Keyword: «language teacher»

The article considers the problem of describing the professional competence of a (trainee) language teacher in the context of the transformation of the higher education system in Russia and the transition to new educational standards. The aim of the work is to identify and systematize the characteristics of the professional competency of a language teacher, which can be presented in the form of competences of graduates from language teacher education programs. The main research method is a comparative analysis of the Federal State Educational Standard of higher education in the areas of «Pedagogical education» and «Linguistics», Educational Standards of Moscow State University in the same areas and the Professional Standard «Teacher». The main results of the article include the identification of common types of professional activity in the analyzed standards, which made it possible to single out the language teacher education profile as combining the areas of «Linguistics» and «Pedagogical education»; definition of six basic professional competences of a language teacher (general pedagogical, methodological (linguodidactic), communicative, research, managerial, self-educational). An analysis of the wording of competences in the standards made it possible to identify competences that are difficult to unambiguously relate to a specific type of professional activity based on their wording. It was also found out that there are individual direct and semantic repetitions in the competences designated by different codes. A conclusion is made about an excessive number of competences in individual standards, the absence of a system-forming concept of competence (correlation with a specific type of professional activity) in 27 of the analyzed competences, and the question is raised about the practicality of having different wording of professional competences of a trainee teacher at different universities. The theoretical significance of the article lies in the systematization of existing approaches to defining the professional competences and the development of a model of basic professional competences of a language teacher. The practical value lies in formulating proposals for describing competences in the new generation of standards currently being developed. In particular, it is proposed to reduce the number of competences in the new standards, unify the designations of identical competences, develop unified competency maps for graduates of language teacher training and tools for assessing their development in university graduates.

The article addresses the problem of defining the structure of universal skills within the modern foreign language teacher’s professional and communicative competence. The relevance of the study is due to the increased requirements for a language teacher's professional competence, as expressed in the new educational standards for higher education, the professional standard for teachers, the competence map for teachers of foreign languages at schools and universities, as well as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Existing regulatory and recommendation documents emphasize the need to master not only subject- and language-related skills, but also universal skills. However, the problem of structuring the nomenclature of these skills remains insufficiently studied in both domestic and foreign language teaching methodology, and therefore requires further consideration. The aim of the article is to determine a list of universal skills and subskills that constitute the core of the modern foreign language teacher’s professional and communicative competence. The leading approach to the research problem is a theoretical analysis of domestic and foreign literature on the research topic, as well as an analysis of regulatory and recommendation documents governing language education in higher studies, in order to systematize universal skills as a component of foreign language professional and communicative competence. The main results of the article include a detailed nomenclature of universal skills, synthesizing the requirements of Russian educational standards as well as the can-do statements of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The theoretical significance of the article lies in the systematization of the components of universal skills in the structure of linguodidactics students’ professional and communicative competence, which expands scientific ideas about the content of professional training for preservice teachers of foreign languages. The practical significance consists in the possibility of using the proposed nomenclature as criteria for assessing the level of teachers’ foreign language professional and communicative competence. The research results can also be used in the development of educational programs, syllabi of disciplines and training modules, methodological recommendations, assessment tools, language teacher professional development programs, and further scientific research in the field of language teaching methodology.