Role-playing as a form of joint activity in the process of learning a foreign language

The paper is devoted to the consideration of the role-playing game as a form of joint activity in order to form social and communicative competencies of students in the foreign language classes in a non-linguistic university. The problem of joint activity in the learning process is one of the most important in modern psychology and pedagogy. The paper attempts to reveal the interdisciplinary nature of the concept of “activity” through a system of active subject-object relations or interactions from the point of view of basic and related sciences. The research is also focused on the structural components and process of joint activities, consideration of the activity approach in the management of the education process and self-organizing activities of students. Joint training activities at a foreign language lesson are considered through the forms of interaction between the teacher and students in the process of preparing and conducting a role-playing game. The joint educational activity of the teacher and students forms not only the communicative, but also the social competence of students, and is also considered as a model of their further interactions. The role-playing game is recognized as one of the most effective innovative forms of teaching a foreign language and is a socially significant and practically directed activity that increases the language and social competence of students and implements a communicative and activity approach to teaching a foreign language. The author justifies the need to use innovative methods of teaching a foreign language that contribute to the productive solution of personal, social and professional matters. Analysis of the role-playing game in a foreign language practical lesson made it possible to come to conclusions about the effectiveness of game forms and an activity approach in learning, as well as the possibility of implementing all forms of educational cooperation leading to partnership as the highest and most developed form of a person’s self-organization.