Abstract:

The Russian education system, along with the transition to a competence-oriented approach, should also address the issues of the organization of monitoring the learning process, connected with the reorientation to the practical application of professional competencies. Free competition and educational opportunities both within Russia and abroad allow us to speak about the global nature of vocational training, which is primarily related to foreign language teaching. To determine the ability to intercultural interaction in solving professional problems in a foreign language, especially relevant for international cooperation, it is necessary to reveal the formation level of this competence. In this case, the ability to solve problems professionally depends on the ability to communicate in a foreign language on topics specific to the specialty.

Thus far, however, the forms and criteria for assessing competencies at the university level have not been defined. For example, the system of assessing foreign competencies of students as a tool to increase the motivation and quality of teaching foreign languages does not fully comply with the requirements of educational standards of the latest generation.

Therefore it seems important to conduct an analysis of the existing system for monitoring and evaluating the quality of teaching a foreign language in higher education to find the most effective methods of testing in the context of the application of a competence approach, as well as the elaboration of appropriate recommendations.

Since most modern educational and methodical editions on foreign languages include the use of tests to assess the level of knowledge of a foreign language, it is vital to find their benefits and difficulties in implementing special training in the educational process. The complexity of working with such tests is not in the content, but in the formation of skills to deal with the material, determining the algorithm of effective procedure to achieve the maximum result.

The analysis of the results of using tests with a similar structure to international language tests shows the need to provide time to prepare for them. The systematic use of individual blocks of testing tasks increases the motivation to learn foreign languages and affects the quality of the results obtained during the training.

The use of international language tests both in separate blocks and in a full-fledged form can serve the goals to assess the quality of teaching foreign languages in higher school, while being the means of diagnosing problems that arise in the course of training and a way to stimulate the motivation of students.

Keywords:

University education, competence approach, teacher of the 21st century, international language tests, international language testing, foreign language.