ON THE METHODOLOGICAL ISSUE OF PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCY FORMATION

Abstract

The article reveals the main methodological peculiarities of professional communicative competency of future seafarers’ formation in the framework of continuous education. This competency is defined as one of the key professional competencies for future seafarers as their professional activity must be carried out in mixed multinational crews demanding effective communication and interaction thus requiring the high level of working foreign language skills. It is stated in the research that the most effective way of achieving the main objective of foreign language acquisitions – the development of spoken and written communicative skills – is the application of communicative-competency-based approach. The article describes the main principles of this approach which should be followed and realized at each stage of the education process. Among them there are: learning English through English, learning by doing, combining of different forms of work, following the precisely design lesson plan formats, specific for each stage of education. But at the same time, the effectiveness of the educational process depends greatly on the determining of the content of education. It should comply with the international requirements to different ranks of shipboard personnel which are stated in the STCW Convention adopted by IMO. Depending on the level of education future seafarers must develop their communicative skills based on the appropriate professional context, i.e. the so called “context-based education” which allows for the development of critical thinking and cognitive skills together with the communicative ones. Such competency- and context-based approaches can help to solve the problem of succession between the process of education and the professional activity by means of creating of “would-be-professional” model of reality – which is educational by the form and professional by the context. The article describes the IMO requirements to each stage of future seafarers’ education, determines the aim and communicative objectives of each stage and provides recommendations as for the effective means of communicative competency formation.