Modern Technologies and Educational Tools of Teaching Writing Skills in French to Students of Language Majors

Introduction. The development of foreign language writing competence in students majoring in linguistics is one of the key tasks in teaching foreign languages and cultures. There is a necessity of improving the educational process, in particular, updating the components of the learning system,which include educational technologies and tools. The purpose of the article is to investigate the use of modern technologies and educational tools in the process of developing students’ foreign language writing competence. Methods. The analytical review of the modern educational technologies involvingvisual learning tools in the educational process. Results. In the context of the communicative approach to teaching foreign languages, our interest is drawn to the technology of using visual supports as one of the modern educational technologies involving visual learning tools in the educational process. The advantage of this technology for teaching foreign language writing is the possibility of integrated development of competence in writing and other language competencies. At the same time, such authentic visual supports as a humorous drawing and an advertising poster provide valuable socio-cultural material, contributing to integrated foreign languages and cultures learning. Three stages of the formation of linguistic competence in writing based on visual aids are proposed: 1) receptive (Découverte), 2) receptive-reproductive (Systématisation), and 3) productive (Production écrite). This methodology is illustrated by a specific example based on humorous drawings. Conclusion. The proposed methodology is based on the basic didactic and methodological principles of teaching and contributes to the effective development of students’ competence in writing. The prospect of further scientific research will be the study of other educational technologies and tools for the development of foreign language communicative competence.