Exploring the concept and structure of the student's linguo-digital competence

The article substantiates the problem of introducing a new notion -“student's linguo-digital competence” and defining its structure. The need to form this competence is caused by the necessity of multilingual education of future pedagogues teaching several foreign languages with the use of multilingual digital technologies. In modern conditions, intercultural communication cannot be considered in isolation from the digital information space as an integral part of modern multiculture. The authors proceed from the assumption that a teacher-linguist is a qualitatively new specialist in the digital epoch, the era of linguistic pluralism and cultural polyphony, being able to combine competently multilingual pedagogical technologies with crosslingual digital technologies. Training of such teachers and educators in Russian higher educational institutions is becoming a paramount task and a goal of the third-millennium educational system. Modernisation envisages and substantiates new characteristics of the process of foreign language teaching at school, which should be aimed at active involvement of students in foreign language communication through mastering the digital space. At present, a scientific basis has been established for studying the problem of formation of foreign-language linguo-digital competence of a future teacher. The Internet space has become a major context of human life, while social media have become an integral environment for one's everyday communicative activities. One of the priorities is creation of a modern secure digital educational environment, development and verification of digital educational content containing interactive and adaptive digital tools, equipping educational organisations with computers, multimedia, presentation equipment and due software. Basic language and communicative skills of intercultural communication, as well as the ability to use the digital environment are being developed at school. That is why special attention is paid to school foreign language education and teacher training in this area within the framework of modernisation of education. Based on the above, the authors conclude that integration of multilingual and digital learning into the content of foreign-language training of future teachers is not only potentially acceptable and justified by the new requirements for teaching staff in the transformable labour market, but also logical in terms of the dynamic process of internationalisation, technologisation and digitalisation of the world community. One of the main goals of education is fostering a multilingual, multicultural and functionally literate personality who can easily integrate into the global cultural Internet space. Consequently, there is a growing need to form a new quality -linguo-digital competence. When defining the notion of linguo-digital competence of a future foreign language teacher, two interrelated constructs - “linguo” and “digitalisation” - are distinguished. “Linguo-digital competence of a future teacher” means the teacher's readiness and ability - as a multilingual, multicultural personality - for effective versatile intercultural communication and due linguo-didactic activities in a foreign-language digital environment. “Readiness” correlates in the above definition with integrative personal schooling which includes motivational, emotional-volitional, attitudinal-behavioural and reflexive components, while “ability” correlates with cognitive and behavioural components, i.e. knowledge, skills, abilities and mastery of communication methods in multilingual and multicultural digital society. The authors distinguish the following components in the structure of future teacher's “ability” for achieving linguo-digital competence: informational, methodological and practical-operational.

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