Concept and Structure of Future Medical Specialists’ Foreign Language Communicative Competence

Abstract

Abstract. The article analyses scientists’ views on the specifics and structure of medical students’ foreign language communicative competence. The researchers have been found to interpret differently this concept and its content, the latter containing from 3 to 6 components according to the data of various scholars. A concept of foreign language communicative activity is described in the article. Today, the ongoing reforms in the society call for the formation of comprehensively developed competent doctors, possessing high level of professional language and capable of revealing professionalism in business communication situations. In this regard, changes in the approach to future doctors’ foreign language training are on the agenda. Therefore, solution of the challenge of developing language capacity and forming foreign language communicative competence in future doctors is very important. Foreign language communicative competence is essential for training advanced specialists in view of the further use of knowledge, abilities, skills, and personal qualities gained in the foreign language environment as well as for providing multilingual, multicultural, and interpersonal communication. Formation of foreign language communicative competence has been found to include the knowledge of a language, sufficient to meet professional needs, implementation of one’s business contacts, and further professional self-education and self-improvement. It has been found that foreign language communicative competence includes discursive, strategic, and reflective components which are interactive, complementary, and functioning as a unified system.