Abstract:

Rethinking of assessment of language competence stems from the emerging challenges of foreign language teaching in e-learning learning environment. On-line and off-line education ought to provide the same level of foreign language skills for efficient professional communication. The Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), the Military University of the Defence Ministry and Russian University of Transport are engaged in testing language competences of a large number of non-linguist students, and virtual environment provide great opportunities as well as risks for assessing the graduate’s ability to apply the knowledge of a foreign language in practice for professional purposes.
The current study is aimed at crafting coherent, credible, time-effective assessment tools for students studying English and Chinese. The authors predicate their assessment strategy on the assumption that language competence entails the ability to communicate efficiently in professional and social spheres, hence tests should provide for assessing some speech product - a text, either in a written or oral forms. Among the suggested written forms are the following ones: abstract, summary, essay. Oral forms include speech activities in simulated situations of professional communication. The students who participated in the study were challenged to act in different scenarios of personal and professional spheres: i.e. to perform the role of a business school manager addressing the meeting on the topic of importance of a degree for one’s earning potential or on the topic of correlation between IT and expanding the reach of business training or proposals for the company’s three-day international IT conference, etc.
The developing e-learning environment provide sufficient conditions for on-line communication and as a result the major part of the teaching staff has succeeded in making use of all its forms available to imitate the conditions of the real situation and in providing the needed level of speech communication training. But at the same time the study has demonstrated that the transition to on-line communication during the lock-down has hampered the process of acquiring speech skills by the students to a certain extent. The level of competences has decreased by one third, especially among the students of the Chinese language. This decrease is partly due to the deficit of speech communication during lockdown as a whole. The authors suggest a new approach to communicative tasks in new e-textbooks, language courses and tests which are being developed at the universities.
The research has proved the importance of training speech competence focusing on its expressive character as an effective instrument of efficient professional communication. The case-based reasoning system is sure to provide a reasonable solution to a number of problems occurring in interpersonal communication. Moreover, it promotes the researcher’s initiative to find and compare precedents, and determine characteristics of verbal conflicts.

Keywords:

on-line communication, foreign language competence, assessment tools, case-based reasoning system.