The article deals with the study of main factors influencing students' foreign language communicative competence formation. The author clarifies the definition of the notion "communicative competence" and its structure. The ways of a native language acquisition and of a foreign language learning are compared. The stages of the foreign language learning taxonomy are also named. The main purpose of the given paper was to analyze the factors which influence foreign language communicative

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... formation, single out the main personality factors and study the impact of interactive methods on students' assertiveness in the process of communication. To achieve the set tasks the following theoretical and empirical methods were used: analysis, synthesis, comparison, classification and pedagogical observation. As the researches show student's readiness to communicate depends on how competent and relaxed the speaker feels about the target language, so it's important to develop students' fluency in a target language taking into account the affective factor. The affective factor has a great impact on the process of foreign language learning and that of the communicative competence development. The main personality factors -self-esteem, risk-taking, motivation, anxiety and inhibition -are analyzed in the article. Assertiveness is important for building a healthy self-esteem; it covers three concepts -confidence, tolerance and responsibility. An assertive person is calm, relaxed, confident and can clearly explain his/her viewpoint, knows how to recognize manipulation and protect himself/herself from it. As some students display higher readiness to communicate than others, some possible fears were singled out. To overcome obstacles which hamper students' communicative competence development the author suggests the usage of interactive methods, such as discussions, debates, case study, role-playing and simulations. Interactive classroom atmosphere boosts students' assertiveness, increases their readiness to participate in communicative acts and thus, develops their communicative competence.