Foreign language communicative competence as the basis of studying foreign languages

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FOREIGN LANGUAGE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE AS THE BASIS OF STUDYING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

М. О. Стахова, Вінниця, Україна / M. О. Stakhova, Vinnytsia, Ukraine

О.А. Стахова, Вінниця, Україна / O. А. Stakhova, Vinnytsia, Ukraine

Annotation. The globalization of human activity in general and educational activity in particular increasingly requires the development of foreign-language communicative competence.

Communicative competence refers to the ability to understand, create and interpret various communicative events, taking into account not only their explicit meaning (which seems more direct to us), but also its consequences; that is, what the speaker wants to say, what the listener wants to understand, the relations, social context, etc. Therefore, communicative competence is associated with social, cultural and psychological rules that determine the use of a particular language in a particular situation.

Language is used for self-expression, creative thinking, problem solving, but the most significant language usage is for communication. What makes it difficult to use the language system to communicate with other people is the fact that the individual's ability to interact with others through language (oral and written communication) is unique to each person and at the same time is a universal human skill that distinguishes humans from animals.

The successful use of a language for communication involves the development of the communicative competence of users of this language, which is limited by the sociocultural norms of the society where this language is used. What special sociocultural norms should be observed by using a foreign language for international communication? Or are these universal norms prevailing over individual societies and cultures?

Culturally determined differences lead to a special kind of communication, called foreign language, in which communicators from different cultures use special language options and discursive strategies, compromise approaches and knowledge about the cultural characteristics of the interlocutor with direct contact. Culture is a set of phenomena associated with human values and formed for the sake of these values. If the most general concept of the natural sciences is the concept of nature as the being of things, then the most general concept of the humanities is the concept of culture as the social being of human.

Key words: Foreign Language communicative competence, educational process, sociolinguistic, interlocutor, intercultural communication, discourse, sociocultural.

Анотація. Глобалізація людської діяльності в загальному і освітньої діяльності зокрема все більше вимагає розвитку іншомовної комунікативної компетентності.

Комунікативна компетентність відноситься до здатності розуміти, створювати й інтерпретувати різні комунікативні події, беручи до уваги не тільки їх явний сенс (що здається більш безпосереднім), але і його наслідки; тобто те, що хоче сказати промовець, що хоче зрозуміти слухач, його відносини, соціальний контекст і т. д. Тому комунікативна компетентність пов'язана з соціальними, культурними та психологічними правилами, що визначають використання конкретної мови в конкретній ситуації.

Мова використовується для самовираження, творчого мислення, вирішення проблем, але найбільш необхідна мова для комунікації. Що робить важким використання мовної системи для комунікації з іншими людьми, так це той факт, що здатність індивіда взаємодіяти з іншими за допомогою мови (усне і письмове спілкування) унікальна для кожної людини і водночас є універсальним загальнолюдським умінням, що відрізняє людину від тварин.

Успішне застосування мови з метою комунікації передбачає розвиток комунікативної компетентності користувачів, яке обмежене соціокультурними нормами суспільства, де ця мова використовується. Які особливі соціокультурні норми повинні бути дотримані при використанні іноземної мови для міжнародного спілкування? Або це універсальні загальнолюдські норми, що переважають над окремими товариствами та культурами?

Культурно обумовлені відмінності призводять до особливого різновиду іншомовної комунікації, при якій комунікатори з різних культур використовують при прямому контакті спеціальні мовні варіанти і дискурсивні стратегії, компромісні підходи і знання про культурні особливості співрозмовника. Культура являє собою сукупність явищ, пов'язаних з людськими цінностями і формованих заради цих цінностей. Якщо найбільш загальним поняттям природних наук є поняття природи як буття речей, то найбільш загальним поняттям гуманітарних наук є поняття культури як соціального буття людини.

Ключові слова: іншомовна комунікативна компетентність, освітній процес, соціолінгвістика, співрозмовник, міжкультурна комунікація, дискурс, соціокультурний.

language training higher education

The problem of intercultural communication was identified as very urgent after the Second World War in the USA and later, in the 1960s, in European countries due to the expanding influence of American politics, economy and culture in the world, as well as a result of the creation of the European Union. These factors stimulated the migration processes of people - speakers of different cultures and languages, and exacerbated both the problems of the psychology of intercultural communication and the problems associated with preparing people for participation in it.

The last five decades have witnessed global changes in the study and teaching of foreign languages. Empirical studies from areas such as linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, communication theory, and sociolinguistics perfectly described the complex nature of language acquisition; thanks to these studies, it became clear that linguistic, psycholinguistic, and sociocultural factors play a key role in this process.

Language training in the system of higher professional education should set as its goal not only the mastery of knowledge, skills, but also contribute to the formation of students' ability to use a foreign language as a communication tool in further professional activity not only in the dialogue of cultures, but also as a means of professional scientific and technical communication.

The current situation on the world labour market, the possibility of entering the international arena in future professional activities, numerous contacts with speakers of other languages - all this requires the need for free communication with representatives of other cultures. In these conditions, it can be assumed that teaching a foreign language must necessarily be based on the formation and development of Foreign Language communicative competence. Such competence should be given the main attention in the educational process. In applied linguistics, attempts have been made to consider the didactic construct of communicative competence in the framework of mastering any foreign language [3], but attempts to build such a model were not associated with the diagnosis of the language level or with the methodological problems of language learning.

Communicative competence was first mentioned by Naum Chomsky, in his writings he draws the line between "grammatical competence" and "practical implementation of language laws." He defines the first as the linguistic knowledge of an idealized native speaker, the biological functioning of the brain, which allows a person to create an endless series of grammatically correct statements that make up the language. The second is the actual use of the language in specific situations. The concept of communicative competence continues to be developed by the American linguist D. Hymes, who confirmed that for speech communication it is not enough just to have linguistic knowledge or know grammatical rules. This also requires knowledge of "cultural and socially significant circumstances" [3].

In this article, it will be considered the structural components, and model of Foreign Language communicative competence, which certainly includes pedagogically relevant components.

Given the practical significance of such a model in the preparation of educational materials, in the selection of pedagogical technologies and diagnostic tools in the expert assessment of communicative competence, it becomes necessary to consider the problem from a pedagogical point of view. But, before moving on to studying the model of interaction between linguistic and communicative competence, it is advisable to decide on the concepts and constructs that are part of this model.

Foreign language competence is an integral part of Foreign Language communicative competence along with sociolinguistic, linguistic competencies and discourse.

Discourse is one of the complex and difficult to define concepts of a number of sciences (linguistics, semiotics and philosophy), which has become widespread and the subject of theoretical study relatively recently. By "discourse" is meant a special type of communication aimed at critical discussion and substantiation of the views and actions of communication participants. Discourse is thought of as speech, inscribed in the communicative situation, and because of this, as a category with a more distinct social content compared with the speech activity of the individual [6].

Foreign Language communicative competence in science is traditionally understood as the ability to communicate through language, to transmit thoughts and exchange them in various situations in the process of interaction with other participants in communication, using the system of linguistic and speech norms correctly and choosing communicative behavior that is adequate to the authentic communication situation. Communicative competence is not a personal characteristic: its formation is manifested in the process of communication, it is part of the (Foreign Language) communicative competence of a linguistic person.

Proponents of the linguistic approach to the definition of foreign language communicative competence distinguish the following components:

- knowledge of models of communicative behavior and its interpretation both in their own and in foreign languages and cultures;

- general knowledge of the relationship between culture and communication (including the dependence of human thinking and behavior on a particular cultural cognitive pattern, directions in which cultures may differ, etc.);

- a set of strategies that stabilize interaction, that is, strategies for solving conflicts and problems that arise during communication.

Combining all these approaches and points of view, as part of foreign language competence, we can distinguish linguistic, cultural components and the ability to interact interactively (communication). All these components of foreign language competence exist and function against the background of strategic (metacognitive) competencies. By metacognitive, we mean a higher level of cognition that determines the learner's ability to self-control knowledge and perception of information, introspection, and reflection [1].

In the formation of metacognitive competence, metacognitive learning strategies are used that show how to organize the educational activity yourself, control your own educational activity, and how to consciously achieve your goals.

Studying the ways in which different groups of people interact in society becomes the key that opens up channels for foreign language communication. In a world so diverse and diverse, there are many factors that influence the formation of a person's personality, and culture is one of the most powerful forces that participate in this formation.

In the process of communication, an exchange of messages takes place, it means that information is transferred from one participant of a communication to another. Information is encoded using a specific character system (language), transmitted and then decoded or interpreted by the addressee of the message in accordance with the presence or absence of knowledge about the cultural characteristics of the interlocutor.

The purpose of teaching any foreign language is to teach the ability to communicate verbally or in writing. By the linguistic competence of an unauthentic linguistic person, we understand the ability to carry out communication based on knowledge of lexical units and grammatical rules of a given language. But this, as it turns out, is not enough to achieve communicative competence. It is necessary to combine linguistic competence with the national-cultural component and the ability to adequately use language in situations of foreign communication, as well as the ability to use cultural background knowledge to achieve mutual understanding in situations of indirect and direct intercultural communication, dialogue.

The globalization of human activity in general and educational activity in particular increasingly requires the development of Foreign Language communicative competence [5].

The ability to develop communicative competence is inherent in all people; however, this or that realization of this ability is culturally determined. In addition, it is also limited by the unique individual experience of each person, which implies that in communication, which is a process of exchanging messages, the meaning is constantly recreated, since they do not coincide even in people who speak the same language and who grew up in one and the same cultural environment [2]. It goes without saying that in the presence of different cultures and different languages, communication is so complicated that a complete understanding and tolerance of the cultural characteristics of others is not even discussed. It is virtually impossible to achieve this kind of communication without special training.

The linguistic aspect of speech provides its lexical adequacy and grammatical correctness, which affects the correctness of the formulation of thoughts, as well as the process of understanding the information coming from the interlocutor.

The discursive component of communicative competence involves the ability to build statements as units of speech and communication.

Sociolinguistic competence is the person's ability to perceive the multilingual world, the ability to use such sociolinguistic means as language switching, the intermediary language "Lingua Franca" and others, to achieve understanding in communication, and also rely on knowledge of such sociolinguistic concepts as "dialect", "accent", "dialect continuum", "mixing of dialects" and others, while perceiving a sociolinguistic picture of the world.

Sociocultural competence allows representatives of different cultures to understand, respect spiritual and moral values, art, traditions, customs, characteristics of each other, to tolerate and respect them.

Effective intercultural communication is both a condition and a product of the functioning of a Foreign Language communicative competence of a person, which, in order to achieve mutual understanding with representatives of other communicative communities and cultures, as well as to achieve set goals for communication, uses in practice knowledge of cultural rules and categories that determine the success of intercultural interaction [4]. Thus, foreign-language communicative competence allows a person in the process of intercultural communication to choose the necessary linguistic and speech means in accordance with the sociocultural context, create discourses, use sociolinguistic means, choose communication strategies and tactics that are acceptable for achieving goals, which increases the effectiveness of intercultural interaction.

The system of Foreign Language communicative competence is a multicomponent three-level education, which allows assessing the skills, abilities and willingness of a person to participate in intercultural communication formed in pedagogical conditions.

The first level, in contrast to the second and third levels, is characterized by elementary skills.

The second level is the level of adaptation to the conditions of intercultural communication and participation with a greater or lesser degree of uncertainty.

The third level is represented by criteria testifying to the formation of a foreign language communicative competence and the willingness of a person to effectively participate in intercultural communication.

Thus, it has been established that Foreign Language communicative competence is quite effectively formed using special programs to prepare individuals for intercultural interaction, trainings on the formation of intercultural communication skills and intercultural competence, lecture courses and workshops on the psychology of intercultural differences, psychological methods for measuring ethnic differences, which determine the level and degree adaptation of a person to a new sociocultural environment, and also to compare the features of "familiar" and "unfamiliar" culture and thus to prepare for a meeting with an unfamiliar culture and its bearers. The indicated competence is becoming more and more popular today, since it creates the basis for professional mobility, introduces the specialist to the standards of world achievements, and increases the possibilities of professional self-realization on the basis of communication and tolerance.

References

1. Acton W.R., Felix I.W. Acculturation and Mind // Culture Bound. Cambridge, 1999.

2. Baranova N. P. The concept of the subject "Foreign Language" // 2009 - No. 3.- P. 3-12.

3. Basturkmen H. Developing courses in English for specific purposes. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 172 p.

4. Hymes D. On Communicative Competence // Sociolinguistics / eds. by J.B. Pride and J. Holmes. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2002. P. 269-293

5. Slesarenko I. V., Abdrashitova M. O., Mymrina D. F., Dorokhova M. Y., Astafjeva I. S. Developing professional communicative competence through the medium of the English language. In: INTED2016: Proceedings 10th International Technology, Education and Development conference, Valencia, 7 March-9 September 2016. Barcelona, IATED, 2016, pp. 3911-3916.

6. S. J. Savignon (Ed.). (2002). Interpreting communicative language teaching. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

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