Creolized texts as the foundation for developing linguistic students’ narrative competence

Today students majoring in linguistics have advanced skills of reasoning and argumentation in a foreign language, but experience significant difficulties in producing and reproducing narrative texts, which is particularly noticeable in the junior years. This situation is rooted in lack of assignments and exercises, both in schools and universities, aimed at developing narrative skills. The problem is relevant as there is a growing need of finding a balance between the different components of students’ communicative competence, and applying more effectively diverse methods of developing students’ narrative abilities. The aim of the article is to substantiate the effectiveness of using creolized texts as a tool for gradual and comprehensive development of linguistic students’ narrative competence in English. The authors view creolized texts as the basis for a systematic approach to advancing students’ skills of analysis, interpretation and reproduction of foreign-language narratives, which is the novelty of the undertaken research. Methods of observation and cause-and-effect analysis, as well as linguo-stylistic, semiotic, and narrative analysis, allowed the authors to revise the experience of using semiotically heterogeneous texts in foreign