1.2. Foreign language communicative competence and plurilingual and intercultural education
Foreign Language Communicative Competence is to be considered within the concept of plurilingual and intercultural education which basic principles were elaborated in 1971 [27, 104]. The necessity to reform the systems of education in European countries on the principle of pluringualism and intercultural principle was accounted for the social, geopolitical and economic reasons of organization of the Common European Market of the European Commonwealth. Since then this problem has been placed for consideration at the forums of the Council of Europe more than once.
This question was again on the agenda of the Language Policy Forum held in Strasbourg in February 2007 [68, 5]. "Plurilingual and intercultural education realizes the universal right to a quality education, covering: acquisition competences, knowledge, dispositions and attitudes, diversity of learning experiences, and construction of individual and collective cultural identities. Its aim is to make teaching more effective, and increase the contribution it makes, both to school success for the most vulnerable learners, and to social cohesion" [68, 5].
Central elements in plurilingual and intercultural education are crossover links between "languages as subjects" [68, 7]. By the term "languages as subjects" we mean languages which students either are able to use as means of oral and written communication, or those they master. Thus these languages are as follows: students' native language, the first foreign language, a second foreign language, a regional language, a language of national minority, a migration language, classical languages, a language of schooling, and a language of a neighbouring country.
Pluringual competence can be achieved if crossover links between these languages is actualised, this requiring the following conditions are observed in educational activities:
. understanding written texts, improvising non-interactive oral texts,
reflective observation and analysis of linguistic phenomena; . formation of transferable intercultural competences; . tasks, particularly in comparison, which involve using other languages; . tasks including discourse genres because discourse genres are possible links between subjects: "a person's discursive repertoire comprises the genres which he/she can deploy in one or more languages, to varying degrees and for various purposes at a given moment. The communicative profile aimed at in language teaching must include all the genres which a learner is expected to be capable of using for reception and/or production in verbal communication" [68, 7].
1.3. Framework for foreign language communicative competence
We suppose the most important components of Foreign Language Communicative Competence are those enumerated below:
sociopolitical competence;
information technology competence;
sociocultural competence;
plurilingual and intercultural competence;
linguistic competence (in grammar, pronunciation and lexis);
strategic competence and general education competence [83; 12].
By sociopolitical competence they understand forming a psychological readiness in learners to solve problems. It is directed at prevention of frustration of students as a reaction to some potentially negative future situations in their life. Formation of sociapolitical competence in learners while mastering a foreign language involves them in social life. Acquiring sociopolitical competence in the foreign language, they train themselves, either orally or in writing, in:
sharing responsibility,
solving various kinds of problems,
accustoming themselves to showing readiness to take the initiative and in suggesting a way out of this or that difficult embarassing situation.
Below there are given some tasks which are appropriate to forming sociopolitical competence in learners.
A. CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING IDEAS AND PROVE IT:
1. The construction of the oil terminal in Odessa region
a.threatens the environment; b. is necessary for Ukraine; с is impossible; d. is too expensive for Ukraine.
Speak out in order to prove your choice.
2. The pre-port plant adjacent to the port of Uzhniy in 45 kilimetres from Odessa
a. is to be sold; b. is to be privatized; с is dangerous to the environment. Speak out in order to prove your choice.
B. I. FILL OUT THE BLANKS IN THE TEXT BELOW:
Yesterday we were walking up along the road to our house. It was 11 p.m. We were terrified to see that somedody ... lying of the ground and groaning. The man was old and wounded. I wanted to stop and help .... But... husband told me that the man ... drunk. And the son said.... it.... none of my business. At home I was very unhappy about having left.... man, so I decided that....
II. Continue the story. Make up two different variants of the end and write them down.
III. Retell your stories.
By information technology competence they mean a kind of competence which allows learners to collect and choose proper information.
In higher grades it presupposes learners' need and ability to work with up-to-date information, including skills of information technology and doing an Internet search. Below some tasks of the kind are given:
A. YOU'VE JUST READ A DESCRIPTION OF OUR TRANSPORT COM PANY TO WHICH YOU APPLIED FOR WORK. SUGGEST YOUR OPINION AS TO WHATKINDSOFVEHICLESOURCOMPANYWOULD NEED. GIVE YOUR PROOFS.
In primary grades developing elements of information technology competence is also possible. It implies tasks in choosing, selecting, classifying, evaluating and comparing data, e.g.:
B. CHOOSE THE NAMES OF THE FOODS WHICH ARE HEALTHY: Steak, bread, chocolate, carrots, potatoes, eggs, ketchup, bananas, carrots,
milk, coffee, tea, cakes.
С CHOOSE THE NAMES OF THE FOODS WHICH ARE UNHEALTHY AND TR Y TO EXPLAIN WHY YOU THINK SO.
Burgers, salads, sausages, steaks, fruit, smoked fish, lettuce, ketchup, mustard, fat, oil, vegetables, sugar, salt, eggs.
D. PLACE THE WORDS IN THE APPROPRIATE COLUMNS BELOW.
Gate, to peel, back, knee, microwave, blender, shutter, cottage, tin opener, toenail, coffee machine, sink, thigh, basement, nail, breast, armpit, tap, semi-detached house, cupboard, etc.
By sociocultural competence they understand developing in learners a kind of readiness and ability to communicate, live, interact and cooperate with representatives of countries which have a lot of cultural diversities in comparison with our country. It is the foreign language as a subject along with subjects of historical and literary cycles that suggests an excellent opportunity to develop social cohesion between learners and coherence between different subjects of school curriculum.
To honour the spirit of cultural, historic and religious values of other nations, to develop their tolerance to them, learners should have at least elementary knowledge of the history and culture of leading countries and civilizations of the world, including those of their native country. To make mastering the foreign language work for developing learners' sociocultural competence, text-books of English should include information on religion, history, culture, national symbols and traditions of leading countries of the world. This would help learners understand and treat modern multinational and multicultural world tolerantly and with respect to every nationality.
Dealing with such information teachers must give learners every opportunity to work out their personal convictions and principles. Below some appropriate tasks are given.
Learners are suggested a list of holidays and events celebrated in Ukraine, Great Britain and the USA. Then a number of tasks follows.
PLACE THE WORDS GIVEN IN THE LIST IN THE APPROPRIATE COLUMNS AND WRITE THE NAME(S) OF THE COUNTRY IT IS CELEBRATED IN.
Religious Entertaining Political Professional Sports
holidays events holidays events events
I. Make up a questionnaire on the holidays and events mentioned.
II Retell what you know and what your personal opinion is about the events and holidays you 've copied out.
III. Get ready to conduct an International Conference "Holidays and events in Ukraine, Great Britain and the USA." Divide the group into small teams each representing a country. Choose the Master of Ceremony and start the conference.
Try to describe whether there is any difference in celebrating particular events in this country and abroad
By plurilingual and intercultural competence they mean ability to use a plural repertoire of linguistic and cultural resources to meet communication needs or interact with people from other backgrounds and contexts, and enrich that repertoire while doing so. Plurilingual competence refers to the repertoire of resources which individual learners acquire in all the languages they know or have learned, and which also relate to the cultures associated with those languages (languages of schooling, regional/ minority or migration languages, modern foreign or classical languages). Intercultural competence, for its part, makes it easier to understand otherness, to make cognitive and effective connections between past and new experiences of alterity, mediate between members of two (or more) social groups and other cultures, and question the assumptions of one's own cultural group and environment' [68, 6J. Tasks of the following kind can help teachers to form pluringual and intercultural competence in their learners. [The pictures in figures 3 & 4 are taken from 84, 52].
1 .Interview these people. Ask them
what their names are,
where they live,
where their country is situated,
what the capital cities of their countries are
what language they speak,
what they do every day,
what their national food is,
what their plans are.
You may begin the interview with "Hello/ I'm Igor/Sveta. I'm glad to see you in our city '
Fig. 3 Interview these people
Fig. 4 Ask your peer about these people
By strategic (or coping ) competence they understand learners' ability of asking for information, seeking clarification, using circumlocution and
whatever other linguistic and nonlinguistic resources they could muster to negotiate meaning and stick to the communicative task at hand. [81,16]. This kind of competence along with grammatical competence and sociolinguistic competence is one of the most important ones in the framework for communicative competence [81, 16]. The communicative curriculum must include special tasks which would invariably lead learners to take risks and speak in other than memorized patterns generating them on the spot. The best condition for developing strategic competence can be provided at non-standard lessons, for example:
At an information project lesson the following assignment can be given to one of its participants:
"Collect all the information available on the cheapest and shortest way of getting from Ukraine to London. Your time is 15 min."
To carry out this task learners are to be able to use a computer and conduct a computer search.
By Linguistic Competence they understand learners' skills in correct usage of lexical, grammatical and phonemic items of the foreign language based on consciously-raising assimilation. Owing to their linguistic competence learners can develop their skills in interpretation, expression, or negotiation of meaning [83, 17]. It doesn't, however, mean that learning linguistic rules is the aim of studying the foreign language . Learners are to be taught so that in their spontaneous speech they could use these items correctly involuntary and uncontrollably.
The main stages in forming linguistic competence are as follows:
First — interactive introduction and primary assimilation of any language item in an oral speech-visual-and-graphic situation; it doesn't depend whether the form refers to grammar, lexis or phonetics.
Second — conscious-raising assimilation of language items with the help of linguistic rules, drills and exercises.
Third — the use of language items in natural and spontaneous speech activity.
The importance of forming linguistic competence in learners can't be overstated. First of all, it is the linguistic competence which makes speech in any language grammatically correct, euphonic and beautiful. The other reason is that none of the communicative competence types mentioned above can be formed without linguistic competence. Moreover, cultural, historical and social
background of the contents of foreign language teaching can't be completely understood and evaluated by learners without their linguistic competence.
That's why being not an end-in itself the linguistic competence is the foundation of the whole knowledge of a foreign language. Formation of linguistic competence in learners can be considered one of the main basis of methodology.
All things considered, we may well conclude that every teacher must be highly professional so that he/she were able to form and develop linguistic competence in learners, i.e. to make them understand in what ways any of the grammatical, lexical or phonemic items are to be used in speech in accordance with the linguistic peculiarities of the language studied.
By general education competence they understand gaining by learners the skills they need to master their foreign language speech successfully. The skills include forming and developing in learners various abilities to make learning effective. Among them are learners' self-dependant time distribution, proper evaluation of the relationship between the role of the teacher, the role of the text-book and of their personal role in the process of mastering the language. Ability to get proper data from the Internet or various information and resource centers also refers to general education competence.