Hodunko L. Reforming of foreign language education in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

The thesis represents the results of a comprehensive study of the reforming of school foreign language education in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic within The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages during the 1990s of the XX - first decade of the XXI century. The influence of the Common Framework of Reference on the development of foreign language education of pupils is determined. The author's periodization of the reform of school foreign language education in the Czech and Slovak Republics is proposed during the specified period. The peculiarities of school foreign education formation in the studied countries are determined and national peculiarities of its design in each of them are revealed. The peculiarities of foreign language teachers training in the context of multilingual society and immigration processes are analyzed. The theoretical and methodological principles of reforming foreign language education in the Czech and Slovak Republics are described. The theoretical approaches to the interpretation of the concepts "education", "foreign language education", "foreign language education reforming", "Common European Framework of Reference" are considered. It is noted that the countries follow the directives of the institutions of the Council of Europe in the field of language policy - "mother tongue plus two foreign languages", and also consider the main task of foreign language education to form the basis of foreign language communicative competence, the development of the pupils' motivational sphere and their communication skills in the multilingual and multicultural European society. It is stated that the Czech and Slovak Republics comply with the provisions of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages in the formulation of language policy, as well as the Common European Framework of Reference in constructing the content of teaching native and foreign languages. The influence of the Common European Framework of Reference on the development of school foreign language education of the countries is determined. The implementation of the Common European Framework of Reference into the foreign language education forms the growth of the popularity of this document, its priority in the conferences and most projects related to foreign language teaching; adherence to the competence approach in teaching, learning and assessment of foreign languages. The compliance of national education documents of the Czech Republic and Slovakia that influenced the planning and development of new curricula and tests to determine the levels of language competence of primary and secondary school graduates and graduates of higher education institutions is noted. Based on the analysis of the Common European Framework of Reference, it was stated that school final examinations are related to the CEFR levels using descriptive categories, descriptors and scales. Modern trends in foreign languages teaching have created such approaches to foreign languages study in the Czech and Slovak schools as learner-centred learning, autonomous learning, cooperative learning, content and language integrated learning, lifelong learning. The peculiarities of the concepts of multiculturalism and multilingualism in foreign language teaching in the diverse and multilingual environment of the countries are taken into account. The main directions of foreign language education reforming in the Czech and Slovak Republics under the influence of globalization and integration processes are determined. Based on the comparative analysis of school foreign language education reforming of the Czech and Slovak Republics in the context of the Common European Framework of Reference, a number of recommendations were formulated in the course of the specific period regarding the use of the experience of reforming this sphere in the national school foreign language education.