Soroka O. Psychological provisions for use of computer tools in the process foreign languages (on the basis of studies conducted on students of non-specialized departments)

This thesis covers the problem of psychological grounds for effective use of computers for teaching foreign languages at institutes and universities. Analysis of non-computerized methods traditionally used for teaching of foreign languages proves that these methods cannot be immediately applied in the instructional process using new information technologies of instruction. The process is to be based on psychological and pedagogical requirements that the students' activity management must meet. These requirements, as well as communicative principles and step-by-step concentric principle underlie the elaborated model of instruction. Implementation of this model resulted in development of computer-based instructional environment, which comprises the continuum of communicative situations and instructional problems of all types, required for mastering a foreign language. In this environment the hypertext structure is provided both for knowledge relating to the language structure and for knowledge relating to speech generation mechanisms; feedback mechanism is widely used and learning activities control functions are distributed between the teacher and the student. Experimental data gave evidence of efficacy of this educational technology and elicited the important part that skills of a student assessed by the Cattell tests play in the issue of applicability hereof.