Formation of Cognitive and Informational Competences in Students in the Course of "Lexicology" discipline

The article is concerned with forming cognitive and informational competences in students of linguistic specialties in the course of "Lexicology" discipline. The authors consider the concepts of cognitive and informational competences as key components in the professional competence of a linguistics student; analyze their role in the activity-based approach to learning, in which much attention is paid to the autonomy of learners. The paper addresses the problem of increasing the number of hours allocated to students' independent work, which implies a more exploratory nature of learning. The relevance of the article consists in finding ways to ensure the active cognitive position of students, motivating them to independent practical activities when assimilating educational material, taking into account the overall digitalization of education. The paper considers the possibility of forming cognitive and informational competencies, as well as deepening knowledge about the word-formation models of the English language in the process of independent cognitive activity of students related to the search for the meanings of neologisms in social networks, as well as determining their ways of word formation. Neologisms are studied as a phenomenon, and possible ways of forming these linguistic units, similar to the word-formation models of standard words, are given. The vocabulary of social networks is considered as a topical layer of language for modern students. The potential of Internet resources for students' independent work is explored. The experimental part of the study was conducted in the classes of the discipline "Lexicology" for the 3rd year students of the "Linguistics" department at Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University. The data of the experiment show the successful development of cognitive and informational competencies in the process of working with Internet resources, as well as the high motivational potential of linguists’ exploration of social network neologisms.