Student community development as a way to improve foreign language learning
According to Maslow's pyramid, a sense of belonging to a community is one of the main human needs, the satisfaction of which contributes to the emergence of the next level of needs, among which is the desire to learn new things. For this reason, most institutions of higher education currently pay great attention to the organization of various types of student activities that allow the formation of a social group where ideals are shared and common goals arise. Of particular interest is the study of the formation of social groups in the study of a foreign language due to the communicative orientation of this process, which in the future may have a positive effect on students' goal-setting as well as their desire to expand the scope of interaction in a new language. The study examines the relationship between a student community and academic performance in higher education. The focus is on second-year students for whom a foreign language is a major. The formation of a student community is carried out in four main areas: 1) ensuring a variety of communicative situations in the foreign language classroom, allowing students to interact in various contexts; 2) reflection and flexibility of the educational process, provided by organizing various feedback channels with students who make proposals for making changes to the educational process, which are taken into account by the teacher, are promptly implemented and modified depending on efficiency; 3) encouraging students based on the effectiveness of their activities, as well as activity in the course of foreign language classes, as a result of which a high degree of interest in learning and interaction with classmates is ensured; 4) the involvement of students in the organization of cultural and creative activities, where a foreign language acts as instrument of interaction. This allows forming a student community in which the main principles are showing respect for the individual and providing academic support to each other. It should be noted that the foreign language teacher plays an important role in creating conditions for the formation of a student community and the emergence of a sense of belonging in each student. This feeling influences the development of psychological processes that have a primary impact on the student's self-esteem as well as his/her academic performance, which can also contribute to the emergence of new goals and additional incentives for learning a foreign language. In addition, students become more involved in various types of activity in the classroom, which creates prerequisites for the formation of autonomy. In view of the fact that the nature of interaction between students also plays a serious role in strengthening the academic involvement of each student, a communicative approach is of particular importance, through which conditions are created and many scenarios of interaction between students are implemented, which allows them to better understand each other. As a result, students experience less stress, which increases their level of activity in the classroom. The teacher, in turn, should not be limited to interacting with students in class conditions, but should create new situations, organize events in a foreign language, which will contribute to the emergence of not only a mutual goal, but also the conviction of each student in the positive impact of the community on the development of her/his foreign language competencies. In addition, the timely support and interest of the teacher in the personal development of each student has a positive effect on his/her desire to help new students at the university. One of the strong tools for the formation of a student community and a sense of belonging is the involvement of students in the implementation of changes in the educational process, due to which a sense of responsibility of each of them to the group for the effectiveness of the proposed initiatives is formed, which also contributes to the maximum involvement and interest of the entire team in the effectiveness of foreign language classes. There is an increased level of autonomy among students with high academic performance, as a result they tend to be less interested in group tasks. Students with average and low academic performance, on the contrary, tend to create local communities, common resources of which they use to achieve their educational goals. Attracting students with high academic results to participate in group work is solved by introducing activity as a new assessment criterion. The highest degree of involvement of students with any level of academic performance is observed when performing pair tasks, especially with elements of role-play. They contribute to the formation of students' socio-cultural competence. It is recommended to use project-type tasks that set a mutual goal for the entire academic group. A detailed description of the use of various types of tasks aimed at forming a sense of belonging to a group is presented. Preferred types of activities for students are determined depending on the degree of their involvement in the performance of a particular type of task.