DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS’ COGNITIVE INTEREST IN CLASSES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
E. Dorofeeva1, R. Gubaydullina2
1Kazan Federal University (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)elena.dor@mail.ru,
2Kazan Federal University (RUSSIAN FEDERATION)ramzia.gubaidi@gmail.com
Abstract
Society development in political, economic, social, cultural and moral spheres, expansion and strengthening of relationships with other countries demand learning of foreign languages. Speaking a language fluently is one of the requirements of professional competence. Personnel must read special literature, communicate verbally and in writing. Reasoning from this need, cognition interest to master a foreign language increases at higher schools as a foreign language offers a means to accustom to the newest information technology and a low level of competence of other languages leads to increasing of intellectual and moral potential in the society, complicates an access to universal human values of world culture. Therefore, one of the goals in higher education is the development of students’ cognitive interest in learning foreign languages. In that context, to develop cognitive interest a teacher of foreign languages at higher schools should understand what it (cognition interest) is, its frame and features, its position in educational process, if it impacts on learning experiences and so on. Cognitive interest represents an interest in experience where one part is a cognitive activity in the course of which students gain the content of learning items. It bears all the functions of interest as psychological education, its selective character, unity of objective and subjective, an integrated composition of intellectual, emotional and determined processes. The knowledge gained without any will is forgotten and acquirement learnt with an interest is memorized for a long time and easily reproduced. The informative task demands from a person of efforts, search or creative activity, but not elementary orientation to novelty and surprise is the center of cognitive interest. It can be seen in educational process in the various forms (modifications): as learning tools; as a learning motive; as steady features, as traits of personality. Formation, strengthening and development of cognitive interest happens in the course of education (learning) and the main role in formation and development of students’ cognitive interest is due to a way the teacher arranges students’ activity. The teacher should provide students with supportive environment to develop cognitive interest and the teacher does not fully introduce the learning material him/herself but organizes an independent activity of students which, in turn, could generate new questions, open up new opportunities to gain knowledge, motivate to further self-education. However, for this purpose, the teacher has to define a level of students’ cognitive interest by means of various methods (questioning, essays, experimental tasks, etc.) to plan the further work on development of cognitive interest. It is necessary to stimulate developing of students’ cognitive interest by using of various forms of individual/independent work and tasks for students and problem-based activity, research approach (involvement of students to science methods), by creative works (making riddles, stories, individual and collective writing of reports, drawing up tasks, etc.). Projects usually play a big part in keeping and developing of students’ cognition interest in classes of foreign languages in higher education.
Keywords: Cognition interest, education, students, foreign languages, higher education, educational tasks, conditions, methods of stimulation, level of cognition interest.
| FULL TEXT PDF |  |