Levels of competences and competencies of foreign language proficiency

Nowadays the notions “competence” and “competency” are strictly differentiatedin the scientific literature but their use in the methodological works is not always appropriate according to theiressence. The problem is in the following: 1) some methodologists simply do not want to take into account thatcompetence in something is not only the proficiency of relevant knowledge, skills and abilities, but also the possibility of their creative application by making own product; 2) the terms “competence” and “competency”don’t still have different levels of proficiency depending on the amount of the material learned and the rangeof its practical application. Purpose. 1) To specify the competence approach in teaching foreign languages toschoolchildren and students, as well as young scientists and well-known Ukrainian theorists and practitionersin the field of Philology and Linguodidactics; 2) to determine the levels of competences and competencies ofstudents and their teachers with different scientific and methodological potential. Methods. Literature study onthe topic of the research, comparative analysis of different types of competences and competencies, generalizationof the scholars-philologists’ experience. Results. This study analysed the notions “language competences andcompetencies” and “speech competences and competencies” and determined their correlation. Three levels oflanguage and speech competences and competencies depending on the volume of normativity, the depth ofprevalence and scientific character of speech have been developed and substantiated. The precise distinctionbetween three levels has been defined and described. Conclusion. It has been concluded that three establishedlevels of language and speech competences and competencies will clarify the essence of these concepts, detailtheir components and become objective characteristics of real foreign language knowledge and skills.