USE OF WEB QUESTS FOR ORGANIZING INDEPENDENT WORK OF STUDENTS IN THE PROCESS OF TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN A NON-LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY
The article considers the problem of organizing students’ independent work in the context of digitalization of education. The article is dedicated to a comprehensive analysis of the use of web quests in the process of teaching foreign languages. The study is based on research of foreign authors and deals with the structure of web quests, providing a detailed description of the main stages of the process. On the base of the considered theoretical material, as well as the analyzed experience of creating and using web quests by foreign teachers the authors of the article developed and conducted a web quest, and then analyzed the attitude of students to this method of organizing their independent work. The method of web quests is considered as the most accessible and simple method of using Internet resources to organize the independent work of students. The advantages of using web quests in comparison with traditional tasks for self-preparation are highlighted and a detailed analysis of these advantages is carried out. Particular attention is paid by the authors of the article to the development of criteria for selecting Internet sources used to develop web quest tasks. The article provides a number of recommendations on the development of this method of organizing independent work of students of a non-linguistic university. The final results of the experimental research allow the authors of the article to conclude that conducting web quests increases the productivity of practical exercises, and also helps to increase motivation to learn a foreign language.