ENHANCEMENT OF THE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS' FOREIGN LANGUAGE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Abstract

The development of modern society requires highly qualified specialists in different fields of industry, who can communicate effectively and interact productively with foreign colleagues. Proficiency in a foreign language has become crucial for a specialist’s personal and professional growth. This paper aimes to study the impact of communicative foreign language teaching methods on developing undergraduate students' communicative competence at Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University. This research employs general scientific approaches and methods: theoretical for analysis, generalisation of the main provisions of the research and clarifying the essence and features of the process of developing communicative competence; and empirical: a questionnaire, observations, testing and conversations for examining the level of undergraduate students' communicative competence. This paper starts with the analysis of theoretical fundamentals of communicative competence in foreign language learning, its general components. It briefly describes some foreign language teaching methods focused on communication activities in foreign language classes. Due to the data of the survey conducted at Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, the impact of implementing communicative foreign language teaching methods on developing undergraduate students' communicative competence was examined. According to the study's findings, communicative foreign language teaching methods promote students' interest and foster their engagement in the learning process, raise their motivation and improve their communication proficiency in English. The combination of innovative and traditional technologies, such as writing essays or reports, constructing scenarios, modelling communicative situations, role-playing, case-studying, etc., plays a critical role in the foreign language classroom learning. Undergraduate students felt more confident in speaking and writing in English due to the learner-centered approach and numerous interactions and communication activities undertaken in a foreign language class. Key words: communicative competence, foreign language learning, undergraduate students, proficiency, communication.