Keyword: «individual learning path»

The search for new educational forms, methods and practices is imperative today in the context of modernization and adaptation of education to new socio-economic and technological realities. The article considers the role of further vocational training in general and the role of further language training in particular as a flexible tool of lifelong learning and continuous education. The key peculiarities of further language education courses are regarded. New foreign concepts of education and self-study (heutagogy) are paid attention to. The article analyses the roles of a teacher and a learner in terms of self-study organization. An individual learning path is viewed as an efficient form of self-study. Various definitions of this term are provided as well as the author’s one. The pedagogical model with the use of individual learning path is presented. The model is based on the combination of invariable and variable modules through the employment of the individual learning path. Pedagogical support complex is an additional element of the model. It is designed to accompany and consult the learners. Awareness is seen as a key feature of self-study and its main characteristics are presented in accordance with psychological research. The notions of synchronous and asynchronous learning are presented and analyzed in the framework of self-study. The hypothesis that an individual learning path results in the synergy of synchronous and asynchronous learning is proved by the experiment.

The article describes the further language education model with the application of individual learning path and the results of experimental education based on the developed model. The model lies upon didactic and technological principles of further language education for adults. The key notion of the developed model is the individual learning path. Its definition is provided in the article. In the course of the experiment it was revealed that the application of the developed model contributes to optimization of educational process and enables mastering the professional communicative competence. The key aspects of professional communicative competence that are enhanced are linguistic, discourse, speech, self-study.