Experience of bilingual countries in the issue of mastering the minority language: effective borrowing into preschool pedagogy of Ukraine in order to form foreign language communicative competence in children of middle preschool age

Abstract

The article addresses the relevant topic for Ukraine of developing foreign language communicative competence in preschool and, specifically, middle preschool age. The research aims to analyze and summarize the experience of bilingual countries in the formation of communicative competence in minority languages, as well as to determine practical boundaries for its adoption in Ukrainian preschool pedagogy with the ultimate goal to develop effective methodologies for children of middle preschool age to acquire foreign language communicative competence. In the research process, theoretical methods, such as literature and documentation analysis, were used, along with a set of general theoretical methods: abstraction and concretization, analysis and synthesis, comparison, contrast, structuring, induction, and deduction. As a result of the research, the experience of forming language communicative competence in minority languages in countries, such as Finland, Canada, Malta, and Israel, was analyzed and summarized. The main effective methods for developing communicative competence in the language of minorities in children of middle preschool age were identified, including the method of total immersion, the method of partial immersion based on the principle of one educator - one language, and the method of partial immersion based on the principle of one educator - two languages.The widespread use of the translanguaging approach and language mixing in the process of forming communicative competence in minority languages in the context of bilingual countries has been identified. The main conditions, under which the formation of communicative competence in minority languages occurs in bilingual countries, have been summarized, a comparison with similar conditions for developing foreign language communicative competence in children of middle preschool age in Ukraine has been made.It has been identified that the main contextual difference in Ukraine is the extensive geographical distribution of a foreign language that influences children's understanding of its practical significance and the possibility of live communication with it. A conclusion has been drawn regarding the necessity of carefully transferring the experience of bilingual countries in using the translanguaging approach during the formation of foreign language communicative competence in Ukraine, since this caution is warranted because its application may result in a decrease in the motivation of children of middle preschool age to acquire a foreign language, given the possibility of achieving communication goals through their native language. The main assets of the studied bilingual countries that can be effectively borrowed by the preschool pedagogy of Ukraine in the process of developing methods for the formation of foreign language communicative competence in children of middle preschool age are highlighted, as a normative consolidation of the method of such formation, taking into account the greater effectiveness of early and total immersion in comparison with other forms of mastery of children of middle preschool age in a foreign language, managing groups of children with different levels of foreign language speaking competence and the practice of introducing children with an insignificant level of competence in a foreign language into groups with a higher level of foreign language communicative competence