FORMING PROSPECTIVE FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS' PROFESSIONAL METHODOLOGICAL COMPETENCE ON THE BASIS OF A COMPARATIVE APPROACH

Tackled in the article is the problem of combating unfavourable conditions of forming a prospective foreign language university teachers’ professional methodological competence. Reduction of academic hours, on the one hand, and the complexity of the content, on the other, makes it too hard for Master course students to penetrate into the core of the course, to grasp the differences in teaching a foreign language as a student’s major and as a non-major subject. Hence arises the problem of creating a new model of teaching methodology which would satisfy the students’ needs and guarantee the quality of required knowledge, practical professional skills, and experience. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the relevance of a comparative approach to forming prospective foreign language university teachers’ professional methodological competence while they are doing their Master’s course in the English language and literature in the conditions of reduced academic hours and overloaded curriculum. Methodology is based on such theoretical methods of research as: analysis, synthesis, comparison, drawing conclusions and modeling; as well as on experimental teaching as an empirical method of research. Scientific novelty. This is the first attempt to raise the problem of combating unfavourable conditions of forming a prospective foreign language teachers’ professional methodological competence, and to describe the elaborated model which is based on a comparative approach to teaching two types of methodology – for linguistic and for non-linguistic institutions. Conclusion. Theoretical study of the problem of combating unfavourable conditions of forming prospective foreign language university teachers’ professional methodological competence provided for revealing the inner potential for creating a strong theoretical basis of the target competence, select appropriate approaches to a new methodology of teaching the subject, and design the model that integrates traditional and innovative technologies of teaching and ensures developing practical skills. Practical experience, which Master course students gain in the course of their teaching practice in linguistic and non-linguistic institutions, finalize the process of forming prospective foreign language teachers’ professional methodological competence