Abstract:

The article comprehensively solves two main questions:
a) the content of educational materials on language and literature;
b) the possibility of using a telecommunications educational information system (TUIS) to improve the system of both students' independent work and the interaction of the teacher with the students.

TUIS at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia was created on the basis of a free learning management system, a virtual learning environment MOODLE (Module Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). The facilities of TUIS are perfectly adapted for teaching not only students, but also applicants who are to pass the compulsory Unified State Exam in the Russian language. Language is a part of philology, interdisciplinary science, which includes literature. In general, philology is understood as a general humanities area of knowledge, studying texts and their meanings. That is why the exam on the Russian language involves knowledge of literature, the ability to navigate the general space of philology. Applicants to write an essay should argue their own opinion, relying on the well-known stratum of Russian and foreign literature. The telecommunication system makes it possible to create tasks in a multimedia format (fragments of artistic texts, presentations, video lectures, audio lectures, films, graphics). Using the Add an Activity menu, a teacher can add one or more of the many task forms represented in MOODLE.

Our strategy and methods of teaching philology are best embodied in the test form of assignments. One of the weighty arguments of opponents of testing is the charge of "primitiveness." Indeed, such tests (multiple choice) are convenient only for grammar. However, there are various forms and types of closed tests that significantly complicate testing. TUIS also offers alternative tests with different difficulty metrics: tests for matching, dragging into the text, a nested answer, and inserting the missing word. If the task includes several correct answers or requires establishing a correspondence between two rows of answers, then a higher “index of complexity” is assigned to such a test. This one is in the competence of the teacher creating the test. Tests of the “open” type are designed both for a short answer (insert a letter or a word) and for a sufficiently detailed answer (a sentence, several sentences, or even a mini-text). In the TUIS system, this is called “Short answer” and “Essay.” In the latter case, such a test directly prepares students for writing an essay.

It is important to note that students should have the skill of complex analysis and interpretation of the text both in terms of its content and in the linguistic aspect, therefore all test tasks on punctuation and spelling should be made up of quotations selected from works of literature. It is effective to first interpret the text as an artistic whole, and then learn how to analyze individual grammatical phenomena in the text. The quotation is included in the test, and the student notes difficult spelling cases and explains the punctuation marks. In conclusion, we emphasize that the capabilities of the telecommunications educational information system allow the teacher to realize the most relevant and bold educational ideas.

Keywords:

Telecommunication educational information system, language, literature, open test, closed test.