Modern society is forming a new value system in which the possession of knowledge, skills and abilities is a necessary but far from sufficient result of education. Existing high requirements to modern specialists, such as the ability to navigate information flows, intercultural communication skills, ability to use innovative technologies in a timely and high-quality manner, increase the importance of foreign language skills as a tool for intercultural interaction. The knowledge of one or more foreign languages is one of the values of professional training and competitiveness of a specialist.
The impact of the above factors, as well as changes in the socio-cultural context of foreign languages, new demands of students in terms of their level of knowledge, the ineffectiveness of traditional education, often manifested in the lack and unclaimed application of the knowledge gained, in the inability of university graduates to effectively integrate into the production environment, have led to the need for intensification and efficiency of students’ training.
Of particular importance are the above-mentioned factors in the education of adults receiving a second higher education. The trend of constant expansion of the population falling under the definition of “adults in need of education and training” has led to the development of a new educational concept throughout conscious life (Life Long Learning), which aims to use the full educational potential of society to contribute to the comprehensive development of the individual. The most flexible and developing subsystem of continuing education is the system of additional professional education for adults. In this context, the concept of “adult learners” is becoming more and more common in the educational space. Comparatively young branches of science – andragogy and acmeology, the subject of which are the theory and methods of teaching adults in the context of continuing education, determine that the leading role in organizing the learning process belongs to the learner himself, it is the adult learner is an active element, one of the equal subjects of the learning process. Go to the site and find out morehttps://argoprep.com/blog/learning-styles-series-the-interpersonal-learner/
However, psychological features of cognitive activity of adults require the use of special learning technologies, adapted specifically for the training of adults and aimed at the development of all components of the learner’s personality: the development and maintenance of motivation, competence, professionally important qualities and significant psychophysiological properties. In this regard, the learner should take certain actions aimed at identifying the individual characteristics of adults, which will actively affect the learning process. This provision is the basis for a stylistic approach to teaching foreign languages. Therefore, one of the ways of intensification and efficiency of learning activity of adult students is to focus on individualization of educational routes, development of teamwork skills, skills to act in different problem situations and to find adequate solutions.
In this regard, the relevance of the dissertation research lies in the need to develop a qualitatively new approach to adult learning, which is based on the synthesis of the ideas of a competency-based approach and taking into account the individual learning styles of students, allowing the transition from the traditional practice of transmitting ready-made knowledge to the creative process of obtaining knowledge, in which foreign-language communicative competence will be formed and honed.
In view of the above, research devoted to the study of factors ensuring the formation and development of communicative foreign-language competence in adult learners, as well as individual learning styles of adults, characterizing their unique cognitive status, educational technologies of learning, adapted for teaching adult students, actively influencing the learning process and providing an opportunity for full mastering of educational material, acquire special importance. Accounting for individual learning styles is aimed at identifying the characteristics of students, to maintain the existing motivation that will actively affect the learning process, as each adult learner perceives the information and master it depending on the psychophysiological characteristics and their own characteristics of cognitive activity.
On this basis, the object of the dissertation research is the process of developing foreign language communication competence in adult learners.
The subject of the research is individual learning styles of students, their accounting in teaching foreign languages on the basis of competence approach.
The purpose of the dissertation research is theoretical substantiation and practical realization of the model of foreign language learning by students taking into account their individual learning styles on the basis of the competence approach.
In the course of the theoretical research and the forming experiment, the hypothesis was tested that adult foreign language learning in line with the competency-based approach would be successful if:
the formation and development of foreign language communicative competence will be one of the main goals of the university educational process and the student’s personal priority;
the theoretical and technological mechanism of realization of pedagogical model on the basis of the complex approach to adult teaching of foreign languages will be developed;
at the basis of the complex approach to teaching will be taken into account: a) individual learning styles of adults, formed under the influence of their psychophysiological characteristics and surrounding social factors; b) technologies, methods, teaching aids adapted to individual learning styles and providing the maximum individualization of the learning process.
