The article deals with the structure of future dentists’ foreign language competence based on the analysis of data from scientific sources on the problem of research and own pedagogical experience.In particular, its main components are distinguished as gnosiological, activity and reflexive ones. Gnoseological component characterizes the system of knowledge in speech covering linguistic, deontological and socio-cultural constituents. The linguistic one is considered as knowledge of professional vocabulary, grammar and phonetics. Deontological part is described as the complex of knowledge, skills and moral as well as educational qualities for performing professional activity. Sociocultural constituent is defined as proper understanding of the culture of a foreign country.These constituents of gnoseological component are closely interconnected among each other. The second component of future dentists’ foreign language communicative competence is the activity one that reflects the ability to implement the acquired knowledge during practice. It consists of academic and foreign language communicative competences. The formation of foreign language communicative competence for future Dental Specialists is aimed at developing the skills of timely selection of appropriate professional terms, based not only on the content but also on the ability to grammatically correctly formulate sentences in practical speech and overcome the language barrier. In this way, the readiness of a specialist to use professional vocabulary in speech is realized. Therefore, it is expedient to introduce discursive and strategic components into the structure of the foreign language communicative competence.And the final component of foreign language structure is called reflexive element which involves the self-assessment of own achievements and the ability to increase their level.

The article deals with the importance of a portfolio for future dentists’ praxeological competence formation in the way it can help assess objectively results accomplished in educational process. The definition of «portfolio» was provided and its structural components were established. They include a motivation letter, where the future dentist determines his/her own conception of education, goals, tasks of vocational training for each term of training on the basis of the Education sectorial standard, educational syllabus; a diary with the fixation of practical elements of preparation, and self-assessment of the achieved result; research work that contains presentations, abstracts, texts of speech at conferences, congresses, workshops, etc.; resume; glossary. These components demonstrate the dynamics of praxeological competence formation from the aim of professional training towards the level of its achievement. The importance of future dentists’ foreign language competence formation was substantiated for performing professional activity in international environment. The article sets out the criteria for determining the level of future dentists’ praxeological competence formation which include the availability of systematic training and special skills, integration of knowledge from different subjects; the ability to find, analyze and use information to solve professional problems; the ability to choose the best forms and methods of activity, identify drawbacks and resolve conflicts in working process; the ability to study, analyze, summarize and use the latest experience in the field of professional activity; the ability to design models of professional activity, anticipate and take into account possible obstacles.

The article analyzes, compares and summarizes the curricula for masters in dentistry used in medical universities of the EU countries and O. Bohomolets National Medical University. A comparative analysis of European and national universities’ curricula revealed that the professional training of masters in dentistry in medical universities of Ukraine and in European countries has significant differences in both content and organizational context. Curricula for professional training of future dentists in European universities differ in the number of disciplines and ECTS credits allocated for their study. Comparing of syllabi in NMU and EU countries allowed to state that the main differences consists in their intensity. It is established that the workload of students of national medical universities is very high on account of the large number of humanities and socio-economic disciplines, while European students have only two socio-economic disciplines in the program. Comparative analysis of curricula of national and European universities made it possible to determine the main tasks of reforming the system of dental education, particularly: improving the quality of medical education, ensuring its conti­nuity and consistency throughout the period of professional activity; reducing the workload on students; providing the optimal ratio of theoretical and practical training with increasing emphasis on clinical and practical training.

The article reveals the roles and functions of the modern teacher of higher medical educational establishment (instructor, trainer, tutor, mentor, coach, facilitator, manager, researcher) in creating high-quality experience for students and ensuring conditions for their knowledge acquisition, competencies and skills. It was substantiated the necessity of updating the pedagogical paradigm in the higher medical school according to evolutionary personal changes of the modern youth generation. It is also established that future doctors’ healthcare and foreign language competencies formation are not evaluated adequately among the university teachers’ functions. The key tasks of the modern medical university teachers, which are interrelated and interdependent with each other, are determined.

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