Development of technical college students’ communicative competence

Abstract

© 2015 by the authors. The role of communication has increased in modern society due to the growth and expansion of interpersonal, inter-regional and international relations in politics, economy, science and culture. In this regard, one of the priorities of educational policy is a radical improvement in the system of vocational education aimed on training of highly qualified personnel for the country's economy. The main result of the educational institutions activities should not be a system of knowledge and skills, but a set of core competencies as the expected learning outcomes. The effective solution of this problem in a technical college depends not only on the training of future engineers for using production technologies and working with modern technology, but also on the development of specialists’ culture of communication. Dynamic character of life and professional activity requires communication skills, the ability to rapidly integrate into the production team, willingness to adapt to new working conditions and regulate the relations between people in the process of joint activities. The article reveals the essence and the basic characteristics of communicative competence, characteristics and development model of technical college students’ communicative competence. It also considers creating educational communicative space as a leading factor in the development of students' communicative competence. The study identified and disclosed criteria indicators (organizational and cognitive, emotional, behavioral and speech) and levels (high, medium, low) of students’ communicative competence. The results of the experimental work suggest the viability and validity of the educational environment to develop effectively the students’ communicative competence.