The Deutsch.info Platform as a Means of Organizing German Language Students’ Independent Study

Abstract

The article investigates the didactic properties of the deutsch.info German language learning online platform used by students of Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University (Ukraine) in their independent educational activities. The aim of the present research is to identify the functional, content-related, technical, and aesthetic features of this web resource in the context of the current requirements for foreign language learning tools, to collect and analyze student feedback on deutsch.info based on their first-hand experience of using it, and to determine the conditions for its rational implementation into German language learning practice. Based on a survey featuring 37 students of the Faculty of Ukrainian and Foreign Philology of Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University (Speciality 035 Philology. Germanic Languages and Literatures (Including Translation), Major: English), an empirical information research base is formed, which represents the full range of the students’ evaluations of the deutsch.info online platform as a means of independent study of the German language. The results obtained suggest that the majority of the respondents approve of the use of the web resource for an independent acquisition of German language knowledge and skills despite the lack of a German-Ukrainian dictionary and the inaccessibility of the site in an offline format. The platform benefits are reported to be its diverse and authentic content as well as its convenient navigation system. The collected data summarization allows for determining the conditions for the effective use of the deutsch.info platform in the practice of German language learning.