Developing foreign students’ self-education competence in the course of learning the Ukrainian language

Abstract

The article describes the significance of self-education in vocational lifelong learning, in which the
person him/herself can only act as the main subject of planning, organization, and regulation of education, and
the process of acquiring education turns into the process of self-education.
The author indicates that the vast majority of students of higher education establishments are not ready
and cannot effectively organize the process of their self-education. Today, independent work of students is one
of the main components in the overall structure of the educational process in general and in case of foreign
students in particular.
It is emphasized that the importance of this question is also related to the new role of independent work,
which it acquires in connection with the transition to the competent paradigm of education, as well as in regard
to the need to adapt to full-fledged training in a pandemic. In addition, the specificity of the foreign language is
that the language cannot be taught, the language can only be learned, i.e. the student must manifest the
maximum activity and independence in all types of speech activities.
The author determines that, in general, the quality of assimilation of educational material, in particular
self-education, directly depends on the implementation of several simple rules by students – multiple,
systematic and purposeful processing of educational material ensures its reliable fixation in the long-term
memory.
It is emphasized that self-education competence is one of the most relevant competences that should be
formed in students in the educational process of higher education institutions. Independent work allows
expanding the worldview by means of assimilating linguistic and country studies information, changing the
attitude towards the language studied in a positive direction, as well as shaping students’ understanding of the
necessity to study not only at higher education institutions, but also throughout life. Particular emphasis in the
process of foreign students’ independent work is placed on the development of motivation and interest in
learning the Ukrainian language as well as specialized disciplines, since these very qualities form the internal
outcomes of students’ educational activity.
Self-education competence is formed on the basis of the experience of independent attempts and
achievements in self-education activity, the development of one’s own individual training system, a gradual
transition from copying self-education samples to creating one’s own self-education model, the inclusion of
self-education in the lifestyle of students.