Introduction. The forced switching of universities to distance learning required a change in approaches, technologies and teaching methods. Learning a foreign language is impossible without the practice of oral communication: for the most part, it is in the process of it that the development of communicative competence takes place. We tried not only to bring the new-format learning closer to learning in the traditional format, but also, to a certain extent, to expand the educational potential for the formation of communicative competence through the maximum possible involvement of online learning resources and a well-designed methodological organization. The purpose of the article: to describe the pedagogical technology of the optimal use of online learning resources for the development of students' communicative competence, to evaluate its effectiveness. Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study was a competence-based approach to teaching a foreign language. The work in the experimental group of students of Tula State University, studying in the section of Linguistics, was aimed at the optimal use of online learning resources for the development of students' communicative competence in its four components: language, speech, socio-cultural, motivational-reflexive. In the process of the study, methods of theoretical knowledge were used: analysis, synthesis, generalization, as well as methods of empirical knowledge: questioning, interviewing, the method of pedagogical observation, the method of expert evaluation, the method of mathematical data processing. Results of the study. At the end of the work carried out in the experimental group, an increase in the indicators of the formation of the components of communicative competence was recorded: in regard to the language component t-statistic = 8.3 (p < 0,001), the speech component t-statistic = 6.7 (p < 0,001), the socio-cultural component t-statistic = 5.4 (p < 0,001). Discussion and conclusion. The efficiency of the technology was proven through comparative diagnostics of the formation of the components of communicative competence among students before the start of the experimental work and at the end of it. In the distance format, there are opportunities for the effective implementation of the didactic principles of individualization, differentiation of learning. There are sources for increasing of students’ motivation to learn a foreign language, for activating their cognitive interest and developing skills of self-control, self-correction.
