Foreign Languages in School Education: European and Ukrainian Trends

The paper deals with the trends in foreign languages teaching in school education of Europe and Ukraine. The methods of description, comparison, analysis are used in order to specify the features of the issue. The international surveys of Eurydice, Eurostat, the OECD’s PISA and TALIS with the participation of the European Commission developed the main indicators that ensure the systemic nature of language training in the school sector. They encompass foreign languages in the curriculum, the range of languages studied, Content and Language Integrated Learning, expected levels for the foreign languages, qualification of foreign language teachers, transnational mobility of foreign language teachers, language support for newly arrived migrant students. The level of knowledge of modern foreign languages is determined in accordance with the Common European Framework of References. Taking into consideration the European policy of the development of the multilingual society through the individual competence in two foreign languages the European countries introduced the suggested approaches at the school level and created a comparable language-learning environment. It has determined similar and different trends in language education in schools. Ukraine has started introducing the common indicators to develop its own environment for language learning in school education withing the New Ukrainian school reform. It needs further studying and improving law, and education sectors under the conditions of current situation.