Abstract:

The system of higher professional education in Russia is undergoing major changes that require updating of the educational process contents and application of new learning technologies for training future competitive professionals. Nowadays, we need to move to a new specialist model based on the contents of key competences. The transition to competence-oriented education is the adequate reaction of the Russian education system to the social demand.

The trend of the labor market restructuring, taking into account the Europeanization processes that are relevant to all of us, requires that students of higher education institutions receive a stronger foreign language training based on the formation of professional communicative competences. Up to what level of development the basic core competences are, is one of the main criteria of higher education quality and foreign language training as an integral part of it. Urgency of the problem to gain professional and cultural components of the foreign language training content, involves the need to develop a special system of pedagogical tools and activities aimed at the consistent inclusion of students in foreign language environment using both common cultural and professional vocabulary.

The article is devoted to development of common cultural and professional competences of students on the example of foreign language training of Russian University students by means of such foreign instructional technologies as “cooperative learning” and “project method”, in particular.

Keywords:

Cooperative learning, project method, foreign language acquisition, cultural competences, professional development.