PROFESSIONALLY ORIENTED EXTENSIVE READING AS A TYPE OF IT STUDENTS’ INDEPENDENT WORK

The present work aims to analyse and describe ways of integrating extensive reading into the high educational process. The article proves the necessity of providing the independent work of students who study Information Technologies in tertiary education as it is a vital and motivating way for students to accumulate professional information, acquire new knowledge, gain valuable experience, and upgrade 21st-century skills. To meet the demands of the global labour market, IT students need to understand documentation and scientific literature. They should be ready to participate in conferences, webinars, masterclasses or meetings, to collaborate and communicate in a team via speaking English as it is the most widespread language in the professional environment. Since IT students are fascinated by their speciality, we suggest reading professional literature as one of the ways of obtaining information and increasing the level of professional competence. The article shows the advantages of extensive reading of professional literature and offers examples of websites with level and content-appropriate texts. The authors confirm the positive and beneficial results of extensive reading as part of IT students` independent work.