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DEVELOPING FOREIGN LANGUAGE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE OF NON-LINGUISTIC STUDENTS USING THE ASSOCIATION-PROJECT METHOD // Pedagogical Review. 2020. Issue 2 (30). P. 100-112

The present article outlines the fundamental tendency in foreign language teaching – a communicative one. Effective teaching methods are necessary to make non-linguistic students sound naturally and confidently. The specific objective of this study is to identify and overcome the main barriers in speaking English using a method that develops foreign communicative competence. The association-project method is considered to become a possible solution of the problem. The study is carried out in three stages. The first stage involves a questionnaire of non-linguistic students about the main difficulties in speaking English. Ninety seven students of University of Tyumen took part in this survey. On the second stage we give English lessons using the association-project method in three nonlinguistic groups. Forty four students with Elementary, Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate Low English Levels were involved. And finally these students take a questionnaire about the effectiveness of the association-project method in overcoming the main difficulties in speaking English. At first questioning of non-linguistic students and following ranking of the obtained data made it possible to identify three main difficulties in speaking English. These communicative barriers are both linguistic and extralinguistic in nature. The use of the association-project method in English classes allowed to overcome these difficulties significantly. The final questionnaire of non-linguistic students proves this fact. The association-project method is a combination of two fairly new and relevant methods (association and project methods) used in foreign language teaching. It meets modern educational requirements, develops the key components of foreign communicative competence (linguistic, discursive, sociolinguistic and sociocultural) and helps to cope with the main barriers in speaking a foreign language.

Keywords: foreign language communicative competence, communicative barriers, association-project method, association, questionnaire