The foreign-language communicative competence grounds of master course students

Василишина Наталія

Національний авіаційний університет, Київ, Україна

Актуальність проблеми статті визначено зростаючим попитом на кваліфікованих спеціалістів, які добре володіють іноземною мовою. Процес модернізації системи вищої освіти в Україні в умовах її інтенсивного розвитку, соціально-економічного співробітництва з іншими країнами викликає актуалізацію проблем якості в освіті, що передбачає можливість майбутніх фахівців здійснювати професійну діяльність в іноземному середовищі. Тому іншомовна підготовка магістрів стала однією з важливих цілей сучасної вищої школи.

Проблематика статті пов'язана з сучасною необхідністю для студентів закладів вищої освіти в оволодінні комунікативними потребами та навичками в галузі іншомовної мови для конкуренції на світовому ринку. Період глобалізації зумовив життєву необхідність студентів магістерських ступенів презентувати глибокі вміння та навички в усіх видах іншомовної мовленнєвої діяльності, таких як: аудіювання, говоріння, читання та письмо. Крім того, сучасна вища освіта має відповідати новим методам, підходам, інструментам оцінювання з метою реалізації дидактичних іншомовних комунікативних цілей студентів.

Було проведено наукове дослідження, що складалося з трьох частин, які імплементували основні цілі, а також завданнях наукової розвідки: перша частина описує поняття «комунікативна компетентність» та його складники; другу частину статті присвячено з'ясуванню особливостей іншомовної комунікативної компетентності; третя частина статті ґрунтується на описі сукупності видів завдань іншомовної комунікативної діяльності, які можуть бути запроваджені в сучасному навчальному процесі вищої освіти.

Дійшли висновків, що найбільші переваги методології викладання іноземної мови пов'язані з: її доцільністю у пошуку відповідних навчальних матеріалів, забезпеченням активної роботи студентів магістерських ступенів у різних формах завдань, що пропонуються викладачем університету.

Ключові слова: університетська підготовка; студенти магістерських ступенів; комунікативна компетентність, іншомовна комунікативна компетентність; структура; компоненти, мовленнєві здібності, система завдань.

communicative competence foreign language

The urgency of the problem raised in the article is explained by the increasing demand for qualified specialists who have a good command of a foreign language. The process of modernization of the higher education system in Ukraine under conditions of its intensive development of socio-economic cooperation with other countries causes the actualization of the problems related to the quality of education, which implies the ability of future professionals to perform professional activities in the foreign language environment. Therefore, the training of master course students in foreign languages has become one of the important goals of the modern high school.

The relevance of the paper is connected with the modern necessity to master university students' skills to meet their communicative needs by means of a foreign language in order to compete in the global market. Our period of worldwide globalization has created the vital necessity in master course students who need to present profound skills and abilities in all foreign language activities, such as: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Modern higher education has to comply with new methods, approaches, assessment tools that cater to the English communicative goals of students.

Taking into consideration the rate of modern foreign language learning actuality and necessity, we have conducted a scientific research which comprised three parts that dwelled on fulfilling the main purposes as well as the tasks of the survey: the first part dealt with the description of the term “communicative competence” and its components; the second part of the paper was dedicated to figuring out peculiarities of the foreign communicative competence; then the third part of the paper was grounded on the description of the most common set of activities that can be implemented in the contemporary educational process in the framework of higher education.

Thus, the research findings have been claimed that the biggest advantages of the communicative foreign language teaching methodology are connected with: its appropriateness in finding the teaching materials as well as providing master course students with active language-based activities according to various forms of tasks given by a university teacher.

Keywords: university training; master course students; communicative competence, foreign language communicative competence; structure; components, speaking abilities, set of tasks.

Introduction. Language is seen as a means of interpersonal interaction in a multinational context and multicultural space. The process of teaching a foreign language at a higher education institution provides students not only with an appropriate level of language skills, including the skills which would enable students to use English in various situations of life activities and would contribute to the successful realization of the educational and developmental potential of this subject (“Collins English Dictionary”, 2006; “Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English”, 2009).

The topicality of our survey is related to language capabilities in terms of transacting in foreign languages, especially by means of the English language, which is primarily determined by the increasing global economies, a heightened need for matching the international standards and changing demographics in the world. To add, every call to action to prepare our students for the 21st century includes offering them the opportunity to learn English so as to increase their knowledge of other cultures (Bachman, 1982).

Furthermore, the prosperity and success of modern society have been reasoned with two key indicators: one is digital literacy and the other one is the knowledge of the English language. It is understandable that the professional training of master course students should focus on the prospects of international cooperation, ensuring the mobility of academics, teachers, and students within the global educational and scientific space. Bringing this training in line with the world standards of higher education enhances the importance of its foreign language communication component (Chapman, 1996), (Gardner, 2006), (Penny, 2012).

In view of this, the problem of the development of students' communicative competence has gained special relevance and become the subject of a number of scientific researches. Some aspects of the foreign

language training of the future specialists are covered in the researches of both domestic and foreign scientists, in particular in the works of: A. Aleksyuk, J. Berman, O. Bigych, V. Bondar, Ye. Vereshchagin, R. Grishkova, R. Johnson, N. Logutina, Yu. Passov, L. Povazhnaya, G. Rogova, S. Savignon, L. Sakun, O. Tarnopolsky, V. Fedorchenko, D. Himes, D. Shiles. The phenomenon of the communicative competence and the professional competence was studied by A. Aleksyuk, M. Barna, N. Bibik, V. Bondar, V. Buryak, I. Vinogradova, N. Vlasenko, N. Galskova, O. Kucherenko, O. Lokshina, T. Luchkin, I. Martyanova, O. Ovcharuk, O. Pometun, O. Reshetova, O. Savchenko, U. Widowson, L. Cherniy, V. Fedorchenko, L. Khalyapina, S. Tsareva (Chapman, Freeman, 1996; Harding, 2007).

At the same time, the conducted analysis of the scientific achievements has showed that the problem of the formation of the master course students' foreign-language communicative competences is underexplored and needs more detailed study and analysis for reaching higher results (Brown, 2000; Penny, 2012).

Purpose and tasks of the research. Taking into consideration the high level of the foreign language communicative competence importance for today's master course students, we can identify the main purposes as well as the tasks of the survey as follows: the first part deals with the description of the term “communicative competence” and its components; the second part of the paper is dedicated to figuring out the peculiarities of the foreign-language communicative competence; then the third part of the paper is grounded on the description of the most common set of activities that can be implemented in the contemporary educational process in the framework of higher education.

Materials and methods of research. Communicative competence refers to the ability of understanding, producing, and interpreting different speaking events taking into account not only their explicit sense, but also its implications; that is to say, what the speaker wants to say, what the listener wants to understand, their relationship, the social context. Therefore, communicative competence has to do with the social, cultural, and psychological rules that determine the use of a particular language in a particular situation (Byrdina, 2018; Djigunovic, 2007).

There is no consensus on the notion "foreign-language communicative competence" and its components among researchers. The authors define this term (ICC) as:

- knowledge, skills and competences necessary for understanding other peoples' programs of speech behaviour and their own ones, adequate to the goals, spheres, situations of communication, the content of which covers the knowledge of the basic concepts of language linguistics (styles, types, ways of sentences' interaction and cohesion in the text), skills and abilities, text analysis and communication skills;

- knowledge of the language, high level of practical knowledge of both verbal and non-verbal means, as well as experience of language proficiency at the variation-adaptive level depending on a specific speech situation (Harmer, 2012; “Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English”, 2009).

Different ICC models consider its various components. Thus, M. Kenel and M. Swain divide the ICC into the following components: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discursive and strategic. D. Hymes distinguished linguistic (the rules of language), socio-linguistic (the rules of dialect), discursive (the rules of constructing semantic expression) and strategic (rules of maintaining contact with the interlocutor) components of ICC. Thematic, organizational, pragmatic, socio-cultural, social and other components of the ICC have been also explored (Gardner, 2006; Lukianenko, 2015).

The peculiarity of the professional communicative competence of a master course student is its connection with the professional consciousness, values and ideals - hence it is a matter of a proficiency level and styles of professional communication in different social and role situations.

Therefore, the foreign language communicative competence is seen as a set of knowledge, skills, knowledge that allows students to apply foreign language skills in a variety of socially deterministic situations, taking into account the linguistic and social rules observed by native speakers. It should be noted that in mastering the foreign language communicative competence, it is important not to lose one's own identity, formed in one's socio-cultural space. Moreover, during speech interaction there is no need to try to be completely similar to native speakers (Byrdina, 2018).

Thus, referring to the presented above researches and alongside linking them to our topic of investigation we have come up with the definition of the key term “communicative competence of master course students"which implies a group of interrelated professional knowledge, skills and abilities of the learner that are vital and necessary for participating successfully in different communication process models with diverse groups of interlocutors having the purposes to solve certain communicative problems and to be presented as competitive workers in their field of science.

Survey findings. In the framework of our research, we have created a set of tasks which are aimed at mastering foreign language communicative competence of the master course students.

Task #1. Open the group discussion by paraphrasing the quotations below. Which one do you agree with? Why? The main purpose ofthe first task is to master speaking skills ofthe students (table 1) (Vasylyshyna, 2020).

Table 1

Task #2. A list of conversation topics are suitable for intermediate level learners of English. It is a good idea to pre-teach essential vocabulary before beginning a discussion. This will help students to feel more comfortable and will encourage them to participate in group talks (table 2) (“Learn English Today”, 2019).

Table 2

Task #3. English Idioms and idiomatic expressions “Travel and Transport". To be more precise, idioms are words, phrases or expressions which are commonly used in everyday conversation by native speakers of English. So, learning the most well-known idioms will help to make students' English sound more fluent. Moreover, idioms are often metaphorical and make the language more colourful. People also use them to express something more vividly and often more briefly. They serve as an image or a mental picture ('“Learn English Today”, 2019).

- Jump on the bandwagon: if a person or an organization jumps on the bandwagon, they decide to do something when it is already successful or fashionable.

- In the same boat: if two or more parties are in the same boat, they are in the same unpleasant or difficult situation.

- Miss the boat if you miss the boat, you fail to take advantage of an opportunity because you don't act quickly enough.

- Rock the boat, if you tell someone not to rock the boat, you are asking him or her to do nothing that might cause trouble or upset a stable situation.

- Paddle one's own canoe, if you paddle your own canoe, you do what you want to do without help or interference from anyone.

- Put the cart before the horse: a person who puts the cart before the horse is doing things in the wrong

order.

- Drive a hard bargain, a person who drives a hard bargain always makes sure they gain advantage in a business deal.

- Drive (someone) up the wall, if somebody or something drives you up the wall, they do something that greatly annoys or irritates you.

- Backseat driver: a passenger in a car who gives unwanted advice to the driver is called a backseat driver (“Learn English Today”, 2019).

Task #4. Making a holiday trip - a lesson plan (By Rolf Palmberg, Abo Akademi University, Vaasa, Finland). Travelling to foreign destinations has become more and more common for young people today. The lesson plan “Making a holiday trip" suggests the ways in which master course students can be trained to make travel plans using Internet sites while at the same time practicing basic communication skills, such as, suggesting alternatives, arguing, agreeing, disagreeing, persuading and defending. The lesson plan includes individual work, pair work, and group work. There are a few things that the teacher must decide before introducing the project. One such thing has to do with the number of destinations to be covered. The more destinations the learners are working with, the more facts there are to be checked. And the more facts there are to be checked, the more questions there are to be asked and answered. Then again, having only one destination for the whole class makes it easier for the learners to discuss the selected destination in detail and to make relevant comparisons (“Learn English Today”, 2019).

Task #5. Write an opinion essay based on the topic “The Influence of Culture and Religion on the International Trade" applying the following linkers: to express opinion, in my opinion, personally, I think/1 believe that/1 strongly believe that, it is clear (to me) that, I(completely) agree/disagree with, it seems to me that, as I see it, in my view, from my point of view, as far I am concerned, I am sure/ convinced that, I (dis)agree with the statement, because my main reason is/another reason, one reason for this is, many people say/ believe that, because, since, because of/due to (Vasylyshyna, 2020).

Task #6. Complete the essential vocabulary table “Parts of Speech" incorporating active glossary extracted from translated article (table 3).

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Task #8. The research activity: complete this list of task #7 looking for as more as possible expressions that have been lately appeared in the modern intercultural behavior (Vasylyshyna, 2020).

Task #9 Make a project on the theme “The Global Cultures and Religions: the Successful Business Behaviour" in three possible deliveries: a) presentation in front of audience with personal speech and comments; b) written report-analysis based on collective data from various sources; c) multimedia option presented by means of selected topical video (Vasylyshyna, 2020).

Having created these nine-set tasks we meant to master modern master course students' professional communicative skills and abilities as follows:

- the ability to take into account the contextual relevance and usability of language units while communicating, which is needed for the implementation of cognitive and communicative functions;

- the knowledge of the language, high level of practical knowledge of the verbal and non-verbal means as well as the experience fluency at the adaptive level depending on a specific speech situation;

- the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to understand others and their own speech behaviour programs that are relevant to goals, areas, situations of communication, the content of which covers the knowledge of basic concepts of language linguistics;

- an integral quality of a person which synthesizes the general culture of communicating and its manifestations in the professional activity;

- the readiness and ability to master the subject matter, scientific knowledge in the professional foreign language communication;

- the skills to overcome psychological barriers when communicating by means of a foreign language;

- the communicative potential of the master course students based on the awareness of their own need for such communication.

Results Discussion. To sum up, the grounds of the master course students' foreign-language communicative competence are supposed to be: an important component of their communicative culture; an integral part of higher education training; an intrinsic professional capability in the job market in the period of a market economy, dialogue of cultures and peoples, inter-ethnic communication, new religiosity and the increased role of privacy.

Consequently, adaptation to all these modern conditions requires: practical mastery of the world languages, communication skills, the knowledge of religious holidays, folk customs as well as person's abilities to integrate into the system of the world and national cultures.

Conclusions. Thus, having conducted the research on shaping foreign-language communicative competence we have come to a conclusion that a master course student must demonstrate the ability to perceive and understand the worldwide culture in a broad sense, to interpret and to learn this culture, which manifests itself in the possibility to productively interact with the outside world. It is connected with the development of a student as a linguistic personality the major elements of which at a certain level of its structure are built into a clear system, reflecting the picture of the world.

From our perspective, the future surveys, related to the pedagogical problem of foreign-language communicative competence formation, can be streamlined into finding out key facts and ideas dealt with such issues as: the task-based learning; the content and the language integrated learning; the modern approaches of teaching English; the implementation of modern information-communication technologies in the educational process.

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