Development of foreign language competence of higher education students in the context of blended learning

Abstract

The circumstances of active implementation of a blended learning format at all educational levels require increased motivation and advancement of the competences learned by students of higher education institutions.Such statement equally applies to foreign language competence, which is one of most relevant skills to the future professional activity of international relations specialists. In considering this, the Ukrainian higher education institutions conducted a study on the development of foreign language competence of higher education students in the context of blended learning. The purpose of the article is to develop and empirically establish the effectiveness of the author's model of foreign language competence development of higher education students in the context of blended learning. The study involved the development, implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of the author's model of foreign language competence development of higher education students in the context of blended learning. The participants of the study were students of higher education institutions: HEI 1, HEI 2, HEI 3, who majored in the following specialties: international activities, international relations and some technical specialities. The participants were 1st, 3rd and 5th year students.A total of 138 students were interviewed (68 from the experimental and 70 from the control group). The study confirmed that the implementation of the method of organizing the formation of foreign language competence of  higher education students, which requires an optimal combination of blended learning with modern digital tools and the professional orientation of foreign language training in the system of higher education institutions, helps advance foreign language competence of higher education students.