Organizing students’ independent work through web technologies in the English classroom

The concept of the modern development of education sets tasks for the modern teacher, which are primarily directed to the development of a versatile, competitive personality.

In the educational process nowadays many different methods and technologies are used. The use of these methods allows the modern teacher to give the students more freedom and autonomy in the classroom. In this way the highest educational results can be achieved.

However, the monitoring of education shows that the learning and cognitive activity of students is often diminished due to their lack of motivation to study, both in class and in independent work, and therefore their lack of interest in learning and developing themselves as a person.

The solution to this problem is the use of active learning methods in the educational process, based on the students' creative thinking, activating their learning and cognitive activity to the maximum, allowing the students to express themselves as persons, to become co-authors of new ideas, to learn to make optimal decisions independently and to contribute to their realization.

The efficiency with which students learn the material is also greatly increased by using information technology in the teaching process. It is possible to achieve great results with the use of these technologies in the teaching of the English language in junior and secondary schools [1]. In high schools the use of information technologies is an opportunity to reveal the students' abilities, as they can be used at different stages of mastery of the material.

Computer technologies make it possible to activate students' analytical activity, reveal their creative potential, stimulate development of mental processes, thinking, perceiving, remembering, which makes their use in learning process relevant.

The Internet plays an important role in the lives of today's young people. Children and young people participate in online activities both inside and outside the classroom. Officially, that is to say at school, young people use the Internet for things such as finding information or taking exams. In their leisure time, they communicate with friends, play online computer games, and engage in creative activities, such as creating images, movies, and so forth, using published material. And education has begun to emerge from the constraints and traditions of the past thanks to the web.

Today's web technology is increasingly powerful and advanced. Teachers and researchers are grappling with how online resources and applications can be used to enhance learning and meet the needs of their students. Foreign language teachers are increasingly interested in using online resources for language teaching. Online resources and applications can be used to complement or extend traditional classroom-based language teaching and to engage students in real learning beyond the classroom.

In modern curricula of school subjects, including foreign languages, there is a requirement to cultivate academic independence and to develop the ability to learn.

Forming independent activity of students is one of the most urgent tasks of modern education, and the ability to work independently on studied material is one of the prerequisites of successful learning. For the development of cognitive abilities of students independent activity is a necessary condition [2].

Learning to work independently is not seen as an end in itself. It is seen as a means to learning. Both in terms of mastering the system of knowledge, skills and abilities, and in terms of developing mental and physical work skills, independent work of students helps to increase the effectiveness of learning. It is a means of struggle for deep and solid knowledge of students, development of their mental abilities, means of formation of their activity and independence as personality traits.

Independent work plays a leading role in teaching. The degree of students' independence in performing certain types of independent work depends on the nature of their activity, which begins with imitative actions, then becomes more complex and has its highest manifestations.

Independent work using digital technologies should be planned depending on the readiness of the group, the motivation of the students in this group to acquire knowledge, their competence in the subject and in the field of information technology.

The use of the Internet for educational purposes is a completely new direction in the field of didactics and personal methodology. It affects all aspects of the learning process, from the choice of technology and working style to the changing needs of the learner.

In order to integrate Web 2.0 technologies into the system of organizing students' independent work in a foreign language it is nec- essary to rethink the teaching functions proposed by teachers and methodologists and to reinterpret them in the conditions of the information and learning environment. It is necessary to integrate Web 2.0 services and tools at all stages of organizing students' independent foreign language learning in the information and learning environment. It was found that Web 2.0 tools have such features as accessibility, sociality, interactivity and security, and their use contributes to the effectiveness of this process. Web 2.0 services can be used to create single learning environment, to make free and paid e-learning tools available, to control and monitor activities of participants, to create, modify and complete e-learning tools individually and collectively [3]. Integration of Internet technologies into the process of training of a modern specialist considerably stimulates the independent activity of students, increases their motivation and independence, leading to increased self-management in the process of learning, "the desire to learn and find themselves, and not to receive a "part" of the necessary information".

As one of the main Web 2.0 tools for organizing independent work in a foreign language, the use of blogging technologies is proposed. The potential and possibilities of using blog technologies allow a new approach to solving such pedagogical problems in the conditions of the modern educational paradigm as

• 1)    organization of a common information space of the teachers and students, where all the documents and materials of the educational process are summarized;

• 2)    enabling all those involved in the educational process to communicate with each other;

• 3)    using electronic lectures and notes;

• 4)    implementation of tests and surveys on the level of knowledge and a number of other problems [4].

During the whole process of learning a foreign language, the instructor blog gives all participants of the learning process in the information and learning environment the opportunity to publish educational information (syllabus, evaluation plan, etc.), to publish assignments, results of control and evaluation of work, to make automated polls, to comment and discuss any news. A platform for carrying out creative research projects is the student blog. The group blog implies a joint activity of the teacher and the students: creating a joint information product, discussing and evaluating each other.

The results of the research on the effectiveness of the active use of Web 2.0 services in foreign language teaching showed a significant increase in the level of external and, most importantly, internal motivation of students for foreign language learning. There was also an increase in the quality indicators of the independent work of the students, as well as an increase in the foreign language skills of the students.

Students' independent work in a foreign language, based on the use of Web 2.0 tools in an information and learning environment is characterized by a number of features, namely the student's activity is highly motivated; it is based on a cognitive or practical task or problem; there is no direct teacher intervention in the student's activity; the student creates the final information product as a result of independent work; the student shows independence and activity in the process of completing the given tasks; the student has the ability to work independently; the student's independent cognitive and practical activities are managed and self-directed; the student strives for success in educational and professional activities and has a need for creative selfactualization.

When introducing Web 2.0 services into the process of organizing students' independent work in a foreign language, a number of general didactic and methodological principles should be observed. First of all, there is the principle of the pedagogical appropriateness of the use of new information technologies in the classroom. Most teachers believe that the degree of achieving pedagogical, methodological and economic efficiency in comparison with traditional forms of educational work determines the usefulness of computerization. It means that any teacher wanting to use modern information technology in his discipline must, first, know the methodology of its use, second, have a clear methodological rationale for such integration, and, third, be able to change or adapt existing methods and technologies of using information technology with regard to the specifics of his education [5].

Thus, the condition for the success of the independent work of students in the foreign language aimed at the integrated development of information, learning and communicative skills in the foreign language is the creation of the information and learning environment of the higher educational institution. The information and learning environment provides access to information resources, the possibility of self-organization of all subjects of the educational process, as well as the possibility of collecting, storing and exchanging information. Integration of learning tasks based on active use of Web 2.0 services and services into the process of organizing independent work of students in a foreign language, as well as observance of a number of updated general didactic and methodological principles of teaching and shifting of the emphasis in the role of a teacher of a modern university, ensures high efficiency of the process of organizing independent work of students in a foreign language.