Developing Students’ Business Communication Competence In The Context Of Implementing FSES 3++

Abstract

One of the main ideas of modern educational policy is the introduction of the federal standard (FSES HE 3++), which imposes special requirements for the organization and content of the entire educational system from general education to university levels. This approach ensures the unity of the all-Russian educational space from the continuity of the acquired knowledge to the guarantee of its quality. The introduction of FSES HE 3 ++ allows universities to quickly reflect the requirements and demands of the modern labor market, as well as to form effective competition on the Russian and foreign platform for the provision of educational services. The process of transition from one educational standard to another is observed, while the problem of ambiguous interpretation of some concepts of the same phenomena in the education system arises. One of the leading directions of modern higher education, fully revealing the content, effectiveness and quality of education, is the competence-based approach. The application of this approach in the context of the global modernization of the educational system forms a set of key competencies for a university graduate, which will be successfully implemented in the professional sphere in the future. With the advancement of the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education 3 ++ to universities, a new name for competencies arose - universal competencies. They detailed the previous formulations of general cultural and professional competences of previous versions of educational standards.

Keywords: Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education 3++, competence-based approach, business communicative competence, electronic educational environment of the university, "Russian language in business communication"

Introduction

The new format of higher education is conditioned by the special requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education 3 ++, which is focused on improving the quality of training of future universities graduates. Educational programs are aimed at eliminating gaps and inaccuracies in the practice of teaching disciplines within the framework of the implementation of the competence-based approach (hereinafter - CA). A higher school is faced with the task of preparing a graduate of a new type, possessing a wide range of personal and professional competencies. The Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education is the main legal document regulating the training of students in the universities of the Russian Federation. Since 2009, the third generation of Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education came into force in accordance with the integration of the Russian educational system into the Bologna process in order to create a single educational space.

Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education 3 ++ imposes special requirements on the set of competencies as the main results of not as a simple set of knowledge, skills and abilities, but determining the development of students' actual abilities to solve various kinds of issues in the future professional environment. The formation of business communicative competence (hereinafter referred to as BCC) among students is one of the priority tasks of education in professional training.

The training course "Russian language in business communication" is considered by the authors not only as a tool for students to acquire BCC, but also as a basis for the development of other competencies that ensure the development of a harmonious personality of the future graduate. The problem of forming a BCC in the field of training students using information technologies on the example of a single discipline "Russian language in business communication" has not been previously considered in scientific research.

Problem Statement

CA is one of the strategically important landmarks of higher education, which is currently positioned as the main one.

The works of scientists: Zimnjaja I.A., Hutorskoj A.V., etc are devoted to CA in professional education. Thus, Zimnjaja I.A. believes that CA prepares university graduates for their active involvement and adaptation to the chosen professional activity. CA "manifests itself as an update of the education content in response to changing reality and seems to be a condition of a person's ability to act outside of educational subjects and situations" (Ostanina & Ptitsyna, 2019, p. 5). The use of CA in the education system contributes to the successful formation of a set of key competencies.

Taken together, the components that are included in the concept of "competence" (knowledge, skills, ability to adapt in society, etc.) are the main incentive for a future graduate who can acquire the necessary qualities of a new type qualified specialist, freely navigating in the conditions of modern society.

The concept of "communicative competence" was first introduced by Hymes (1972) and presented as "internal knowledge of the situational relevance of language". At one time, Chomsky (1965) defined the phenomenon of "linguistic competence" as "the internal mental grammar of a person", which is presented "in the consciousness of any individual in the form of an abstract set of rules" (p. 9). Moreover, he considered this concept in the form of a dichotomy - "linguistic competence - linguistic use."

The interpretation of the definition of "communicative competence" goes back to the basic categories of pedagogy - "competency" and "competencies", the boundaries of which are still not clearly defined. These concepts are either identified or differentiated. They are considered in detail by Zimnjaja (2013), who defines competencies as "the sphere of relations between knowledge and actions in practice", and competency as a broader concept that contains elements of practical activity and the actual personal qualities of the student.

The introduction of CA into the system of higher education is caused by the urgent need of society that responds to the demands of the modern labor market situation, dictating special conditions according to which graduates should be ready to recognize and solve real problems, be able to modify them into goals and objectives, make informed decisions and evaluate the results of their actions, etc.

In modern pedagogical science, there is an active development of the theory of "flexible skills", according to which there is a change in the positioning of the individual in the educational space: a person prepared for the challenges of reality replaces the one with knowledge. Accordingly, when we are talking about an" educated person", we mean an individual who has not only a certain amount of knowledge, skills and abilities, but also is a harmonious person. At the same time, it is important to take into account that the fundamental role is given to communicative competence.

Modern researchers distinguish different structural components of communicative competence depending on the goals, nature and situations of communication. According to Sturikova et al. (2016), the following components of the concept of "communicative competence" are distinguished: linguistic, discursive-stylistic, rhetorical-pragmatic and etiquette-speech. We believe that these elements are the components that determine the fullness of the concept of BCC. When formulating the definition of BCC, it is important to take into account the opinion of A.V. Khutorsky, who believes that communicative competence "necessarily includes knowledge of ways to interact with others and remote people, skills of working in a group, and knowledge of various roles in the team" (as cited in Hutorskoj, 2002).

Thus, by BCC we mean the ability and readiness for business communication in accordance with the target settings, the typical situation and the status of the participants in the communication.

Research Questions

Much attention in the educational process is paid to the speech development of students. The ability to express one's thoughts clearly and logically, the ability to navigate in various situations of verbal communication, and the appropriate use of formal oral and written communication skills are important elements of professional training at a university (Shageeva & Smirnova, 2019).

Educational institutions of the Russian Federation are actively implementing the potential of the electronic educational environment (hereinafter-EEE), which makes it possible to transfer "the emphasis from technical means to real linguistic reality via the Internet" (Byrdina et al., 2020; Kelly et al., 2016). The active use of EEE tools in the educational process allows you to use both traditional textbooks and video lectures recorded directly by the teacher, video materials that allow you to demonstrate the concepts of the training course, presentation materials, tables, drawings, mental maps, diagrams, test tasks, etc. (Borzova, 2018).

In 2019, the Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service (VSUES) developed and tested an electronic training course "Russian Language in Business communication", which contains documents regulating the organization of the educational process: a calendar rating plan that allows students to review and monitor their academic performance, the timing of studying theoretical content and performing practical and test tasks. The EEE technology provides the ability to perform all tasks and send them for review in accordance with the calendar schedule-plan. This makes it possible to identify the "independent cognitive activity" of the student (Baryshnikov & Bernshtejn, 2019), as well as to expand the boundaries of students' presence in the classroom. At VSUES, students of some areas of training undergo six-month internships in the Asia-Pacific countries. Through the EEE of the university, they have the opportunity to receive full knowledge of the discipline.

Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education 3 ++ provides a list of universal competencies, one of which is UK-4 ("able to carry out business communication in oral and written forms in the state and foreign languages"). This competence can be formed by language disciplines: "Foreign language", "Russian language and culture of speech" and "Russian language in business communication". Considering the possibilities of the latter as the main motivator for the development of the personality-oriented aspect of professional comprehension, we believe that this course can become a necessary tool for differentiation in any subject area.

The effective use of EEE in the course "Russian in business communication" makes it possible to use it in interdisciplinary integration, realizing interdisciplinary connections: the theoretical and practical blocks of the course include thematic situations, speech terminological material and texts that take into account the professional orientation of students, which allows you to enrich the speech of students with professionally marked linguistic means, as well as include key problems in the learning system as an object of understanding and communicative implementation, related to future professional activities (Lazareva, 2018).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the work is to define the concept of "BCC" and demonstrate the practical implementation of the technology of its formation within the framework of teaching the discipline "Russian language in business communication" using EEE.

Research Methods

The linguodidactic model of BCC formation is based on the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education 3 ++, work programs of the discipline and curricula for the following areas of bachelor's degree training: "International Relations", "Pedagogical Education", "Tourism", "Service", "Information Systems and Technologies", "Applied Mathematics", "Software Engineering", "Organization of Work with Youth", etc.

The theoretical and practical content of the course corresponds to the above components of the BCC, the purpose of which is the ability and readiness for business communication in accordance with the target settings, the typical situation and the status of participants in communication. In the process of forming BCC, students can search for optimal means of communication with a communication partner, use language units in a differentiated way within a certain functional style, solve communicative tasks in the oral and written spheres, use lexical-grammatical and speech norms, etc.

This paper uses a theoretical method of research-the analysis of pedagogical sources devoted to the basic concepts of linguodidactics. In the empirical part, the method of experimental training is used, which allows you to demonstrate the educational model according to the developed methodology, followed by an analysis of its effectiveness. In addition, a quantitative and statistical method is used to demonstrate the compliance of the level of formation of the BCC with the objective final certification of the training course.

Findings

The universal competence of UK-4 is characterized by clearly defined formulations of indicators of its achievement and learning outcomes controlled by evaluation means. Let's present this data in the form of a table.

Assessment tools allow you to check the level of systematic knowledge, skills and abilities. When forming the BCC, the university's EEE is used. For example, students are encouraged to write an essay that represents a multidimensional view of a linguistic phenomenon and represents a holistic independent judgment on a clearly defined course topic (see topics 1, 7, 8).

Drawing up a mental map (see topic 3) allows you to solve several problems: organize the main information, comprehend and visually present an idea, use a creative approach to implement the idea, etc.

Tasks for control works (see topics 3 and 5) after their completion, students sent for verification. EEE capabilities allow the teacher to rate and make comments if necessary.

Test tasks (the bank of test materials includes 300 units) are performed at a strictly regulated time. The tests are checked automatically.

Business games and individual creative tasks aimed at developing oral business communication skills involve the use of classroom time. Similar tasks can be submitted to the EEE of the university by placing them in the form of a video file.

Thus, the above tasks allow us to judge the levels of formation of the BCC in the framework of the training course "Russian language in business communication". The results of the final certification of the 2019-2020 academic year showed that the levels of mastery of BCC by students are as follows: basic level (61-75 points) – 7%, average level (76-90 points) – 28%, high level – 65%. This index of the effectiveness of student performance indicators allows us to talk about the effectiveness of the application of practical tasks that contribute to the formation of BCC.

Conclusion

The use of CA in modern higher education fixes a special model of educational achievements that are guided by the formation of universal competencies, including the BCC. The importance of the formation of communicative skills is strengthened in the graduate of the university, which, in the future, will allow him to carry out business communication in the field of his future professional activity. Learning outcomes based on the example of the discipline "Russian in business communication" depend on the effective use of all components of the EEE of the university.

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