Abstract:

The issue of integration of the Internet into education and, in particular, the process of teaching foreign languages, is currently fairly relevant. This is mainly due to the fact that many learning goals and objectives can be achieved when using the Internet as a means of teaching a foreign language. Nevertheless, the use of information technology is poorly linked to curriculum and syllabus so far. There is no uniform and coordinated strategy for its implementation into the educational process.

This paper studies Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) that supplement and elevate the process of teaching and learning. Special attention is given to the tools which teachers use to help their students create, process, and share information on computer devices and over computer networks.

The relevance of this article is justified by the School Standards at the present stage of development. Integration of ICTs into the process of teaching foreign languages is a growing trend. This is primarily due to the fact that Russian education system aims to increase the efficiency of the learning process, create favorable environment for teaching and learning, and increase students’ motivation.

The purpose of the article is to identify specific features of the use of Information and Communication Technologies in teaching vocabulary of a foreign language at the senior level of education using language-based platform Memrise as a representative example. To attain the set goals the following research methods were used: theoretical study and synthesis of scientific and methodological literature as well as Internet resources related to the research topic; analysis of the content of the chosen ICTs used for teaching foreign languages and their educational orientation; comparison of the studied ICTs, pedagogical experiment.

The practical importance of the study is that the results can facilitate the choice of online programs for language teaching lessons.

The article demonstrates the results of the survey about the efficiency of the language online platform Memrise in teaching foreign language vocabulary. The study shows that the main advantages of learning with Memrise are effective memorization of vocabulary due to the process of frequent repetition. It was mentioned by the majority of students surveyed. The participants emphasized the fact that Memrise currently resembles a kind of a database which allows the participants of the course to access the most important vocabulary which is covered during the classes. Besides, the students highly rated the modern look of Memrise and its mobile version. Every fifth respondent believes that a degree of competition plays an important role and the rating of the most active participants of the course is very motivating.

In this study, we focused on English as a foreign language, but further research would provide opportunities for analyzing the impact of ICTs on the motivation of students for studying not only English language, but other subjects as well.

Keywords:

Foreign language teaching, pedagogical experiment, Information and Communication Technologies, online platform Memrise, English vocabulary, senior school students.