ETHICAL COMPETENCE IN PROFESSIONAL PEDAGOGICAL ACTIVITY OF MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER: THEORETICAL ASPECT

The article presents theoretical approaches to the consideration of the ethical competence of a modern foreign language teacher in his/her professional pedagogical activity. The essence of the concepts “competence”, “professional-pedagogical competence” is revealed, the content of the concept “ethical competence” is characterized. Ethical competence of modern foreign language teacher is defined as an integrative quality of a person, that includes a complex of his/her moral and ethical values and personal characteristics determining the choice of models of teacher’s behavior in various situations of his/her professional pedagogical activity. It has been established that ethical competence as a basic component of professional pedagogical competence of foreign language teacher reflects his/her spirituality and morality, internal culture, the ability to act in accordance with the norms of pedagogical ethics and to take adequate moral decisions.The components included in the model of ethical competence of foreign language teacher are defined, namely: ethical knowledge, communicative skills, psychological position, moral and psychological qualities. The article states that the process of ethical competence formation of foreign language teacher goes through several stages and is a synergistic result of three important components of the educational process: socio-cultural, subject and professionally subjective.The formation of ethically competent teacher is a socially significant problem. The success of education system humanization, the improvement of general culture in society, and the prospects for the development of modern human depend on the solution of the problem mentioned above. Ethical development of a teacher is a continuous process of personal and professional growth, which involves raising of moral awareness level, carrying out professional reflection and formation of the system of attitudes towards the subjects of educational process in accordance with the norms and rules of pedagogical ethics. It was defined that unformed ethical competence leads to ethical and pedagogical errors in pedagogical activity and, accordingly, negatively affects educational process as a whole.