MASTERING LAW-STUDENTS' PROFESSIONALLY DIRECTED COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE WHILE TEACHING ENGLISH IN MULTICULTURAL CONTEXT

The paper is devoted to the issues of vocational training of law students studying the English-language in multicultural environment (CIS, Afghanistan, Colombia, Cyprus, Iran, Mongolia, Nigeria, Peru, Syria, Somalia, Vietnam, Zambia) at the Institute of Law, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University). The goal of the current study is to reveal the significance to adequately develop law-students' socio-perceptual skills and professionally directed communicative competence necessary for career development, while teaching English in multicultural context. To achieve this primary purpose, a descriptive analysis is proposed as a means of presenting key concepts. The methodological bases of the paper are the conceptual provisions of Russian and foreign researchers in linguistics, theory and methodology of teaching foreign languages, psychology and psycholinguistics, intercultural interaction, English for special purposes. A modern lawyer is a mediator in the process of rapprochement of cultures, the English language is often considered as a means of social communication among representatives of different ethnic and cultural communities. Social perception plays a regulatory role in the process of communication, due to which, when forming the English-language communicative competence, it can act as a certain indicator of law students' adaptation to the effective performance of a given social role and to the completion of professional activity. To raise law graduates' employability, proficiency and guarantee handling competence for successful professional intercultural communication, modern methods of teaching were implemented problem and project-based learning, team-based and collaborative learning, game based learning. The results of this work may help to eliminate the difficulty of incorrect involvement into intercultural communication in the field of legal activities which requires knowledge of the system of values and perceptions adopted by certain social groups in other countries. The materials of this paper can be useful for faculty members teaching English to bachelors and masters studying at Law Institutes and Universities in multicultural environment.