https://doi.org/10.53656/for23.433impa

Резюме. This paper explores the internet resources used by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan universities students for English learning. Use of Internet resources in learning English became one of the relevant topics nowadays. As theoretical methods generalization, analysis and a questionnaire as an empirical method have been used in the study. Based on the empirical data the authors tried to identify which internet resources students of both countries use in their learning English and their influence for successful learning. Moreover, the study revealed the factors that impact and restrict students to use internet resources in learning English. The authors believe that teachers should direct, encourage their students to use internet resources for learning and incorporate the materials from different resources into English classes.

Ключови думи: internet resources; learning; information technologies; English teaching; education; benefit

Introduction

Internet resources provide exceptional opportunities to improve the quality of teaching English and create incentives for learning. They make English lessons productive and effective; implement the main direction in education - a personalityoriented approach to students and the educational process. Internet resources are a valuable and vast base for creating an information and subject environment, education and self-education of students, meeting their professional and personal interests and needs.

However, the spread of internet resources determines the emergence of problems associated with students learning English. The dynamic spread of the Internet does not always mean the availability of high-quality content that meets the goals of training in higher education. This is especially relevant for the goals of training specialists of higher education.

There is a need to solve the problem within universities – to provide students with high-quality Internet resources for organizing their independent work. This problem is also relevant for universities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where, in addition to local students, foreign students whose culture and educational traditions differ greatly are studying.

Admittedly, there is a significant selection of such resources represented by free and commercial resources. For this reason, it is important to select the efficient resources or create own activities based on the internet materials.

Over the past decade, many works have been written about the effectiveness of internet resources where researchers have revealed the positive impact of various forms of Internet communication (e-mail, chat, forums, web conferences, etc.) on the formation of foreign language communicative competence of students. For example, Kazakhstani and Kyrgyz scholars S.T. Nyshanova wrote about the modern approaches to the use of Information technologies in foreign language teaching (Nyshanova 2022), K.S. Kalibekova investigated the problem of use computer technologies in teaching languages (Kalibekova 2011).

The question of the possibility and advantages of using information technologies in teaching foreign languages has been considered in the works of many researchers (Sysoeva 2008; Polat 1999) The well-known British linguist David Crystal outlines a number of benefits of using the Internet to teach foreign languages in his book “Language and the Internet” (Crystal 2006). He contends that one possible explanation is that online communication's linguistic nature is essential to enhancing language learning. According to the scholar, another reason why the Internet is effective for teaching foreign languages is because web resources make it easier to teach written speech because network resources offer a platform for it.

M. Warshauer claims that one of the elements that significantly contribute to the career advancement of the use of computer systems for language education is the Internet in recommendations for educators at the University of Cambridge. The scientist claims that the development of the Internet has given students of foreign languages a fantastic chance to interact with other classmates or native speaker system of the chosen language globally at a low cost and in a short amount of time (Warshauer 2007).

Nevertheless, it can be noted that despite the accumulated practical experience in the use of Internet resources in teaching foreign languages, use of effective Internet resources and their impact on teaching English have not been fully considered yet. As theoretical methods generalization, analysis and a questionnaire as an empirical method have been used in the study. The aim of this research is to identify the internet resources used by Kazakh and Kyrgyz students and to define their influence for learning English.

Literature Review

The Internet has become a well-known new technology in recent years. All facets of the business, economic, and educational sectors of our world have been impacted by such a potent technological tool. In this sense, the widespread use of information and communication technologies, including the variety of options made available by the global Internet, is closely related to education. Information technologies are crucial because they increase the options for sharing knowledge. The use of information technologies creates new opportunities for everyone involved in the educational process by enabling quicker updates to educational resources, shorter information searches, and the creation of curricula that are tailored to the unique dual interests of each student. Internet resources in particular aid in the implementation of a personality-oriented learning strategy and focus on providing identification and distinction of training, considering the abilities of students, their propensities, etc. New instructional technologies (time to train in collaboration, a work plan, making use of cutting-edge computers, etc.) are particularly helpful in this regard. The Internet enables us to successfully address a variety of pedagogical issues:

– students' mental faculties are stimulated;

– passive students are drawn to work;

– classes are made more visually appealing;

– authentic texts previously inaccessible;

– students are accustomed to working independently with materials;

– immediate feedback is given;

– the educational process is intensified;

– live communication with people from other nations and cultures is offered;

– and effective reading, writing, and speaking are developed.

Among the opportunities that Internet provides us for the development of educational field Internet resources play a crucial role. The use of Internet resources for educational purposes meets societal requirements, which is why their use has become more widespread and popular. The term “Internet resource” has several meanings. The most common and widely used definition of an Internet resource is as a collection of integrated software, hardware, and hardware, as well as information intended for publication on the Internet and demonstrated in a specific text, graphic, and sound format.

Internet resources are also defined as the entire set of information technologies and datasets that are accessible via these technologies and are constantly updated. Given that we're talking about the efficacy of using Internet resources to teach students and teachers, it's a good idea to look into the features of educational Internet resources. Students, according to N.V. Sharypova, to explore resources that are specifically designed for use in the learning experience at a specific grade point average and content matter, as well as resources that are designed for sharing of information of the education system, educational institutions' actions, or educational authorities' actions (Sharypova 2015).

As we can see, instructional Internet resources distinguish themselves by being specifically designed for use in the educational process. It is broadly acknowledged that the use of Internet resources is particularly important at the senior level of education, because students at this age can demonstrate greater autonomy when learning a foreign language. Modern Internet resources, on the other hand, are designed to be accessible to all students, regardless of age or language level. They serve as a source of information, a means of expanding vocabulary and knowledge, and a means of enhancing cognitive and language skills.

Internet resources are also defined as the entire set of information technologies and databases that are accessible through these technologies and are constantly updated.

Internet resources, as a means of active learning, help students develop their social and psychological skills. At this point Z.R. Devterova emphasized that a positive emotional reaction to actions taken rise the effectiveness of performing certain tasks and creating an advantageous learning environment motivates students to pursue language acquisition (Devterova 2009).

The ability of Internet resources to serve as a tool that can maximize learning individualization is a significant benefit of using them. The teacher can take into account the unique mental processes of each student, including perception, thinking, and memory, by making their own independent selection of Internet resources.

Additionally, many educational services include libraries of pre-made templates, with which the teacher herself decides the task's level of difficulty while taking the student’s current proficiency in language into consideration.

Internet resources are a tool with multiple uses, so a student can always go back to a task he didn't understand or did poorly and read the information to refresh his memory of the important details. Since all data is publicly accessible on the network, students can independently and more successfully handle their challenges.

According to E.Ya. Sokolov, the idea of integrating Web-based technologies into the content of practical language classes has gained traction among educators and researchers in the field all over the world (Sokolov 2015). The problems of online learning have been documented in the studies by Jian Tao (Tao 2022), K.M. Wong (Wong 2021). Since students are frequently spending time in the virtual world and are eager to assimilate information shared in social networks and mobile applications, using online sources in international language lessons has a number of indisputable benefits. In specific, it tends to increase the brain functions and inspires learners, and guarantees a higher level of instruction and independent activities of students.

Moreover, researchers in the field of teaching English paid more attention to the fact that internet resources contribute to find new and more effective ways of solving the problem of teaching the language. For example, H.D. Brown claimed that internet resources are the most effective method for teaching a language with the aim of encouraging interactive communication (Brown 1994).

Reinders H. stated that learning process has advanced to a qualitatively new level thanks to the most recent advancements in the teaching of foreign languages based on the application of multimedia technology; we can now confidently assert that even in university education conditions, which are, properly speaking, synthetic information exchange, we can replicate actual situation, natural communication (Reinders 2018).

Methods

In order to identify which internet resources Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan undergraduates use for English language learning and their impact in learning English the questionnaire method was used. The questionnaire consisted of 9 questions related to internet resources, students’ opinion about benefits, drawbacks of internet resources used in learning English, as well as challenges they face. A total of 58 1st year students participated in the survey from L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University in Kazakhstan and Osh University in Kyrgyzstan. Students are majoring in Architecture, Teaching, Philology, Civil Construction, Medicine, Science, Economy and Hotel Business. A questionnaire was conducted in Google Form and all participants took part independently and their anonymity is kept.

Results

The first question was devoted to internet resources students use in learning English. The aim of the first question was to identify which internet resources are mostly familiar to 1st year students. The list of internet resources was given and there was a blank to fill in the resource that is not listed. The answers are given in the following figure 1. use the same resources for learning English. The section 'other' was filled in the resources such as Duolingo, Quizlet, ELSA speak, Ewa and Essential English words.

The following question sought to identify the most effective resources for improving English. Among the mentioned resources, we discovered about the most relevant sources according to student answers, including Britishcouncil.com, 5 Minutes of English, and the BBC.

The next question's purpose was to detect how often students use the internet resources. We can observe from the graph below that students use online resources often in English classes (Figure 2). 44% of students mention that they use online resources every lesson, 36% of respondents use internet resources every week. There are some percentage which show that internet resources are not used still appropriately, only twice a month (9%) and never use internet resources 11,9%, which is not so little indicator.

The following task was to determine and compare teachers' use of online resources. The results are given in the following Figure 3. In comparison with students' use of internet resources teachers use more often, 38,90% of teachers use internet 3 – 5 hours a day, 18,80% at least 0 – 2 days a week, 19,10% of respondents use internet resources 6 – 7 minutes a day.

By asking the following question, we aimed to identify how students evaluate the benefits of the Internet resources. According to students' opinion they consider that internet resources are highly useful (42%) and useful (48,5%) which proves students' perception of internet resources usefulness.

The next question's aim was to detect which tools students use more often. Respondents’ answers were different. 64,8% of students use their own mobile, because it is convenient and accessible, 27,6% use their own laptop, university computer-5,8%, only 1,8% use library computer.

The following question was what English language skills students improve through internet resources. Students mostly use internet resources for translation (36,5%), for both speaking (23,5%) and listening (23,5%) similarly, 16,4% of respondents use online resources for writing tasks. The results of above mentioned questions can be seen in the following table below (Table 1).

Further we asked students to answer the following question: “What factors influence you to use internet resources for learning English?” 28,3 % of respondents noted the convenience of internet resources “accessible anywhere, anytime”, free access (19,1%), easy to search and retrieve required information (17,7%). Students' full preferences about internet resources are given on the table below (Table 2).

From students' answers we assume that internet resources are definitely useful for students in learning English. However, there are some factors which still exist in two countries' education system. We prove our statement with students' answers to the following question “Which of the following factors limit your internet resources use for English learning?”. As the factors which limit students' internet resources use for English learning are chosen „do not have access to regular internet“, “lack of the searching skills”, “slow transmission” etc. The most challengeable answer was that 38,9% of respondents noted they are “addicted to social media” and less time left for English learning. Full answer is given on the Table 3.

From respondents' answers we can conclude that internet resources have both benefits and drawbacks in learning English, however there are still some challenges in proper using internet sources.

Discussion

Looking at the results above, we observe that both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan university students use the same resources for learning English. The majority of respondents use the most popular internet resources in learning English. Nearly half of students spend a lot of time on internet and most students answered that teachers use internet every lesson. Almost half of respondents evaluated the benefit of the Internet resources highly and more than half of the students use their mobile for learning. Moreover, majority of students answered that they improved translating skills more than other skills. Students think that using internet resources is convenient for learning as it is accessible anywhere, any time. However, most of them answered that addicting to social media limit their internet resources use for English learning. Respondents indicated some factors which are still preventable from internet resources use, they do not have access to regular internet. Lack of the searching skills is one of the discussable issues among undergraduates as well and can be a topic for further research.

The results obtained from this study provide what internet resources university students of both countries use in learning English. In addition, it gives a clear understanding that using internet resources positively influence their progress in English. However, students admit that they improve mostly translating skills than other skills through internet resources. It is connected with the fact that students use the internet resources, but they use them mostly for translating purposes because of lack of vocabulary. Furthermore, students accept the fact that they have less time for learning English as they are addicted to social media. Not having regular access to the Internet connection is one of the limitations of using internet resources as well.

Limitations

Limitations to the present study must be considered. There are a lot of them but in learning English the authors consider two interpretive limitations of this study. Firstly, the secret to mastering any language is consistent speaking and listening practice. However, internet resources have some lack with that because it can be challenging for students to clarify their doubts regarding the proper pronunciation, accent, and intonation. Secondly, students must conduct their own self-study using tools like books, language apps, LMS, software, or an online tutor. There is seldom any exchanges between students; the majority of communication is mainly between students and instructors. However, it is believed that students must converse with and learn from language in order to function. We have interactive sessions with the conventional system. Successful implementation of using internet resources in learning English is conditioned by available staff and methodological support.

Conclusion

Using internet resources in learning English opens a lot of possibilities for students as they contribute to develop language skills successfully. This study demonstrated that students of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan use the same internet resources in their learning process. The study showed that teachers use internet resources every lesson. However, we think that explaining the importance of internet resources as well as applying them into teaching process will increase students’ understanding and encourage them to benefit from the materials of internet resources.

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