The professional development of future specialists has to meet global and domestic standards. Cultural competence is essential for future professionals as it makes it easier to collaborate with foreign professionals, improve their competitiveness in the world labor market and increase the specialist’s ability to solve professional challenges. The study attempts to answer the questions about the importance of cultural competence development of non-philological students in the process of studying a foreign language and methodological approaches used in this process. The aim of the paper is to present the model of cultural competence formation of future non-philological specialties experts at the foreign languages classes and determine its main components and formation conditions. The study investigates how cultural competence development changes the value-based attitude towards future professional activity and promotes the interest in learning, personal and professional enrichment. Students of three Ukrainian higher educational institutions (from the first to third course) have taken part in the research. The research used conscious-comparative, audiolingual, and role-play methods. The study of the results, based on four criteria (cognitive, moral-axiological, communicative, cultural), showed that learners started to understand the necessity of cultural enrichment of disciplines. The research proved that the implementation of the given technique resulted in the improvement of students’ learning and cognitive activity and enhancement of the general level of training. The paper gives some recommendations for language teachers to organize the process of learning a language on a cultural basis.

The professional development of future specialists has to meet global and domestic standards. Cultural competence is essential for future professionals as it makes it easier to collaborate with foreign professionals, improve their competitiveness in the world labor market and increase the specialist’s ability to solve professional challenges. The study attempts to answer the questions about the importance of cultural competence development of non-philological students in the process of studying a foreign language and methodological approaches used in this process. The aim of the paper is to present the model of cultural competence formation of future non-philological specialties experts at the foreign languages classes and determine its main components and formation conditions. The study investigates how cultural competence development changes the value-based attitude towards future professional activity and promotes the interest in learning, personal and professional enrichment. Students of three Ukrainian higher educational institutions (from the first to third course) have taken part in the research. The research used conscious-comparative, audiolingual, and role-play methods. The study of the results, based on four criteria (cognitive, moral-axiological, communicative, cultural), showed that learners started to understand the necessity of cultural enrichment of disciplines. The research proved that the implementation of the given technique resulted in the improvement of students’ learning and cognitive activity and enhancement of the general level of training. The paper gives some recommendations for language teachers to organize the process of learning a language on a cultural basis.

This study measures the English proficiency levels of hospitality workers in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Western Ukraine. It also compares English proficiency levels among hospitality workers in resort areas, urban cities, and rural communities. The authors believe the hospitality industry in the region falls short of its potential due to the rudimentary English language skills of its workers. As sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1991) has argued, linguistic capital is a form of cultural capital, and this is certainly true in the hospitality industry. Although some language skills improvements have been made in the past decade, many hospitality workers in Western Ukraine, particularly in non-resort areas, do not exhibit even a basic mastery of English. After summarizing the main research findings, recommendations are made regarding possible pedagogical solutions to the current language skills problem. For English proficiency levels to sufficiency improve, curriculum changes will be necessary at the primary, high school, and university levels. University students enrolled in tourism and hospitality programs would also directly benefit from immersion learning opportunities, including on-the-job training abroad. These findings and recommendations have international significance, as hospitality programs everywhere could benefit from the adoption of more proactive and rigorous English language instruction programs.

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