Сommunicative potential of a virtual educational environment as a means of developing communicative competence in students of language majors (on the example of teaching second foreign languages)

Abstract

The article analyzes the state of the problem of developing intercultural competence by means of a virtual educational environment, discusses the fundamental concepts of «intercultural competence», «intercultural communication», «virtual educational environment». The article considers the ideas of modern domestic and foreign scientists on the issue under study. The article analyzes various approaches to the problem.
Defining intercultural competence as a set of skills and abilities necessary for successful participation in intercultural communication, three components are distinguished in its structure - knowledge, skills, attitudes. Assuming that for effective development of all the above components, special conditions are needed, which should be provided, first, by educational process, the authors
turn to possibilities of a virtual educational environment as a set of technologies, educational and information resources, and data structures that form a functionally complete system designed to provide all possible forms of user activity (teacher and student) in the learning process.
In the second part of the article, the authors analyzed features, structure, and potential of a virtual educational environment for developing intercultural competence in students learning within educational programs 6В01703 Foreign language: two foreign languages and 6В02301 Translation studies.