Model of teaching reading professionally-oriented texts in the context of digitalization

Statement of the problem and the purpose of the article. The article deals with the problem of teaching reading professionally-oriented texts to engineering students of Siberian Federal University (hereinafter SibFU). The authors consider the possible ways to organize the reading process in the context of digitalization in education, highlighting the special role of independent reading. The aim of the paper is to develop a model for reading professionally-oriented texts which could promote students' autonomy in searching, a skill to critically evaluate the sources and content of the text and an ability to analyze, interpret and process the acquired information. The research methodology is based on the analysis of the state educational standards of higher education as well as on the studies of Russian and foreign educators in the field of teaching reading professionally-oriented texts in a foreign language. Research results. Within the blended learning course “Foreign Language for Graduate Students (English)” placed on the LMS Moodle platform, there has been developed a model (algorithm) for independent reading teaching intended to postgraduate students enrolled in the following study programs: 08.06.01 “Engineering and construction technology”, 07.06.01 “Architecture”, 13.06.01 “Electrical and thermal engineering”, 03.06.01 “Physics and astronomy”, 15.06.01 “Mechanical Engineering”. Conclusion. The results allowed concluding that the use of synchronous and asynchronous technologies makes it possible to produce a model for independent reading teaching, the effectiveness of which depends on all participants of the educational process. The teacher can accurately provide the algorithm for choosing and working with the text, introduce the evaluation criteria of oral individual statements on the exam, based on the reading of professionally-oriented text. On the other hand, the skills of independent knowledge search by working with additional information resources as well as working offline enable not only the increase of motivation in learning a foreign language, but also allow any postgraduate student to be able to critically assess the quality of information and adequately interpret it.