Communicative competence as a means of students’ social adaptation in the higher education environment

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Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University

Communicative competence as a means of students' social adaptation in the higher education environment

Maria Oliyar, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor Head of the Department of Pedagogy of Primary Education

Kateryna Fomin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Department of Pedagogy of Primary Education

Ukraine

Анотація

МАРІЯ ОЛІЯР, доктор педагогічних наук, профессор, завідувач кафедри педагогіки початкової освіти, Прикарпатський національний університет імені Василя Стефаника, Україна КАТЕРИНА ФОМІН, кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент кафедри педагогіки початкової освіти, Прикарпатський національний університет імені Василя Стефаника, Україна

КОМУНІКАТИВНА КОМПЕТЕНТНІСТЬ ЯК ЗАСІБ СОЦІАЛЬНОЇ АДАПТАЦІЇ СТУДЕНТІВ В ОСВІТНЬОМУ СЕРЕДОВИЩІ ЗАКЛАДУ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ

Стаття присвячена проблемі соціальної адаптації майбутніх учителів початкових класів в освітньому середовищі ЗВО. Розкрито поняття соціальної адаптації, комунікативної компетентності студентів та її найважливіших компонентів. Висвітлено результати дослідження рівня соціальної адаптації сту- дентів-першокурсників. Розкрито роль діалогічної культури майбутніх учителів, толерантності в комунікації як необхідних елементів успішної соціально-психологічної адаптації. Описано технологію формування комунікативної компетентності майбутніх педагогів.

Ключові слова: комунікативна компетентність, студент, соціальна адаптація, освітнє середовище ЗВО, технологія формування комунікативної компетентності діалогічна культура, толерантність.

Summary

The article is devoted to the problem of social adaptation of future primary school teachers in the higher education environment. The concepts of social adaptation, students' communicative competence, and its most important components are revealed. The results of the research on the level of social adaptation of first-year students are highlighted. The role of future teachers' dialogic culture and communicative tolerance as necessary elements of successful socio-psychological adaptation is revealed. The technology of the formation of future teachers' communicative competence is described.

Key words: communicative competence, student, social adaptation, higher education environment, formation technology of communicative competence, dialogic culture, tolerance.

The problem statement

The article aims at analyzing the role of future teachers' communicative competence as a means of their social adaptation in the higher education environment.

Radical socioeconomic changes that took place in society during a full- scale war led to a change in people's views of other people and the world around them. Today's society is a world of change, where almost everything is unstable, blurred and uncertain, contradictory, and disturbing. These contradictions are aggravated by virtual practices, when the relationships and the processes of cultural transmission from one generation to another, have weakened. A person in virtual communications is in a situation of constant choice, making decisions without relying on other people's experiences. A person determines the directions, limits, and rules of his/ her existence and activity. At the same time, society and state expect citizens to be able to build their lives, define the horizons of their development, and self-realization in the surrounding world through modern tasks. In addition, teaching plays a decisive role in this process.

The future teacher, today's student, faces the challenge of mastering professional pedagogical competence, which includes several varieties, one of which is communicative competence. According to the social status, the teacher is in the zone of increased language responsibility, his/her professional level is determined both by knowledge of the subject and by the degree of language proficiency. After all, all his/her knowledge and practical skills can be transferred to students only through a system of direct communication with them. Thus, the very process of communication between the teacher and the students acquires a fundamental character and appears as an important professional category of pedagogical activity.

Research and publication analysis

A. Andreeva, O. Bezpalko, Y. Bohonkova, L. Garmash, L. Koval, L. Krasovska, A. Mudryk, and others devoted their research to the issue of social adaptation of the individual. However, few scientists pay attention to the role of communicative competence in the process of future teachers' professional adaptation. The main purpose of higher education is to satisfy the needs of the individual in obtaining the appropriate education, assigned to it a variety of social roles. The future teacher actively adapts to the organization of the educational and extracurricular process at the higher education institution, is engaged in the system of interpersonal relations, and is acquainted with the requirements and norms of student life, the traditions of the educational institution, in other words - in the process of social adaption to the conditions of professional training. Outline of the main material of the study. Social adaptation is a multifaceted and complex concept that is studied by many scientists in the fields of philosophy, sociology, medicine, psychology, pedagogy, and the relevance of this process is not decreasing. The concept of "social adaptation" has different interpretations in different studies. The study of the content of the concept of "social adaptation" showed that it is considered an active interaction of the individual and the social environment to coordinate their interests, as a complex, dynamic process caused by the interaction of subjective and objective socio- psychological, mental, psychophysiological and physiological factors (Vorozhbyt, 2006, p. 74).

The problem of student adaptation is one of the most important since the success of this process depends on the level of academic success, the young person's assimilation of the norms of student life, inclusion in the system of interpersonal relations, mastering the status of a student and his/her roles, the ability to achieve psychological comfort by establishing proper relationships with others, which largely ensures success in education. The effectiveness of the social adaptation process depends on the organization of the educational process, the individual psychological comfort, value orientations, the motivation level, interaction with students and teaching staff, selforganization and self-control, communicative and organizational abilities, personal qualities, in other words, on the entire student's activity. In this context, adaptation appears as both a process and a result of internal changes of an individual in modern complicated, and changing conditions. social adaptation dialogic tolerance

Social adaptation is interpreted as "joining" a social group, which involves the assimilation of roles, norms, methods, and forms of interaction with others in certain conditions, because of achieving a balance between the individual and the external environment, the social environment. The ability to adapt the personality to the conditions of the environment, both physical and social, is defined as adaptability (Bohonkova, 2011). Consecutively, a deviation from a balanced relationship indicates a violation of the interaction between a person and the environment, that is, a manifestation of maladaptation. In this context, a significant role is assigned to social institutions (family, school, higher education institution), which are called to regulate the activity of the subject with the help of social norms.

The majority of researchers note the multifactorial nature of the individual's social and psychological adaptation, his/her dependence both on the internal resources of the person, the ability to meet the requirements of a specific situation, and on the characteristics of the educational space and social environment, where it is possible to use the mechanisms of influence on the process of social adaptation of the individual in an organized manner. In this regard, it is important to study the adaptive potential of a person, which determines his/her style of behavior in various situations, associated with the identification of individual characteristics that contribute to adaptation, hinder it, or have a compensatory value.

To identify the social adaptation level of students of the Faculty of Pedagogy - future primary school teachers - a study was conducted involving 60 first-year students. The study of the problem was carried out with the help of questionnaires, and tests. In the course of diagnosing the socio-psychological adaptation, it was revealed that 38% of the respondents have a high level of adaptation, 30% - medium, and 32% - low.

Adaptation problems for almost every person are associated with anxiety and fears about the future and their state of mind. Students entering higher education institutions are no exception. A significant number of people with expressed signs of anxiety indicate, in particular, a psychologically dangerous environment. The consequences of anxiety are emotional states of insecurity, and strong nervous tension, which prompt the individual to seek protection (Janoff-Bulman, 1992).

An emotionally dangerous environment means negative emotions, which naturally transform into a negative assessment of oneself, one's abilities and opportunities, and a role in society (Ruys, Stapel, 2008). The results of surveys of first-year students at the initial stage of study at higher education institutions show that 60% of students are afraid of problems with future relationships, primarily with fellow students, as well as senior students: fear of not getting used to the team, fear of communication with unfamiliar people, problems of finding a common language with others, conflicts in the group, loneliness and misunderstanding, living conditions and interpersonal relations in the dormitory, etc. First-year students are also afraid of relations that may not develop with educators in the future (23.3%), they worry about future relationships with them, they are afraid of the new education system, there is a fear of academic success difficulties, the session, the inability to study subjects, lack of time, etc.

As evidenced by the results of student surveys, a large part of them feels an acute need for psychological safety. In the classical definition, psychological safety means such a state of the educational environment, which is free from psychological violence in interaction with students, helps to satisfy their needs in personal and trustful communication, and promotes the mental health of all involved participants. Therefore, the adaptation process requires the creation of socio-pedagogical conditions to ensure the effectiveness of the student's adaptation process in the structure of pedagogic education (Levkivska, 2001).

As T. Spirina notes, "a targeted influence on the personality of a first- year student aiming at his/her successful adaptation in the conditions of a higher educational institution should take place taking into account the most influential socio-pedagogical factors" (Spirina, 2014, p. 183).

The obtained results of the research proved that, along with professionally oriented activities, individual-personal communication plays one of the main roles, thanks to which the ability to social adaptation increases. Communication is a complex and multifaceted process, which in the higher education system acts simultaneously as a process of interaction of individuals, as an information process, as the attitude to each other and mutual influence, and as a process of mutual understanding. Therefore, it is natural that by solving the problem of developing students' communicative competence, it is possible to speed up adaptation processes. Specialists of any profile participate in organizational activities, and in establishing relationships, therefore, communication skills, which are necessary for the adaptation period, will become more and more professionally necessary in the future, and this is of particular importance for graduate teachers. To be able to communicate, to be a good language partner, to work in a team, and to find understanding with colleagues is useful for everyone, especially those whose profession belongs to the "person-to-person" type.

The formation of communicative competence as a component of a person's general culture takes place during a person's life, characterized by certain features at each age period. At the student age, it is a process of continuous qualitative and quantitative changes associated with the addition of the system of value orientations of students with professionally significant ones, with the acquisition of ways of acquiring future professional activity, and selfunderstanding, the search for the most effective ways of selfexpression and self-presentation in the conditions of educational, professional activity, with the expression of emotions adequately to one's state of mind, to the professional activity requirements, development of reflective skills. Thus, professional training is the process of mastering a system of special knowledge, general and specific abilities, skills necessary for the performance of professional activities, and, at the same time, personal experience, which a student acquires based on subject-subject communication and situations determined by it (Бохонкова, 2011, p. 81-82).

The communicative competence of a first-year student appears as his/ her characteristic and is an important means of subjective inclusion in the education system. It is related to the level of learning satisfaction and to the success of students' interaction with their groupmates, and higher education institution staff.

In the process of establishing communicative connections, students learn to exchange experience, knowledge, and ideas for establishing a team, to subordinate their interests and needs, to be sensitive and attentive, and to acquire social experience of communicative activity. At the same time, communication means the exchange of information between communicating individuals for better professional training. Thus, communicative competence can be considered as a set of knowledge, abilities, and skills that are manifested in communicative actions and ensure the effectiveness of interaction with others (Maksimova, 2016, p. 62).

Communicative competence develops based on sociability, and behavior is a prerequisite for the development of such future teachers' leading personality qualities as focus on communication, interest in people, reflection, and empathy. Scientists present the structure of communicative competence as a set of components (affective, cognitive, and behavioral). The affective (emotional) component manifests itself in various emotional states, positive and negative emotions, conflict or non-conflict, and satisfaction with the partner in the process of communication. The cognitive (gnostic) component is manifested in mental processes related to knowledge of the environment and oneself (sensation, perception, imagination, memory, and thinking). The behavioral (regulatory) component encourages activity, and actions are expressed in facial expressions, gestures, pantomime, and speech. Each component that constitutes communicative competence has its criteria, based on which it is possible to determine the level of a future teacher's formation of this quality. For example, the criteria of the cognitive component are knowledge necessary for successful communication (knowledge of linguistics, psychology, and pedagogy), and the degree of their assimilation (reproductive, productive, or creative). Communication skills and the level of creativity are indicators of the behavioral component. In addition, scientists highlight the personal aspect of professional communication, which includes the level of cognitive motivation, communicative inclinations, and mastery of feedback mechanisms (decentration, identification, empathy, and reflection). Thus, future teachers' communicative competence implies their certain knowledge, abilities, and skills necessary for effective communication; the ability to use different language means in the communicative act depending on the situation, as well as the desire to interact with a personal initiative, to establish feedback. The development of each component helps to increase the level of students 'social adaptation.

A well-trained teacher must have professional communication skills. At the same time, the difference between a teacher who already works at school and a graduate student is that a student of a pedagogical higher education institution, although he/she had the opportunity to form and train this quality during pedagogical practice, remains in the social role of a student, and this fact affects the final assimilation of quality. The professional level of communicative competence differs from the preprofessional level only by the degree of quality stability in any life situation, and a student as a future teacher can reach this level only in continuous pedagogical activity. Nevertheless, the future teacher must possess the methodology of communication, the theory, and practice of communication with the student, and be able to build it with various participants of the educational process.

The following signs evidence the fact that a student possesses communicative competence at the pre-professional level: all knowledge necessary for successful communication is systematized, interconnected, and is of a scientific and operational nature, in various communicative situations. Nonstandard communicative situations do not cause difficulties for students, they easily enter interact (both directly and indirectly) with people from different social groups (students, parents, colleagues, management), and often show creativity, which is manifested in speech. They use mechanisms of feedback dialog adequately to the situation.

Interactionism psychologists interpret the personality as having a dialogic nature and formed in dialogic communication. In psychological science, the dialogic essence of the individual is affirmed, the dialogue is connected with such concepts as the "I" concept, self-awareness, the perception of a person by a person, the optimal way of organizing communication, the way of spiritual development (Bech, 1992). The main thing is that the dialogue is connected not only with the exchange of information but also with feelings, emotions, experience, and constant interaction with others, and with the world. So, dialogic culture is a complex system that includes three main components: assimilation of information that orients to dialogue, value setting for dialogue; reference to personal culture, which enables each individual to improve and find a way of realization. We consider the development of a dialogic culture in pedagogic communication as one of the primary tasks both in the professional training of future teachers and in solving the problems of students' social adaptation in higher education institutions. The structure of dialogic culture consists of theoretical knowledge (the concept of "dialogue", types of dialogs, the concept of dialogic culture, its role, and place in communication and communicative activity); communicative and dialogic skills (dialogue organization and conduct, mastery of language etiquette, speech culture, speech technique); a system of dialogical norms and values (empathy, tolerance, self-realization, freedom, interest, mutual understanding, cooperation, support); the need for self-development, creative improvement through communication with other people; reflection as the ability for introspection, critical perception of one's behavior in communication.

Accordingly, starting from the first year of student education, we introduce the technology for developing the communicative competence of future teachers in the process of educational and extracurricular activities, which is based on a person-oriented approach. Subject-subject relations in the "teacher-student" system create conditions for a new educational reality. At the same time, the fact that the subject position the student takes is of great importance since it is precisely in this that his/her attitude toward the future profession, educational activities, and other people is manifested. The possibility of forming an individual's professional identity as a unity of self-concepts, emotional experiences, and conscious activity related to the acquisition of a profession is mediated by the basic mental process of social and psychological adaptation of a student in higher education (Voinova, 2009; Lyakhova, 2001).

The course "Introduction to the pedagogical specialty" provides students with knowledge about the specifics of a teacher's work, theoretical information about the features, types, and styles of pedagogical communication, and the structure of communicative competence as a leading quality of a future teacher. In the future, this knowledge is deepened and consolidated during the study of a cycle of psychological disciplines, several disciplines chosen by students, where a combination of theory study (lecture classes) is provided with the development of a future specialist in a meaningful understanding of the importance of communicative activity in the teaching profession, as well as with mastering the practical skills of their application. Students master the terminology related to the communication process: verbal and non-verbal communication, relationships, communication, communicativeness, communicative competence, communicative personality, communicative behavior, interpersonal relations, cooperation, communication skills, etc. Linguistic disciplines include sets of exercises aimed at developing oral and written communication abilities and skills. During classes, students acquire the skills of interaction with classmates, teachers, and higher education institutions staff, the ability to reduce emotional tension during a conversation, to restore contact with the interlocutor, taking into account his/her characteristics and communication circumstances, manage conflicts, resolve them productively, convince, achieve a certain level of control and selfcontrol in communicative behavior. Pedagogical practice plays a significant role in the development of the student's competence as a subject of communication and brings the future specialist as close as possible to professional activity. In the process of practice, many opportunities are created for enriching the creative potential of students, increasing the level of their communicative activity. During this period, the amount of future specialists' independent work increases, and the main attention is paid to the development of professional qualities, skills, and abilities. Along with studies, students participate in extracurricular work, which includes various educational activities, competitions, promotions, and scientific research work, which is carried out during the year.

Another important component of the technology for the formation of communicative competence of future specialists is the development of tolerance, expressed in such qualities as psychological stability, a system of positive attitudes, and a system of personal and group values, directly related to the process of socio-psychological adaptation of the individual. Tolerance as a necessary element of successful socio- psychological adaptation is reflected in two main areas: at the psychological level - as an internal attitude and attitude of an individual towards the "other", group, or community; and at the activity level - as an action, an implemented norm of behavior. As an attitude, tolerance has the character of a voluntary individual choice acquired in the process of education, the formation of life experience. As an action, it is an active position of self-restraint and deliberate non-interference; it is a voluntary agreement to mutual tolerance of different subjects. Thus, tolerance is manifested as a strategy of the individual's behavior and interaction, involving responsibility for feelings, thoughts, and actions, the choice of cooperation as a style of relationships, acceptance of another person, flexibility and the ability to adapt, as an integral characteristic of the individual which determines the ability to interact with the external environment in problem situations, a condition for the individual's "dialogue" with himself/ herself and the world around.

Informing students about optimal communication strategies also has a good effect on building interpersonal relationships. The experience of organizing educational activities with students shows that when the educational environment is full of activities that contribute to the creative and intellectual realization of the individual, the process of forming emotionally favorable relationships in the student and student-teacher environment is accelerated., and students develop a whole set of positive emotions, which, in turn, increase the emotional safety of the educational environment. Effective interpersonal relationships developed in the process of active life in higher education allow the student to accumulate positive experience in solving personal and interpersonal problems, which increases selfconfidence in interpersonal communication and forms a student's mostly positive emotional mood. Positive emotions generate, in turn, a feeling of "experiencing a shared destiny" with others and develop an emotionally safe e ducational environment.

Conclusions and perspectives of further research

Summarizing the above-mentioned, we note that higher education institutions are an environment in which students not only acquire special knowledge and skills but also accumulate experience in social and professional relations; they form a certain worldview, life attitudes, and value orientations. The experience of working with students shows that by purposefully developing interpersonal relationships in the student environment, and teaching future teachers communicative skills, we thereby improve the emotional characteristics of the educational environment, which, in turn, greatly facilitates the process of students' adaptation to studying at higher education institutions and to their future professional career. Research and experimental work confirmed the effectiveness and efficiency of the technology for developing students' communicative competence, increasing the level of their social adaptation. Summarizing the impact of the process of forming the communicative competence of future teachers on increasing the level of their social adaptation, we note the necessity to develop communicative qualities determined by the peculiarities of the student's age, the specifics of the future specialty, the peculiarities of the organization of future specialists' educational and extracurricular activities in the conditions of higher education. The technology for the development of communicative competence of first- year students is effective if it is implemented in the process of both educational and extracurricular activities. The level of students' communicative competence increases with the comprehensive development of all its components, primarily affective, cognitive, and behavioral.

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