The thesis is devoted to didactic and methodological approaches to constructing content of foreign language school textbooks. The phenomenon of a modern school foreign language textbook is revealed, its role as an information functional model of educational system, based on competence, communicative, active, personality-oriented and cultural approaches, is identified and described. The author defined the functions providing interconnected process of teaching foreign language and culture, promoting the formation of student's readiness for foreign language communicative intercultural activity in spheres, themes and communication situations, defined by the curriculum, observing norms of communicative behaviour according to the characteristics of the social environment, serving as methodological support for teacher's professional activity. The components of a theory for a school foreign language textbook as a field of science, the object of which is the substantial aspect of the subject and regularities of constructing material foundations of educational book as a means of teaching, are determined and described. The principles of educational material selection are defined and substantiated; methods, forms and ways of its implementation in textbooks' content are outlined. According to the author's concept, a school textbook is deemed as a tool to foster development of personal qualities vital for fulfilling life in multicultural world and person's ability to learn throughout their life. Thus, a foreign language school textbook is defined as an information model within educational system which is based on competence, communicative, personality-centred, activity and cultural approaches. It directs the process of teaching a foreign language in integration with the culture of native speakers. A textbook is oriented to prepare students to communication in situations defined by the school syllabus in compliance with the rules and norms accepted by native speakers. Besides, it performs the function of methodological support of teacher's activity. It is proved that the process of textbook development is influenced both by foreign trends in the sphere of material development and peculiarities of national educational tradition. The author suggests a retrospective analysis of approaches to constructing foreign language school textbooks in Ukraine in the period of the second half of the 20th century. This analysis helped to define preconditions of developing a new generation of foreign language textbooks, whose content is based on competence and communicative approaches. The obtained empirical data helped to outline conceptual approaches as well as define a set of key principles to constructing content of foreign language school textbooks. According to the suggested concepts, the content of foreign language textbook is deemed as a multicomponent and polifunctional unity providing an efficient learning outcome in terms of language proficiency and intercultural awareness. The author analyses potential to represent authentic information by textual and illustrative components of a textbook. In order to provide efficient learning process the author defines principles and approaches to structuring the content of a textbook in logical blocks, i.e. modules, units etc. Based on systemized theoretical and empirical data, the author defines a set of skills to be formed in the process of teaching. The dynamics of gradual skills development by means of a textbook is outlined. It involves materials presentation, training and testing. According to this concept the content of a textbook is regarded as a complex action plan to be implemented both by learners and a teacher in order to achieve the defined learning outcomes. Practical importance of the research is a basis for supporting three main subjects that are relevant to the content of foreign languages textbooks, namely: students, teachers and authors of textbooks. Accordingly, the value of the research for students is to ensure them by scientifically based and proved in practice the content of textbooks as basic means for formation of foreign language communicative intercultural competence, and to foster the student's development of personal qualities, motivation to self-education in accordance with the intentions and necessities of life. For teachers the results of this research work is valuable for maintaining their professional activities on didactic and methodological organization of students' teaching foreign language communication, as well as directing educational work in class according to the principles of continuity, accessibility, interconnected teaching all kinds of speech activity, communication, interconnected teaching language and culture, organizing studies in the form of a dialogue of cultures, in facilitating disclosure of student's opportunities to develop their autonomy in education. As for the authors of foreign languages textbooks, they are able to use the results of the research in the technology development of constructing the content of textbooks, in substantiating methods, forms and ways of the content textbooks construction based on didactic and methodological principles, in defining and specifying principles of educational material selection in foreign languages textbooks, in determining the functions of educational materials and in the development of technology for experimental verification of textbooks content. The results of the author's findings, represented in the monograph, were verified in school practice. They proved to be highly efficient and reliable and have potential to be used in the process of constructing foreign language school textbooks.
