Communication in the mother-tongue competence

Great changes in modern society condition educational priorities. Changes in educational system are inevitable. A strategic aim was raised during the meeting of EU Summit Council in Lisbon in 2000 - to create the most competitive and dynamic economy based on knowledge, which should ensure constant growth, better workplaces and better social life. The fulfillment of this aim depends on high quality knowledge, abilities and attitude of each member of the society. A work group of European Committee decided on the main key competences - that is combination of multifunctional knowledge and abilities which are needed for each person in order to get individual satisfaction, development, involvement and work. Competence of communication in native language is one of the main eight competences, which were offered by the workgroup of European Committee. Competence of communication in native language must be acquired at school and be the basis for other competences. In order to see how university students are ready for successful studies and future life a research based on competence of communication in native language (reading, writing, speaking and listening) was carried out asking first year students their opinions at Vilnius Pedagogical University and General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy. After the analysis of research data it became clear that the majority of first year students think that they are ready for life. They have a positive opinion about their competence of communication in native language (reading, writing, speaking and listening). They think that they are able to do written tasks at the university, mostly understand the main ideas when they read papers connected with their speciality. If they do not understand words, ideas, hints or concepts they are able to find out the meaning themselves using dictionaries, encyclopedias and the Internet. If there is a lot of information they are able to select the main and evaluate it critically. The majority of respondents think that they can speak fluently and attract audience’s attention. The majority of university first year students are satisfied with skills, which they got at secondary schools. The analysis of the research reveals that positive evaluation of the abilities not often coincides with real abilities, which university first year students must have. The majorities of respondents were able to write a text paying attention to the addressee, understood the gist and the main idea of the text they read but it was difficult for them to identify the type of the text and did not understand the aim of the author. When they had to fill in missing letters in the text they were not able to apply the rules which they had learned at school. On average one person made 8,30 from 35 possible. The majority of university first year students rarely read books or does not read them at all. The main part of literature, which they read, is connected with their studies. Books are read when asked by a teacher. The majority of university first year students have big home libraries (over 100 books) and collect books related to their speciality. Male students statistically have larger libraries than female students. General Jonas Žemaitis first year students statistically have much bigger home libraries than Vilnius Pedagogical University first year students. Female students have statistically much more books related to their specialities than male students. It is underlined in Educational documents that teachers of all subjects must keep to the rules of the Lithuanian language during their lessons and during extra-curricular activities and ask that from their students too. However, the analysis of research of first year students opinions showed that not all teachers keep to this requirement. University teachers also pay too little attention to students` written and spoken fluency. The ways university teachers organize their lectures partially coincide with students` needs. The research of first year university students` opinions revealed how first year students are ready for further studies and future life, showed the main things to which attention must be paid targeting education to competences.Švietimo akademijaVytauto Didžiojo universiteta