Development of Future Engineers’ soft Skills when Studying a Foreign Language

An examination of current engineering activities reveals that the soft skills of future engineers are dynamic in terms of their formulation and the order in which they are formed, as well as the variety of ways in which they are developed during the educational process. The purpose of the article is to identify the future engineers’ flexible skills and offer strategies for developing them during university foreign language study course. Methodology and methods of the research. One of the defining principles adopted is the methodological position that the formation of soft skills and the development of personal qualities of future specialists should be considered in the context of cognitive competencies. The research methods used are the analysis of domestic and foreign literature, observation, generalization of pedagogical experience and reflection. Results of the research. It has been established that for the success of a future engineer, personal qualities are currently becoming increasingly important, based on the ability to find, check, structure, appropriate and use relevant information and the ability to organize one’s own purposeful, internally motivated, productive activity. It is shown that the development of cognitive competencies and soft skills is possible and appropriate in the process of professionally oriented foreign language study, and is ensured by using the mechanisms of cognitive integration and cognitive transformation when performing intellectual thought operations aimed to a greater extent not at the structures of language, but at repeatedly objectified communicative needs and elements of professional discourse. Examples are given of how conditions are created in foreign language classes to activate the cognitive and communicative structures of students, which do a positive effect on the development of soft skills. Conclusion. A foreign language study course at a university provides ample opportunities for developing soft skills. To implement them, a system of foreign language communicative-cognitive exercises is necessary, for which the content, organized in the logic of the profession, is no less important than the correctness of foreign language speech.