Principal trends of foreign language learning strategies' formation

The second foreign language in the universities is a new phenomenon. It can be argued that the introduction of a second foreign language into the curriculum of a general education school has become a real step towards multicultural education, towards the formation of a multilingual personality. German is typically the second foreign language. As practice shows, three out of four who study German as a second foreign language have studied English as a first foreign language and can use the experience, knowledge, abilities and skills that can be transferred into the second foreign language and greatly facilitate its learning.

Foreign language learning strategies became an object for study in the theory of foreign language teaching in the sixties of the last century. At the same time scientists' interest grew to such personal factors as cognitive style, social, gender identity, motivation. These concepts entered modern discourse of the theory of foreign language teaching.

Learning strategies are rated among general vital strategies of a presentday per-son at the beginning of the 21st century. The presence of strategies as methods of personal realization in different spheres of the humans is an integral characteristic of self-determination of a personality, ability to plan out the future. The sources of this knowledge can be found in the theory of radical constructivism, cognitive psychology, synergetic, and other scientific theories of the 20th century.

The beginning of forming foreign language learning strategies falls on the school years; the development of the second language personality proceeds a whole life long, while the process of language learning lasts. Without conscious use of foreign language learning strategies, it is difficult to achieve academic mobility as possibility to form a personal educational trajectory and educational style independently. The theory of development of personal strategies can be viewed as components of the theory of autonomous foreign language learning.

The research objective presents a substantiation of the so called strategic competence which is interpreted as a factor of development of students' secondary language personality through forming foreign language learning strategies to facilitate learning efficiency.

To achieve the aim, the following tasks were accomplished:

• •    to conduct the analysis of studies concerning personal foreign language learning strategies, to define tendencies of forming strategies as a process with the second language personality in the spotlight as the one with its speech peculiarities, individual language experience, motives;

• •    to work out a project of forming students' competence and a plan of its realization by means of university students' participation in the strategic training, use of the author's instruction manuals, executable codes for language disciplines at university, elements of e-learning;

• •    to process the obtained data, draw conclusion on the research results. The data of the study will be valuable in the process of university education and autonomous foreign language learning.

In the middle of the last century the problem of mastering strategies as an important aspect of forming skills for autonomous learning came into notice of foreign and domestic researchers such as: A.U. Chamot, L.Dickinson, H.Holec, J.M. O'Malley, R.L. Oxford, K. Percy, U. Rampillon, A.A. Leontyev, E.I. Passov, G.V. Rogova, V.V. Safonova, S.G. Ter-Minasova. Scientists were engaged in research of students' strategies to define how some of them can achieve success in varying degree while autonomous foreign language learning. Different interpretations of the concept of "foreign language learning strategy" appeared at that period of time.

In terms of the study the following interpretation should be recognized as an acceptable one: a foreign language learning strategy is based on the prediction plan of activities, defining the near-term outlook of development of students' secondary language personality.

Personal strategies are considered to be ways, methods or technologies chosen by students according to peculiarities of their secondary language personality and language experience to progress in mastering a foreign language.

The definition of the competence in personal foreign language learning strategies as "development linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in a person's own self" is closely related to the content of the research. The meaning of the adjective "personal" in research is correlated with the meaning of the noun "personality" in the word-combination "the secondary language personality".

"The algorithm of foreign language learning activities, which has been set with the textbook or by the teacher, limits mastering foreign languages, but the procedural aspect of students' individual work remains unconscious at that".

The latter distinguishes three levels in a structural model of the language personality: a verbal-semantic level, which unites separate words; a linguistic-cognitive level which unites notions or concepts developing in a worldview; a motivational level whose components are proved themselves through communicative and activity needs of the personality.

According to I.I. Khaleeva, the description of the model of the secondary lan-guage personality is carried out taking into account processes which happen while mastering foreign languages. Understanding a foreign-language text means correlating it with their own knowledge and finding its place corresponding to its contents in a worldview, i. e. developing abilities to distinguish motives of a person belonging to foreign community.

Originalities of secondary language personality are reflected in students' personal strategies of foreign language learning which correspond to three levels of the model of the language personality. Limits of personal strategies are mobile; correction in the course of learning is possible.

The set of factors, e. g., "a level of development of linguistic abilities, verbal activity, and psycho-typological characteristics of the person", influences on formation of language learning strategies' competence. But the main circumstance, in our opinion, is students' awareness of their speech abilities and opportunities of their secondary language personality, willingness to use language learning strategies, cultivated independently by means of choice, borrowing or speech and cognitive experience. This difficult process of rational exploitation of language learning aptitudes is just students' conscious generating language learning strategies' competence.