DISCUSSION AS A TOOL FOR DEVELOPING STUDENT’S PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Abstract

The article explores the role of discussions as a tool for developing students’ professional communicative competence. The current stage of societal development is characterized by the growing importance of communication in professional activities, which necessitates the formation of skills in future specialists to interact effectively, articulate their positions convincingly, present work results, and collaborate in teams. Professional communicative competence is considered an integrative personal quality that encompasses linguistic knowledge, oral and written communication skills, the ability to conduct dialogues, analyze information, argue one’s viewpoint, apply sociocultural norms, and reflect on communicative behavior. Modern scientific approaches to its structure and components are examined, including discursive-linguistic, intellectual-informational, sociocultural, personal-psychological, communicative-behavioral, and motivational-reflexive components. The study demonstrates that interactive teaching methods, particularly discussions, facilitate the consistent development of students’ perceptive, interactive, and language skills, critical thinking, the ability to argue one’s position, listen to others, and make reasoned decisions in professional contexts. Various types of discussions are described: motivational talks, turn-taking exercises, subgroup work, micro-dialogues, mini-monologues, and reflective tasks, which contribute to the development of communicative skills in different professional contexts. The synthesis of the research results highlights the high potential of discussions for fostering professionally oriented communicative competence and enhancing students’ readiness for independent professional activity in modern educational, cultural, and professional environments.