ creativity potential , their ability to maintain and improve the process of self-education level, students’ ability to get all necessary information from a verbal or written messages in foreign languages. The.. realization of this goal is possible if the students’ cognitive self-activity skills have been formed.

Cognitive self-activity is seen by us as a personal trait that determines the person’s readiness ( ability and willingness ) to independently acquire the necessary competencies , ability to maintain and improve the process of raising self-education level of foreign language learning. At the same time the ability to self-activity is understood as necessity to master and support basic knowledge and methods of cognitive activity. Desire for independence in the knowledge gaining is defined by the presence of appropriate motives.

Thus, cognitive self-activity has three attributes: an operational ( methods of cognitive activity) , contextual (supporting knowledge) and incentive ( motives and the need for self-activity ) . Maturity of cognitive independence means maturity of these three attributes.

So, what are the main goals of cognitive self-activity in terms of practical mastery of a foreign language in not-specialized higher school? These are:
- To achieve the appropriate level of foreign language communicative competence while studying at school;

- Formation of students’ competence in dealing with a foreign language after graduation. It is self-organized cognitive activity of students, adequate to the purposes is becoming the most important form of self- organization at the university.

Now quite natural question arises: how to organize this activity? To brisk up students’ self-activity implies to control their cognitive activity and to unite both teachers’ and students’ creative work , which is accomplished through properly organized system of communication and to a large extent it depends on each of the participants of the educational process .

There are two organizational opportunities to control students’ self- activity: a direct control (joint work of teachers and students) and indirect - intermediary , (i.e. the organization of independent students work).

There is a number of classifications of the organizational principles of students independent cognitive activity , which can be summarized as follows:

- Succession, i.e. getting knowledge in the sequence of operations that would take into account the degree of difficulty ( from easy to more difficult );

- Compliance with the standard time allotted for the task ;

- Accurate, clear instructing students about the goals and tasks of work, presenting the necessary background material for its implementation;

- A clear explanation of the self-organized students’ work embodiment ( writing assignment , listening , etc.);

- Statement of problem tasks to students whose work would require some mental efforts ;

- Feedback , i.e. a teacher’s control over the implementation of the students ' self-organized work and counseling in case of difficulty ;

- To develop students’ self-management skills;

- Dates operational accounting , which helps to stimulate and intensify students' self-organized work ;

- Students’ mandatory right for completing the work in advance, and for having an additional task , and the right for a teacher’s appropriate incentive measures;
- Implementation of individual approach to pupils in the process of organization of their independent work ..

From a psychological point of view of autonomy in the learning process means maturity of sustained motivation and relevant personal qualities. The more voluntary this process is, the more successful it is. Therefore, the teacher’s task is to create conditions to stimulate the urge for cognitive self-activity. And this is possible only by integrating students’ cognitive independence into their self-adequate technology.

What is more, students’ cognitive self-activity is affected by contextual

factor (supporting knowledge). It includes both speech and language materials necessary for the formation of linguistic and communicative competence in various areas of communication, including future professional activity. It’s undeniable that the teacher's role in the implementation of this task is becoming of great importance. When sorting out the educational content a teacher must be aware of the following requirements:

- The set of supporting educational literature including training material at different levels and materials of different nature ( for reading, listening , etc.) must correspond to the objectives in a particular school and meet the needs of the students;
- Educational instruction materials should cover all aspects of the language ; new language material should be introduced clearly; training new language material should be carried out thoroughly ;

- The pace of learning must match the learning objectives and it should be individually differentiated; it should be neither too fast nor too slow ;
- Revision of material studied and tracking and learning outcomes should be careful and regular ;

- The content of the textbook materials should be informative , interesting , illustrated - so that it could be easy to work;

- Job offered by the teacher, should be creative, diverse, i.e. increasing the motivation for learning , getting knowledge ;

- Methodical complex should be provided with a sufficient number of guidelines for teachers and students;

- Students should be able to use grammar references, different vocabularies ;

- Another good thing about these requirements is that one more important skill that you need to develop in the teaching process - to use plenty of reading materials in order to broaden students’ vocabulary, as well as their practical use of grammatical structure functions of the language. It is the teacher who helps to select the reading material taking into account the level of students’ knowledge, the purpose of work , etc.

It is noticeable that students’ cognitive self-activity is apparent when they perform different linguistic operations concerning understanding, cognition and actions based on common cultural and cross-cultural information. A significant result is the application of knowledge and skills in professional activity. For example, the ability to make business documents, information retrieval , business correspondence , etc. Undoubtedly , professionally applied component in the content of education is very important

Summing up, we can point out that like any other humanitarian subject "foreign language " promotes the development of students speech communication , intercultural competence development of cognitive self-activity. Development of students' cognitive activity in its turn requires an integrated approach to the problem , taking into account psychological, social and didactic aspects. The approach under study enables us to use a foreign language, developing the ability to make conclusions , generalizations , to think critically about the information received , and most importantly - teach yourself to acquire knowledge and to use them for self-education. Qualitatively organized environment allows students to receive a good education , giving them enough free choice of cognitive activity.

References:
1. Avdeeva., LF Shevtsova GA The role of independent work of students in the formation of foreign language communicative competence of the future specialist. Article in the book of scientific publications. Part 1 . Novocherkassk, SRSTU (NPI) , 2008, s.270 -281

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