Speech competence as a professionally important quality of modern workers

The article is devoted to speech competence as a universal professionally important quality of modern workers, whose duties include negotiations and communication with people. Speech is considered as an interdisciplinary category studied in anthropology, psycholinguistics, psychology, sociology, medicine, and other sciences. The article reveals the differences between speech competence and communicative competence. The problems of speech competence are analyzed: lack of clarity and effectiveness of speech in work situations, speech anxiety, misunderstanding of the context of speech utterances and others. Criteria of formed speech competence and the influence of internal and external factors are identified. The necessity of studying speech competence and developing recommendations for its development for workers in various fields of professional activity is substantiated.