Formation of foreign language interaction skills of students in the digital educational environment of the university

Yanova Marina ORCID: 0000-0003-4262-7015 Doctor of Pedagogy Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Methods of Teaching Sports Disciplines and National Sports, Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after. V.P. Astafieva 89 Lebedeva str., office 1-59, Krasnoyarsk Territory, 660049, Russia ymg_boss@mail.ru

Ozolina Irina ORCID: 0000-0002-7757-9714 Senior lecturer, Chair of English Philology at the Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after V.P. Astafyev 660021, Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Bograda str., 108, office 28 ireneozolina@gmail.com

Introduction

Due to the digitalization of various spheres of society, the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017-2030 set a task for the education system. It is the ability of students to communicate freely in a foreign language within the framework of their professional activities that is considered as professional foreign language competence. It develops through the pedagogical interaction of the teacher and students in foreign language lessons (hereinafter referred to as S) and is understood by the scientist Galskova N.D. as a coordinated activity of all subjects of the pedagogical process and mutual understanding between them ^[1]. Foreign language interaction in a digital educational environment is an important pedagogical phenomenon that allows students and teachers to communicate in different languages and gain access to knowledge and information in foreign languages, resorting to a foreign language as a means of achieving communicative professional tasks in the course of pedagogical interaction, using assistance in the form of digital resources.

An important component of the linguistic competence of a foreign language teacher is the ability to interact between the teacher and the students ^[2]. However, the problem of developing these skills has not been fully investigated. In the digital educational environment, there are various ways to organize interaction, such as organizing dialogue, discussions, discussions using information and communication technologies such as chat, videoconference, blog, forum. Students can contact the teacher for support if they have any questions. The organization of communication in a foreign language includes setting correct learning objectives, using various speech strategies and approaches to attract students' attention, creating conditions for working with various educational materials in a digital environment, evaluating the fulfillment of tasks and instructions, as well as keeping students' attention throughout the lesson, drawing attention to the problem being studied.

Foreign language interaction of students in a digital educational environment

The problem of correct speech attitudes of a teacher's activity, necessary for successful foreign language interaction, was considered in the works of M.M. Rubinstein ^[3], who emphasized the importance of a teacher's ability to express his thoughts confidently and clearly. Modern researchers also highlight the importance of professional rhetorical training for teachers, which includes knowledge of linguistic and strategic aspects of communication in the educational field. Teacher speech training is considered as a discipline that promotes the development of speech skills of students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages through the study of general principles of communication and their application in pedagogical practice. In the study of E.G. Orshanskaya as "... a discipline that allows students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages to receive speech training by learning the general laws of communication and specifying their main provisions in private, pedagogical rhetoric" ^{[4, p.6]}.

The organization of students' foreign language interaction is carried out through the interaction of the student with educational resources with minimal participation of the teacher and other trainees, interactive interaction between all participants in the educational process, individually isolated learning and interaction through online forums and chats for discussing educational issues and sharing experiences, webinars and online conferences for lectures, seminars and discussions, group projects and assignments that require collaboration and the exchange of ideas, individual consultations and feedback from teachers, the use of educational platforms and online courses for self-study of material, electronic portfolios to track student progress and achievements, online testing and knowledge assessment systems.These methods make it possible to create an effective and interactive educational environment where each participant can actively participate and interact with each other.

For effective use of foreign language interaction in a digital educational environment, the following aspects must be taken into account: insufficient knowledge of a foreign language: it is necessary to provide students with opportunities to practice a foreign language, for example, through communication in a foreign language in online forums or webinars, taking into account the convenience of using communication tools: it is important to choose convenient and accessible means of communication for students in order to to facilitate the process of communication in a foreign language; formation of communicative skills: teaching communication in a foreign language should include various exercises and tasks aimed at developing communication skills and understanding in a foreign language; recognition of the individuality of students: it is important to take into account the individual characteristics of each student when organizing foreign language interaction in order to create a favorable educational environment; active participation of students: encouraging students to actively participate in the educational process in a foreign language contributes to more effective learning of the material and the development of communication skills. The formation of communicative skills ensures the effectiveness of foreign language interaction in foreign language lessons, and interaction within the framework of a communicative situation also depends on the personality of the teacher. I.S. Yakimanskaya points out the importance of "recognizing the individuality and self-worth of each person endowed with their own unique subjective experience" ^{[5, p. 9]}.

The methodology of forming the skills of foreign language interaction of students in a digital educational environment

In this regard, the process of teaching a foreign language is aimed at the formation of personal knowledge, skills and abilities that contribute to the foreign language communicative activity of the communication subject, which is expressed in the verbal interaction of students, where a problematic professional situation is a form of communication. Taking into account the specifics of the subjects of pedagogical interaction when organizing the educational process in a digital educational environment makes it possible to make it more effective. Therefore, in this regard, the scientific novelty of the study was that the method of forming the skills of foreign language interaction of students in a digital educational environment was specified. It includes a complex of developing lexical and grammatical literacy (general knowledge of language as a sign system), discursive compromise activation of utterance (logical construction of a foreign-language utterance, taking into account the interactive features of students), communicative and situational actualization of foreign-language communication (taking into account the socio-cultural context for the implementation of foreign-language communication), contextual and strategic skills (the ability to choose the right communication strategies depending on the communication situation, as well as modeling communicative situations of foreign language interaction), as well as digital literacy as a component of reflection and self-organization of this process ^[7]. Let's look at these components in more detail.

Lexico-grammatical literacy implies understanding language as a system for making grammatically correct statements, in choosing grammatical structures that are adequate and equivalent to the utterance, necessary for a communication situation. This component is formed if the student uses stable expressions, cliches, and various grammatical constructions: it is necessary to propose the necessary variant of the semantics of lexical units, discuss the meaning of new words in exercises and in the teacher's speech.

According to N.D. Galskova, the content of teaching a foreign language should include professionally oriented aspects: "spheres of communicative activity, topics and situations, speech actions and speech material that take into account the professional orientation of students; language material (phonetic, lexical, grammatical, spelling), rules of its design and skills of operating it; a set of special (speech) skills that characterize the level of practical mastery of a foreign language as a means of communication, including in intercultural situations; a system of knowledge of national and cultural characteristics and realities of the country of the language being studied" ^{[1, p. 17]}.

The discursive compromise activation of an utterance consists in using the means of coherence for different communication situations. Connective means such as conjunctions, pronouns, articles, and other linguistic elements are used to establish logical and semantic connections between utterances and participants in communication. The purpose of discursive compromise activation of utterance is to ensure understanding and interaction between the participants of the discourse, as well as to achieve agreement and compromise in the communication process.

Communicative-situational actualization of communication involves taking into account the social context, and this is expressed in the status and position of the speaker for the need to select appropriate language structures. In a digital educational environment, it is advisable to form the skills of foreign language interaction by involving students in simulated situations of real professional communication in a foreign language. In addition to the lexical and grammatical aspect, it is important to consider cross-cultural contexts. Exercises aimed at developing logical thinking skills and highlighting the main idea help students focus on important aspects when communicating in a foreign language. This helps to understand the meaning of the interlocutor and avoid problems in communication. The teacher, guided by the principle of speech orientation, analyzes the use of language tools in a specific situation. Thus, students can apply the acquired knowledge and skills in new conditions, which contributes to the activation of communicative learning and the use of compensatory strategies. According to the position of scientist E.I. Passov, the speech orientation lies in the language level. The use of each phrase is justified by considerations of communicative value for the proposed situation ^{[6, p. 68]}. Exercises aimed at developing logical thinking and highlighting the main idea help students focus on key aspects of communication in a foreign language. This helps to understand the meaning of the interlocutor and prevent problems in communication. The teacher, guided by the principle of speech orientation, analyzes the use of language tools in a specific situation. Thus, students can apply the acquired knowledge and skills in new conditions, which contributes to the activation of communicative learning and the use of compensatory strategies.

Contextual and strategic skills consist in compensatory skills to carry out adequate communication when there is a lack of suitable language tools, when speech material is freely combined depending on speech needs, and digital literacy in this context plays the role of a reflexive component, thanks to knowledge about the use of digital resources, it is possible to create a personalized learning route in a digital educational environment. The development of these components of foreign language interaction took place at three successive stages: motivational, practical and reflective stages.

Speaking about these stages, we note that at the motivational stage it was necessary to motivate students to communicate in a foreign language in a digital educational environment based on a digital educational platform, which, through hypertextuality, interactivity and polycode (translation of one type of information into another), is a platform for the effective implementation of foreign language skills in the digital educational environment of the university.

The practical stage was devoted to the development of digital competencies of students in terms of foreign language digital skills, and also aimed at improving the level of foreign language proficiency in the digital educational environment during the study of the discipline, in our case, "Foreign language". At the reflective stage, the work was aimed at summarizing the work, recording the results and organizing reflection.

The introduction of new digital technologies into the educational process of the university has allowed the formation of a digital educational space, which is organized by teachers as a technology of asynchronous or synchronous communication mode to create conditions for students to communicate in a foreign language due to the internal motivation of the student. With such adaptive interaction of learning subjects, the student has the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of offered forms of differentiated learning an option that contributes to the achievement of individual goals. In such an organization of classroom and extracurricular work of students, the age characteristics of students, the level of their cognitive activity, as well as the activity component were taken into account (to coordinate internal motives with the methodological and didactic content of the subject "Foreign language").

The process of forming the skills of foreign language interaction of students in the digital educational environment of the university will be effective, as digitalization provides:

personalization of the digital educational environment based on the construction of individual educational trajectories of students; maintaining internal motivation among students at all stages of the educational process due to different levels of language proficiency; involvement of each student, as well as the teacher in educational activities, control over the pace of learning, as well as automation of language skills; expanding the possibilities of forms of organization of educational activities for example, group project activities in a digital educational environment; the formation of professional skills, abilities, and competencies when working with authentic texts; providing quick operational feedback to students and evaluating learning outcomes directly during the course of learning tasks using self-test modes; evaluating educational outcomes based on technologies of cumulative assessment of a personalized student's footprint (rating, portfolio); freeing the teacher from a certain range of professional activities, saving free time, openness of resources, the opportunity to learn the results of their work in advance.

The effectiveness of foreign language interaction in a digital educational environment will be obvious under organizational and pedagogical conditions, developed on the basis of the following principles: 1) the principle of personalization: providing students with freedom of choice in setting educational goals, designing an individual educational route, determining the pace and level of mastering certain elements of the educational program, preferred technologies, forms and methods of teaching, taking into account his educational needs, personal inclinations and preferences, professional requests; 2) the principle of multimedia, implemented with the optimal use of visual clarity in the classroom in the format of listening to audio and video recordings and other authentic materials; 3) the principle of professional and communicative orientation, in which the content and strategy of linguistic training are aimed at the realization of professional tasks; 4) the principle of expediency, which ensures the integration of disciplines of various subject blocks in the logic of professional training; 5) the principle of interactivity, which combines various types of communicative activities with an individual development program; 6) the principle of integrity and complexity, which combines types of foreign language communicative activities with an individual student's self-development program; 7) the principle of flexibility and adaptability, which combines the student's self-organization in linguistic training and pedagogical impact based on dialogue and cooperation.

In connection with the above, we have revealed that the principle of personalization and adaptability are fundamental and priority in the course of linguistic training. The linguistic level of a student who is ready to communicate varies markedly depending on the training profile. Therefore, higher education organizations are faced with the task of organizing linguistic training in the higher education system in a digital educational environment that encourages students to model and independently search for answers to problematic professional tasks, building trusting relationships with teachers and other students.

The activity of a teacher in the implementation of foreign language interaction of students in different models is considered as a process of active effective assistance and creation of optimal conditions for the implementation of speech activity in a foreign language. However, despite all the advantages of organizing foreign language interaction in a digital educational environment, students and teachers may face some problems. One of the main problems is the insufficient development of lexical and grammatical literacy, which can lead to misunderstandings of information and errors in communication. In addition, the use of various means of communication can create problems with accessibility and usability. For this, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the program interface and develop digital literacy to work in a digital educational environment.

As shown by the analysis of the literature studied in this article, the process of forming the ability of foreign language interaction of students in a digital educational environment, which is a step-by-step activity aimed at the formation of the following components: lexical and grammatical literacy (general knowledge of language as a sign system, the development of necessary lexical and grammatical skills), discursive and compromise activation of utterance (logical construction of a foreign-language utterance in accordance with the situation, communicative interactive and perceptual abilities of the student in constructing an utterance), communicative and situational actualization of foreign-language communication (taking into account the social context for the implementation of foreign-language communication), contextual and strategic skills (the ability to choose the right communication strategies depending on the communication situation, value attitude to professionally oriented communication, the ability to successfully act in situations of professional foreign language communication in a digital educational environment, necessary for the implementation of professional activities in the implementation of interaction at the regional and international community levels, as well as in remote communication), as well as digital literacy as a component of reflection and self-organization. The development of interactive components took place at motivational, practical and reflective stages. At the motivational stage, it was necessary to motivate students to study in a foreign language in a digital educational environment based on digital educational platforms. At the practical stage, a professional level of foreign language proficiency was formed in the digital educational environment during the study of the discipline "Foreign language". Also, this stage was characterized by the development of digital and speech skills. At the reflective stage, the work was aimed at developing students' self-esteem and ability for professional growth, and organizing reflection.

A standardized EFSET test was conducted to measure lexico-grammatical literacy. It reflects linguistic knowledge, experience working with foreign language information in the digital educational environment of the university, the ability to find the means to implement them, the ability to analyze, summarize and systematize the information obtained using digital resources (Table 1).

Table 1 – Results of the English language test for students of the discipline "Foreign language" after completing the digital course

All students successfully passed the test for a score corresponding to higher levels of language proficiency. Analyzing the data obtained, it can be noted that in the experimental group 55% - 33 students have a critical level of language proficiency (B2), and in the control group this indicator is 35% - 21 people. A creative level of language proficiency is observed in 20% -12 people studying in the experimental group and 22% -15 people in the control group, which is a stable indicator.

A comparative quantitative analysis of the results of experimental work (Table 2) showed an increase in the level of formation of students' foreign language interaction skills in the digital educational environment in the experimental group, which indicates the effectiveness of the implementation of organizational and pedagogical conditions, readiness to carry out effective foreign language communication with native speakers when solving professional tasks in a digital educational environment.

Table 2 – Summary dynamics of changes in the level of formation of students' foreign language interaction skills in the digital educational environment at the beginning and end of experimental work

Based on the analysis of the results of the formative stage of experimental work, it was found that the analysis of the data presented in the table convincingly shows the following dynamics of the formation of skills of foreign language interaction of students in the digital educational environment in the experimental group, at the beginning and end of experimental work. The number of students with a standard level decreased from 30% (18 people) to 10% (6 people). They have moved to a new level of foreign language interaction.

The results of the experimental work proved that the development of components of the formation of skills of foreign language interaction of students in the digital educational environment of the university is relevant today, since their implementation makes it possible to increase the educational results of foreign language training of students of a pedagogical university in a digital educational environment.