Introduction. The article deals with the problem of the development of word-formation skills and abilities of students of higher educational institutions in the process of teaching English. The aim of the study is to provide a methodological substantiation for the development of a system of exercises aimed at developing word-formation competence based on the material of neologisms that appeared during the coronavirus pandemic.

Materials and methods. The methods used in the study include the analysis of theoretical sources on the problems of neologization and word-formation of the English language, as well as methods of teaching a foreign language. The corpus of English neologisms (300 lexical units) served as the research material, the didactic potential of which was used to develop the word-formation competence of students.

Results. A set of tasks and exercises aimed at developing the word-formation competence of students in the process of teaching English has been methodically substantiated, developed and proposed for use in the educational process.

Discussion. The following advantages of the development of word-formation competence based on the neologisms of the pandemic period are brought up for discussion: the current process of neologization gives an idea of the word-creation potential of the English language; the vocabulary of students is expanding due to the new words; students get acquainted with productive ways of word formation and the development of their word-formation skills and abilities takes place.

Conclusion. The conclusion is made about the linguodidactic potential of the new vocabulary of the "pandemic era" in the aspect of the development of students’ word-formation competence.

The period of the coronavirus pandemic is characterized by an active neologization process, as a result of which a new vocabulary has appeared, reflecting various spheres of social life in a given time period;

The formation of new words takes place according to productive word-formation models in English;

Neologisms of the “pandemic epoch” can be actively used as teaching material in order to develop students’ word-formation competence.

The development of the word-formation competence of students is based on the methodological system of B. Bloom, in which he distinguishes a sequence of educational goals: knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, synthesis, assessment.

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