PROBLEMS AND PECULIARITIES OF TEACHING UKRANIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

The purpose of the paper is to summarize and present teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language in higher educational institutions of Ukraine. The main focus lies in the most modern methods of teaching Ukrainian for foreign students of different nationalities who attain higher education in Ukraine. The author reviewed the development of the concepts of emotional intelligence and modern approaches to the determination of the nature and forms of manifestation of empathy in individuals. Empathy is a principal social emotion; in its most general form it is defined as the individual's ability to react emotionally and to respond to other people's experiences. The author emphasizes the feasibility of accounting empathy as part of emotional intelligence, which is key to successful study of the Ukrainian language for foreigners. The value of socio-psychological training as a means to enhance students’ empathy is proven. Emotional intelligence techniques for the formation and development of empathy culture are presented. The formation of students’ emphatically culture promotes social and psychological training, thus enhancing competence in the field of communication and interpersonal skills to acquire. Socio-psychological training covers various methods, such as business and role-playing, discussions and more. It involves the acquisition of psychological and pedagogical knowledge in communication, effective communication skills, for example, to get in touch, listen, persuade others and to form attitudes necessary for successful communication, such as readiness to consider the problem from another point of view; development of abilities of self-examination, to understand other students, and correction system of relations with the outside world. Other techniques appropriate to apply during the stimulation of student culture are widely known such as self-disclosure, emotional response, personal contact (physical, visual, verbal, plastic, object-efficient) jokes, humor and others. The latter are very effective in removing emotional stress, eliminating aggressive or sad states of stress in relationships, and help enhance mental activity. Jokes activate distraction and relax empathy. The development of emotional intelligence in the student regulates that individual’s abilities and traits that are responsible whether the impact of emotional phenomena will be constructive or destructive behavior for the student. Developing emotional intelligence is inextricably linked to the communicative approach to language learning. The teacher should provide comfortable and effective communication between students in class, using the methods above, techniques and creating a positive atmosphere that promotes cooperation and helps develop confidence in students. Holistic education must involve the unity of intellectual and emotional areas. Also, this work is devoted to the analysis of existing classifications of dialogues, consideration of advantages and disadvantages of some of their types, to the coverage of methods of extracurricular work with students, their detailed analysis, and identification of their pluses and minuses. The model of the use of more appropriate combinations of types of dialogues is presented in order to achieve the most productive result in language learning. A model of formation of foreign communicative competence is offered. The practice of the proposed methods should allow students to unleash their potential, break language barriers, expand vocabulary, improve pronunciation, and most importantly – increase self-confidence.