The article deals with the problem of organizing independent work of first-year students of a non-linguistic university in the process of studying the discipline English language. The paper defines the leading goal of the implementation of independent work of students and characterizes the students portfolio as an innovative tool, a means of fixing, accumulating and evaluating individual achievements. Self-study, self-education, student portfolio, continuing education, vocational training, indie educational trajectory-all this has a huge impact on student success.