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THE TOP PRIORITY OF FORMATION OF THE NEED FOR LIFELONG EDUCATION IN THE ERA OF VIRTUALITY
L. P. Tzilenko
The overall aim of this article is to analyze the importance of development of the need for lifelong education. The article stresses the need for communicative competence in virtual society for a new generation of experts. English language is a strengthening component in motivation for lifelong education.
Key words: lifelong education, a new generation expert, communicative
competence, the English language.
In today's world, the development of the need for continuous education of the younger generation, for lifelong creation of the ability to be competitive, plays a crucial role in overcoming the economic, political and social problems they face. The primacy of the proposed concept is determined by the more and more diversified planet-wide interaction of states in global civilization, global social and cultural dimensions, growth of information and information technology. The intensity of the dynamics of the innovation processes in scientific and technical fields accelerates the process of the loss of functionality of the existing knowledge, causing the need for a specialist working in any area to obtain the latest information from authentic sources, its adaptation and operational use.
In fact, the very concept of “education” has changed, and there is a need for intellectual activity throughout one’s life both from the professional perspective and from the general cultural perspective. The undeniable urgency of the formula “education throughout one’s life” is recognized throughout the world, by the entire scientific community. The main ideas and objectives of the doctrine of lifelong education are formulated in the main UNESCO documents. They relate to the implementation of international cooperation in the field of education, social services, science, culture, and information based on the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and individual charters. Representatives of the world scientific community believe that in the context of global trends, continuing education is a mechanism for the development of professionalism, socialization and socio-cultural integration. With regard to our country, continuing education contributes to sustainable development of an efficient Russian economy, its recovery, and liberation from economic dependence on other countries. At the same time, the relevance of the concept is determined by the need to synthesize the national education system into the globalized educational environment. For sure, we mean both the theoretical fundamental transformation, and the practical aspects. A man, who, throughout his/her life, should have the chance for self-improvement, namely “learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together”, remains the main actor in the new educational interpretation. It is fair to say that the concept of “lifelong learning” is the most important thing, and a priority of social
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and economic development of society, an instrument of its formation for striving for sustainable development.
Participation in society life is almost impossible without a successful professional career, because it is the foundation of personal independence, selfesteem and well-being; it determines the quality of human existence, and, therefore, of society as a whole. In this context, the scientific and educational community faces the task of timely, flexible and accurate reorientation of the regulatory and parametric establishment of a specialist working both in technical industry and in the humanities field. The interdependent professional-personal formation of man, as a subject of activity, becomes a prioritized trend of educational strategy. We need a specialist who has a “leading vision” of rapidly changing global processes, and, at the same time, is a highly competitive, intelligent and well-informed specialist in his/her professional activities, and is capable of ongoing self-improvement. The educational concept of “lifelong learning” implements a wide range of areas, as it has a backbone architecture of functioning. We mean both the main tasks of education and in indirect ways. In this regard, we should point out the specific character of the virtual era - the era of geolinguistic dialogue, geointellectual, technological and economic competition.
It should be emphasized that all the integrity of professional and activity functions of a specialist of the new generation inherently involves communicative competence - with knowledge of the language of geolinguistic importance. Consequently, a modern specialist must know the language of international importance - the English language. Globalization is a new game with new rules. So today, more than ever, nobody doubts the importance of knowing English. The language of planetary importance is closely connected to all areas of human life -social, economic, political, and it helps to spread global knowledge and cultural treasures. English is the language of science-intensive technology, business, the Internet, humanities, and the arts, and it is an indicator of the intelligence of modern man, and his/her academic mobility. With knowledge of English, a specialist of any profile becomes free, active and a full-fledged participant of the social and economic life of society, able to solve any problem, and also to develop fundamentally new approaches ahead of our time. In some sense, knowledge of English language has the status of being a categorical criterion of quality of education and willingness to learn throughout one’s life, using the primary sources. In the context of the avalanche flow of information through the Internet, most of which is in English, our attitude towards the language of infinity is fundamentally changing. Moreover, students are changing in the synergy of the knowledge gained. An expert of the new generation has a unique imperative to study the language of inter-linguistic value. The resulting intention to learn the language of infinity contributes to the development of the need for lifelong education, academic mobility, information and mental consciousness, as well as study of information and communication processes, structures and forms of social and communication relations of the globalized society, and develops one’s categorical ideological apparatus and intelligence in general. At the same time, many other meta competencies are developed which are necessary for professional, intellectual,
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emotional and volitional activity of a specialist: the ability to provide arguments to support or refute this or that position, to come up with constructive criticism of ideas, and the ability to give an integrated evaluation of different points of view to make non-standard breakthrough solutions not based on patterns.
Therefore, a university graduate should have the ability: both on the receptive and productive levels, in imagery, graphic, audio-visual formats, to actualize the scientific, technical, creative ideas, algorithms, and concepts in English, in order to achieve effective solutions. The said competence is essential both in situations of professional communication, and in the social and cultural dialogue. The developed linguistic and professional competence, in its turn, leads to a permanent increase in self-improvement, and to continuing education throughout one’s life.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translastions Bureas
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