Students' readiness to online English language self-learning module and approaches to its integration into the educational process

Abstract

Introduction. The transition to blended learning in higher education has led to an increase in the share of self-learning and personalized education, which demands taking into account the students' opinions about the variety of teaching methods. The purpose of the article is to analyze the students’ readiness to the integration of the “Online Self-Learning Module”, when learning English and to its implementation approaches. Materials and methods. The main research method is a survey of the 2-3-year students of non-linguistic majors conducted at Togliatti State University (September – November 2021). The questionnaire consisted of 15 questions in three blocks: “Personal goals for self-learning”, “Self-directed learning skills” and “Monitoring of online self-learning process/ Feedback”. Survey results reliability evaluation was carried out using Fisher criterion (φ*-criterion) (p < 0,01). The results. The survey revealed a positive attitude of students to its integration: desire of extra curriculum English training (77%) φ*exp. = 8.068; need for skills of professional texts independent study (65%) φ*exp. = 4.306, personal pace and achievements (67%) φ*exp. = 4.907 Weaknesses, according to the students, include: nonawareness of the teacher-students interaction algorithm (82%) φ*exp. = 9.822; the need for self-assessment and reflection (68%) φ*exp. = 5.204. We determined a new approach to students' self-learning: extra curriculum online task with its modular approach, structurally and thematically correlated with offline learning; the availability of the students’ guidelines and the tasks fulfillment algorithms, the sample for the final answer, and automated evaluation of the assignment assessment. Conclusion. Students identified the “Online Self-Learning Module” for English as a positive trend that will allow them their personalized English learning, to be autonomous in choosing language content, not to depend on the teacher’s direct control, and to increase their self-organization and self-reflection. Integration of “Online Self-Learning Module” involves the educational technologies modernization and serves as a response to the current challenge of the education.