Theoretical background. The Foreign language course belongs to the educational component of the program of study in postgraduate studies and is aimed at preparation for passing the candidacy exam. Undoubtedly, legislative changes have affected the process of teaching foreign language in the postgraduate program of technical universities. During these years the lecturers of the foreign languages department of our university have repeatedly improved educational programs, analyzed the problems facing the teaching of foreign languages in postgraduate studies and tried to find ways to solve them, offering new approaches to teaching students of the third stage. This diverse, time and strength consuming work inevitably makes teachers increase and improve their level of professional pedagogical competence.

Of all the variety of definitions of professional pedagogical competence presented in modern pedagogical literature, the methodological competence of higher education teachers comes first [1; 2].

The purpose of this article is not to assess the level of methodological knowledge and skills of teachers preparing graduate students for the PhD exam in foreign language, but it seems appropriate to us to give the definition of methodological competence, based on which, the prospects for the development of the teaching process become much clearer.

Methodological competence is an integrative characteristic of personality, reflecting the systemic level of possession of methodological knowledge, the ability to diagnose the results of achieving the goal of training, to design methods and technologies of training, to master innovative technologies, to select innovative content of training, to monitor the results of training and the quality of educational activities [3].

In general, we support the basic and rather general definitions of this competence. We also believe that it is the absence of rigid boundaries delineating the personal-professional characteristic of a teacher that provides an opportunity to respond flexibly to the changes taking place in the system of higher education, not to remain oblique and to search for new ways to motivate graduate students to learn foreign languages.

Undoubtedly, the essence of the definition is influenced by the discipline being studied, in our case it is a foreign language. It is well known that the methodology of teaching foreign languages occupies a special place. We can define the methodological competence of a foreign language teacher as an integrative quality of a teacher’s personality, which reflects the result of professional methodological training, professional and personal aspects, and professional experience [4]. Methodological competence of a foreign language teacher is expressed in the ability to effectively influence the students based on the synthesis of professionalism, creativity and art.

Practical background. In the process of preparation for the candidacy (PhD) exam, a huge professional and methodological experience in this area of teaching has been accumulated. Nevertheless, there are new tasks in the development and transformation of higher education system, which urgently require self-assessment of scientific and methodological activity. It is necessary to be ready to choose innovative teaching methods and technologies, to realize their professional potential, to identify areas for professional growth.

At present, foreign language teaching at the Higher School of Technology and Energy of Saint Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design   (HSTE SPb SUITD) is a multidirectional work. For the most part, graduate students who have completed the foreign language-training course have the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities. We greatly convinced this is in no small measure facilitated by the high level of professional competence of teachers.

  Unevenness of the level of knowledge of foreign language in the group of postgraduates makes the teacher with the necessity individualize the approach of teaching taking into account the personal characteristics of postgraduates. At the low level of knowledge of some graduate students, it is rather problematic to prepare them for the candidacy exam, with the learning process taking 7-8 months. Therefore, the first semester of training is devoted to the actualization of foreign language knowledge and includes phonetic, grammatical and lexical modules.

At this stage various technologies are applied and first of all, ensuring individualization of classes, use of individual learning trajectories, activation of postgraduate students extracurricular independent work on the basis of the textbooks, Internet reserves, training texts and exercises, as well as using the Moodle platform.

In the second semester, the work on scientific literature is carried out. There is also the formation of professional communicative competence: providing oral speech orientation of classes, modeling real situations of communication, writing business letters, creating annotation of articles and abstracting large volumes of scientific literature, using language clichés when creating an abstract of articles on the scientific direction of the graduate student

A personal oriented approach in teaching graduate students is also used in preparing a PowerPoint presentation on the topic of dissertation research and in preparation for their participation in the conference «Dialogue of Generations» in foreign languages, which is held annually at the HSTE SPb SUITD. Teachers of the foreign languages department write joint scientific publications with graduate students, which are then posted at the RSCI. This is a full-fledged joint work, and not just a translation activity on the part of the teacher. This conference is held in the middle of the second semester and graduates have already gained the necessary level of both language competences and special terminology.  Moreover, at this time, the students together with their scientific advisers have already ratified not only the trend of their research but also the name of the research works that is why their presentations and the articles are due to the point.

Motivation study results. In general, we observe that the majority of the post-graduates become more motivated in foreign language study in the middle of the second term. To clear up the reasons of such situation — whether it is connected with the approaching PhD exam or with the changing of their minds and understanding the necessity of foreign language study — we decided to carry out some kind of investigation. We presumed that the results of our work would show us whether the teaching approaches and techniques we chose help increase the motivation of the students or we should make some changes in the mode of teaching.

We are convinced that it is impossible to improve the level of foreign language proficiency of post-graduate students without motivating them. There is a sufficient amount of research in the scientific literature on the motivation of students. Many authors emphasize that this aspect is underestimated when teaching graduate students a foreign language at a technical university [6].

In the process of training graduate students of technical universities, an important role in increasing motivation is assigned to interdisciplinary relations, which is due to the following: the constant interdisciplinary relationship of specialized subjects with a foreign language leads to increased interest in the future professional activities of graduate students. As an example confirming this point of view, we present the results of a study conducted at our department. Upon admission to graduate school, applicants were interviewed about the motives for their admission. Almost everyone noted that the main motive was direct career advancement and future promotion, and only 10% of the respondents set themselves the goal of direct interaction between their activities and scientific work.

This state of affairs once again emphasizes the need for interaction between teachers of the department of foreign languages and scientific supervisors of graduate students. There is also a reverse example of interaction between the special departments lectures and the department of foreign languages lectures. So in the course «Methodology of research and methods of writing a dissertation», in Section 1. «Methodology of scientific research», topic 2 contains the following: «…Methods of working with information sources and scientific literature…. A review of developments on the topic of dissertations in foreign scientific texts working in a similar field of research to the applicant. Formation of a list of scientists in Russia and in the world who are engaged in work in the field of dissertation».

Month before the PhD exam in foreign language we interviewed the students again asking about their motivation of PhD studies. The results were slightly different from the first interview. This time the same 10% of the students continued thinking about their career in the sphere of scientific field, but almost 75% underlined the necessity of studying foreign language for their career promotion.

Conclusion. We observed the current state of the arts in the course of a foreign language studying at the post-graduate course at HSTE. What are the prospects for the development and improvement of the quality of scientific and scientific-pedagogical personnel training in graduate school?

In addition to the methodological techniques discussed above we can propose the following possibilities, which should be considered as a logical continuation, expansion and deepening of the professional and methodological techniques already used at the HSTE department of foreign languages:

• increasing the motivation of graduate students to study a foreign language;
• wider use of computer technology;
• participation of future scientific supervisors in the work of foreign language entrance exam commission;
• improving the language culture of teachers of specialized departments, not only in the form of their participation in the HSTE “Dialogue of Generation” conference in foreign languages, etc,

 It is possible to intensify significantly the process of foreign languages teaching in graduate schools of non-linguistic universities while developing and expanding the possibilities of professional competence of teachers, applying modern teaching technologies, using the experience of colleagues and a flexible modular system of postgraduate education.