Communicative skills are the leading tendency in the modern methods of teaching foreign languages. The article deals with the aim of such a system of teaching – the establishment of foreign language competence which contributes to the students’ communicative skills. One of the most important component of communicative competence is language competence, that provides on the basis of a decent amount of knowledge as the construction of grammatically correct forms and syntactic constructions, as an understanding the semantic segments of language, organized in accordance with the norms of a foreign language. Undoubtedly, verbal communication is possible only in the presence of language competence. However, removing only the language barrier does not automatically lead to a full-fledged foreign language communication. Rapid growth of international relations puts an increasing number of communicators in need of overcoming not only linguistic, but also cultural and mental barriers. Vocabulary teaching as an integral part of communicative and systemic aspects of foreign language learning is featured. Communication – based techniques of mastering lexical material are proposed. Mastering the purpose of the word, the conceptual functioning of lexical material is aimed at achieving adequate implementation of communicative intent. Useful for the formation and improvement of communication skills is the method of enriching the vocabulary of students by providing synonymous series with an explanation of the difference of meaning. Thus, learning a foreign language is communicatively oriented, so the leading component of the four-single complex of goals is the mastery of language skills for foreign language communication, taking into account its intention, addressee and conditions. Further development of tools and techniques for the formation of components of communicative competence will continue to be relevant in teaching foreign languages to students of non-language higher education institutions, that opens up opportunities for scientific and creative research.