FROM COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE TO COMMUNICATIVE FLEXIBILITY: A METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

he article conceptualizes communicative flexibility as an adaptive process of coordinating and reorganizing communicative resources in response to changes in the interlocutor, purpose, context, and mode of communication. The article distinguishes communicative competence and communicative flexibility: competence encompasses resources needed for successful communication, while flexibility concerns their adaptive coordination under dynamic conditions. Six dimensions are substantiated: linguistic, pragmatic, interactional, intercultural, strategic, and multimodal. Eight methodological principles are identified: contextual variability, communicative unpredictability, meaning negotiation, strategic adaptation, interactional repair, intercultural responsiveness, multimodal engagement, and reflective adaptation. A model of communicative flexibility development is proposed as a cyclical sequence of perception, selection, adaptation, interaction, repair, reflection, and transfer of experience to new situations. Based on the model, a typology of communicative tasks is proposed, including contextual variability, information gaps, ambiguity, communication breakdowns, role shifts, intercultural adaptation, and multimodal transformation. A five-point assessment framework focuses on noticing changes, adapting behaviour, selecting alternative strategies, repairing breakdowns, and transferring successful adaptations. The system integrates the dimensions, principles, developmental model, task typology, and assessment framework and can support General English and English for Specific Purposes course design in higher education institutions and programmes. The assessment framework is theoretical and methodological and requires empirical validation of validity, reliability, and effectiveness.