FUNCTIONS OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS IN CONTENTS OF ELECTIVE COURSES IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES FOR UPPER SCHOOL STUDENTS: COMPETENCE PARADIGM

Abstract

The authors of the article present the results of the research performed by them on the problems of constructing the content of elective courses in foreign languages for upper school students. They examine the functions of educational materials of the manual in Spanish according to competence paradigm. The different points of view on constructing the complexes of communicative tasks, aimed at the formation of foreign communicative intercultural competence are substantiated. Competence approach to teaching is reviewed according to learning objectives and following features: a) the selection and organization of teaching content; b) the selection and use of educational technology; c) the educational process; d) forms and kinds for controls in learning results. The theoretical basis are confirmed by examples from the manual. The authors propose communicative tasks that provide foreign language communicative interaction between students in oral and in writing forms. These tasks foresee the automation of students’ lexical skills on the basis of new thematic and previously studied vocabulary. Besides, these communicative tasks facilitate to gain experience in foreign language communication by the upper school students, in particular: to express their attitude to the issues discussed; to substantiate their own point of view; to share impressions after reading; to organize and generalize acquired knowledge; to draw conclusions, etc. As a result, the main indicators for forming students’ foreign language communicative intercultural competence were defined, for which training materials of the manual will serve as a basis for development of their foreign language experience.