TOPICAL ISSUES OF FORMATION THE LANGUAGE COMPETENCE OF DOCTORS OF PHILOSOPHY IN LAW

Abstract

The research focuses on the language training problems of doctoral students for the third (educational and scientific) level of higher education in the specialty 081 Law. The absence of an approved higher education standard for the preparation of doctors of philosophy in law requires alignment of the program learning outcomes with the requirements of the National Qualifications Framework of Ukraine. It is stated that language competence is closely related to civic competence, which is directly related to legal professionals. The expansion of the state language functions, the growth of its importance in society with a view to creating a Ukrainian-speaking environment, leads to increased requirements for improving the language training effectiveness for law scholars and PhD students. The language competence key aspects of doctors of philosophy in law are analyzed. It is determined that the approach of those higher education institutions which maintain a reasonable balance in the formation of communicative language competence in the training of doctors of philosophy, and do not focus exclusively on learning a foreign language, is correct. After all, the communicative competence of a law practitioner and scholar is a vital skill, since it implies the ability to communicate constructively with professional community members. It is emphasized that when preparing future doctors of philosophy for professional activities in the chosen field, it is promising to request that when developing a higher education national standard for the doctors of philosophy in law training, the following issues should be addressed: formation of language competence and the level of academic Ukrainian and foreign languages use in professional activities and research; these skills should be as close as possible to the normatively approved C1 and C2 standards for proficiency in the state language with the relevant assessment criteria.