The article analyzes the concept of “stylistic competence”, which is defined as the ability to learn the stylistic system of the language at the phonetic, lexical-semantic, phraseological and grammatical levels. The main concepts of stylistics have been clarified. The object and subject of studying stylistics have been characterized. Such sections of stylistics as stylistics of language, stylistics of speech and stylistics of fiction have been studied. The concept of “language style” and “speech style” has been distinguished. The problem of compliance with stylistic norms and features of formation of stylistic abilities and skills has been outlined. The linguistic-didactic system for the formation of students’ stylistic competence has been defined, which includes: approaches to learning (functional-stylistic, which ensures effective work on the representation of the features of the functioning of language units, their implementation in each style; the formation of fluency in speaking skills), learning patterns (patterns of language learning and patterns of speech learning); teaching principles (general didactic and linguistic didactic); groups of exercises (according to the content of the main material, according to the method of execution) and specific methods (observation of stylistic functions of language units, stylistic experiment; stylistic editing; stylistic construction).