Use of competence problems in foreign communicative competence formation

The article describes the possibility of using competence problems in the context of studying at an institute of higher education. The competence approach is introduced to solve a difficult didactic problem - creation of a uniform package of competencies for all levels of lifelong education. We also see another problem -insufficient quantity of applied methodological recommendations about organisation of educational practice at an institute of higher education, oriented towards purposeful, productive and effective formation of graduates' planned competencies. To solving the specified problem we have tried to develop competence problems as a special educational form, which allows to effectively form key and meaningful competencies. By a competence problem we mean a problem directed at the creation of a special situation allowing to reveal key and meaningful competences of a student. In our opinion, the use of competence problems in the educational process is prospective enough as it enables to solve the following tasks: internal and external monitoring of academic progress of students, their intermediate assessment, self-certification of an institute of higher education. In general, the competence problem is developed on the basis of the cross-curriculum content. The content of the problem is oriented to using practical situations that are typical for everyday life. A model structure of a competence problem is given in the article. As competence problems were tested in Foreign Language class for students of technical specialties, hence, the foreign communicative competence became basic for us. This competence can be defined as an ability and readiness to carry out foreign communication with certain requirements determined by the programme, which, in turn, are based on the complex of knowledge and skills specific for a foreign language such as lexical, spelling, grammatical, phonetic, etc. Foreign communicative competence is a multicomponent formation, which include language (linguistic), sociolinguistic, sociocultural, discursive and strategic competences more often. The development of linguistic and discursive competences and the assessment technique of their formation are shown using the example of the competence problem in the English language made for students of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. Basing on the long-term experience of teaching a foreign language we consider it necessary to include the degree of students' mastering competence problems in the efficiency estimation of their preparation. The use of similar problems in the Foreign Language class makes it possible to activate students' motivation to foreign language learning, increase active vocabulary, form the foreign communicative competence.

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