DISTANCE PREPARATORY COURSES IN UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE FOR ENTRANTS OF VOCATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The article examines the features of organizing and conducting distance preparatory courses for applicants to obtain an educational and professional degree of a professional junior bachelor based on basic secondary education. The relevance of the study is due to the need to overcome educational losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the protracted Russian-Ukrainian war, as well as the need for high-quality language training for applicants before admission. The article presents the structure, content and results of three-month preparatory courses in the Ukrainian language in online format, which took place during April-June 2025 for applicants to educational and professional programs of the Ivano-Frankivsk Professional College of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (now Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University). The volume of the training load was 75 academic hours (60 hours of classroom work on the Zoom platform, 15 hours of independent work). Particular attention is paid to the methodological aspects of building such courses, to working out the most difficult topics in phonetics, orthoepy, spelling, lexicology, phraseology, and grammar of the Ukrainian language, as well as to choosing methods and means of distance learning. Conducting diagnostic (at the first lesson) and final testing of students (at the last lesson) in synchronous mode proved to be quite effective for organizing language courses. Thanks to the diagnostic test, it was possible to identify the level of knowledge of the Ukrainian language and identify the most common errors that should be worked on later. The final test proved that the level of knowledge of the Ukrainian language among students has significantly increased. 96% of course students entered various educational and professional programs of the selected institution of professional pre-higher education. The results obtained can be used to improve the methodology of distance learning of the Ukrainian language and create electronic courses based on educational platforms in the language training system.