DEVELOPING MASTER STUDENTS’ PROFESSIONAL SPEECH COMPETENCE IN PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHER TRAINING: POSSIBILITIES, PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

There has recently been a significant increase in the level of interest to finding new forms, methods and means of prospective foreign language teachers' professional training optimization. The research is focused on the developing MA students' professional speech competence as a component of their professional education. In the study the following methods were used: literature and curricula review, empirical (testing, expert assessment) methods, data mathematical processing. The aim of the article is to present the content and the aprobation results of the specialized training course for MA students “English Language Teaching Discourse: Developing Teacher Awareness”. This course is aimed at developing MA students' professional speech competence, increasing their awareness of running interactive classes in the English language and helping them develop into aware self-critical teachers, improving their teaching styles. The content of the course covers a range of core issues with specific reference to EL use in classroom interaction and includes the following content modules: Generalities of ELT Discourse; Categories of Teachers' Verbal Behaviour; Reflective Observation in the EL Classroom. The course focuses on students' autonomy, with the teacher's role being that of mediator, and implies performing highly-interactive tasks. The experiment results testify the efficacy of the course for developing MA students' professional speech competence developing their awareness of appropriate verbal behavior in ELT classroom.