Developing empathic competence of university students transitioning to individual trajectories

Self-determination and choice of profession have become more significant due to increased professional mobility. Individual educational trajectories, which are introduced in universities of Russia, allow students to form their own set of competencies, participate in various social groups based on professional interests, which contribute to the formation and development of self-organization, creativity, sociability, empathic skills. Empathic skills help students adapt to future profession, especially in the field of intercultural communication. Despite the increased attention paid to empathy as an important component of professional development, its application in the learning process remains insufficiently studied. This study is aimed at defining the role of empathy as a language-learning tool in the context of universities transitioning to individual educational trajectories. The use of empathy formation methods stimulates language acquisition by creating a greater sense of community in the classroom, therefore empathic skills are updated as a characteristic of cooperation in learning a foreign language environment.