Abstract:

The presented article deals with the issue of developing key competencies in Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian) through pedagogical intervention. The main impulse for the proposal of the subject was the preparation of an intervention program for the development of reading comprehension in foreign languages. The title of the article touches three key areas, which we are gradually developed. The first of them represents a brief view of the current state and perspectives connected with teaching of Romance languages in Slovak school environment. Although these languages can be considered a full-featured part of our foreign language education policy in the long run, they have earned the status of a second foreign language over the past decade and are experiencing a recession in our schools. When talking about the retreat of Romance languages, we mean not only quantitative but also qualitative indicators. These indicators are based not only on the numbers of pupils studying these languages, but also on the level of their language knowledge and skills, which are part of a comprehensive system of competences needed to communicate in a foreign language. These competencies represent the second key area of this study. The degree of difficulty of their continuous development depends on several factors, among which we include mainly cognitive, social and personal characteristics of students. The intervention program for reading comprehension in Romance languages takes full account of these factors. This is the third and as well as the main part of the proposed study, which includes an overview of the essence of pedagogical intervention in reading comprehension in Romance languages with regard to linguistic, sociolingual and intercultural dimension.

Keywords:

Foreign language education, Romance languages, competence, intervention program.