The article deals with outlining the psychological characteristics of teaching English to civil servants of the first year of study as an instrument for optimizing the process of building an FL competence of the adult learners whose level of the English is A2 in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference, CEFR. The aim of the article is to describe the psychological characteristics of learning an FL by civil servants as well as to reveal difficulties that they come across in mastering speaking with a view to manage the educational process of civil servants effectively and efficiently. The research methodology involves analysis and synthesis of academic literature that gives insight into the problem under study. Additionally, the empirical results and the dynamics of the learning process were analyzed. The conducted research and the analysis of the results of the study enabled us to identify the main types of perception as well as to reveal and classify the problems and difficulties that adult learners face in the process of mastering communicative skills. The conclusion concerning possible ways to overcome these difficulties in the system of continuous education of adult learners were outlined.