Guided self-study of foreign languages in the context of informal education: theoretical foundations and empirical research among students of the Institute of Foreign Languages

A new educational reality is characterized by a paradigmatic "shift" towards identity and metacognitive priorities, as well as the independent design of learners' individual educational space taking into account their role in the system of social interactions in a new type of society (open, network-connected, integrated). Under these conditions, foreign language teaching should ensure the mastering of a "social agent" role by a student of a linguistic university, that is, to promote the formation of an active and flexible individual who is ready for self-realization in different types of social intercultural interactions that are of interest to him and capable of maintaining and facilitating the processes of interaction. Traditional institutional forms of education are not able to solve this problem to the full; there is a necessity to expand the boundaries of the educational space considering the informal (everyday and lifelong) type of self-education. The article characterizes and compares the informal aspect of language education with the formal and non-formal aspects. Relating to foreign languages study, the three types / stages of informal self-education are identified and described: these are guided (regulated by the teacher), partially guided and fully independent self-education. The conducted empirical study touched upon the first, guided type. It was aimed at testing the effectiveness of the methodology of foreign languages self-learning in the context of informal education with the help of the previously developed technique of goal-setting, planning and self-evaluation on the basis of "The reflexive overview of everyday foreign language self-learning". The article examines the stages of work organization with the use of this technique: conducting a kick-off meeting class; discussing the intermediate results; summing up the semester results. The article also includes the results (in the form of percentage data) of experimental validation among students of the Institute of foreign languages of the Ryazan State University. The analysis was carried out on the basis of quantitative data and their interpretation on the following items: types and content of foreign language resources used by students, materials and tools used in informal self-learning, frequency of usage of these resources, techniques and methods of foreign language activities in everyday life, effectiveness of meta-cognitive strategies (goal setting, planning, self-control) in informal context, self-evaluation of educational, communicative and affective actions.

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