The paper is devoted to the problem of improving written communication skills in the university. It is intended to underline the importance of mastering writing skills when teaching a foreign language. Much attention is paid to teaching experience and approaches for students' mastering of the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) exam. This article is intended to fill the gaps in methodological and pedagogical aspects of teaching description of visual information materials in English. The authors worked out and implemented a new training workshop which is aimed at teaching and practicing graph description of visual information. Based on the curriculum a new syllabus has been drafted that provides further distribution of thematic, lexical and grammatical material given the specific nature of graphical material. The authors propose a two-stage teaching approach and methodological algorithm about how to work out exam strategies and form the required exam competences. The article highlights the outcomes and the challenges that are likely to arise when implementing the approach suggested by the authors. The proposed methodology can be used as a part of general foreign language training.

The requirements for the outcomes of professional education in federal state educational standards are high. However, we observe many students who have low motivation for study, as they do not want to master their majors and be good specialists in the future. The reality is that only 15 % of the total number of students are motivated to study. Therefore, the instructor should understand the factors that positively influence the students' motivation.This article clarifies the definition of student's motivation and its constituent components, analyzes various approaches, concepts, assesses the initial level of student's motivation and highlights the main motivating factors. These factors can contribute to resolving the contradiction between the low student's motivational-value attitude to learning and the modern requirements of regulatory documents for the training of professionals. To solve these problems the questionnaire, the retrospective analysis, tests developed by T.I. Iljina, and diagnostics created by A.A. Reana and V.A. Yakunin were used.

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Globalization processes of society and WorldSkills Russia have a significant impact on the Russian system of education. Nowadays the Pedagogy develops rapidly, therefore, it is very important to use the actual results and methods. Today we can see the changes in normative documents and requirements to the results of professional education. These documents focus on preparing graduates to work in a competitive environment, to develop digital competence, to live in digital communities. Russia takes only the 43 rd place in the development of digital technologies in international rankings. It is significantly inferior to European countries. Besides, the analysis of data from the Regional Public Organization's Internet Technology Center project shows that the Index of digital literacy for the population in 2018 decreased by 15. 6 % compared to the previous period. This is due to the following contradiction: on the one hand, we observe the modernization of Russian education system that causes the increase of requirements to graduates that should possess competencies in the field of information technology on the global average level, and, on the other hand, we see a low level of graduates' digital competence. The study aims to determine the prerequisites of appearance and development of the problem of digital competence self-development. To solve the problem, we use the following methods: analysis of the literature and regulatory documentation; observation, comparison analysis; deduction and induction; qualitative and quantitative analysis. The paper describes the structure and content of concepts "selfdevelopment", "digital competence". The analysis made shows the aggravated contradictions and the need to solve the problem stated.